Methods for identifying compounds that are inhibitors or are likely to be inhibitors of amyloid protein aggregation, as well as three-dimensional, non-crystallographic models (i.e. “pseudo-crystal structures”) of amyloid aggregation utilized in the methods, are described. Means for creating the three-dimensional, non-crystallographic models (i.e. “pseudo-crystal structures”) of amyloid aggregation are also described.

The build-up of amyloid proteins in living tissue, a condition known as amyloidosis, is either the cause or a major factor in the pathology of many so-called "amyloid diseases." e.g., Alzheimer's, Parkinson's. Huntington's, and prion diseases.
Certain models of beta-amyloid aggregation that exist in vitro or in vivo (rather than "virtual" (i.e. in silico)) are used for high-throughput screening to discover new compounds that modulate amyloid aggregation (Dolphin et al. 2007, ChemMedChem 2:1613-1623; Gazit, 2006, ACS Chem. Biol. 1:417-419). These existing in vitro or in vivo models however require the synthesis and/or procurement of every candidate compound, as well as the synthesis or incubation of the model systems. In addition, these existing in vitro and in vivo models do not describe a pocket in which the candidate compounds may be inserted, and as such do not furnish a means for de novo design of compounds or for improving the potency of known modulating compounds "virtually" (i.e. in silico).
Most prior work in the field of amyloid modeling focused on the structure and dynamics of aggregation, without regard to the discovery of modulating compounds (see for example Buchete, Tycho, and Hummer, 2005, J. Molec. Biol. 353:804-821, which describes the overall structure of beta-amyloid protofibrils; Luhrs et al, 2005. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 102:17342-17347, which verifies the singular axis of fibril addition). These works also do not describe an amyloid protein pocket for non-peptidic compound insertion nor suggest a means of modulating amyloid protein aggregation.
Mastrangelo et al. (2006. J. Molec. Biol. 358:106-119) describes a model of beta-amyloid fibrillization, consisting of two protofibrils of beta-amyloid and a pocket found between them that can be used to insert modulating, peptidic compounds. These compounds are specific modulators of beta-amyloid fibrillization and not of aggregation, which is a fundamentally different process from fibrillization.
One treatment of amyloid diseases utilizes peptides as modulators of disease targets, being amyloid proteins in this case. (Findeis et al. 1999, Biochemistry 38:6791-6800; Ghanta et al, 1996, J Biol Chem 271:29525-29528; Tjernberg, 1996, J Biol Chem 271:8545-8548; Kokkoni et al, 2006. Biochemistry 45:9906-9918). However, utilities of the peptidic compounds described in these references as drugs is doubtful. e.g., due to in vivo stability issues.
While a number of non-peptidic compound classes have been identified as inhibitors of beta-amyloid build-up, the discovery of further compound classes, as well as the further optimization of known compound classes to improve potency may be haphazard due to the lack of known crystal structures for beta-amyloid protein.
The amyloid diseases remain invariably fatal using current medical practice.
Accordingly, there exists a need for novel methods of identifying compounds that are inhibitors or are likely to be inhibitors of amyloid protein aggregation, and three-dimensional, non-crystallographic, models of amyloid receptors and models of amyloid protein aggregation which may be utilized in these methods.

Methods for identifying inhibitors of amyloid protein aggregation


A compact and efficiently designed facsimile device that is capable of performing transmission, reception, and duplication functions. The efficiency is brought about by using only one stepping motor to drive all the functions of the facsimile apparatus. The mode selection is accomplished by separating either the thermosensitive recording head or the scanner away from the white roller when a particular mode of operation does not require their use. This is accomplished by placing eccentric cams on the same axle as said white roller and on both sides of said white roller. During duplication, both the thermosensitive recording head and the sensor are in contact with the white roller. During transmission or reception mode, the eccentric cams are rotated so that the thermosensitive recording head and the sensor respectively are pushed away from the white roller by the apogees of both cams. Signals external to the device are fed to a sensor which are relayed to the stepping motor to control which mode of operation is employed at any particular time.

The facsimile printers, colloquially known as a facsimile machine, are constructed with stages for scanning documents as well as stages for recording information onto media such as thermosensitive paper. In addition, a facsimile printer can accomplish both functions simultaneously, thus allowing for duplication of documents. Often, such facsimile printers can be costly and cumbersome. Frequently, two motors are employed, one to convey the paper and the other to drive the scanning and recording operations. Early efforts to use only one stepping motor in a facsimile device is represented by, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,871 for a Copying Machine to Oi discloses a copy machine able to both scan and print onto a sheet of paper. The machine uses a single motor, and uses a gearing mechanism to drive the paper feeding roller while using an eccentric rotating cam to move a slide bar laterally so that reading elements and printing elements can operate. Oi '871 allows one motor to accomplish both the tasks of paper conveyance and duplication.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,178 for an Electrophotographic Copying Apparatus Having a Dual Cam Synchronizing Mechanism to Yokozawa et al. uses cams to feed paper into the machine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,832 for an Apparatus for Thermographic Duplication of Information Comprising a Curve or Cam Member for Axial Movement of Dye Carrier to Kvarnegard uses a cam to drive and change the direction of the drive axle of a dye carrier. Camming action is incorporated into the duplication of document process. U.S. Pat. No. 4,032,231 for a Multiple Range Variable Magnification Reproduction Machine Using Three-Dimensional Cam to Zucker uses a three dimensional cam to adjust the scanning speed and the scanning distances. U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,614 for a Scanner with Document and Copy Sheet Registration Means to Stemmle et al. endeavors to provide a photocopying device able to scan an original document at the same time the recording medium is printed, by constructing the device with a scanner on one side of the drive rollers while a printer is positioned on the other side of the drive rollers opposite from the scanner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,538 for a Facsimile Machine Having a Single Feeding Path for Document and Recording Sheet to Terao, U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,504 for an Image Reading Device Detachable from Main Body to Ogura et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,848 for an Ink Jet Printing Device and Plain Paper Facsimile Apparatus Using the Same to Musso disclose various facsimile printers and photocopying devices using designs that endeavor to provide a single path for both scanning and the printing operations.
Although the various efforts represented by the foregoing designs have endeavored to enhance the operational performance of image formation equipment, I have discovered that it is possible to simplify the structure of duplicating and facsimile equipment while maintaining. reliability.

Device and method for determining transmission/reception/duplication positions in facsimile system


