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|Monday to Friday
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Andrew is the newest member of the team and is already making his mark with his insightful & cutting edge reporting on the latest news in the personal finance arena.
A few hours after British Gas announced their 6% price rise last Friday, npower joined in with a massive 9% increase to their standard tariff prices. The increase will take effect from 26th November.
Like British Gas, npower blame increasing costs forced upon them by government such as funding improvements to the national grid, funding wind turbines and meeting energy efficiency targets as well as increasing rising futures energy prices. Paul Massara, npower's chief commercial officer said:
"There is never a good time to increase energy bills, particularly when so many people are working hard to make ends meet. But the costs of new statutory schemes, increases in distribution charges and the price of gas for the coming winter are all being driven up by external factors, for example government policy. Although we have managed to smooth out the worst fluctuations and protect our customers for as long as we can, we are now having to pass on some of these costs."
The rises will affect 3 million of npower's customers from the 26th November, a further 500,000 being protected in the short term by fixed rate deals.
Energy suppliers are obliged to write to customers at least 30 days before making changes to a contract that would leave customers worse off – like price increases. During this time customers, under supply licence condition 23, can change supplier without paying an exit fee. You must notify your supplier before the new price comes into effect to take advantage of this.
However, don't forget npower operate a system where discounts for paying by Direct Debit and taking dual fuels do not get paid until the 12th month of the contract. These discounts can easily be up to £100, so though they may have to waive exit fees, you could still lose valuable discounts.
- Hiring a car after 8th June 2015? Read this to understand how changes to driving licences will affect car hire.
- Energy Market Update April 2015
- How to protect yourself if your Mobile Phone is stolen - avoid bill shock
- Reclaim Credit on your Gas and Electricity Bills
- Credit Unions – replacing the banks for day to day saving and borrowing?
- Student Insurance – Are You Ready For Freshers?
- Travelling to South Africa with children? Take their birth certificates!
- Standalone Car Hire Insurance Policies – "I'm Sold"!
- Top Tips for Stress Free Car Hire – Picking up your Car


text: Dark Harbor by Stuart Woods buy used Used & Rare price $6.76 new from$2.00 shop with confidence SPECIAL SHIPPING CONSIDERATIONS FOR USED & RARE ITEMS. Please see the special considerations for shipping Used & Rare items, including extended delivery times, possible import duties & taxes. Delivered in 3-5 weeks Format: Hardcover Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group Condition: The following ISBNs are associated with this title: ISBN - 10:039915342X ISBN - 13:9780399153426 Seller Comments: Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 294 p. From the Publisher Stone Barrington investigates the secrets of a CIA officer''s suicide in this next thriller in the "New York Times" bestselling series.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog:
Audio Recordings of Police Are Protected By First Amendment According to Two Different Courts Of Appeal.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered a blow to Illinois' 50-year-old anti-eavesdropping law according to trial lawyer Funkenbusch. The Illinois Eavesdropping Act, enacted in 1961, makes it a felony for someone to produce an audio recording of a conversation unless all the parties involved agree. It sets a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison if a law enforcement officer is recorded.
In refusing to hear the appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court finding that major parts of the eavesdropping law violate constitutional protections of free speech.
The 7th Circuit majority found that the Illinois eavesdropping statute restricts a medium of expression commonly used for the preservation and communication of information and ideas, thus triggering First Amendment scrutiny. In particular, the court noted that the statute restricts far more speech than necessary to protect legitimate privacy interests.
