The present disclosure provides a method for detecting a display substrate and a device for detecting a display substrate. The method includes: exciting a threshold voltage of a driving transistor in each pixel driving circuit in the display substrate, so that the threshold voltage of the driving transistor with a shifted threshold voltage is further shifted; inputting a detection signal to each pixel driving circuit in the display substrate, where the detection signal is a signal enabling the pixel driving circuit to operate normally; and judging whether the display substrate is normal or not according to the voltage output by each pixel driving circuit.

At present, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display panel may be manufactured by using an oxide thin film transistor, and in the manufacturing process, a sputtering process is generally used to deposit a metal oxide on a glass substrate, so as to manufacture each display element to form a display substrate. In the manufacturing process, an area, right opposite to a target material, on the glass substrate is a target area, and a gap area between adjacent target areas is a non-target area. Due to a metal oxide sputtering apparatus, thicknesses of a metal oxide film layer formed in the target area and the non-target area are not uniform, and accordingly, a threshold voltage of a driving transistor in a pixel driving circuit is likely to shift in the target area of the display substrate, and an on-state current is likely to change, so that the target area and the non-target area are likely to have a defect of uneven display (mura), and thus, the display substrate needs to be detected.

Method and device for detecting display substrate

Hefei Xinsheng Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd.


An apparatus for mixing and dispensing two-component substances comprises o cartridges 12, 13 with pistons 15, 16 which are displaceable in the cartridges and are advanced in common by an electrical motor via a magnetic clutch 30. When the motor is switched off and the clutch 30 disengaged, the pistons 15, 16 may be manually retracted and re-advanced by means of a handwheel 33. At the end of the manual retracting motion, the pistons 15, 16 entrain a shaft 18 which serves to drive a mixer head 14, so that when the pistons 15, 16 become free of the cartridges 12, 13, the shaft 18 disengages from the mixer head 14. The cartridges 12, 13 including the mixer head 14 connected thereto may then be removed as a unit from the apparatus and replaced by another unit in order to exchange the emptied cartridges or, with the cartridges being still filled partially, to use the apparatus for preparing a different substance. Although the motor drive is designed for moving the pistons 15, 16 slowly, the manual retracting and advancing of the pistons renders an exchange of the cartridges rapid and unproblematic.

This invention relates to an apparatus for mixing and dispensing multiple-component substances, which comprises a housing for receiving at least two cartridges each containing a component, and a mixer head connected to the cartridges, a shaft for rotating a mixer element disposed in the mixer head, and pistons which are connected via a clutch to a drive motor for discharging the cartridges and which are adapted to be retracted at a speed higher than the advancing speed.
An apparatus of this type is known from German Offenlegungsschrift 3,723,517. There, the pistons for dispensing the cartridges are driven by the same motor as drives the shaft of the mixer element. The cartridges contain the component to be mixed, e.g. components of an adhesive which react chemically with each other and cure within a short time. When the cartridges are empty, the pistons are retracted by opposite rotation of the driving motor, whereupon the cartridges may be removed and replaced by fresh ones. While the known apparatus provides a high-speed retracting motion, the exchange of cartridges still requires rather time-consuming manipulation.
If it is intended to exchange the cartridges in a partly filled condition in order to use the same apparatus for mixing and dispensing a different substance, it is likewise required to retract the pistons by reverse rotation of the motor. After the new cartridges have been inserted, which may also be partly filled, the pistons are advanced by the regular slow movement, which take correspondingly long until they reach the contents of the cartridges. Further, as a result of this idle advancing movement, it will be difficult in practice exactly to meter the first partial amount of the new substance to be discharged.
European Patent Specification 0,057,465 discloses another apparatus for mixing and dispensing two-component substances in which the mixer head is detachable so that the same cartridges permit a plurality of individual quantities to be discharged with long interruptions in between. Prior to every new discharging step, the mixer head with the old mixture hardened therein is removed and replaced by a new mixer head.
In this device, the pistons are advanced within the cartridges by piston rods in the form of threaded spindles each of which is driven by a pinion carrier. When a cartridge is empty, one end of the piston rod will be at the foremost end of the cartridge, while the other end will project only slightly from the rear end of the pinion carrier. After a new, full cartridge has been inserted, the pinion carrier is reversed and replaced in such a manner that now the short end of the piston rod acts on the piston disposed in the cartridge. A time-consuming screwing-back of the piston rods is thus avoided.
Even in this device, however, there is the problem, that, when partially filled cartridges are exchanged, the piston rods will have to be rotated with respect to the pinion carriers either manually or by reversing the drive motor to bring them into engagement with the pistons inside the new cartridges. Unless this condition is exactly met, an idle advancing movement will occur when the apparatus is next operated, which results in an undesirable change of the relationship between the operating time and the amount of mixture being dispensed, possibly also of the mixing ratio between the two components.

Apparatus for mixing and dispensing multiple-component substances

Thera Patent GmbH & Co. KG Gesellschaft fuer Industrielle Schutzrechte


The invention is directed to a method for detecting combustion misfires on the basis of a first input feature signal in which the nonuniformity of the rotational movement (on the basis of rpm or segment times) of the engine is mapped within the first order. According to the method, a permanent misfire at a cylinder is preliminarily detected when a first threshold value is exceeded by the amount of a first input feature signal and a detection signal for permanent misfires at several cylinders is active (and in this way, permanent misfires at several cylinders are recognized) when a threshold value is exceeded by the magnitude of further assigned input feature signals or by the magnitude of the first feature signal when a second threshold value is exceeded. The detection signal for permanent misfires at a cylinder is always switched to be inactive when there is an active detection signal for permanent misfire at several cylinders. When there is an inactive detection signal for permanent misfire at several cylinders, the preliminary detection signal for the permanent misfire at a cylinder becomes finally active and permanent misfires at a cylinder are recognized.