A metal halide lamp comprises a discharge container including a discharge space and a pair of sealing sections. A discharge medium containing a metal halide and a rare gas and essentially free from mercury is sealed in the discharge container. A pair of electrodes are arranged to face each other within the discharge space, and the side edge portions on the side of the proximal end portion of these electrodes are held by the sealing sections. The amount of water contained in the metal halide, i.e., the light-emitting material, included in the metal halide lamp essentially free from mercury, i.e., Hg-less metal halide lamp, is controlled to 50 ppm or less.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metal halide lamp free from Hg, a headlight apparatus for vehicles using the particular metal halide lamp, and a method of manufacturing the metal halide lamp free from Hg.
2. Description of the Related Art
A metal halide lamp is a lamp including a light emitting tube having various metal halides sealed therein together with mercury and a rare gas for improving the light emitting efficiency and the color rendering properties of the lamp. The metal halide lamp, which is featured in its high efficiency and high color rendering properties, is widely used for general illumination such as shop illumination and road illumination. Further, a metal halide lamp has come to be used as a light source in the headlights for a vehicle.
As described above, mercury is generally used as a part of the discharge medium included in the conventional metal halide lamp. However, environmental problems have become serious nowadays, with the result that it is required in the field of illumination to decrease the amount of use of mercury giving a heavy environmental burden. Further, it is important to eliminate mercury completely from the lamp. Such being the situation, several measures have been proposed to date for eliminating mercury from the metal halide lamp.
For example, proposed in Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 11-238488 is a metal halide lamp having a first metal halide, i.e., a halide of the main light emitting substance such as scandium (Sc), sodium (Na) or a rare earth element, and a second halogenated metal, i.e., a halide of, for example, zinc (An), manganese (Mn), aluminum (Al) or gallium (Ga) having a high vapor pressure, sealed therein together with a rare gas. Also, disclosed in Japanese Patent Disclosure No. 11-307048 is a metal halide lamp further having a third metal halide, i.e., a halide of, for example, yttrium (Y) or indium (In), sealed therein. Each of these prior arts is intended to deal with various problems arising from the non-use of mercury.
In the metal halide lamp that does not use Hg, i.e., an Hg-less metal halide lamp, new problems arise as described below based on the situation that Hg is not used as a part of the discharge medium. Specifically, in the Hg-less metal halide lamp, the cloudiness phenomenon or the blackening phenomenon tends to be brought about at an earlier stage, compared with the conventional metal halide lamp having Hg sealed therein, with the result that it is difficult to obtain a practically sufficient lamp life in the Hg-less metal halide lamp. To be more specific, the lamp life obtained in the Hg-less metal halide lamp is about 500 hours, compared with about 3000 hours for the conventional metal halide lamp having Hg sealed therein.
It is known in the art that the life of the discharge lamp is affected by the impurities such as water present in the lamp. For example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Disclosure No. 11-329350 is a high pressure discharge lamp or a discharge lamp such as a metal halide lamp, in which the amount of the OH groups contained in the quartz glass constituting the discharge container is lowered to, for example, 10 ppm or less and, at the same time, a rare gas having hydrogen, oxygen and the compound thereof (H2O) removed therefrom, e.g., a rare gas having the water content lowered to 5 ppm or less in the molar ratio, is sealed in the discharge container. Further, disclosed in Japanese Patent Disclosure No. 2001-357818 is a metal halide lamp having Hg sealed therein, in which the water content of the gas sealed in the discharge space is lowered to 130 ppm or less.
However, in the Hg-less metal halide lamp, it is impossible to prolong sufficiently the life of the lamp by simply decreasing the amount of the OH groups contained in the quartz glass and by decreasing the amount of water contained in the rare gas, with the result that the Hg-less metal halide lamp having a long life cannot be obtained with high reproducibility. It is considered reasonable to understand that the decrease of the lamp life of the Hg-less metal halide lamp is affected by the water contained in the metal halide sealed in the discharge container as a light-emitting material.
To be more specific, a light-emitting material containing a metal halide having a high vapor pressure, i.e., the halide of Zn, Mn or Al referred to above, is used in the Hg-less metal halide lamp, so as to permit the light-emitting material to ensure the required lamp voltage in place of mercury. In the Hg-less metal halide lamp of this type, the amount of the metal halide sealed in the lamp is markedly larger than that sealed in the metal halide lamp having Hg sealed therein. It follows that, even if the metal halide raw materials used as the materials for manufacturing the metal halide lamps are equal to each other in water content, it is considered reasonable to understand that the amount of water released from the metal halide into the discharge space for the Hg-less metal halide lamp is larger than that for the metal halide lamp having Hg sealed therein.
Further, where a required lamp voltage is ensured by using a metal halide having a high vapor pressure, the amount of the halogen gas such as a free iodine gas is increased with increase in the concentration of the metal halide caused by the evaporation of the metal halide during lighting. It is considered reasonable to understand that, if the halogen gas such as a free iodine gas is present in a large amount, erosion and deposition of SiO2 (migration phenomenon of Si) are caused to take place in the quartz glass constituting the discharge container so as to bring about the cloudiness phenomenon (blackening phenomenon). Incidentally, in the metal halide lamp having Hg sealed therein, HgI2, for example, is formed so as to suppress the generation of halogen gas such as free iodine gas.
On the other hand, measures for decreasing, for example, the water content and the oxygen content are taken in respect of the metal halide itself used as the light-emitting material of the metal halide lamp, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Open Publication (Toku-hyo) No. 2000-516901. To be more specific, disclosed in this prior art are metal halide particles and metal halide pellets having the oxygen content lowered to 200 ppm or less and having the hydrogen content lowered to 100 ppm or less. These metal halide particles or pellets are manufactured by using a manufacturing apparatus which permits preventing an increase in the water content, under an environment that, for example, the dew point is not higher than −50° C.
However, even in the case where the particles or pellets of the metal halide referred to above are used as a light-emitting material of the Hg-less metal halide lamp, it is impossible to improve the lamp life with a high reproducibility without fail. It should be noted in this connection that the moisture absorption tends to take place not only in the manufacturing process of the Hg-less metal halide lamp but also in the after-treating process and the transfer process of the manufactured Hg-less metal halide lamp so as to increase the water content. This tendency is particularly high when it comes to a light-emitting material containing a metal halide having high deliquescent properties such as HgI2, with the result that it is highly possible for the water content to be increased at the stage of sealing the light-emitting material in the metal halide lamp. It follows that the Hg-less metal halide lamp manufactured by using such a light-emitting material tends to have a short life.
As described above, in the Hg-less metal halide lamp, the decrease in the lamp life caused by the cloudiness phenomenon or the blackening phenomenon remains to be a serious problem to be solved. It is considered reasonable to understand that the decrease of the lamp life is affected by the water content in the discharge space during lighting. However, it is impossible to improve the lamp life of the Hg-less metal halide lamp with a high reproducibility by simply decreasing the amount of the OH groups in the quartz glass and by decreasing the water content in the rare gas as in the prior art. Such being the situation, it is of high importance to overcome the difficulty inherent in the Hg-less metal halide lamp so as to improve the life of the Hg-less metal halide lamp by suppressing an increase in the water content during lighting of the lamp.

Metal halide lamp, headlight apparatus for vehicle using the same, and method of manufacturing metal halide lamp

Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corporation


Embodiments of the present invention provide a system to direct water flow through a lavatory and to cleanse grey water through a series of treatment steps. The water may then be re-directed to the faucet for re-use in hand washing or other potable water use or to the toilet for flush water. The treatment steps are altered, depending upon the ultimate use of the water, as flush water need not be treated to the same level as potable water. The system may also function via a cascade of logic commands given by a series of electronic controllers, valves, and sensors which are fine-tuned to supply enough water to each component of the system.

Water is an expensive resource to store aboard passenger transport vehicles, such as aircraft, due to its high density and large volume of consumption on flights, especially international flights. For example, on-board a B777 sized aircraft tasked with a 10 hour mission, passenger use of potable water from sink faucets accounts for about 135 gallons of water pouring down lavatory sinks each flight, which accounts for about 40% of in-flight water consumption. This water is generally referred to as "grey water," which refers to water that has been soiled but that does not contain sewage or "black water." Grey water is the spent or used water that has been used for hand-washing, and may contain contaminants such as soaps or other detergents.
A method or system to recycle grey water would be of benefit to airlines in many capacities. For example, it would reduce the overall consumption of water; it would reduce the mass of the water required to be carried per flight, which could generate the ability to carry alternate payload instead of water; and it would allow the airline to tout itself as environmentally-friendly and as interested in conservation of resources. Modern technologies to produce potable water from grey water have not been designed for aircraft use; they tend to be heavy and large or treatment takes far too long for the 10 hour flight-time of even a long haul mission. The principles of municipal water treatment have been used to design a small scale treatment unit, sized for vehicle lavatories. Suspended solids, typically removed via gravity in large sedimentation pools, will be removed utilizing grey water filtration technology. The chemicals contributing to biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) will be removed quickly by a small scale biological trickling filter as opposed to the large scale degradation that occurs in municipal aeration tanks. Final clarification steps will be completed using further filtration and activated carbon, and a disinfection step utilizing UV will replace the large sedimentation and chlorine contact basins used to polish municipal water.
The present inventors have thus sought to develop a grey to potable water system with the potential to overcome these issues and to reduce the weight of each flight by significant amounts, while simultaneously cutting grey water waste.

Systems and methods for treating grey water on-board passenger transport vehicles


A clamp for securing a power plug in a socket including a pair of identical clamping plates separate from each other that are drawn together to capture the socket therebetween and secure the power plug engaged in the socket, each of the clamping plates including a plate having spaced posts and a plug retaining member extending therefrom, the plug retaining member defining an arcuate portion arranged such that the arcuate portions of the plug retaining members oppose one another in use to radially compress the power plug therebetween.

The present invention, relates generally to a system for retaining an electrical plug in a socket, and more particularly, to a clamp including a pair of identical clamping plates configured to be drawn toward each other to capture a electrical socket therebetween and radially compress an electrical plug engaged in the socket to prevent the plug from being pulled from the socket unintentionally.
The connector attached to the end of the main power cable of an electrically operated device is commonly referred to as a "plug," and the receptacle for receiving the plug to connect the plug to an energized electrical circuit is commonly referred to as a "socket." Plugs typically include protruding pins that fit into matching slots in receptacles to prevent exposure of bare energized contacts. The pins typically protrude from an insulating body that conceals the electrical connections between the pins and the wires of the power cable, as well as provides strain relief from pulling forces on the cable.
In conventional plug and sockets designs, there is no integrated structure to prevent the plug from being pulled from the socket. Engagement is typically ensured by an interference fit between the pins and the contacts within the slots, which is easily overcome upon light pulling forces on the cable. While unintentionally pulling a plug from a socket may not be problematic to some electronic devices, it can be catastrophic to sensitive electronics and electronic devices requiring an uninterruptible power supply, such as computer equipment in a data room.


A method and system wherein handover information is broadcast in a wireless local area network. Handover information is broadcast in a beacon frame thereby allowing WTRUs operating in a wireless area network to handover to available alternative systems as desired. WTRUs may read the beacon frame and obtain appropriate information for handing over to alternative systems having coverage areas that overlap that of the wireless local area network. The alternative systems may be any type of wireless system and the wireless local area network may be any type of wireless area network.