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San Francisco Giants v St Louis Cardinals - Game Five
Similar imagesView all
- American League,
- Ball,
- Baseball - Sport,
- Batting,
- Brandon Belt,
- Busch Stadium,
- Catching,
- Eighth Inning,
- Game Five,
- MLB National League Championship Series,
- Major League Baseball Playoff,
- Matt Holliday,
- Missouri,
- National League,
- Playoffs,
- San Francisco Giants,
- Sport,
- St. Louis Cardinals,
- Stadium,
- Vertical,
Matt Holliday of the St. Louis Cardinals makes a catch over his head... News PhotoAmerican League,Ball,Baseball - Sport,Batting,Brandon Belt,Busch Stadium,Catching,Eighth Inning,Game Five,MLB National League Championship Series,Major League Baseball Playoff,Matt Holliday,Missouri,National League,Playoffs,San Francisco Giants,Sport,St. Louis Cardinals,Stadium,USA,VerticalPhotographer ElsaCollection: Getty Images Sport 2012 Getty ImagesST LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 19: Matt Holliday #7 of the St. Louis Cardinals makes a catch over his head on a ball hit by Brandon Belt #9 of the San Francisco Giants in the eighth inning in Game Five of the National League Championship Series at Busch Stadium on October 19, 2012 in St Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)


text:
Bradley Handwerger / WWLTV.com Sports Reporter
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com | Twitter: @wwltvsports
METAIRIE, La. Running back Darren Sproles returned to practice Wednesday, his first session since breaking his left hand in the Saints' Oct. 28 loss at Denver.
He was limited, meaning he went through team drills but didn't take his regular amount of repetitions, but acting head coach Joe Vitt said he 'looked good' in practice.
Meanwhile, rookie cornerback Corey White (knee) and starting right tackle Zach Strief (left groin) didn't practice. Strief continues his recovery from sports hernia surgery and could miss another 2-3 weeks. Additionally, defensive end Junior Galette (left ankle) didn't practice.


text:
Find out how to access preview-only content
Springer Series on Environmental Management 1983, pp 315-324
History of Revegetation Studies in the California Deserts
- Burgess L. Kay,
- Walter L. Graves
- … show all 2 hide
* Final gross prices may vary according to local VAT.Get Access
Revegetation studies in the California deserts are relatively few and all were completed in recent years. They are apparently the result of recently increased public awareness of the environment and increased destructive activity in the desert ecosystem. This chapter outlines all known studies (except that discussed in Chapter 15) and discusses the problems involved in reestablishing vegetation. While none of these studies has involved ORV areas specifically, the problems appear to be the same.
The views and conclusions contained in this chapter are based on the authors' studies or experiences, and do not necessarily represent the official viewpoint or policy of any U.S. government agency.
Page %P
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- Graves, WL, Kay, BL, Williams, WA (1975) Seed treatment of Mojave Desert shrubs. Agron. J. 67: pp. 773-777 CrossRef
- Graves, WL, Kay, BL, Williams, WA (1978) Revegetation of disturbed sites in the Mojave Desert with native shrubs. Calif. Agric. 32: pp. 4-5
- Kay, BL (1979) Summary of revegetation studies on the second Los Angeles Aqueduct. Dept. Agronomy and Range Science, University of California, Davis, California
- Kay, B. L., C. M. Ross, W. L. Graves, C. R. Brown, and J. A. Young. 1977. Mojave Revegetation Notes. (Twenty-one separate monographs of 2–10 pages each.) University of California, Dept. of Agronomy and Range Science, Davis, California.
- Packer, PE, Aldon, EF Revegetation techniques for dry regions. In: Stelly, M eds. (1978) Reclamation of Drastically Disturbed Lands. pp. 425-450
- Romney, EM, Wallace, A, Hunter, RB (1979) Revegetation Studies Pertinent to the Barstow 10 MWe Pilot Solar Thermal Power System and to Potential Power Plant Sites Elsewhere in the Mojave Desert.
- Smith, PD, Edell, J, Jurak, F, Young, J (1978) Rehabilitation of eastern Sierra Nevada roadsides. Calif. Agric. 32: pp. 4-5
- Stelly, M eds. (1978) Reclamation of Drastically Disturbed Lands.
