DynoValve: The Awareness - Rebirth Of The Lowly PCV Valve

Savi Corporation's DynoValve Kit Packaging - The DynoValve takes the functioning of the mechanical Positive Crankcase Valve process and brings the process evolution to its maximum effectiveness. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2010)

DynoValve: The Awareness - Rebirth Of The Lowly PCV Valve

MPG Track Day exhibit discovery leads to test!

Motor Press Guild's Track Day is a time each year where journalists who have a focus on transportation technology and culture come together with the major automobile manufacturers to find out what is new for the next year's (2011) selling season. Any company who believes they have something to contribute to the event and wish to gain exposure to 150 plus people who write and another 100 or so people who market transportation platforms may end up presenting their solutions as an exhibitor or sponsor to the event ... Savi Corporation was one such company.

After over a half a decade of research and development, testing, and working with various environmental agencies, Savi Corporation was able to introduce its "smart" Positive Crankcase Ventilation (PCV) valve to the world at last month’s 60th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance ... the DynoValve. The DynoValve replaces the mechanical PCV Valve found as original manufacture on all engines and takes the functioning of this environmentally useful process to a higher, more efficient level.

Pictured - The DynoValve computer-controlled valve on top with the mechanical PCV valve on bottom. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2010)

This excerpted and edited from Wikipedia -

As an engine operates, high-pressure gases are contained within the combustion chamber and prevented from passing into the crankcase (containing the crankshaft and other parts) between the side of the piston and the cylinder bore by piston rings which seal against the cylinder. However, some amount of gas always leaks past the piston rings into the crankcase. This amount is very small in a new or properly rebuilt engine, provided that the piston rings and cylinder walls are correctly "broken in", and increases as the engine wears. Scratches on the cylinder walls or piston rings, such as those caused by foreign objects entering the engine, can cause large amounts of leakage. This leaked gas is known as blow-by because the pressure within the cylinders blows it by the piston rings. If this blow-by gas could not escape then pressure would build up within the crankcase.

Before the invention of crankcase ventilation in 1928, the engine oil seals were designed to withstand this pressure, oil leaking to the road surface was accepted, and the dipstick was screwed in. The hydrocarbon rich gas would then diffuse through the oil in the seals into the atmosphere. Subsequently, it became an emissions requirement as well as a functional necessity that the crankcase have a ventilation system. This [system] must maintain the crankcase at slightly less than atmospheric pressure under light load conditions and recycle the blow-by gas back into the engine intake.

However, due to the constant circulation of the oil within the engine, along with the high speed movement of the crankshaft, an oil mist is also passed through the PCV system and into the intake. The oil is then either burned during combustion, or settles along the intake tract, causing a gradual build-up of residue inside the inlet path. For this reason many engine tuners choose to replace the PCV system with an oil catch can and breather filter which vents the blow-by gases directly to atmosphere and retains the oil in a small tank (or returns it to the sump), although this technically fails to meet most engine emission legislation.
Reference Here>>

The DynoValve takes the functioning of the mechanical Positive Crankcase Valve process from a spring loaded plug, door, or flap that is opened and closed through the variance in pressure from one side of the door to the other and regulates the opening and closing based upon electronic signals and computer commands that even out the performance and brings the process evolution to its maximum effectiveness.

Many claims as to the benefits of this computerized DynoValve system process center around two major areas. It is GREEN and it makes one's vehicle more fuel efficient.

The DynoValve is GREEN because it allows for a greater, more complete burning of the fuel and other materials in the cylinder of the engine due to the increased breath-ability of the engine itself. The carbon particulate matter from the fuel and the gasses from the crankcase being more effectively burned, along with the catalytic converter, knocks the emissions to a nearly un-measurable level.

The GREEN and fuel efficient Hummer H2 stretch limousine with DynoValve. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2010)

The DynoValve is more fuel efficient due to the fact the fuel is being burned more thoroughly because of the computerized DynoValve system process, a greater level of power is delivered by the engine so the performance is enhanced and less gas pedal is required to achieve the same performance results. An increase in the vehicle's gas consumption performance in miles per gallon of 30% is not unrealistic. One limousine company has documented an increase in MPG performance by as much as 300% under some specific driving conditions and a 200% increase is common.