In wireless local area networks (WLAN), an access point (AP) or base station (BS) serving a particular cell broadcasts a beacon signal periodically (e.g., every 100 ms). An active WTRU scans the beacon signal and associates itself with the AP having the strongest beacon. A conventional beacon contains information corresponding to the AP such as a timestamp, beacon interval, capabilities, extended service set (ESS) identification (ID), and traffic indication map (TIM). The WTRU uses the conventional beacon to distinguish between different APs. The WTRU tracks the received signal strength (RSS) of the beacon. When the RSS becomes weak, the WTRU starts to scan for stronger beacons from neighboring APs.
The WLAN conventional scanning process can be either active or passive. In passive scanning, the WTRU simply listens to available beacons. In active scanning, the WTRU sends a probe request to a targeted set of APs that are capable of receiving its probe. In the case of active scanning, each AP that receives the probe responds with a probe response that contains the same information that is available in a conventional beacon with the exception of the TIM. The TIM is used to alert or wake-up APs and is therefore not necessary where an AP is providing a solicited response by responding to a probe request.
In order to facilitate interoperability between WLANs and available alternative systems (i.e. other systems whose coverage areas overlap that of the WLANs), however, it is of interest to allow WTRUs operating within a WLAN to detect the presence of these alternative available systems. One approach for accomplishing this task when handing over from a WLAN to a public land mobile network (PLMN) is to perform a cell search for PLMN availability while simultaneously using the WLAN for communication. This approach may be implemented by having the WTRU's PLMN receiver on and searching for available networks while the WTRU uses the WLAN for communication. The disadvantage of this approach is that it is time consuming and requires the simultaneous activation of a WTRU's WLAN and PLMN functionality. This results in increased complexity and increased battery consumption, and does not permit the WLAN to direct the traffic to a specific PLMN network. Furthermore, this approach is limited to handover from WLANs to PLMNs.
Another approach is where the search for the availability of a specific available PLMN is done manually. With this approach, in addition to being limited to PLMNs, users must manually select one network over the other which is inconvenient and time consuming.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide handover information without the disadvantages and limitations of the prior art.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system wherein handover information is broadcast in wireless local area networks


Systems and methods are disclosed for a sound reproduction apparatus configured for receiving signals representative of the output of a plurality of microphones positioned to sample a sound field at points representing possible locations of a listener's left and right ears when positioned in said sound field at the location of the microphones, receiving a location of at least one sound source relative to said plurality of microphones, receiving orientation data of the listener's head, and calculating a binaural output using the sound source location, microphone output signals and orientation data. The binaural output includes the full-bandwidth of the microphone output signals.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to processing of audio signals, and more particularly to the processing and rendering over headphones of audio signals that change dynamically in response to head rotation.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,333,622 which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a novel and effective method, denoted Motion Tracked Binaural (MTB), to capture and render over headphones the dynamic changes of binaural sound caused by the rotation of the listener's head. MTB uses a small number of microphones positioned on a head-sized spherical or cylindrical surface to achieve this goal. The basic problem that MTB solves is the interpolation of the signals obtained from adjacent microphones without requiring an impractical number of microphones. The MTB method exploits two important properties of human hearing:
(a) The interaural time difference or ITD is the dominant localization cue; and
(b) The auditory system is insensitive to ITD above about 1.5 kHz.
The spacing of microphones is determined by the highest frequency of the signals to be captured. The MTB method increases the spacing and thus reduces the number of microphones by first low-pass filtering the signals to remove spectral content above 1.5 kHz before interpolation. However, the high-frequency content is needed for good sound quality and must be restored. The MTB patent suggests several approximate ways to restore the high-frequency content. These methods proposed are completely general and apply to the capture and rendering of any soundfield. They do not depend on the knowledge of the number or locations of the sound sources. However, each specific method that combines low-pass filtering and high-frequency content restoration is an approximation, and each has its own audible artifacts.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is continuous interpolation with no separation of low and high frequencies, i.e., to enable wide-band or full-bandwidth interpolation.

Motion tracked binaural sound conversion of legacy recordings


An apparatus adapted to form curved beam sections, such as a brake shoe, includes a rollformer, a cut-off device, and a re-former or sweeping device. The rollformer includes rollers constructed and arranged to rollform the sheet material into an elongated linear beam, where the beam has a T-shaped cross-section. The cut-off device cuts the arcuately-shaped beam into segments that are about 9 to 12 inches long. The sweep device is positioned in line with the rollformer (or off-line as a secondary operation) and is adapted to form the beam into a tightly-radiused longitudinal shape, such as about 100 mm radius, where the support flange and center web form an arcuate crescent shape. In an alternative form, the apparatus also has a re-forming device configured to reshape the segments so that the beam section is very accurately formed. However, it is contemplated that, depending upon the arcuately shaped beam section desired, a re-former may not be required.

The present invention relates to crescent-shaped beam-like parts, such as brake shoes, and further relates to apparatus and methods for manufacturing the same.
Existing drum-type brake systems for passenger vehicles include a brake shoe assembly comprising a brake shoe and a brake pad configured to operate with other components for braking and stopping a vehicle. Drum-type brake shoe assemblies are well known in the art, and need not be described herein. These brake shoes typically include a pair of stamped parts welded together to form a center web and a rim that extends about 160 to 170 degrees around the center web to define a semi-cylindrical shape corresponding to a brake pad for supporting the brake pad against an interior cylindrical surface of a brake drum. The center web and the rim form a T-shaped beam-like cross-section that is structurally sufficient to endure the radial and nonradial forces and abuse encountered in use, and further, the center web includes multiple holes, apertures, and notches that facilitate its use with the other vehicle components of the vehicle braking system. Historically, the brake shoes are made by a combination of multiple steps of stamping and welding. However, manufacturing methods and apparatus are desired for manufacturing brake shoes faster, more efficiently, at lower cost, and more consistently. Further, improvements in brake shoes are desired that permit lighter weight brake shoes to be made without resorting to expensive high-strength materials. Also, improvements in brake shoes are desired that can be more easily arcuately bent or swept into a dimensionally-accurate arcuate shape, yet that are sufficiently strong for use as a brake shoe.
Brake shoes made using rollforming technology have been proposed, but such designs to date have been dismissed by persons skilled in the art of rollforming as not commercially feasible. One reason, discussed in more detail below, is because it is very difficult to consistently and reliably bend a T-shaped beam section made from materials having the proposed strength and thickness (e.g. steel sheet having a strength of 60 KSI and a thickness of about 4 mm) into an arcuate shape with sufficient accuracy and repeatability to meet manufacturing specifications for brake shoes. Yet, in order to take maximum advantage of rollforming, the T-shaped beam must first be rollformed, and then the beam must be swept against the xe2x80x9cstrengthxe2x80x9d of the beam into a very accurate arcuate shape and then cut to length.
One feature that complicates the manufacture of brake shoes is that they have tight dimensional requirements, and further, the brake shoes have a very small radius, such as about 100 mm radius to an outer surface of the brake shoe. The reasons for the need for tight dimensional requirements are many, but include such things as the need for reliability and consistency of vehicle brakes and the braking operation (including uniform support for all portions of a brake pad), safety, long service life, liability for braking malfunction, and governmental standards. A problem with sweeping or bending of a T-shaped beam is that it causes the beam to xe2x80x9csnakexe2x80x9d or wander longitudinally as the beam is bent, and further causes the beam flanges to undulate and bend in uncontrolled ways as some beam material is compressed and other beam material is stretched. xe2x80x9cSnakingxe2x80x9d and non-uniformity is especially problematic on the rim flanges of a brake shoe because the rim flanges must uniformly support a brake pad for good braking performance. Further, the smaller the radius of the bend, the more difficult it is to eliminate snaking and objectionable non-uniformity. Also, good uniformity and xe2x80x9cnon-undulationxe2x80x9d of beam flanges is important to good beam strength, because non-uniformities and undulations can result in premature buckling, bending, and distortion problems. xe2x80x9cSnakingxe2x80x9d and non-uniformity is also problematic on the center web, since the material of the center web is bent from a linear planar shape to a crescent planar shape while trying to keep the material in the same plane. The problems of snaking and undulations can increase as material thickness and strength are increased.
Another problem occurs when the entire brake shoe is made from a single sheet, instead of being made from separately formed opposing halves that are welded together. The entire brake shoe should preferably be made from a single sheet in order to take maximum advantage of rollforming technology, since this eliminates the need to weld separate pieces together. But in order to make a brake shoe from a single sheet, the center web of the brake shoe must be formed by doubling over adjacent wall sections. When doubled over, the adjacent wall sections are connected by a sharply-bent inner edge. Depending on the material, the sharply-bent inner edge will often split, either at the time it is bent into the doubled back condition or it will split at a later time when in service and during use. In particular, the thick and strong materials needed for manufacturing brake shoes may tend to fracture and break when sharply bent over to form a double thickness wall.
The present invention solves the aforementioned problems and includes aspects having the aforementioned desired advantages.
One aspect of the present invention is to provide an apparatus adapted to form a plurality of arcuately-shaped beam sections, such as brake shoes, from sheet material. The apparatus includes a rollformer, a cut-off device, and a sweeping device. The rollformer includes rollers constructed and arranged to rollform the sheet material into an elongated T-shaped beam that includes a center web and a support flange along an edge of the center web. The cut-off device cuts the beam into segments having a predetermined length. The sweeping device is constructed to form the segments into an arcuate longitudinal shape where the support flange is accurately re-formed into a cylindrically-shaped rim having a diameter larger than the center web.
In a narrower form, the rim has an outer surface with all portions being within about 1 mm of a true cylindrical surface. In another narrower form, the beam sections define a radius of less than about 500 mm and in a still narrower form, the beam sections define a radius of less than about 80 to 100 mm or less (depending on functional criteria such as uniformity). Also in yet another narrower form, the cut-off device is constructed to cut the beam sections into lengths of about 400 mm or less.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that will rollform sheet material into a brake shoe. The apparatus can easily and quickly form a high-strength brake shoe, and is efficient in use, economical to manufacture, capable of a long operable life, and particularly adapted for the proposed use.