- Thames, JL eds. (1977) Reclamation and use of disturbed land in the southwest. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, Arizona
- Vasek, FC, Johnson, HB, Eslinger, DH (1975) Effects of pipeline construction on creosote bush scrub vegetation of the Mojave Desert. Madrono 23: pp. 1-13
- Vasek, FC, Johnson, HB, Brum, GD (1975) Effects of power transmission lines on vegetation of the Mojave Desert. Madrono 23: pp. 114-130
- Title
- History of Revegetation Studies in the California Deserts
- Book Title
- Environmental Effects of Off-Road Vehicles
- Book Subtitle
- Impacts and Management in Arid Regions
- Book Part
- Part III
- Pages
- pp 315-324
- Copyright
- 1983
- 10.1007/978-1-4612-5454-6_16
- Print ISBN
- 978-1-4612-5456-0
- Online ISBN
- 978-1-4612-5454-6
- Series Title
- Springer Series on Environmental Management
- Series ISSN
- 0172-6161
- Publisher
- Springer New York
- Copyright Holder
- Springer-Verlag New York
- Additional Links
- Topics
- Industry Sectors
- eBook Packages
- Editors
- Robert H. Webb (2)
- Howard G. Wilshire (3)
- Editor Affiliations
- 2. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona
- 3. U.S. Geological Survey
- Authors
Continue reading...
To view the rest of this content please follow the download PDF link above.


text:
We are an interfaith, multicultural immigrant justice organization working with communities across faith, ethnicity, and class to end injustices against immigrants, regardless of status.
We build our interfaith, multicultural community to express radical welcome for all and ensure that values of dignity, justice, and hospitality are lived out in practice and upheld in policy.
We work together to bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice and transform our communities into a place where immigrants, families, friends, and neighbors are safe, respected, and welcomed; where economic, spiritual, and emotional wholeness are realized; and where borders and divisions disappear as we build a community welcoming to everyone.
New Sanctuary Movement has been honored with the 2010 Nonprofit Organization Award by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, is a designated "Zone of Peace" by the Interfaith Center of Greater Philadelphia, and received the 2012 Special Recognition for Community Engagement by PhilaPOSH.
Join the movement for immigrant justice in PA by writing a support letter by May 31!
After her victory, Angela offers a community prayer to end all deportations and family separation.
We celebrate a historic victory against Philly's local deportation program after years of community organizing.


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Everyday is a photo-op for Hollywood's brightest stars, and oh what a pretty week it was on the scene. From Joan Smalls' vibrant dark eyes, to Rosario Dawson's hot fuchsia lips, these celebs deliver plenty of beauty looks bound to inspire. Check out some of our absolute faves and let us know which one totally has you ready to purchase a new red lip?!
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- Here's 32 Photos Of Andre Leon Talley Because…Capes


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Andrew Jackson Apartments is located in the Riverside Area in the 92503 zip code. View this apartment on a map.
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text:
I'm configuring postfix on centos. some action is to be done when email recieved on firstname.lastname@example.com. Is it necessary to specify an alias (it's always the same sh script) for each id or I can somehow specify it one time for all emails of class email@example.com?
Take the 2-minute tour ×
Server Fault is a question and answer site for system and network administrators. It's 100% free, no registration required.
The only way you could do that once time is using regex but for security reasons regex are not allowed in the aliases and virtual user table. http://www.postfix.org/PCRE_README.html


text:
By Christian Viveros-Fauné
Bridget Everett Whacks Rock Bottom at Joe's Pub
By Miriam Felton-Dansky
The Valley of Astonishment Will Leave You...Astonished
By Tom Sellar
By Tom Sellar
By Jessica Dawson
In September, Site-Specific Theater Rules the Day
By Tom Sellar
How Chuck Jones Defined America Through Cartoons
By R. C. Baker
Between Riverside and Crazy Bares Its Wounds
By Tom Sellar
This year, after graduating as salutatorian of her class, Ham is a "super senior" at Aviation's small annex campus at JFK airport, where she is forewoman of her shop class. Each year, 25 Aviation graduates are invited to participate in a fifth-year program at JFK that's dedicated to preparing them for an FAA licensing exam for certification to work on airplane engines.