Combustion misfires lead to an increase of the toxic substances emitted during operation of the engine and can, in addition, lead to damage of the catalytic converter in the exhaust-gas system of the engine. A detection of combustion misfires in the entire rpm and load ranges is necessary to satisfy statutory requirements as to on-board monitoring of exhaust-gas relevant functions. In this context, it is known that, during operation with combustion misfires, characteristic changes occur in the rpm curve of the engine compared to normal operation without misfires. Normal operation without misfires and operation with misfires can be distinguished from a comparison of these rpm curves.
A detection system for combustion misfires includes the following function blocks: sensors, signal processing and feature extraction as well as classification (FIG. 1). The sensors detect, for example, segment times, that is, the time intervals in which the crankshaft passes through a predetermined rotational angle. Feature signals are formed from the segment times in the feature extraction block. The classification block follows the feature extraction block and combustion misfires are detected from the feature signals, for example, by threshold value comparisons or by utilizing a neural network or other known methods.
A system operating on the basis of threshold-value comparisons is already known and disclosed in German patent publication 4,138,765 which corresponds to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/818,884, filed Jan. 10, 1992, now abandoned.
In this known method, the segments are realized, for example, by markings on a transducer wheel coupled to the crankshaft. The segment time in which the crankshaft passes through this angle range is dependent, inter alia, upon the energy converted in the combustion stroke. Misfires lead to an increase of the ignition-synchronously detected segment times. Pursuant to the known method, a criterion for the rough-running of the engine is computed from the differences of the segment times. In addition, slow dynamic operations such as the increase of the engine rpm for vehicle acceleration are mathematically compensated.
A rough-running value, which is computed in this way for each ignition, is likewise compared ignition-synchronously to a predetermined threshold value. Exceeding this threshold value is evaluated as a misfire. The threshold value is dependent, as may be required, from operating parameters such as load and engine speed (rpm). This method is then based on the feature extraction in the time range.
Additional methods are known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,200,899 and 5,239,473 wherein the transformation of rpm signals in the frequency range by means of discrete fourier transformations is used for feature extraction. The display of the results indicates a block-like application of the transformation to the rpm signals. A block is formed of, for example, m rpm signals. The m rpm signals are determined during a camshaft revolution. However, individual misfires are not optimally resolved in this way. In contrast, if the transformation is performed sequentially, that is, if the evaluation block of m rpm signals is shifted by less than a camshaft rotation, then disadvantages result with respect to the detection of permanent misfires.
The above methods define the results of a block-like analysis in the frequency range and do not consider the further evaluation of the features obtained.
In contrast to the above, the invention includes a complete classification system for combustion misfires. The system is based upon a feature signal which is obtained by evaluating the rpm fluctuations utilizing signal modulation. Obtaining such a feature signal is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,469 which is incorporated herein by reference.
Briefly summarized, this patent application discloses a method for detecting combustion misfires which operates on the basis of a first signal in which the nonuniformity of the rotational movement of the crankshaft of the engine is mapped and wherein a second signal is generated which is periodical and which has a period duration which corresponds to the period duration of a work cycle of the engine or this period duration divided by a whole number k. The method also has a fixed phase relationship to the rotational movement of the crankshaft and the second signal is modulated by a signal based on the first signal and filtered. Also in the method, the modulated third signal, which results from the modulation and filtering, is used to detect combustion misfires and to identify the affected cylinder. The third signal defines an input feature signal with reference to the next-following classification stage wherein the nonuniformity of the rotational movement of the crankshaft of the engine is mapped in the k-th order.
The feature signal obtained in this way contains frequency data as well as time range data with which the signal-to-noise ratio significantly increases for the next-following classification stages.
By limiting to the first order (that is, k=1) for the feature extraction, then, for example, permanent misfires of cylinders, which are arranged symmetrically in the ignition sequence, cannot be detected.
Furthermore, several combinations of permanent misfires of several cylinders (multiple misfires) have components of the first order which lead to an incorrect detection as permanent misfires of a cylinder and to incorrect cylinder identification.

Method for detecting combustion misfires at one or more permanently misfiring cylinders


An actuating device is provided for selecting gears of an automatic transmission. The actuating device includes a rotatable actuating element as well as a crank arrangement (9) with stop elements (Mn) for limiting the rotation angle of the actuating element to a total switching angle. The actuating element may assume n switching positions within the total switching angle. The crank arrangement (9) has a separate stop element (Mn), which can be activated in a controlled manner, and a crank area (12, 13) for each of the n switching positions. The crank area (12, 13) comprises at least one crank segment (A, B, C, . . . ), between the end stops of which a stop element (Mn) can assume one of n relative positions, which correspond to the n switching positions. The crank segments (A, B, C, . . . ) are arranged distributed over the total crank angle such that all n relative positions are occupied by the n stop elements (Mn) for each relative switching position (1, 2, 3, . . . ). The actuating device makes possible, analogously to purely mechanical actuating elements with discrete locking position, the reliable actuation of complex technical systems. At the same time, intuitively detectable and especially tactile feedback, which is unambiguous under all operating conditions, is achieved for the actual state of the system.