Products such as food, clothing or machines may be customized for a customer based on any preferences that may be determined from information that is known, determined or predicted regarding the customer. Where a customer's browsing, purchasing or search histories, or other data, indicate that the customer prefers (or dislikes) products having a specific ingredient or component, a product may be customized to include (or exclude) the ingredient or component, and recommended to the customer. Customized products may include food, clothing, machines or any other articles that may be fabricated with or altered to include specific components. A customized product may be marketed to a customer in any manner, and may be prepared and delivered to the customer upon request.

A generation ago, those who were interested in visiting a location would learn of the location from books or other available literature, or by word-of-mouth, before embarking for the location with the guidance of one or more folded paper maps, unable to determine or predict traffic conditions beyond the horizon. Similarly, those who were interested in learning of news or current events, obtaining entertainment or following sporting events would await the delivery of daily or weekly newspapers, magazines or other periodicals, or watch or listen to broadcasted programs at their regularly scheduled times. Those who were interested in obtaining commercial products or services would independently research qualities and features of such products or services before placing orders in person or by telephone, and making payments in cash, by check or money order, or with the physical swipe of a magnetically striped credit card. In particular, those who were interested in purchasing clothes would travel to a retail location, to search for and evaluate garments among shelves, on racks or in bins for their visual appearance and tactile feel, before trying on one or more garments in front of a mirror, a friend or an associate, and returning home after purchasing one or more of the garments.
Today, Internet-enabled computer devices have evolved into essential elements of the commercial experience, as each of these tasks or functions may be executed with the use of one or more Internet-enabled computer devices, often in a matter of seconds or milliseconds. Users of such devices may obtain content regarding travel services, news, current events, entertainment, sports from any number of electronic sources from a broad array of devices including but not limited to desktop computers, laptop computers, mobile devices (e.g., smartphones or tablets), smart speakers, televisions, set-top boxes, refrigerators, automobiles and even wristwatches that may now access the Internet through various wired or wireless means. Additionally, users of such devices may now search for or browse information regarding an ever-widening scope of products or services using one or more websites or dedicated applications.
Online marketplaces (or electronic marketplaces) offer diverse electronic portals, network sites or web sites at which information regarding a variety of items (e.g., goods, products, services or information) may be presented for review, and from which customers may purchase one or more of the items. Such items may be offered for sale by the owners or operators of an online marketplace, or by merchants, vendors or manufacturers of such items, and the online marketplace may present information regarding such items in one or more network pages or web pages, or in user interfaces rendered by one or more dedicated applications (e.g., shopping applications). Such pages may also present information regarding recommendations of items that may be targeted to a particular customer, or a type of customer.
Recommendations of items are typically presented to customers based on their shopping behavior, or on the shopping behavior of others. For example, an item may be recommended to a customer based on relationships between the item and other items that a customer has previously purchased, or considered purchasing. Alternatively, an item may be recommended to the customer based on relationships between the customer and other customers, such as items that were previously purchased or considered for purchase by other customers. Online marketplaces may currently identify recommendations of items for customers based on commonalities of commercial activity, i.e., frequencies with which such items are purchased by multiple customers, or based on similarities between items purchased by such multiple customers. For example, an item may be recommended to a customer if the item is substitutable for another item that the customer has considered for purchase, i.e., if the item is an item that may be purchased in place of the other item, and functionally serve as a substitute for that other item. An item may also be recommended to a customer if the item is a complement to another item that the customer owns or has previously purchased, i.e., if the item may be used or operated along with the other item. Naturally, an online marketplace may only be recommended to a customer if that item currently exists, and if one or more attributes, characteristics or traits of the item are already known.

Automatically designing customized garments based on customer behavior


A terminal management device manages the sharing by at the least one business entity of costs related to distributed terminal devices. In a case that a new business entity, which uses the terminal devices and provides services after the terminal devices have been distributed, the terminal management device computes and totals the differences of shared costs of each business entity, which will change in accordance with the addition thereof. Thus, by managing the changes of a plurality of business entities bearing the costs related to terminal devices, changes in the shares of the costs thereof can be adjusted easily even in a case that business entities using the terminal devices thereof and providing services change after the terminal devices have been distributed to subscribers. Therefore, the present invention facilitates the participation of a new service business entity in the provision of services using terminal devices subsequent to the terminal devices being distributed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for a plurality of business entities to bear the cost of a terminal device, which can make use of services provided by these business entities. More particularly, the present invention relates to a terminal management method and a terminal management device in a case that a plurality of service business entities distribute to subscribers, either gratuitously or for a small fee, terminal devices (network terminals), which connect to a network such as the Internet, and the cost of these network terminals is borne by the plurality of service business entities.
2. Description of the Related Art
In line with the widespread use of the Internet in recent years, service business entities, such as Internet service providers (ISP), which provide Internet connection services, and application service providers (ASP), which provide a variety of services (online shopping, online stock trading, and so forth) over the Internet, are conducting operations, which allow users to subscribe to these services by providing to subscribers, either free-of-charge or for a small fee, terminal devices (network terminals, such as, for example, personal computers or set top boxes), which connect to the Internet, in order to increase the number of users subscribing to these services. In this case, the service business entities recoup the cost of the network terminals provided to subscribers either gratuitously or for a small fee, via the service utilization charges paid by subscribers.
In this manner, service business entities, by increasing the number of subscribers by providing users with either free or inexpensive network terminals, are attempting to increase revenues resulting from the service utilization charges from these subscribers, and are making it possible to continue service provision operations by recouping the cost of network terminals.
However, for example, in a case that personal computers are distributed as network terminals, there have been a rash of incidents in which only the word processing software and such, which either has been installed in these personal computers beforehand, or is installed by a subscriber afterwards, is being used, and the services provided by the service businesses are not being used.
Thus, because services are not being used in accordance with the distributed terminals, revenues from service utilization fees from subscribers are decreasing, and there are also limited funds available for investments designed to acquire subscribers, making it impossible to recoup the cost of the network terminals, and thus impossible to continue service provision operations.
Therefore, there are cases in which shouldering the cost of these network terminals is too great a burden financially for a single service business. In a case such as this, the cost burden on a single service business can be reduced by a plurality of service business entities sharing the cost of distributed network terminals. Network terminals distributed jointly by a plurality of service business entities can make use of the plurality of services provided by these service business entities, and a subscriber will subscribe to each of the services provided by the plurality of service business entities, respectively.
However, it is supposed that there will be cases in which services capable of being used via network terminals will change after network terminals have been distributed to subscribers. For example, there will be cases in which, in addition to services (for example, an Internet connection service and an online stock trading service) by service business entities sharing the cost of initial network terminals, a new service (an online shopping service) by another service business entity, will be added. In a case such as this, this other service business entity is not sharing the cost of the network terminals at network terminal distribution.
Thus, when it becomes possible to utilize a new service provided by another service business entity subsequent to network terminal distribution, there are times when the new service thereof is utilized often, and the services provided by the service business entities sharing the cost of the network terminals are not used.
As a result, whereas revenues of service utilization fees from subscribers increase for this other service business entity, revenues resulting from the service utilization fees of the service business entities sharing the cost of network terminals decrease, making it impossible to continue service provision operations.

Management device, network apparatus, and management method


An improved ignitor plug for igniting fuel in a combustion chamber and a smart fuel supply system for ignitor plug applications.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to mechanisms for igniting fuel in a combustion chamber. More particularly, this invention relates to ignitor plugs that utilize resistive heating to ignite a combustible fuel supplied thereto.
2. State of the Art
Small turbine engines and other rotary engines commonly utilize an ignitor plug employing resistive heating to ignite a combustible fuel in a combustion chamber. The resulting flame produced by the burning fuel in the combustion chamber ignites heavy liquid fuel that is introduced into the combustion chamber. The combustible fuel supplied to the ignitor plug is then shut off, and the engine continues to run on the heavy liquid fuel supplied to the combustion chamber. This type of ignitor plug is typically referred to as a glow plug, examples of which are sold commercially under the trade name O.S. Engines by Great Planes Model Distributors of Champaign, Ill.
As the resistive heating employed by prior art glow plugs will not ignite heavy liquid fuels that are required to run the engine, an additional fuel system is required to start the engine. The additional fuel system significantly increases the operational cost and weight of such engines. Glow plugs that ignite heavy fuel have been utilized in large diesel engines to heat the combustion air to aid in starting the engine. However, these prior art glow plugs typically use high amperage D.C. voltages, are very large and heavy, and are not compatible with small-size turbine engines. In addition, they are subject to coking of the fuel path through the igniter plug, which reduces the operational lifetime of the igniter plug and increases the operational costs of such engines.


In one implementation, a computer-implemented method includes accessing, by a computing device, a real-time three dimensional (“3D”) image of at least a portion of a user who is standing in front a surface; identifying, by the computing device, coordinates in 3D space for at least one appendage of the user from the 3D image; determining, by the computing device, a position of the at least one appendage of the user over the surface based on the coordinates of the at least one appendage in 3D space; determining whether the position of the appendage is within one or more active areas of the surface; and based on the determination of whether the appendage is within the one or more active areas of the surface, updating a visual image that is being projected onto the surface by a projector that is located above the surface.