It's a shift that also puts Ham in the same building as her father every school day. An immigrant from Taiwan, Huan Ham worked his way up to manager of three McDonald's stores in Manhattan, and in 1988 he bought the house where he and his family live in South Ozone Park. The Hams' backyard is in the flight path of JFK's runway 13-L—the runway that served the Concorde for many years. (Its arrival each day signaled 5 p.m.)
When Huan Ham lost his job at McDonald's in 1992, he bought a 200-acre coffee plantation in Honduras—Estrella's mother's native country—and began importing coffee and selling it in a small shop at JFK. He named the business Star Mountain Coffee, after the English translation of his older daughter's name.
Estrella Ham grew up in the male-dominated milieu of the airport—freight forwarders, air-freight brokers, cops, and truckers made up the majority of customers at the family store—but it still didn't prepare her for Aviation High School. Ham speaks carefully about her adjustment her first year, when she was one of just two girls in her first shop class, acknowledging it was difficult. "I wasn't used to guys calling girls out," she says.
Everyone at Aviation has noticed that a disproportionate number of girls at the school have leadership positions. This year, all the officers of Pegasus, an honors society for shop classes, are girls. Last year, Ham was third in a line of female wing commanders of ROTC, which is the largest and most respected extracurricular activity at the school. The first-term wing commander this school year, Ana Sanchez, says of girls at Aviation, "We deal with something the boys don't deal with. We have to prove ourselves. It's not going to be just as easy for me to pick up a tire as it is for a boy who weighs more than I do and is taller than me and is stronger than me, but I'm going to have to get the job done eventually."
It's possible that the girls' disproportionate leadership in extracurricular activities has come about because high-achieving girls, perhaps even more than high-achieving boys, feel compelled to prove themselves in as many ways as possible. Shop classes are one equalizer—a few girls I spoke with described their satisfaction when their projects are consistently more stable or more precisely hewn than their classmates'.
Aviation's ROTC is another. "We teach the cadets that it doesn't matter if it's a young lady or a young man leading the unit," said Sergeant Nephtali Robles, who co-coordinated Aviation's ROTC chapter during the period Ham served as wing commander. "They can look and see their ribbons. Cadets have to earn those ribbons."
Ham earned the honor of wearing the red cord that marks the position of wing commander by participating in virtually every activity connected with ROTC, including serving in the color guard at the opening ceremony of a Mets game and participating in a drill-team routine in which several cadets circled around a boy and threw rifles over him as he lay on his back, spinning his own rifle. "She was really proficient with a rifle," says Sergeant Robles.
"I started to feel more comfortable at the school," Ham says, "as I got more involved in ROTC."
At the annex, students wear sky blue work shirts sewn with two rectangular navy blue breast patches—one that reads "JFK Annex," the other embroidered with the student's last name and first initial—and a small American flag patch over the left shoulder. Pat Duignan, who is so fresh from his job as an electrical specialist at United Airlines that he still wears a United jacket marked with his last name, teaches a daily morning class in engine maintenance. Students do their shop work in a gymnasium-sized space that's framed by two rows of exposed jet engines, including one with a shell coated with Federal Express's signature purple.
Ham's crew, number six, includes Carla Rodriguez, who next year will begin college at SUNY Stony Brook, where she plans to study environmental science. "I don't want to sit down in an office in my job. I want to be outside and doing things," she says.
Around 1 p.m., annex students disperse to their internships across the airport. (Sixteen of the 24 go to Delta, which runs a special program for them.) Ham's internship is in the air traffic control tower, where she monitors the system that provides weather updates for pilots and, with the alacrity and speed of a Vegas card dealer, sorts light green strips displaying coded flight information for recently arrived or departed planes into two piles, one for large aircraft, the other for small ones.