Devices of this type are used, for example, but by no means exclusively, for the manual actuation of the gears or for gear preselection in gear change mechanisms of motor vehicles.
Actuating device of the type mentioned in the introduction are used in motor vehicles to actuate a great variety of systems and functions of the motor vehicle. Numerous systems and functions are operated electrically or controlled electronically in modern motor vehicles. This applies both to complex mechanical assembly units of the powertrain, for example, manually or automatically controlled vehicle transmissions, and simpler functions, such as electric seat adjustment, windshield wiper drives, to diverse electronic systems in the vehicle and the like. However, gear preselection and control of the operating state of the vehicle transmission, in particular, take place exclusively by means of electric or electronic signaling ("shift-by-wire") in an increasing number of motor vehicles.
However, the electric or electronic activation of such systems, which makes do without mechanical connection, leads to the circumstance that there will not be an unambiguous assignment any longer between the position of an actuating element and the state of the system that can be controlled by means of the actuating element, for example, a vehicle transmission. In other words, this means that the desired state of the system being controlled, for example, of the vehicle transmission, which is selected with the actuating element, does not agree with the actual shifting state of the system or transmission.
Such a divergence between the states of a technical system and the control elements thereof may have various causes.
For example, erroneous or non-functioning recognition of the position of the control element may be involved, with the consequence that the gear, preselected, for example, by the driver on the control element, was not recognized by the system and the corresponding control command was consequently not sent to the transmission. For example, erroneous or non-functioning transmission of the control command between the control element and the system controlled therewith is equally imaginable as well.
However, the situation in which technical systems, for example, vehicle transmissions, adapt their operating or shifting state to changed general conditions and change it automatically even without direct action of the driver, also occurs increasingly frequently in modern motor vehicles with the complex technical systems, which are increasingly interlinked with one another. For example, it is not uncommon that an electronic or shift-by-wire-controlled vehicle transmission automatically assumes the shift position P (parking brake) for safety reasons when the engine is stopped and after the ignition key is removed or as soon as the driver leaves the vehicle.
However, if the vehicle is equipped with a usual transmission actuating element, for example, with an automatic selector lever, the selector lever remains in the shift position selected manually by the driver before, for example, in "N," even in case of the automatically engaged shift position "P." The control lever thus falsely signals by its unchanged position in the "N" position that the transmission is in shift position "N," whereas the transmission is actually in shift position "P" because of the automatic activation of the parking brake. While this may not directly lead to a safety risk in the example selected here, at least the problem still remains that the selector lever is in the "N" position when travel is next started, and difficulties or lack of clarity could therefore arise when engaging the desired gear.
The comparatively simple case in which the system being controlled is the windshield wiper unit of a vehicle is another example, which is used for illustration only. It is already known in this case as well that the windshield wiper turns on automatically because of corresponding sensor signals, for example, when heavy fog develops or when precipitation begins. However, this means that the operating state of the windshield wiper may no longer possibly agree with the switching state of the actuating element for the windshield wiper.
Thus, the actuating element falsely signals by its unchanged position in the off position that the windshield wiper is turned off, whereas it is actually in operation because of the automatic activation. Even if the actual operating state may also be easily recognizable in case of the windshield wiper, at least the problem still remains that the actuating element is already in the off position during the manual intervention in the automatic windshield wiper mechanism, which may possibly be desirable, i.e., to turn off the windshield wiper.
As can easily be seen, the cases from the area of the motor vehicle or the gear box control are only examples of generally applicable relationships in the man-machine interaction in case of electronically controlled technical systems, in which the actuating elements are not in connection with the system to be controlled via mechanical linkages or shafts any longer, but only via electric or electronic signals.
To solve the problem that there is not always an agreement between the position of the actuating element and the state of the system being controlled by means of the actuating element, it was proposed in the state of the art that such technical systems, especially automated vehicle transmissions, be actuated by means of an essentially rotationally symmetrical rotary switch, wherein the rotary switch is unlimitedly rotatable by itself.
The actuation position of the rotary switch which corresponds to the actual sate of the system to be controlled or to the actually engaged gear of the automatic transmission is set in this actuating device by means of the active adjustment of mobile end stops for the rotary switch. The adjustment of the end stops is performed in a variable manner as a function of the actual state of the system or the actually engaged gear. It is ensured in this manner that the relative position of the rotary switch between the end stops always agrees with the actual state of the system regardless of the switching position being assumed by the rotary switch and regardless of whether the state of the system was changed without an intervention on the part of the user.
However, this adjustment or motor-driven adaptation of the position of the end stops to the actual state of the system does require a certain effort. Moreover, the motor-driven adjustment of the end stops always takes a certain time until the end stops reach the intended position, and this adjustment time also varies, moreover, with the degree of deviation between the actual position and the desired position of the stops.
In addition, selective blocking of certain gear selection possibilities on the actuating element or rotary switch is desirable or necessary in certain cases, for example, in case of the control of an automatic transmission. For example, the driver must be prevented for safety reasons from engaging the reverse gear above a certain forward travel speed to prevent damage to the powertrain. However, besides the adjustment of the end stops for the rotary switch, a possibility of selective blocking or a possibility of controllably changing the distance between the two end stops of the rotary switch would be additionally necessary for this, but this would require a considerable additional design effort.


A radiant heating system includes an air-to-fluid heat exchanger, a radiant heating loop and a pump and conduits to circulate heating fluid between the air-to-fluid heat exchanger and the radiant fluid loop. The air-to-fluid heat exchanger is installed within a hot air duct connected to a conventional forced air furnace; preferably in a section of the hot air duct located near the forced air furnace with an expanded cross-section. In operation, the apparatus uses heated air supplied by the forced air furnace to heat the heating fluid circulating through the apparatus. Some of the heat from an air flow supplied by the forced air furnace passing through the hot air duct is transferred to heating fluid in the air-to-fluid heat exchanger, installed within the hot air duct. This heating fluid is then circulated through a radiant heating loop to heat a desired area.

Many buildings heating systems, especially residential buildings heating systems, use a primary heating system which comprises a forced air furnace for heating and cooling. Air is heated by the forced air furnace and dispersed throughout the building through ducting. While there are many advantages and reasons for using a forced air furnace as the primary heating system in a building, there are some applications where it is desirable to have in addition to the forced air heating, a radiant heating system using circulating heating fluid for specialized heating, that cannot be achieved with a forced air furnace alone.
Additionally, using forced air heating alone often involves some disadvantages. A common disadvantage of using a forced air furnace alone is that the heated air in a room, because it has a tendency to rise, can often leave the floor of the room cooler than the surrounding air. This problem is further exaggerated when the building comprises multiple floors, such as a main floor and a basement. The thermostat for the forced air furnace is typically on a main level with the result that the main level is often comfortable, but the lower levels, such as the basement are somewhat cooler than the main level. Basements also typically have ceiling diffusers that are used to supply the heated air to spaces, which further exaggerates the problems with the heated air in a room tending to rise because the ceiling diffusers introduce the heated air into the basement space at ceiling level.
Often these disadvantages and/or problems can be addressed with the use of a secondary radiant heating system that uses circulated heating fluid. These radiant heating systems provide heat by having heated fluid circulated through them in a series of conduits or a heating loop. Heat from the heating fluid circulating through the radiant heating loop is radiated to the surrounding area and heats the surrounding area. For example, if a radiant heating system in the form of an in-floor heating system is used in the basement, the floor in the basement is warmed by the radiant heating system and can maintain the basement space at a much more comfortable temperature than just using the forced air system alone.
The disadvantage of using a secondary radiant heating system that operates using circulating heating fluid is that there must be a heat source for heating the heating fluid to be circulated through the radiant heating system. Typically, in the prior art systems a boiler system is installed, which is completely separate and is additional to the forced air furnace, which is used as the primary heating system for the building. This boiler is then used to heat the heating fluid to be circulated through the radiant heating system. The disadvantage of using a boiler is that boilers are more complex to design, operate and maintain than forced air furnaces. Additionally, there is the added expense of the boiler which is purchased in addition to the forced air furnace that will be used as the primary source of heating, cooling and ventilation that may be already in place.


An optical display has multiple display units overlapped on top of one another. Each display unit includes light holes defined in a front face of the display unit for emission of light, multiple first bosses formed on a top face of the display unit and multiple first grooves defined in a bottom face of the display unit such that two adjacent display units are able to be combined with one another via the extension of the first bosses from one display unit into the first grooves of the other display unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical display, and more particularly to an optical display with multiple overlapped display units so that the optical display is able to be formed into any desired shape.
2. Description of Related Art
Commercial advertisements often use multiple televisions combined together to form a so-called "TV wall" to display a message to attract customers' attention. The resolution of this kind of displaying mechanism is determined by the resolution of each of the TV sets. However, due to the frames of each of the TVs, the customers are not able to see clearly the presenting pictures. To overcome the shortcoming, a display using optical fibers as the medium to transmit the light to form the entire picture is introduced to the market. Because of the massive amount of the optical fibers, the resolution of this kind of display is a great improvement on the "TV wall". Still, due to the relatively large distance between two adjacent optical fibers, the quantity of light dots formed on the display to show a picture is small. As a consequence, although the resolution is improved when compared with the conventional TV wall, the resolution still has a lot of room to be enhanced.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention tends to provide an improved optical display to mitigate the aforementioned problems.