Computer-based technologies have been developed to detect physical movements of users without the aid of special electronic devices, such as remote controllers containing motion sensing technology, being held or otherwise used by the users. For instance, depth sensors have been developed to determine the x, y, and z coordinates ("3D coordinates") of physical objects that are located in front of the depth sensors. The MICROSOFT KINECT input device is one example of such a depth sensor. The MICROSOFT KINECT uses an infrared laser projector and a monochrome CMOS sensor to determine 3D coordinates of objects in real time.


A clamping device has a collet or a sleeve that contains an inner coolant supply. The non-through parts of the clamping device have formed therein radial slits and/or intermediate slits that open at the machine side and/or the tool side of the shank of the device. The slits and non-through parts of the device are arranged in such a way that they form a coolant barrier.

The invention relates to a clamping device between a tool shank and a machine tool. The invention relates in particular to a clamping device for cutting tools with an internal coolant supply.
The cutting principally of metals on machine tools (drills, millers, lathes) is carried out using, inter alia, cutting tools which feed the coolant directly to the cutting edge through a bore in the tool shank in order to lengthen the service life of the tool and improve its cutting capacity.
Such cutting tools usually have a round shank which is clamped in the tool holder by means of a suitable collet chuck or clamping sleeve, provided with slots for flexibility, and is thus secured against twisting. As these cutting tools with an internal coolant supply can easily be made to rotate at speeds of 40,000 rpm, enhanced cooling of the operation is essential. To improve the cooling, the pressure at which the coolant is injected is therefore increased to as much as 50 bar or more. Now, if a tool with an internal coolant supply is connected to the machine tool by means of a collet chuck or clamping sleeve, a large part of the cooling fluid is lost through the slots in the unsealed collet chuck or clamping sleeve.
To prevent this, the slots in the collet chuck or clamping sleeve have hitherto been filled with an elastic compound such as rubber, although the chucking capacity was then lost, or the tensioning nut was sealed by means of a washer, a solid sealing ring or a packing, or rubber pegs were inserted in specially made bores in the slots in the collet chuck or clamping sleeve. The disadvantages of these variants are that for every shaft or tool shank diameter there must be a washer of corresponding diameter or a packing available, and that the sealing rings or rubber pegs are no longer certain to form a seal at today's high cooling fluid pressures and are attacked by the various coolants. The greatest disadvantage of these variants, however, is that a collet chuck or clamping sleeve which had to be sealed required additional components.
The object of the invention is therefore to provide a clamping device which forms a perfect seal against the escape of fluids from machine tools, even at high pressures of up to 150 atm, and substantially retains its flexibility, and which is effective without additional sealing components and can nevertheless be used in conventional machine tools.


Embodiments of the present invention provide a method used for wireless communication and an apparatus. The method includes: configuring measurement parameters of channel state information for a terminal device, where the measurement parameters include a channel state information-reference signal configuration and a quasi-co-location indication, the channel state information-reference signal configuration includes configurations of at least two groups of antenna ports, and the quasi-co-location indication is used to indicate whether the at least two groups of antenna ports have a quasi-co-location relationship; and sending the measurement parameters to the terminal device.

In a coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmission technology, a plurality of transmission points (TPs) that are separated at geographic locations coordinate to communicate with a terminal device, reducing interference to a terminal device at a cell edge and improving a cell edge throughput.
A downlink CoMP coordination manner includes joint processing (JP) and coordinated scheduling (CS)/coordinated beamforming (CB), and the JP manner includes joint transmission (JT), dynamic point selection (DPS), and a hybrid mode thereof. The JT means that a plurality of transmission points simultaneously send data to the terminal device, to improve signal receiving quality or a throughput. The DPS means that only one transmission point sends data to the terminal device on a particular time-frequency domain resource, and another transmission point may send data to the terminal device on a next subframe. The CS/CB means that data is sent from only one transmission point to the terminal device for a particular time-frequency domain resource. However, a decision of the CS/CB is coordinated by a plurality of transmission points.
To more properly schedule the terminal device, a TP needs to obtain state information of a channel from a current TP to the terminal device. The information is referred to as channel state information (CSI) in a long term evolution (LTE) system, and includes content such as a channel quality indicator (CQI), a rank indicator (RI), and a precoding matrix indicator (PMI). In downlink communication from the TP to the terminal device, the TP needs to send a channel state information-reference signal (CSI-RS) to the terminal device, and instruct the terminal device to measure and feed back corresponding CSI. In a coordinated multipoint transmission network, in addition to the CSI of the channel from the current serving TP to the terminal device, a network side further needs to obtain more information, for example, a degree of interference of a neighboring TP to the terminal device, so as to better perform coordinated transmission. Therefore, interference measurement is an important technology to support multi-TP coordination. In LTE, the interference measurement is performed by using a channel state information-interference measurement (CSI-IM) resource.
In LTE, for channel and interference measurement performed to support CoMP transmission, a resource configuration needs to be provided at a physical layer, and the resource configuration is transmitted to the terminal device at a higher layer by using signaling. A plurality of CSI processes are configured on the network side, and each CSI process corresponds to a transmission hypothesis, and corresponds to a resource configuration at the physical layer. Each CSI process has a CSI-RS resource and a CSI-IM resource. Then, the resource configuration corresponding to each process is transmitted to the terminal device. The terminal device feeds back a measurement result of each CSI process to help the network side perform coordination.
Because each CSI process needs a CSI-RS resource configuration, to support N-TP coordination, according to the solution in which a plurality of CSI measurement configurations are configured for the terminal device in LTE, 2N−1 CSI resources are required, and reference signal resource overheads are high. In addition, each resource configuration needs to be transmitted to the terminal device by using independent signaling, and signaling overheads are high. As network deployment is increasingly dense, an increasingly large quantity of TPs may be coordinated for a terminal device. Coordinated multipoint transmission implemented by using a channel and interference measurement mechanism of LTE causes excessively high resource overheads and signaling overheads.

Method and apparatus for coordinated multipoint (CoMP) communication using quasi-co-location


A new and distinct variety of Picea pungens tree having an orthotropic leader growth, a dwarf and wide conical shape, a compact habit, blue-colored needles/foliage, and long and thin needles, as disclosed.

'INMoHoop' is a new and distinct variety of Picea pungens. 'INMoHoop' originated from a controlled cross conducted in May 2001 in a greenhouse in Boring, Oreg. of the female Picea pungens parent 'Montgomery'(unpatented) and the female Picea pungens parent 'Hoopsi' (unpatented). The seeds from this cross germinated in May 2002.
'INMOHOOP' was selected and first asexually propagated in January 2009 in Boring, Oreg. via grafting onto Picea abies rootstock (unpatented).
'INMoHoop' reproduces true to type in successive generations since 2009 of asexual reproduction via grafting onto Picea abies rootstock (unpatented).


A two-compartment, automated apparatus and a semi-batch process for achieving rapid and complete thawing of a frozen food product, such as french fry potatoes, prior to cooking are disclosed. This invention results in a rapid, economical thawing of frozen food that is especially compatible with automated, commercial-scale deep frying operations.