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text:
Editorial: Living in the state of fires
Nature defies prevention efforts
Wildfires are a natural and even necessary phase of the eco-cycle in parts of the West, especially in hills and forests of Southern California.
Dense scrub brush and chaparral grow up, leaving a dense carpet of dry detritus on the forest floor. Periodic fires clear it away, opening the landscape to regeneration.
Mankind disrupts this cycle, and Americans, in particular, seem determined to live — on unprotected beaches, floodplains, tinder-dry hillsides — where Mother Nature would prefer them not to.
The consequences of this determination have been on display this week, as a spate of destructive wildfires have erupted across the state, sending thousands of homeowners fleeing from the flames.
Foremost on the minds of most Southern Californians is the massive Station fire just outside Los Angeles that has killed two, burned dozens of homes and forced the evacuation of thousands.
That wildfire is being battled by firefighters from across the state. The good news is that cooler temperatures and moister air Wednesday helped firefighters gain the upper hand on the fire buring in the Angeles National Forest.
The nearly 140,000 acre wildfire is now more than 20 percent contained, allowing fire officials to release nearly 300 firefighters and 65 fire engines from the scene. Many evacuees have also been given the OK to return home.
This week's wildfires offer a cruel spectacle — the hellish flames at night and the great billowing clouds of smoke during the day, the pall that obscures the sun and the acrid residue that stretches for hundreds of miles.
Cruel, too, is the agonizing choices of what to take and what to leave that evacuees forced to depart their homes in a hurry must make. Those caught up in the Station fire — at least those interviewed in the newspapers and on TV — seem admirably resilient and even stoic about the fiery natural disaster.
One woman knew her home was gone when TV showed the charred remains of a house and there in the ashes was her favorite dishware.
"It's just stuff," she told a reporter.
Thankfully, the technology of fighting wildfires has improved — bulldozers, backfires, airdropped flame retardants, sophisticated forecasting — but the job of containing them still comes down to the physical labor of the brave firefighters themselves.
Once the fires are out, there will be renewed efforts at preventing the next one — houses that are more fire-resistant, brush-clearing, forest-thinning, new firebreaks — and debates about why we allow homes to be built so close to wilderness, fire-prone areas.
But the wildfires prove defiantly resistant to our attempts to prevent and extinguish them. As they incinerate the hillsides, it is almost as if they are saying, "We were here first."
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text:
The Dodgers' fourth straight victory, coupled with St. Louis' 10-inning loss to Washington, kept the Dodgers clinging to their postseason hopes with four games left.
After this weekend, Los Angeles finishes up with a three-game series against NL West champion San Francisco. The defending World Series champion Cardinals close out the regular season with a three-game set at home against West champion Cincinnati.


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June 29, 2007 - HBO Sports is presenting a thirty- minute special analyzing the upcoming HBO Pay-Per-View showdown between Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright. The highly anticipated bout is set for Saturday, July 21 in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. The fight is an intriguing match-up between two of the sports elite fighters, who will meet at 170 pounds..
The special "COUNTDOWN TO HOPKINS-WRIGHT, " which will feature fighter profiles, expert analysis and forecasts for the showdown in Las Vegas, will premiere on Saturday, July 14 immediately after the HBO World Championship Boxing tripleheader telecast that begins at 9:00 p.m. ET/ 6:00 p.m. PT.
Destined for the Hall of Fame, Hopkins brings a record of 47-4-1 32 KOs into the showdown with Wright, who sports a prolific mark of 51-3-1, 25 KOs in his polished career. Neither has ever back down from a challenge and have engineered some of the biggest surprises in the past five years.
The countdown special will also be available to HBO ON DEMAND subscribers 24 hours a day from July 16 thru July 30.