A wheel safety system for a vehicle. The wheel safety system includes wheel sensors and a brake control module. The wheel sensors are mounted on the vehicle proximate each of the wheels. The sensors detect if a wheel has become disconnected. The brake control module is coupled to the brake system for the vehicle and in response to a wheel sensor detecting a disconnected wheel, the control module actuates the brake system to arrest movement of the wheel.

Tractor-trailers are the preferred mode of transportation for commerce today and will remain to be in the years to come. The tractor-trailer combination provides a cost-effective mode of shipping a wide variety of goods within provincial/state boundaries-and also across the country.
The widespread use of tractor-trailers by the trucking industry and the increased congestion on the major thoroughfares and highways has given rise to safety concerns. In particular, the loss of a wheel from a truck or tractor-trailer, even at low speeds, can cause significant damage if it collides with another moving vehicle or crashes into a building alongside the roadway. In recent years, the problem of "wheels flying off" has come to the forefront in light of an increasing number of highly publicized fatalities resulting from collisions between a wheel assembly lost from a tractor-trailer and another vehicle.
In some cases, a truck will lose a wheel as a result of catastrophic mechanical failure, for example, an axle in the trailer breaks. In other cases, poor installation or servicing results in the bolts holding the wheel to the axle being sheared off or vibrating loose over the course of a long-haul journey. In both cases, the disconnected wheel becomes a heavy flying projectile moving at speeds upwards of 60 mph (100 kph). Collision between the flying wheel and another vehicle usually results in significant injury or fatality.
In Ontario, the problem of flying-off wheels has prompted the Provincial Legislature to enact laws to force truck operators to strictly maintain their rigs to prevent injury or fatality as a result of mechanical failures which may lead to a wheel flying off the vehicle.
Accordingly, there is a need for a safety device which will detect the loss of a wheel from a vehicle and prevent the wheel from escaping completely from the vehicle.


Scans of a selected product on shelves of a retail store are obtained and the scans are transmitted over a network via a transceiver circuit. A perpetual inventory (PI) value is stored for a selected product in a database. A data structure includes a first category and first actions programmatically linked to the first category. The first actions include instructing an autonomous vehicle to find the selected product, instructing an employee to find the selected product, and adjusting the PI value of the selected product. When the selected product is out-of-stock and when the PI value is greater than a predetermined threshold, one or more of the first actions associated with the first category are performed.

Stores utilize various measures to keep track of and manage products. One such measure is the perpetual inventory (PI) value associated with a product. In aspects, the PI value represents the quantity of product in the store. The PI value typically changes over time so as to accurately reflect the number of actual products in the store. For instance, products are purchased by customers and removed from the store affecting the PI value. Shipments arrive at the store and include additional products also affecting the PI value.
Stores also utilize other measures that relate to the value and availability of products for accounting and other purposes. For example, a book value of a product may be the value of all of the product present in the retail store.
Sometimes the PI value does not accurately reflect the correct number of products in the store. This can happen for a variety of reasons including mis-scanning products as the products leave or depart the store, or other forms of human error. If the PI value is incorrect, then various problems can develop. For instance, shipments can be ordered at the wrong times and for the wrong quantity of products.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.

System and method for determination and management of root cause for inventory problems


A laser-sustained plasma illuminator system includes at least one laser light source to provide light. At least one reflector focuses the light from the laser light source at a focal point of the reflector. An enclosure substantially filled with a gas is positioned at or near the focal point of the reflector. The light from the laser light source at least partially sustains a plasma contained in the enclosure. The enclosure has at least one wall with at least one property that is varied to compensate for optical aberrations in the system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to laser-sustained plasma illuminator systems. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for compensating for optical aberrations to optimize plasma performance and UV light collection.
2. Description of Related Art
Plasmas sustained by lasers have shapes defined by the laser light intensity distribution near the laser focus. The laser light intensity distribution may be a function of optical aberrations (e.g., how well the light is focused in the plasma cell). Many optical aberrations present in typical laser-sustained plasma illuminator systems are aberrations introduced by an enclosure (e.g., a bulb) used to contain the gas and the plasma. Such bulb-introduced aberrations may be significant optical aberrations, especially for plasmas sustained by lasers operating in the near IR range (wavelengths of about 1000 nm). These significant optical aberrations may result in large size plasmas, the inability to control the bulb envelope, and/or irreproducible plasma shapes.
FIG. 1 depicts different plasma shapes resulting from various optical abberrations of a pump beam in different bulbs. Shape 100 results from a pump beam with significant aberrations. These significant aberrations produce a conventional shaped plasma for shape 100. Shape 102 results from a pump beam with less aberrations. These fewer aberrations may produce a spherical shaped plasma for shape 102. Shape 104 results from a pump beam with the fewest aberrations. Shape 104 may be the smallest and brightest plasma shape of the three shapes depicted in FIG. 1 because of the fewest aberrations (e.g., shape 104 may be a "compensated" plasma shape or plasma shape that results after compensating for aberrations).
Aberrations may become particularly large when a high NA (numerical aperture) is used for pumping the plasma. Large pump laser NAs are used as light sources in many current laser-sustained plasma illuminator systems. U.S. Pat. No. 7,705,331 to Kirk et al., which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, describes an example of a high NA system. FIG. 2 depicts an example of a laser-sustained light source with a high NA. Light source 200 may include laser 202, turn mirror 204, cold mirror 206, homogenizer 208, filters 210, ellipse 212, and enclosure 214. Enclosure 214 may be, for example, a bulb. Ignition cable 216 may be coupled to enclosure 214. Plasma 217 may be generated inside enclosure 214 at or near a focal point of ellipse 212. As shown in FIG. 2, light from laser 202 (e.g., light 218) may be reflected off ellipse 212 and focused in the middle of enclosure 214 at plasma 217. Broad-band UV light (e.g., light 220) from homogenizer 208 may be reflected by cold mirror 206, reflected off ellipse 212, and focused in the middle of enclosure 214 at plasma 217. Light passing through enclosure 214 may be used to excite and/or sustain plasma 217 inside the enclosure. Plasma 217 inside enclosure 214 may provide light for illumination of a specimen for a process performed on the specimen (e.g., an inspection process performed on the specimen). As shown in FIG. 2, light passing through enclosure 214 may have a high NA.
In addition to the aberrations introduced by the enclosure itself, the refractive index of the gas inside the enclosure is another source of aberrations in the system. Gas related aberrations may be especially significant in high-pressure enclosures. FIG. 3 depicts images taken of a bulb at different pressures of Xe (xenon) in the bulb. As shown in FIG. 3, aberrations seen from the bulb increase with increasing pressure.
U.S. Pub. Pat. Appl. Nos. 2007/0228288 and 2007/0228300 to Smith, each of which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, disclose one method of compensating for aberrations introduced by the refractive index of the walls of the enclosure by modifying the shape of the reflector (e.g., a reflective ellipse). Modifying the shape of the reflector, however, can only account for aberrations from reproducible enclosure shapes. Modifying reflector shapes for each individual enclosure shape and/or different fill pressures is difficult to impractical to implement for most laser-sustained plasma illuminator systems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Gas refraction compensation for laser-sustained plasma bulbs