Continued growth of so-called "fast food"-style restaurants has increased interest in automating, to the greatest extent possible, the handling and cooking of food so that labor costs and customer waiting time can be reduced. One system for automating the cooking of pre-cut or discrete frozen food products, such as french fried potatoes, is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/759,606 filed Sep. 13, 1991, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,142,768 which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/458,982 filed Dec. 29, 1989 and now abandoned, both applications (hereinafter the "Prior Applications") having been assigned to the present assignee and are incorporated herein by reference. As a part of the automation process attention must be given to preserving the food product in a frozen state until just prior to cooking, when the product should be quickly thawed. On the one hand, modern commercial-scale frying operations work best and most efficiently when there is an ample and continuous supply of fully-thawed food product awaiting cooking. On the other hand, waste and the dangers of contamination and spoilage are reduced by not thawing a batch of frozen food product until immediately prior to cooking.
In the past, these inherently conflicting objectives were often compromised by simply transferring the food product directly from freezer to a "slacking rack", where the food product is disposed in a fry basket, and the latter placed on a rack. The food product is allowed to thaw under ambient conditions, usually near the frypots where the food is to be cooked. Once thawed the basket can be removed from the rack and placed in a frypot. This process relies on human intervention, and thus the appropriate thaw time must be watched; and once the food has thawed, if the operator is not distracted, the basket with the thawed product is removed and placed in a frypot. If the fry products are not completely thawed, at least portions of the product are too cold; while waiting too long to put the basket into the hot oil may result in at least portions of the product being too warm (and in some cases, the food product may become contaminated or spoil). Both circumstances obviously negatively impact the maximum throughput of the frying system since the frying process is dependent in part on the amount of product and the original temperature of the product. Thus, using a slacking or thawing rack to thaw frozen food product before frying it can cause uneven cooking and inferior taste and texture of the final cooked product.
It is therefore desirable to design an automatic thawing system, which is easily used with automated frying systems, such as the one described and claimed in the Prior Applications. The automated thawing system should provide the same degree of thaw as provided by standard slacking racks in at least the same amount of time, but consistently provide the entire thawed product at substantially the same temperature at which maximum throughput of the frying system is maintained. To be truly compatible with modern automated frying systems, an automated thawing system must be capable of thawing 1 to 2 lbs. of food product, such as french fried potatoes, every 20 to 30 seconds without adversely impacting the maximum throughput of common frypots, such as the model MJH-50 manufactured by Frymaster of Shreveport, La. The food product input to the thawing unit would typically be 1 to 2 lbs. of frozen food product at -10 to 0.degree. F. The food product must be rapidly thawed to conditions just above the frozen state, i.e. the thawed product must not be rigid and should have a surface temperature of about 40.degree. F.
In general, the prior art shows a variety of methods and apparatuses for warming, thawing or drying different types of food products. Several prior art patents show the general concept of using warmed air flows for accelerating the thawing or drying process. Several prior art patents also suggest the benefits of a multi-stage approach to the thawing or drying process.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,228,730 (Schindler et al.) teaches an automated apparatus for continuous cooking of frozen french fried potatoes. In Schindler et al., frozen fries are held in a storage hopper (FIG. 3, reference numeral 120) from which they are fed by an upwardly slanting, endless conveyor into an enclosed bath of hot cooking liquid. Thus, a mechanical feed brings frozen fries directly to the cooking oil with little or no thawing. At col. 10, lines 50-53, Schindler et al. specifically state that "frozen pieces of potato are dropped into a hot cooking liquid. . .", thereby negating any inference that substantial pre-cook thawing might occur in this process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,075 (Brooks) is directed to an apparatus for and method of thawing frozen foods. Brooks teaches the use of a special thawing compartment in combination with a conventional refrigerator appliance having both cooling and freezer sections. In Brooks an electric fan circulates air through the thawing compartment to facilitate thawing of food removed from the freezer section. The air is at a temperature of between 33.degree. F. and 55.degree. F., the ambient conditions of the cooling section of the refrigerator. The advantage of Brooks over similar prior art devices is that it avoids food spoilage after thawing and "uniformly thaws the food load without heating of the food load before complete thawing is achieved. . ." (col. 2, 11. 17-18). Brooks clearly does not envision use of an above ambient temperature air stream for thawing. This patent does not achieve "rapid" thawing and does not utilize a multi-stage approach.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,402 (Raufeisen) teaches a rather complex bakery apparatus designed to: (1) thaw frozen bakery goods using heated air; (2) cool the bakery goods to retard curing; and, (3) heat and humidify the bakery goods for proofing, all in a single system thereby eliminating the need to move the bakery goods between multiple processing units. The frozen bakery goods are placed on a stationary tray rack or tray cart (FIG. 4, reference numeral 29) positioned inside the apparatus. The thawing means of this invention comprises one or two thermostatically-controlled thawing heaters, "preferably of the electrical resistance-type" (col. 3, 1. 41).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,572 (Kuehl) is directed to a multi-stage apparatus for reducing the moisture content of liquid honey. The honey enters the apparatus at an upper inlet port and moves by gravity flow across a series of zig-zagged sloping trays while a fan circulates warm air to absorb moisture from the honey. There is no suggestion of using such an apparatus for thawing frozen foods.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,920 (Smith) is directed to a two-stage apparatus for rapid roasting of coffee beans. Speed of operation and "rapid turnover of the beans," (col. 1, 11. 65-69) are explicitly described as an objective of this invention. In the Smith apparatus, unroasted or green beans are loaded by gravity feed from a hopper (FIG. 1, reference numeral 14) into a first, upper cylindrical shell where they are fluidized in a counter-current flow of heated roasting gases. When roasting is completed, "the roasted beans. . . flow by gravity. . ." into a second, lower cylindrical shell for the cooling step (col. 7, 11. 3-14). In the lower shell, the roasted beans are sprayed from above with a coolinq fluid, while also being subjected to fluid flow from below. Thus, this patent teaches a sequential heating and cooling process, not a two-stage thawing process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,416 (Graham) is directed to an apparatus for air-treating food products in conjunction with a spiral conveyor The objective of the air treatment may be "drying, heating, cooking, cooling and freezing. . ." (col. 1, 11. 16-17). U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,914 (Eke) is directed to a microwave oven that defrosts a frozen food item in multiple stages involving a forced air flow through the oven cavity. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,803,961 (Hiraoka et al.) is directed to an air suction device for a multicylinder engine.
Thus, none of the apparatuses or methods described in the above cited patents is specifically adapted, or even suitable, for the type of rapid, efficient, and continuous or semi-continuous operation required to be effectively compatible with modern, automated, commercial-scale deep frying operations. These and other problems with and limitations of the prior art are overcome with the rapid frozen food thawing system of this invention.


A disk motor including: a rotor; a stator; an output shaft concentrically fixed to the rotor; at least one coil disk which is provided to one of the rotor or the stator, a coil pattern which includes a plurality of radial patterns or radial pattern groups extending outwards in a radial direction from a center part of the coil disk being formed on at least one surface of the coil disk; an electric current supply portion which supplies electric current to the coil pattern; a magnetic flux generating portion which is provided to another of the rotor or the stator and faces the coil pattern; and an intermediate pattern which is formed between adjacent radial patterns or adjacent radial pattern groups on the coil disk.

A disk motor described in Japanese Patent No. 3636700 mainly includes an output shaft, substantially circular disk-shaped coil disks which are fixed to the output shaft and on which coil patterns are printed, commutators connected to the coil patterns, magnets disposed so as to face the coil patterns and brushes for supplying electric current to the commutators.
The rotation speed of the disk motor is determined by a voltage supplied from the brushes, an electric current of the disk motor, the coil patterns of the coil disks, a magnetic flux of the magnets and the number of brushes (the number of poles). When the voltage supplied from the brushes and the electric current of the stator motor are constant, the disk motor can be set to a desired rotation speed by changing the coil patterns of the coil disks, the magnetic flux of the magnets, and the number of brushes.
A laminated coil substrate described in JP-A-2006-157985 has a construction in which dummy electrodes are formed on the same plane as coil electrodes, and an area where a space between the coil electrodes and the dummy electrodes becomes the least is sandwiched in a laminating direction together with part of the coil electrodes and part of the dummy electrodes by reinforcement electrodes which are laminated on the laminated coil substrate. By adopting this construction, the mechanical strength of the laminated coil substrate is attempted to be enhanced. The laminated coil substrate is a sintered substrate formed by sintering laminated ceramic green sheets.
A multi-layer substrate described in JP-A-H09-232162 prevents an epoxy resin of a bonding prepreg, which melts due to heat produced when substrates are laminated and bonded together, from flowing out between the substrates by providing a surrounding pattern which surrounds a coil pattern at the periphery of the coil pattern.
In a thin laminated coil described in JP-A-H09-45531, a dummy pattern which is electrically disconnected from a coil pattern is provided on at least an upper surface and a lower surface of double-faced substrates which face each other. According to this construction, an inter-layer sheet member (a prepreg) can be formed thin by a dummy pattern which is formed on a portion where the inter-layer sheet member is originally interposed. This provides not only an advantage that a loading amount of a resin which is to be impregnated in the inter-layer sheet member can be reduced but also an advantage that the dummy pattern forms a dam to prevent the leakage of the resin impregnated in the inter-layer sheet member to the periphery thereof.
JP-A-2004-80996 discloses a technique to increase the cooling and radiating performance of stator coils by increasing the cooling and radiating surface areas of the stator coils in a commutator motor.

Disk motor, electric working machine including disk motor and method for manufacturing disk motor


An RF ID tagging system provides information for managing a local area network (LAN). A plurality of first network elements and an inventory management tool are interconnected within the LAN. Predetermined management information is communicated from the first network elements to the inventory management tool via the LAN. A plurality of second network elements are maintained for coupling to the LAN, the second network elements not communicating the predetermined management information with the inventory management tool. Respective RF ID tags are mounted to each of the second network elements, wherein each of the RF ID tags wirelessly transmits a respective identifier. The respective identifiers are received in a wireless monitor. The received respective identifiers are associated with predetermined management information. Virtual device images are created in response to the predetermined management information. The virtual device images are transmitted to the inventory management tool via the LAN.

The present invention relates in general to maintaining telecommunications/computer networks, and, more specifically, to providing information to a network inventory management tool regarding network elements that are not capable of interacting with the network inventory management tool via the network.
Maintaining a reliable and efficient communications network depends upon having the ability to monitor network elements such as switches, router blades, and various types of maintenance/testing equipment. The network operator needs to detect potential problems, troubleshoot malfunctions, identify and implement corrective actions, and document resource usage and statistics. Network inventory management tools and special network protocols have been developed to assist in these functions. For TCP/IP networks, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) provides a means for monitoring and managing network elements.
Pursuant to SNMP, a Management Information Base (MIB) is maintained as a database describing the resources being managed within the network. Each SNMP-enabled network element contains an SNMP agent capable of updating predetermined management information, sometimes referred to as object variables. The inventory management tool can query the SNMP agent to discover the management information. Alternatively, the SNMP agent may automatically transmit management information to the inventory management tool in response to certain events.
Due to cost and/or processing load considerations, not all network elements that may be used in a typical managed network are SNMP-enabled. Without an SNMP communications capability, management information concerning these devices has not been available to the network inventory management tool.
A network operator may typically maintain spare (i.e., replacement) network elements to be substituted into the network when a device of that type malfunctions. In addition, there may be other network equipment that is not always interconnected with the network, such as maintenance or testing units. Whether or not these unconnected devices are SNMP-enabled, they cannot communicate with the inventory management tool when they are not connected to the network. Therefore, existing network inventory and allocation systems have not been able to track these devices or take them into account in managing the network.