Additional HBO replay dates:
Sunday, July 15 at 9:30am & 12:55am
Monday, July 16 at 3:30pm
Tuesday, July 17 at 12:00 midnight
Wednesday, July 18 at 1:45pm & 8:30pm
Thursday, July 19 at 8:30am & 5:30pm
Friday, July 20 at 9:30am & 7:30pm
Additional HBO2 replay dates:
Sunday, July 15 at 5:30pm
Tuesday, July 17 at 9:30am
Thursday, July 19 at 11:55pm
Friday, July 20 at 11:00pm
Saturday, July 21 at 5:30pm
Additional HBO ZONE replay date:
Tuesday, July 17 at 8:30 pm
All times are ET/PT.
previous article: Roach And Birmingham Confirm Hopkins And Wright Coming To Fight
next article: Ricky Hatton Offers Floyd Mayweather $10 million
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text:
How do I perform case insensitive string comparison in JavaScript?
The simplest way to do it (if you're not worried about special Unicode characters) is to call
The best way to do a case insensitive comparison in JavaScript is to use RegExp match() method with the 'i' flag.
When both strings being compared are variables (not constants), then it's a little more complicated 'cause you need to generate a RegExp from the string but passing the string to RegExp constructor can result in incorrect matches or failed matches if the string has special regex characters in it.
If you care about internationalization don't use toLowerCase() or toUpperCase() as it doesn't provide accurate case-insensitive comparisons in all languages.
Remember that casing is a locale specific operation. Depending on scenario you may want to take that in to account. For example, if you are comparing names of two people you may want to consider locale but if you are comparing machine generated values such as UUID then you might not. This why I use following function in my utils library (note that type checking is not included for performance reason).
if you are concerned about the direction of the inequality (perhaps you want to sort a list) you pretty-much have to do case-conversion, and as there are more lowercase characters in unicode than uppercase toLowerCase is probably the best conversion to use.
Javascript seems to use locale "C" for string comparisons so the resulting ordering will be ugly if the strings contain other than ASCII letters. there's not much that can be done about that without doing much more detailed inspection of the strings.
With the help of regular expression also we can achieve
/i is for ignore case. If not necessary we can ignore and test for NOT case sensitive match like
I wrote a extension. very trivial


text:
Pronunciation: Dál Riata
Added on: 2010-01-17 Listened: 772 timesin: Historical region, scottish connection
Pronunciation in Irish [ga]
- Pronunciation by BridEilis (Female from Ireland)
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Could you do it better? different accent? Pronounce Dál Riata in Irish
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Dál Riata is pending pronunciation in:
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- Random word: Síomha
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text: Hi, I'm planning big change in auditd now. But I'd like to hear comments from people on this list before getting on it. It is long and my English is bad but I try. I have own project which is very similar to auditd and after talking with Steve Grubb I have started porting some part of my stuff into auditd. First goal was plugin support and it's pretty much done. I needed it because I wanted to attach plugins for particular use such as writing audit messages to network(D-BUS or XMLRPC) without changing auditd itself. With plugin, changing output can be done just specifying output plugin in config file. This is pretty much done now. The auditd has interface to register separate methods for auditing. For example if I want to use current auditd format but want to send out messages to network, not log out to file for purpose, what I need to do is just specify plugin for each API's(receiver, interpreter and consumer) . I'm working on D-BUS plugin now. Please check it out at: http://download.linuon.com/audit/ Now I'm planning to port my other stuff(mostly networking stuff) as plugin of auditd. It is a complement to syslog and does more stuff. What I really want to do with it is to capture all kernel events and filter them with plugins and send some critical event messages to remote server to ask what action needs to be done for the event. It can be done either server just sends back command number of the action or connects back to the host with D-BUS or XMLRPC to call the action. With this idea, host management will be completely automatic. It is good for handling network attacks though I have to tweak kernel netfilter a bit, the host can block itself without operator, without lag. (BTW, let me know if any problems with this idea) Now I wonder if I should go with auditd or start new branch for yet another auditd because people would not want it in main tree. I think putting above things into auditd makes sense. It won't hurt current design since all current code had been moved into plugin, it is matter of which plugins user wants to enable/disable but not sure if people want this in main tree so. Please email me if any comments, suggestions and problems. Thank you, -- Junji Kanemaru Linuon Inc. Tokyo Japan


text:
Around 2008, our then marketing director (Alison) asked me to design a mid century modern collection. My initial reaction was "yuck. Why?"