This begs the question "Can this be tested and an article be developed by one of the journalists who became aware of the DynoValve at MPG Track Day to show the results one might be able to achieve on an everyday pick-up truck?"

The F250 "test-bed". Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2010)

The installation happened yesterday on a 1995 Ford F250 XLT, 7.5 litre/460 cubic inch V8 powered pick-up that had 55,488.6 original miles on it at the time of install. The truck pretty much averages 10 miles per gallon and there had been times the truck did achieve 12 mpg but these were times where one was traveling out of the San Bernardino Mountains and traveled on the freeway at reduced speeds.

It was discovered during the install procedure that there was a couple of breeches in the truck's vacuum hose array which had the pressure measuring around 17 lbs. (normal pressure is about 20 lbs.). After installation of the DynoValve and the replacement of the compromised hoses, the operation of the truck's PCV vacuum system was restored back to 20 lbs. (full slideshow here).

Installed DynoValve. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2010)

This posting will be the first of a series of articles spawned from the testing of Savi Corporation's computerized DynoValve system process installed on this writer's 1995 Ford F250 XLT, 7.5 liter/460 cubic inch V8 powered pick-up truck.

... notes from The EDJE

Paper chip medical diagnoses anyone can perform

Paper Lab - The prototype of the paper lab-on-a-chip looks similar to this earlier Whitesides Lab device, except that it would test blood instead of urine [CTRL-CLICK image to see "how it works" video]. Image Credit: Whitesides Lab

Paper chip medical diagnoses anyone can perform

Automating medical tests on the human body just got a lot easier. The process is similar to litmus paper testing but this medical lab on a paper chip can diagnose a wide array of human conditions for about one cent and anyone can perform the tests.

A Harvard University chemist has created a prototype "chip" technology out of paper that could help diagnose HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases for just a penny each time.

Litmus paper is handy as a general acid-base indicator, but you can get much more specific results if you use an indicator that has a more narrow test range or that offers a wider color range. Image Credit: About.com

According to CNN, a drop of blood on one side of the paper chip results in a colorful tree-like pattern that tells physicians or nurses whether a person has certain diseases. Water-repellent comic-book ink helps channel the blood into the tree-like pattern, as several layers of treated paper react to the blood and create the telling colors ... just as litmus paper would do, but this approach performs several diagnoses on one paper chip.

The developer/inventor of this testing breakthrough, George Whitesides, Harvard chemist, explained that the colors can also reveal the severity of a disease rather than just saying if a person has it or not. It's not the most sophisticated lab-on-a-chip created, but that's the point -- many of these could become cheap diagnostic tools for a developing world that often lacks physicians and clinics.

Mobile phones with cameras can be used to share the pattern results from the paper chip from anywhere cell service is available. Patients in Africa or Asia, where cellphones have become wildly popular ... even in the poorest regions, could send the photos on to medical centers for proper diagnosis.

For PROP. 8, Judge believes image means nothing

Original logo image, ProtectMarriage.com – Yes on 8, a Project of California Renewal - Image Credit: Case 2:10-cv-00132-LKK-DAD Document 1-2

For PROP. 8, Judge believes image means nothing

In the world of images and logos, a lot is made to impart the exact impression and nature of an effort or business enterprise through branding. The biggest area where branding gives its first impression comes from corporate colors and the graphic elements that are associated with the effort or business enterprise ... the logo.

XEROX Corporation comes to mind when one thinks of how important it becomes to protect an effort's graphic intellectual property. XEROX did not want the general public to grasp on to, and water down the meaning of their name when one referred to a photo-copy as a "XEROX" just as Kleenex did not want to have everyone refer to a paper wipe by their trade name, Kleenex. XEROX was mostly successful in their efforts through protecting the word XEROX in courts through lawsuits when the company saw the word used in a generic nature thereby watering down the definition and impact of the word, XEROX.

The same sensibility should govern cultural and political messages delivered through graphic intellectual property as well. A lawsuit has been brought upon The Courage Campaign Institute for using the graphic elements of the logo used by The Proposition 8 coalition.

A Judge in the California District Court did not believe the value of the graphic image and the identification brought through a logo graphic was worth defending on behalf of the effort to protect traditional marriage.