Exercise-based watch faces and complications for use with a portable multifunction device are disclosed. The methods described herein for exercise-based watch faces and complications provide indications of time and affordances representing applications (e.g., a workout application or a weather application). In response to detecting a user input corresponding to a selection of the affordance (e.g., representing a workout application), a workout routine can optionally be begun. Further disclosed are non-transitory computer-readable storage media, systems, and devices configured to perform the methods described herein, as well as electronic devices related thereto.

Users are increasingly relying on portable multifunction devices for day-to-day tasks. As such, a user that engages in regular workouts may require a portable multifunction device that allows them to access exercise-related information while also keeping track of time, their daily schedule, weather conditions, and the like, thereby integrating fitness with the rest of their daily routine.

Exercised-based watch face and complications


The purpose of the present invention is to provide an organic light-emitting element that comprises an internal light extraction layer on a flexible transparent substrate, that has high luminous efficiency by means of light extraction, and that prevents the breakage and partial or complete separation of electrodes when the organic light-emitting element is repeatedly bent. The organic light-emitting element according to the present invention has an internal light extraction layer, a transparent electrode, and an organic light-emitting layer in this order on the flexible transparent substrate, wherein the value of the ratio (D) represented by formula 1 between the elastic modulus (EMI) of the surface of the internal light extraction layer and the elastic modulus (EMS) of the surface of the transparent electrode side of the transparent substrate is within the range of 100±30%.D (%)=(EMI/EMS)×100(%).  Formula 1

At the present time, an organic electroluminescent element is attracting attentions as a thin light-emitting material.
An organic light-emitting element makes use of electroluminescence (EL) of an organic material (hereafter, it is also called as "an organic EL element"). It is a fully solid element which is capable of emitting light with a low voltage such as about several V to several ten V. It has many excellent features of high luminance, high light-emission efficiency, thin and small weight. Accordingly, it has been attracted attentions in recent years used for: various display backlights; a display board such as signboard and emergency lamp; and a surface light-emitting body for illumination source.
The organic light-emitting element has a structure in which a light-emitting layer containing an organic material is located between a pair of electrodes, and emitted light in the light-emitting layer is extracted to the outside through the electrode. Therefore, at least one of the pair of electrode is composed of a transparent electrode, and the emitted light is taken out from the transparent electrode side.
Further, an organic light-emitting element is characterized in doing a thin film surface light-emitting, which is different from the conventional light-emitting body. In order to make use of this feature, it is required to form an element on a flexible transparent substrate. In order to reply such request, it is required to realize an organic light-emitting element employing a widely used resin substrate such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
However, when a resin substrate such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is simply used for producing an organic light-emitting element, it was revealed that there may occur problem of the electrode which is made of indium tin oxide (SnO2-Inc2O3: ITO), for example. The electrode may be cracked or be floated or be peeled off. In particular, this problem will occur when an internal light extracting layer described later is provided between a transparent substrate and an electrode.
The organic light-emitting element can generate light with high luminance at low electric power, and it is excellent in the points of visibility, response speed, lifetime and electric power consumption. Unfortunately, the use efficiency of the light generated in the organic light-emitting element is at most 20%, which indicates significant loss of the luminescent light inside the element. It is preferable to form an internal light extracting layer for the purpose of increasing light emission efficiency.
FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view illustrating a constitution of a conventional organic light-emitting element and a propagation way of light.
An organic light-emitting element 100 includes a metal electrode 101, an organic light-emitting layer 102 having a refractive index of about 1.8, a transparent electrode 103 having a refractive index of about 1.8, and a transparent substrate 104 having a refractive index of about 1.6, which are sequentially laminated from a lower layer in the drawing. In the drawing, the arrows 110a to 110e indicate characteristic light components of the light generated in the organic light-emitting layer 102.
The light component 110a is perpendicular to the organic light-emitting layer 102 which is a light-emitting surface, and it is extracted through the transparent substrate 104 from a light extraction side (to the air).
The light component 110b is an incident light on the interface between the transparent substrate 104 and the air at the critical angle or less, and inflects at the interface between the transparent substrate 104 and the air to be extracted from a light extraction side. The light component 110c is an incident light on the interface between the transparent substrate 104 and the air at an angle larger than the critical angle.
The light component 110c is totally reflected at the interface between the transparent substrate 104 and the air, and cannot be extracted from the light-emitting side. This loss due to total reflection of the light is referred to as "substrate loss," which is typically about 20%.
The light component 110d is an incident light on the interface between the transparent electrode 103 and the transparent substrate 104 at an angle larger than the critical angle and satisfies the resonant condition. Such a light component 110d is totally reflected at the interface between the transparent electrode 103 and the transparent substrate 104 to generate a waveguide mode, in which the light component is confined within the organic light-emitting layer 102 and the transparent electrode 103. This loss due to the waveguide mode is referred to as "waveguide loss," which is typically about 20 to 25%.
The light component 110e is an incident light on the metal electrode 101, and reacts with free electrons in the metal electrode 101 to generate a plasmon mode, one of the waveguide modes, in which the light component is confined near the surface of the metal electrode 101. This loss due to the plasmon mode is referred to as "plasmon loss," which is typically about 30 to 40%.
As described above, the conventional organic light-emitting element 100 has substrate loss, waveguide loss, and plasmon loss; hence, light-emitting elements are faced with the task of extracting a larger amount of emitted light by reduced extraction loss.
To cope with this problem, Patent Document No. 1 discloses an organic electroluminescent (EL) device provided with a light scattering unit composed of a lens sheet and disposed adjacent to a light extraction surface side.
Patent Document No. 2 discloses a substrate for a light-emitting device disposed on the light-emitting surface of a light-emitting device, the substrate including an irregular layer having a high refractive index of 1.6 or more and an average surface roughness of 10 nm or more on at least one of surfaces of the substrate and one or more substrate layers having a refractive index of 1.55 or more, and a light-emitting device.
However, although these technologies are preferable embodiments from the viewpoint of light extraction, these are technologies of light extraction for a glass substrate having no flexibility. These technologies have not realized using a substrate having flexibility.
Further, Patent Document 3 discloses a light extracting layer composed of a single or a plurality of laminated layers and used for a light-emitting element. At least one of the constituting layers of the light extracting layer is a layer having a light scattering function, and it is characterized in that a surface hardness of the layer is 0.05 to 20 GPa measured with a nano-indentation method.
Patent Document 3 does not disclose the following object. By stipulating the surface hardness measured with a nano-indentation method, a strain in the layers or in the interfaces produced during a laminating process of an organic light-emitting element may be removed, and a minute breakage or peeling off of the transparent electrode may be decreased to result in improvement of dark spot resistivity and lifetime of an element. Patent Document 3 does not refer to a problem such as breakage or peeling off of the electrode cause by bending when an organic light-emitting element is produced using a flexible transparent substrate.
Therefore, it is expected an achievement of an organic light-emitting element provided with an internal light extraction layer on a widely used flexible transparent substrate. The organic light-emitting element exhibits high light-emitting efficiency by light extraction, and it does not produce breakage of the electrode, or float or peeling off of the electrode when it is repeatedly bent.