RF ID inventory proxy for network management


A rodent killing trap includes a case having front and rear sides. A plurality of electrodes are operatively coupled to the case and exposed adjacent the case front and rear sides so as to electrocute a rodent upon contact. The rodent killing trap may be connected to an electrical power source and includes a switch for selectively actuating the plurality of electrodes by electrical connection to the power source. The device may only be activated or deactivated using a tool or implement so as to be safe from use by children.

This invention relates generally to rodent control devices and, more particularly, to a rodent killing device that terminates rodents such as mice and rats while itself being substantially indistinguishable from conventional wood baseboard trim boards.
Household rodents are unwanted, unsightly, and unsanitary not to mention inconvenient and destructive. Mice and rats are common but undesirable invaders of many residential dwellings. These rodents often enter a residential dwelling in search of food or shelter and are often difficult to completely eliminate.
Various devices have been proposed in the art to kill household pests such as mice and rats. Conventional devices for eradicating such rodents are traps and poison. Although assumably effective for their intended purposes, traps are often large, bulky, or otherwise unattractive in a residential setting. Other pest control devices, especially those that may use electricity, are not safe for humans without using an extraordinary amount of care. Further, existing devices may be unattractive when installed in a residential home environment.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a rodent killing device that uses electricity to kill pests upon contact. Further, it would be desirable to have a rodent killing device that may only be activated or deactivated by an adult. In addition, it would be desirable to have a rodent killing device that is inconspicuous and appears to be a normal baseboard or trim fixture.


Digital content such as eBook may have several sections such as front matter, body matter, back matter, and so forth. To aid in the use of the content, it is worthwhile to find an end-of-body matter or other section breaks. As described herein, these sections may be determined by looking for keywords, specific formatting, manual intervention, last position read, and so forth. Once determined, tags may be generated which designate boundaries of these sections. These tags may then be used during consumption of the content.

Electronic devices such as eBook readers ("eBook readers"), cellular telephones, portable media players, tablet computers, netbooks, desktop computers, and the like may display digital content such as eBooks ("eBooks") or other electronic media content to a user. Given the incredible growth in the availability of digital content and variability of formatting, it can be cumbersome to determine where transitions occur between sections of a book, such as front matter, body matter, and back matter.


The invention concerns a firearm for receiving and firing a projectile. The firearm includes an integral casing having a barrel and a breech block receiving area to the rear of the barrel. A breech block is guided through the breech block receiving area by separated guide pins which project from the breech block into respective longitudinal track sections in the barrel. The guide pins are axially separated at opposite ends of the breech block and are circumferentially separated. The longitudinal track sections meet circumferential track sections. The guide pins in the circumferential track sections permit the breech block to be rotated. The breech block has a forward closed barrel position and a rearward open loading position. A breech mount around the breech block has a cam slot that extends longitudinally and into which a cam follower pin from the breech block projects. The breech mount is drawn forward by a spring and driven rearwardly by the gas pressure from detonation of a projectile leaving the barrel. To load a projectile in the barrel, the forwardly moving breech mount moves the breech block forward along the longitudinal track sections to the forward breech closed position and then rotates the closed breech block to the locked position in the circumferential track sections.

The present invention relates to a firearm for projectiles and particularly to the design and operation of the breech. A firearm having a casing with a barrel for firing a projectile is known. It has a breech block which opens to permit loading a projectile into the barrel and is moved forward to close the breech and prevent a further projectile entering the barrel. The breech is typically locked closed. Means for moving the breech block are known.
The projectiles may have any desired form and may be fired by any desired means. For example, cartridges can be used in which the projectile is accommodated in a casing. The projectile propellant and/or the detonation means for detonating the propellant may be solid, liquid or gaseous material. The use of liquid detonation material is disclosed in DE 43 03 881 A1. The invention can be applied to all types.
Furthermore, the invention can be applied to all types of firearms, in particular to rifles, pistols and guns which are not hand-held but are held mechanically.

Breech block control for firearm for projectiles


Highly branched alkenyl-functional organopolysiloxane polymers are highly efficient antimisting additives for use in the preparation of silicone release coatings in high speed coating operations. The antimisting additives are miscible with the crosslinkable silicone coating components and produce storage stable compositions which can be used to provide coatings with good release properties.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the use of antimisting additives for reducing the formation of aerosol in crosslinkable silicone coating compositions.
2. Description of the Related Art
A trend within the silicone coating industry is to increase machine speed in order to raise productivity. Where silicone coatings are applied to the substrate at relatively high speeds, of more than 300 m/min, for example, fine spray mists of the silicone coating system may be formed. This aerosol is formed at the silicone applicator unit. The formation of this spray mist proves to be a serious problem in the context of further increasing the coating speed.
The formation of this spray mist can be reduced by adding what are known as antimisting additives to the silicone coating system.
EP-A 716 115 (Dow Corning Corp.) and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,023, U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,655 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,454 describe anti-misting additives obtained by reacting an organosilicon compound, a compound containing oxyalkylene groups, and a catalyst. The addition of these oxyalkylene-functional reaction products to crosslinkable silicone coating systems reduces the formation of aerosol in rapid coating operations.
WO 01/98420 (Dow Corning Corp.) discloses a liquid silicone antimisting composition obtained by reacting                (a) an organohydropolysiloxane containing at least 2 Si—H groups (SiH) with        (b) an organoalkenylsiloxane containing at least 23 alkenyl groups (C═C) in        (c) the presence of a platinum catalyst and if desired of        (d) an inhibitor.
An extremely large excess of organoalkenylsiloxane is necessary in order that no gelling occurs. This excess of organoalkenylsiloxane of relatively high functionality, which, moreover, is complicated to synthesize, has a considerable effect on the release properties of the base system, the crosslinkable silicone coating composition. Additionally it is necessary to add an inhibitor in order to prevent gelling.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,225 (Wacker-Chemie GmbH) describes alkenyl-functional siloxane polymers which are branched and whose organopolysiloxane blocks are linked by hydrocarbon bridges.

Branched siloxane polymers comprising alkenyl groups and used as antimisting additives for silicone coating compositions


In a vacuum cleaner blower (1) consisting of an electric drive motor (2) and a support cage (10) for receiving the structural modules of the drive motor such as stator pack (6), rotor (7) and brush holders (8) including carbon brushes (9) as well as an at least single stage blower unit driven by the motor including a deflector (11), impeller (12) and suction hood (4), the deflector being formed as a support cage lid including a bearing seat for the rotor (7) and the support cage (10) being formed for a mounting direction (C) of its structural modules in the axial direction of the blower and for direct contacting and the brush holder (8) of the carbon brushes being provided adjacent to the upper side (B) of the support cage which also faces the deflector (11). Because of this specialty, all structural modules essential for the electric motor aggregate such as stator pack, rotor, rotor bearing as well as brush holder including carbon brushes may for the completion of the suction blower be successively and fully automatically be inserted and secured in their proper disposition into the support cage (10), without additional fastening elements, in a preferred assembly and mounting direction (C). During mounting direct contacting of the electrical connectors of the stator (6) and carbon brushes (9) or brush holders (8) takes place as well without changing the assembly direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject of the invention relates to a blower for a vacuum cleaner consisting of an electric drive motor and a support cage for receiving structural modules of the drive motor, such as stator pack, rotor and brush holder with carbon brushes as well as an at least single stage blower unit driven by the motor and having a deflector, an impeller and suction hood, the deflector being at the same time structured as a lid for the support cage and providing a bearing seat for the rotor.
2. The State of the Prior Art
A vacuum cleaner blower of this type is known, for instance, from German patent specification DE-AS 15 63 028.
The prior art device is provided with a support cage made of an insulating material for receiving structural electrical modules of the motor, such as stator pack, rotor and brush holder for carbon brushes, and, at its bottom, with a bearing seat for the bearing of one of the two rotor bearings. Laterally of the rotor bearing the support cage is provided with two brush holders for the collector carbon brushes. In the wall of the housing or cage there are also provided recesses for directly receiving electrical connectors. The open side of the support cage facing the blower is structured as a centering rim for a deflector enclosing the support cage and supporting a second rotor bearing. In this support cage, the brush holders provided in the lower section of the housing and the plastic support cage form an integral unit. However, the carbon brushes of the rotor aligned transversely of the vertical axis of the support cage have to connected, as well as inserted, from the outside. Accordingly, the assembly of the known suction blower suffers from the drawback that during assembly of the suction blower the insertion and connecting devices have to be changed several times. Accordingly, it is not possible to realize a cost-efficient and fully automatic simple fabrication and blower assembly process. Thus, in the prior art the necessary securing of the stator pack by means of screws inserted through the support cage wall necessitates a change in direction during assembly such that the required assembly tool has to be withdrawn to the outside before the rotor can thereafter be inserted into the support cage in the preferred assembly orientation and direction of mounting. The same drawback exists in connection with the assembly and connection of the carbon brushes.