Rip-Off logo Image, The Courage Campaign Institute - Image Credit: Case 2:10-cv-00132-LKK-DAD Document 1-3

This excerpted and edited from The Sacramento Bee -

Prop. 8 backers sue foes over logo
By Denny Walsh - The Sacramento Bee - Published: Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 - 10:57 am

The opposing forces in California's war over gay marriage have found something else to squabble about: the gay-marriage camp's mockery of the traditional-marriage camp's logo.

The squabble is playing out in Sacramento in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton.

A stylized silhouette of a man and a woman and a boy and a girl, all with raised arms beneath a banner reading, "Yes On 8 Protect Marriage," is the logo of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative amending the state constitution to declare that marriage is only between a man and a woman.

Since the campaign on behalf of Proposition 8 began using the logo on Jan. 31, 2008, it has employed it in a number of ways, most recently on its Web site.

The Courage Campaign Institute began using an almost-identical logo – the adult figures both are wearing dresses and the banner reads "Prop 8 Trial Tracker" – last week on a Web site it launched for updates and commentary on the San Francisco trial of a federal constitutional challenge to the amendment.

The Proposition 8 coalition is defending the amendment in court because the state would not.

Soon after the Trial Tracker logo showed up, the Proposition 8 promoters cried foul.

The Courage Campaign argues the slightly altered logo is funny, a parody that is cloaked in free-speech protection.
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ProtectMarriage.com – Yes on 8, a Project of California Renewal sued Tuesday in Sacramento federal court.

The lawsuit alleges that the defendants – nonprofit groups that support gay and lesbian marriage – have misappropriated the plaintiff's trademark in a way that is likely to confuse the public, and they "have never utilized the infringing logo in any way that would result in humor, a … requirement for a parody."

The plaintiff claims to have spent "a considerable amount of money in establishing the ProtectMarriage Trademark in the minds of customers as a source of conservative views and traditional family values."
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Karlton sided with the defendants Wednesday in a nine-page order denying the plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order halting the use of the logo on prop8trialtracker.com.

The judge ruled that Courage Campaign's "use of the mark is protected under the First Amendment, in that the use is relevant to an expressive parody and … is not explicitly misleading."

"Any potential for confusion or misdirection is obviated by the images and text that uniformly accompany defendant's use of the mark, namely, photos of homosexual couples together with text explicitly endorsing homosexual marriage," said Karlton.
Reference Here>>

In California ... a vote that has expressed the democratic will of the people by nearly 70% and intellectual property are under assault along with the ability for people to grow food and keep jobs (irrigation water ordered to be turned off in the fields of the Sacramento Valley in order to protect a non-indigenous fish, the Delta Smelt) ... nothing is sacred, except, of course, the decisions of a single politically "progressive" Judge or the wishes of small, but politically "progressive" special interest groups.

CES: Wireless frequency shortage looms on the horizon

U. S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski attended Columbia University and Harvard Law School with Obama, and the two remained close over the years. In July, Genachowski helped organize an Obama fundraiser in Washington, D.C., that raised at least $1.3 million. Genachowski has a sterling career background in the law. He clerked for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Abner Mikva. He also clerked for two U.S. Supreme Court Justices, David Souter and William Brennan. He worked in Congress from 1985 to 1988 for then-Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and was on the staff of the select committee on the Iran-Contra Affair during the Reagan administration. Image Credit: Mark Wilson

CES: Wireless frequency shortage looms on the horizon

United States Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski said an impending shortage of wireless spectrum in the U.S. will dampen future economic growth unless action is taken to fix the problem.

"Our data shows there's a looming crisis, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, but at some point in the future," Genachowski told attendees at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Friday. "The record is pretty clear that we need to find more spectrum," he continued.

"The wireless infrastructure in the U.S. will be our platform for ongoing innovation and investment," he said.

One way to more efficiently use spectrum is to encourage a secondary market where licensees can easily rent out to other organizations spectrum that they may not be using. That's one idea that the U.S. Department of Justice recently recommended to the FCC in a filing encouraging the agency to move quickly to free up more spectrum.

The FCC has identified the limited supply of wireless spectrum as one of the factors that could limit the growth of broadband Internet services in the U.S., which could result in slower economic growth and job creation.

Wireless spectrum issues will be addressed, along with other factors affecting broadband access and services, in a national broadband plan that the FCC is now assembling. The plan was originally due to be completed next month, but the FCC received a 30-day extension from the U.S. Congress.