A pre-registration system increases the latitude of present active registration systems by decreasing the lateral offset of sheets before they reach the active registration system. This is accomplished by pivoting a long transport with a stepper motor in conjunction with sensing a lateral edge of the sheets in order to direct the sheets to the proper lateral position to be fed into the active registration system with a minimum of lateral offset.

Cross reference is hereby made to co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/739,955 by Alan G. Schlageter which application is commonly assigned and entitled xe2x80x9cActive Pre-Registration System Employing A Paper Supply Elevatorxe2x80x9d.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to positioning of sheets in an active registration system, and more particularly, to pre-registering of sheets before they reach the active registration system.
2. Description of Related Art
Sheet registration systems deliver sheets of all kinds to a specified position and angle for a subsequent function within a printer/copier. Functions could include transferring an image to a sheet, stacking the sheet, slitting the sheet, etc. Conventional registration system corrects for skew and lateral offset. Skew contributors may be sheet supply angle, skew induced when the sheet is acquired to the feeder, inboard-outboard drive roller velocity differences on a common drive shaft. Lateral offset may be due to sheet supply location and sheet drive direction error. Sheet drive direction error is caused by the sheet drive shafts not being perpendicular to the intended sheet drive direction. This is a result of tolerances and excess clearance between: drive shafts and frames, sheet transport mounting features and machine frames and machine module to module mounting. In present day high speed copier/printers, active registration systems are used to register the sheets accurately.
In printers/copiers where an active registration system is used, a sheet is passed over sensor arrays from which the sheet skew and lateral or cross process offset is calculated. At this point the sheet is steered into the proper position by rotating inboard and outboard nip rollers at different velocities. This function must be performed in a specific time and distance. As the sheet needs to be moved faster and faster to increase overall productivity, the time to register the sheet to correct for skew and lateral offset decreases. With this, the acceleration and velocities at the registration nips increase to a point of failure.
One such active registration system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,442 to David R. Kamprath et al., issued Mar. 10, 1992 that registers sheets in a feed path without the use of guides or gates. Laterally separated drive rolls are speed controlled to correct for skew mispositioning. Lateral registration is achieved by translation of the drive rolls transversely to the direction of sheet movement. Varying the speeds of the drive rollers equally controls longitudinal registration. The system reduces the required sheet path length to achieve correct registration, thereby allowing higher speed operation.
A method and apparatus for an active sheet registration is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,304 issued Nov. 20, 1990 to Robert M. Lofthus, which provides deskewing, and registration of sheets along a paper path in the X, Y and xcex8 directions. Sheet drivers are independently controllable to selectively provide differential and non-differential driving of the sheet in accordance with the position of the sheet as sensed by an array of at least three sensors. The sheet is driven non-differently until the initial random skew of the sheet is measured. The sheet is then driven differentially to correct the measured skew, and to induce a known skew. The sheet is then driven non-differentially until a side edge is detected, whereupon the sheet is driven differentially to compensate for the known skew. Upon final deskewing, the sheet is driven non-differentially outwardly from the deskewing and registration arrangement. A fourth sensor may be provided to measure the position of the sheet after registration with respect to desired machine timing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,624 issued Jan. 11, 1994 to David R. Kamprath et al. shows a registration system for copy sheets that uses a pair of drive rolls and drive system for commonly driving both drive rolls. A differential drive mechanism is provided for changing the relative angular position of one of the rolls with respect to the other roll to deskew the copy sheet. A control system is supplied with inputs representative of the skew of the copy sheet and controls the differential drive mechanism to deskew the copy sheet.
A lateral sheet pre-registration device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,609 issued Dec. 16, 1997 that includes a steerable pair of drive nips located in the paper path of an electrophotographic printing machine. A lead edge sensor detects when a sheet is within the steerable drive nips. The steerable nips are turned so that the sheet is transported toward a side registration sensor located in the paper path. When the side registration sensor detects the edge of the sheet an actuator causes the steerable nips to be straightened. The sheet may be forwarded to a second, higher accuracy registration device for final registration.
Even though the above-mentioned registration and pre-registration systems are useful, there is still a need to move sheets faster and faster to increase overall productivity, but the time to register the sheets to correct for skew and lateral offset decreases. With this, the acceleration and the velocities at the registration nip increase to a point of failure. One way to increase the latitude of the active registration system and decrease nip failure is to decrease the lateral offset.
Accordingly, pursuant to the features of the present invention, a method and apparatus is disclosed that answers the above-mentioned problem by providing an active pre-registration system that includes a pivoting long transport that is positioned by a stepper motor which is actuated in response to registration sensors to direct sheets to the proper lateral position. This will reduce, if not eliminate, the lateral offset and reduce the time and acceleration required registering the sheets.
This and other features and advantages of the invention are described in or apparent from the following detailed description on the exemplary embodiments.