A toilet tank valve seat structure mainly includes a body and an overflow tube located on one side of the body. The overflow tube consists of an inner tube and an outer tube. The inner tube has a gear rack on one side to couple with a hook located on one end of the outer tube so that the outer tube may be moved up and down to adjust the length of the overflow tube. The body has a valve opening covered by a plug. The plug has an anchor notch bordering by two slots on two sides that provide elasticity to make coupling of the anchor notch easier. The structure provides the overflow tube with an adjustable length according to the water level and makes replacement of the plug easier.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a toilet tank valve seat structure and particularly to a valve seat that has an overflow tube with an adjustable length and a plug easy to couple.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional valve seat 1 of a toilet tank includes a body 10 and an overflow tube 11 located on one side of the body. The overflow tube 11 has an overflow outlet 111 at the top end to discharge excessive water through a valve opening 101 to prevent the water in the tank from spilling outside the tank. The overflow tube 11 has a strut 102 on a lower side to couple with an anchor notch 121 of a stopping cap 12. The stopping cap 12 has a seal pad 122 to cover the upper side of the valve opening 101 and is driven by a chain 13 to move about the strut 102 which serves as a fulcrum to control the water to flush from the tank into the toilet. Such a structure still has problems in practice, notably:                1. The overflow tube 11 has a fixed length and must be cut to a corresponding height according to the water level. If the length of the overflow tube is not proper, or the water level is altered, the overflow tube 11 cannot function as desired, and the valve seat has to be replaced.        2. After the stopping cap 12 has been used for a period of time, the seal pad 122 could be aged and hardened, and the sealing effect is impaired. Hence the seal pad has to be replaced periodically. Due to the strut 102 and the anchor notch 121 are coupled forcefully, removing or coupling of the two could result in breaking of the strut 102 or hurting user's hands.


An olefinic thermoplastic elastomer capable of producing a sheet applicable for preparing a covering skin sheet for interior furnishings in automobile superior in the formability, heat resistance, mechnical properties, tensile characteristics, strain restorability and repulsive elasticity together with superior grain retention performance upon a male vacuum forming of the sheet, the said olefinic thermoplastic elastomer comprising an olefinic resin and an olefinic copolymer rubber and having a characteristic feature that it satisfies, when a grained sheet made of the said elatomer is subjected to a male vacuum forming at least at a point of sheet temperature within the range of 130-150xc2x0 C., the condition that the grain retention rate expressed by the proportion of the grain depth of the sheet retained after the male vacuum forming relative to the grain depth before the male vacuum forming represented by percent meets the relation defind by the following equation (1)

The present invention relates to an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer, a composition, a sheet made of either one of them, a laminated product and covering skin sheets for interior furnishings of automobile.
Heretofore, coverage skin sheets for internal furnishings, such as instrument panel, door trim and so on, were made principally of soft vinyl chloride resin. In recent years, however, it has become to use an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer for it, in view of the common demand for light-weight articles. For shaping the covering skin sheet for internal furnishings made of an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer so as to conform it to the furnishing, such as instrument panel or door trim, a vacuum forming, above all, male vacuum forming has now been in practical use. The male vacuum forming is carried out using a non-grained forming mold having perforations for evacuating the interface between the mold surface and the covering skin sheet inside face by placing the grained (namely, grains are formed on the covering skin outer face beforehand by embossing) covering skin sheet on the mold with its grained outer face being exposed to the exterior and pressing the skin sheet onto the mold face by evacuating the space beneath the skin sheet. Therefore, the patterns on the grained outer face of the covering skin sheet may be apt to undergo deformation. In particular, a covering skin sheet made of an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer may suffer from such deformation of the pattern upon a vacuum forming, especially upon the male vacuum forming, more easily as compared with that made of soft vinyl chloride resin, resulting in an inferior ability for retaining the grains, so that it has been requested to obviate this disadvantage.
An olefinic thermoplastic elastomer exhibiting an improved ability for retaining the grains has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Kokai Hei 6-71751 A, which is obtained by subjecting a mixture composed of an olefinic copolymer rubber having a Mooney viscosity at 100xc2x0 C. of 80-350, an oil-extensible olefinic copolymer rubber and an olefinic polymer to a partial cross linking.
This olefinic thermoplastic elastomer exhibits still an insufficient ability for retaining the grains, so that a further improvement is expected.
An object of the present invention is to solve the problems concomitant to the prior art mentioned above and to provide an olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as well as a composition comprising such olefinic thermoplastic elastomer, which are superior in the formability, heat resistance, mechanical properties, tensile characteristics, strain restorability and repulsive elasticity, together with superior ability for retaining grains when a grained sheet made therefrom is processed by vacuum forming, in particular by male vacuum forming.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a sheet, a laminated product and a covering skin sheet for interior furnishings in automobile made of the above olefinic thermoplastic elastomer or the elastomeric composition, which are superior in the ability for retaining the grains upon male vacuum forming thereof.
The present invention resides in the following olefinic thermoplastic elastomer, elastomeric composition and applications:
(1) An olefinic thermoplastic elastomer comprising an olefinic resin and an olefinic copolymer rubber and having a characteristic feature that it satisfies, when a grained sheet made of the said elatomer is subjected to a male vacuum forming at least at a point of sheet temperature within the range of 130-150xc2x0 C., the condition that the grain retention rate expressed by the proportion of the grain depth of the sheet retained after the male vacuum forming relative to the grain depth before the male vacuum forming represented by percent meets the relation defind by the following equation (1)
xe2x80x83% retention of grainxe2x89xa7100xe2x88x922.0xc3x97(Txe2x88x92120)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
in which T represents the sheet temperature upon the male vacuum forming.
(2) An olefinic thermoplastic elastomer obtained by subjecting a rubber composition comprising
(A) 10-60%, based on the total weight of the composition, of a propylene resin having a melt flow rate (according to ASTM D 1238-65T, determined at 230xc2x0 C. under a load of 2.16 kg) in the range from 0.1 to 3 g/10 min.,
(B) 37-87%, based on the total weight of the composition, of an ethylenic copolymer rubber made from ethylene, an xcex1-olefin having 3-20 carbon atoms and an optionally incorporated non-conjugated polyene and
(C) 3-30%, based on the total weight of the composition, of a polyethylene resin
xe2x80x83to a dynamic heat treatment in the presence of a cross linking agent.
(3) An olefinic thermoplastic elastomer, obtained by subjecting a rubber composition comprising
(A) 10-60%, based on the total weight of the composition, of a propylene resin having a melt flow rate (according to ASTM D 1238-65T, determined at 230xc2x0 C. under a load of 2.16 kg) in the range from 0.1 to 3 g/10 min.,
(B) 37-87%, based on the total weight of the composition, of an ethylenic copolymer rubber made from ethylene, an xcex1-olefin having 3-20 carbon atoms and an optionally incorporated non-conjugated polyene and
(C) 3-30%, based on the total weight of the composition, of a polyethylene resin
xe2x80x83to a dynamic heat treatment in the presence of a cross linking agent, wherein the said elastomer has a characteristic feature that it satisfies, when a grained sheet made of the said elatomer is subjected to a male vacuum forming at least at a point of sheet temperature within the range of 130-150xc2x0 C., the condition that the grain retention rate expressed by the proportion of the grain depth of the sheet retained after the male vacuum forming relative to the grain depth before the male vacuum forming represented by percent meets the relation defind by the following equation (1)
% retention of grainxe2x89xa7100xe2x88x922.0xc3x97(Txe2x88x92120)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
in which T represents the sheet temperature upon the male vacuum forming.
(4) The olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as defined in the above (2) or (3), wherein the polyethylene resin (C) has a density in the range from 0.880 to 0.940 g/cm3.
(5) The olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as defined in any one of the above (2) to (4), comprising further a softener (D) in a proportion in the range from 10 to 200 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the ethylenic copolymer resin (B).
(6) The olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as defined in any one of the above (1) to (5), wherein the gel content thereof is in the range from above 20 to below 97%, based on the weight of the olefinic thermoplastic elasomer.
(7) The olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as defined in any one of the above (1) to (6), to be used as the material of coverage skin sheet for interior furnishings of automobile.
(8) An olefinic thermoplastic elastomeric composition, comprising the olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as defined in any one of the above (1) to (7) and a crystalline polyolefin resin (E), wherein the proportion of the crystalline polyolefin resin (E) is in the range from 20 to 200 parts by weight per 100 parts by weight of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomer.
(9) The olefinic thermoplastic elastomeric composition as defined in the above (8), to be used as the material of coverage skin sheets for interior furnishings of automobile.
(10) A sheet made of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as defined in any one of the above (1) to (7) or of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomeric composition as defined in the above (8) or (9).
(11) A grained sheet made of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as defined in any one of the above (1) to (7) or of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomeric composition as defined in the above (8) or (9).
(12) A sheet comprising
a substrate made of the sheet as defined in the above (10) or (11) and, coated thereon,
a top coat made of a material selected from the group consisting of polyurethane resin, saturated polyester resin, acrylate resin, polyvinyl chloride resin and isocyanate resin.
(13) A laminated product comprising
an external layer of the sheet as defined in any one of the above (10) to (12) and
substrate layer made of a foamed polyolefin.
(14) Covering skin sheets for interior furnishings in automobile, comprised of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomer as defined in any one of the above (1) to (7), of the olefinic thermoplastic elastomeric composition as defined in the above (8) or (9), of the sheet as defined in any one of the above (10) to (12) or of the laminated product as defined in the above (13).

Olefinic thermoplastic elastomer, composition and use thereof