Active pre-registration system using long sheet transports


The invention relates to a method for controlling a deceleration arrangement (10) of a motor vehicle with at least one regenerative braking device (12) which is designed to decelerate the motor vehicle by means of a variable braking torque and to generate electrical energy corresponding to the braking torque. A return speed of an operating element for driving the motor vehicle, in particular an accelerator pedal (22), is detected (S2). A predefined braking torque is exerted (S5) by the regenerative braking device (12) if the return speed and/or a variable correlating thereto exceed(s) or fall(s) below a predefined threshold value.

The invention relates to a method for controlling a deceleration arrangement of a motor vehicle, as well as a control device that is designed to carry out such a method.
It is already known for hybrid vehicles or purely electrically driven vehicles to recover kinetic energy during braking processes by generator mode operation of the electrical machine and to charge a battery with said energy (regenerative braking) Here the electrical machine produces a negative drive torque, i.e. it operates as a generator. In the case in which the electrical machine is neither producing a positive nor a negative driving torque, the motor vehicle is not driven forwards and is only accelerated or decelerated because of external influences (e.g. air resistance, rolling resistance, road gradient) (said phenomenon is referred to in the English literature as "freewheeling"). In the case of negative driving torque the regenerative braking torque can be regulated as the degree of deceleration of the vehicle, which is perceptible by the driver.
In modern motor vehicles various operating concepts are known in which the electrical machine is operated as a generator. E.g. vehicles are known in which recovery is carried out in steps of fixed specified sizes. If the gas pedal is released regenerative braking is initiated for a specified drive torque (this depends on e.g. the driving mode, which e.g. can be a sports, a comfort or an environmentally friendly driving mode).
Motor vehicles are also known, in which the regenerative braking torque can be manually adjusted by the driver using switches. The regenerative braking torque is set when releasing the gas pedal (if the brake pedal is not operated). Regenerative braking is only initiated if the gas pedal is fully released. In the event of brake pedal operation the regenerative torque is additionally increased until the predefined regeneration braking torque is reached. From a specified brake pedal travel, moreover, a hydraulic brake is activated, which further increases the braking torque (additively).
Finally, motor vehicles are known, with which the regenerative braking already starts before the complete release of the gas pedal. This causes the motor vehicle to coast at a certain pedal position (i.e. the electrical machine is neither generating a positive nor a negative drive torque), and the driver can regulate the degree of the regeneration intensity by means of adjusting smaller gas pedal positions. The exact gas pedal travel at which the motor vehicle coasts can be speed-dependent here. At higher speeds said point lies at a higher gas pedal position. The reason for this is that the maximum drive torques and regeneration torques vary depending on the revolution rate and hence depending on the speed. At higher speed, frictional losses in the electrical machine have to be increasingly compensated. The consequence for the driver is that he has a longer gas pedal travel available at higher speeds for regulating the level of the regenerative braking.
Because the highest possible efficiency is to be achieved during regenerative braking and when driving the motor vehicle by means of the electrical machine, the electrical-regenerative brake is connected to one of more axles of the motor vehicle. With such an arrangement minimal friction and hence the highest possible efficiency are achieved. In other words the electrical-regenerative brake only acts upon that axle, e.g. the front axle, which is also being driven by the electrical machine. Depending on the braking situation an unbalanced and hence non-ideal distribution of the braking torques on the individual axles can occur. For example, the braking torque can act on the respective axles in a ratio that is not proportional to the respective weights on the individual axles. An unbalanced brake force distribution in turn can adversely affect the driving dynamics or the controllability of the motor vehicle. For vehicles with a regenerative deceleration arrangement, particularly strong effects on driving stability are to be reckoned with because of the desire to recover the maximum amount of braking energy. In other words there is a conflict of aims between a very high level of energy recovery by regenerative braking on the one hand and a high level of driving stability during the braking process on the other hand.

Method for controlling a deceleration arrangement of a motor vehicle


A touch screen includes a display screen having an upper surface that provides picture information, and an optical module that emits rays in directions that can be parallel with the upper surface of the screen. When an object, such as a stylus, pen or a finger is placed on the screen to select a portion of the picture information provided on the screen, at least a portion of the rays are reflected off of the object and detected in order to determine a position of the object on the screen. The position of the object can be calculated in various ways including calculating a position of the object based on a phase delay of the reflected rays, or based on an intensity of the reflected rays, or based on an incidence angle of the reflected rays.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a touch screen, and more particularly, to a touch screen which is operational based on optical characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
Touch screens have become increasingly popular because information that is pictorially provided to a user is preferred over hard keyboards or keypads. In addition, touch screens serve as an input device not only by pressing response prompts for inputting information, but also include menu buttons displayed on the screen by which the user can select specific information or character buttons where they can type specific characters. Accordingly, touch screens are used in various kinds of apparatuses such as machinery and equipment in industry, including but not limited to personal portable terminals, and automated-teller machines.
There are typically four types of touch screen classifications into which most touch screens can be largely classified, such as a resistance film type touch screen, an electrostatic capacity type touch screen, an ultrasonic wave reflection type touch screen, and an optical type touch screen using infrared light, etc.
For example, the resistance film type touch screens and the electrostatic capacity type touch screens determine a position on the touch screens that has been selected by a user based on resistance and electrostatic capacity. The resistance and electrostatic capacity are obtained when a point of contact is generated by the user touching a portion of the display.
In addition, the ultrasonic wave reflection type touch screens and the optical type touch screens function by the formation of an array, which is a kind of a lattice, of ultrasonic waves or rays. The ultrasonic wave reflection and optical type touch screen determine a position on their respective screen, which is selected by the user, based on the detection of rays on the lattice.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a conventional structure of an optical type touch screen. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional touch screen 100 has a lattice 130 formed by rays emitted from a plurality of light sources 111,122 to a plurality of light detectors 112, 121. The light detectors 112, 121 are arranged within a path corresponding one to one with a respective light source 111, 122, so that the conventional touch screen 100 determines the position selected by the user based on whether rays are detected on the lattice 130.
The light sources 111,122 are arranged on an adjacent surface positioned perpendicularly to the touch screen providing picture information, and the light detectors 112,121 are arranged so as to oppose the light sources 111,122, respectively. The light sources 111, 122 emit rays in the direction toward the corresponding light detectors 112, 121 so that the emitted rays form the lattice of rays 130. If the user puts a reflectable object, such as a part of the user's body or a pen, on a specific position on the lattice of rays 130, paths of the rays progressing to the corresponding light detectors 112, 121 are intercepted by the reflectable object. The result is that the rays that were intercepted by the reflectable object are not detected in the corresponding light detectors 112, 121.
However, conventional devices such as that shown and described in FIG. 1 have a problem in that, because the conventional optical type touch screen 100 has to use a plurality of light sources 111, 122 and light detectors 112, 121 in order to form the lattice of rays 130, there are a significant costs both in construction and subsequent consumption of electric power by such touch screens. In other words, the costs associated with the power required in order to drive the light sources 111, 122 and light detectors 112, 121 is large enough to render such touch screens as being cost prohibitive in many applications.
Another disadvantage of the conventional touch screens is that the resolution of the touch screens (a degree of precision thereof) are proportionate to the number of light sources and light detectors; thus the costs of manufacturing continue to increase with increased resolution, even when producing such touch screens on a large scale.


A wall plate (10) is provided that accommodates communication cable and is formed by a support plate (11) and a cable support extension (12) mounted to the inner surface (20) support plate. The cable support extension is open-ended, with one opening in communication with the access opening (26) of the support plate (11) and the other opening projecting inside the wall structure (50). This allows the communication cable (56) to be fed from within the wall structure, through the wall plate, and beyond, with the cable support extension functioning as an interior sight barrier without obstructing the placement of a flat screen television set or other wall mounted objects.

When communications equipment such as computers, televisions and printers are to be placed in a room, it is desirable to have the communication cable(s) leading to the equipment to pass interiorly through the wall structure to a position adjacent the equipment and then through an opening in the wall structure to the equipment. A wall plate having a cable access opening may be mounted in the wall opening for extending the cable into the room and forming a neater look at the wall opening. This also provides a neater look in the room by avoiding the lengths of cable from being exposed in the room.
In the past, wall plates were simply flat plastic plates mountable to the wall about the hole in the wall, with an access hole in the wall plate passing the cable(s) into the room. This formed a more "finished look" to the cable entry. However, when the hole in the wall plate was not occupied by a cable, or when the cable occupied less than all the space of the access hole, a person could see through the access hole in the wall plate and possibly see into the wall structure.
Later, wall plates were developed that have a "nose" that protrudes from the wall plate into the room, with the nose having a downwardly facing opening that communicates with the access hole in the wall plate. The cable is extended from the access opening and through the nose into the room for connection to the computer. This type of wall plate having a nose-shield has met with popular use since the nose-shield provides a visual barrier through the opening in the wall plate.
More recently, electrical appliances, particularly flat screen televisions, are mounted directly to the wall, so that the protruding nose of a wall plate interferes with mounting the television in flat abutment with the surface of the wall. The wall plate can be displaced laterally or vertically with respect to the flat screen television with the opening of the nose of the wall plate directed toward the television so as to provide the least exposure of the cable. However, this arrangement does not hide the wall plate and a short run of the cable leading to the television set, and is usually considered visually obnoxious.
It is to the above described matters that this invention is directed.

Wall plate having internal nose for electrical cable


The present invention relates to peptides for use as antifungal agents. The peptides comprise a sequence of 5 to 15 basic amino acids wherein substantially all of the amino acids in said sequence are the same.

Systemic fungal diseases (systemic mycoses) are generally chronic, very slowly induced by opportunistic causative fungi which may not normally be pathogenic but represent a major threat to susceptible patients. Susceptible individuals are those with primary (inherent) immunodeficiencies, those hospitalised or living long term with indwelling surgical devices (e.g. catheters, Hickman and central lines), those undergoing invasive surgical techniques and those with secondary immunodeficiencies as a result of HIV infection, immunoablative chemotherapy or ionising irradiation, corticosteroids or other immunosuppressive drugs, prolonged exposure to antimicrobial agents etc.
Life threatening systemic fungal infections are those in which the pathogenic organisms of the blood stream, lungs and other mucosal tissue, the liver and immune sites such as the lymph glands and spleen. The diagnosis of specific fungal diseases may be made by isolation of the causative fungus from sputum, urine, blood, or the bone marrow, or with prevalent fungus types by evidence of tissue invasion. Superficial fungal infections are generally caused by dermatophytes that involve the outer layers of the skin, hair or nails. The infections may result in a mild inflammation, and cause intermittent remissions and exacerbations of a gradually extending, scaling, raised lesion. Yeasts and moulds do not generally give rise to systemic infections in healthy individuals only in immunocompromised individuals, however healthy individuals can suffer from superficial infections. Yeast infections including oral candidiasis (oral thrush) are usually restricted to the skin, and mucous membranes although yeast infections can also be systemic. Commonly, infections appear as erythematous, often itchy, exudative patches in the axillas, umbilicus, groin, between toes, and on finger-webs. Oral thrush involves an inflamed tongue, or buccal mucosa and presents as white patches of exudate, while chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis is characterized by red, pustular, crusted, thickened lesions on the forehead or nose. C. albicans can cause superficial infections of the vaginal cavity of healthy individuals; indeed up to three quarters of all women will suffer at least one episode of vaginal thrush during their lifetime. Most of these women experience infrequent attacks and respond well to drug therapy, however in some the infection is recurrent or persistent and does not respond to drug therapy.
The treatment options for infections contributed to or caused by fungi (including yeast) are severely limited and there is an urgent need to discover new therapies which inhibit or kill such organisms.
In our co-pending application, WO 2006/018652, we describe the identification of peptides that can be used to treat microbial infections in particular dermatophytic infections such as onychomycosis. For the peptides described therein, antimicrobial activity was generally confined to large cationic peptides comprising from 28 up to 200 or more basic amino acids.


The invention relates generally to formulations having one or more ingredients segregated from other constituents of the same formulation. The formulations are typically for topical application to an integument.

It has long been considered desirable to provide cosmetics and personal care products that can deliver incompatible ingredients in a single formulation. Generally, the art has utilized systems based on lipids, nanoparticles, microcapsules, and polymeric films to attempt to encapsulate and deliver incompatible actives or other ingredients that are desired to be maintained as separate in a single formulation. Despite prior efforts, there is a continuing need for compositions that are capable of delivering incompatible ingredients.
Laponite clays are synthetic, layered silicates known in the art as additives to cosmetics and personal care products such as foundations, sunscreens, and toothpaste, for their ability to act as thickening agents, gelling agents and fillers (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,603,444; 8,586,011; 8,524,203; and 8,506,953, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference). However, heretofore, laponite clays have not been used to segregate discrete ingredients within a single formulation. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide compositions useful in cosmetics and personal care products that comprise laponite clays and have the ability to deliver two or more ingredients that are incompatible together in a single formulation.
The foregoing discussion is presented solely to provide a better understanding of nature of the problems confronting the art and should not be construed in any way as an admission as to prior art nor should the citation of any reference herein be construed as an admission that such reference constitutes "prior art" to the instant application.

Laponite clay in cosmetic and personal care products