Not exactly the creative response one might expect. After doing a lot of homework, I developed a concept of what this would be and how it should look. I got more and more excited about the design, and the complexities of making something appear so simple. However, the reality is that you do not make an entire "collection" overnight. What do you start with, and what comes next?
We were trying to come out of being pigeon holed as "those Arts and Crafts guys". While I will say we do Arts and Crafts very well, we are also able to work in several other periods. This was really the catalyst for developing the collection that became known as The Linnaea Collection.
I started with the living room, specifically the sofa and chair. I knew the coffee and end tables would fall into place. Getting a sofa to both look good and feel good to the masses is pretty challenging, and everything else would be driven by its design.
I had compiled a group of individuals within the organization we called "the design team". Before this, designs had always emerged from customer requests or wild hairs. We had not fully developed a collection in this manner. The design team consisted of me, my marketing director, her assistant, a craftsman from the shop, and a new designer fresh out of college.
While not every design is catalyzed by an elite design team, every one of our designs has a story behind its evolution. In a couple of weeks a new design emerges created by a new "dream team"…stay tuned.


text:
Global Security Newswire
Daily News on Nuclear, Biological & Chemical Weapons, Terrorism and Related Issues
Nuke Ring Work of Government, Not Khan, Musharraf Says
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf asserted the onetime large-scale nuclear proliferation ring operated out of his country was created by the Pakistani government and not former nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Washington Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Sept. 29).
"This massive network was not of A.Q. Khan's," Musharraf told the Times. "The massive network was of the Pakistan government and our intelligence, not of A.Q. Khan's network."
Khan was confined to his home for five years after he admitted in 2004 to selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. The scientist, who was freed last year, said in the past he had operated the proliferation ring with support from the Pakistani government. Islamabad has barred foreign governments and the media from interviewing him (see GSN, March 23).
Musharraf, who is thought to be preparing to run for president in 2013, said he had no firsthand knowledge that Khan was selling Pakistani nuclear secrets abroad. He did admit, however that "he may be having his own network for proliferation or whatever he was doing, but the network of the acquisition of our strategic capability was (owned by) the government of Pakistan."
Musharraf stepped down from the presidency in 2008, a year after he resigned as head of the South Asian state's military.
"I find it hard to believe, and have always found it hard to believe, that the Pakistani military did not know what nuclear deals were being done by Khan on behalf of the country," Washington-based analyst Simon Henderson said.
Musharraf stood by his earlier decision to block U.S. access to Khan, whom he described as "a bit of a braggart" for exaggerating his role in building the country's initial nuclear weapon.
"We have interrogated him and we have given the United States the information," Musharraf said in the interview. "You are implying either we are incapable of interrogating him, which is wrong and insulting, or secondly this means that we are bluffing, which is also unacceptable and an insult to the Pakistani people."
Pakistan's response to the Khan proliferation ring continues to be a thorn in Washington-Islamabad ties.
Musharraf also asserted the United States did not have any access to his country's strategic stockpile (Eli Lake, Washington Times, Nov. 14).
Note to our Readers
GSN ceased publication on July 31, 2014. Its articles and daily issues will remain archived and available on NTI's website.
NTI Analysis
Keynote Address at the Arms Control Association's Annual Meeting
Oct. 23, 2014
NTI Vice Chairman Des Browne delivered the keynote address at the Washington-based Arms Control Association's annual meeting, covering a range of nuclear policy issues.


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Video released of cop striking teen following acquittal of charges
A controversial video that shows a St. Louis police officer striking a teenage suspect has been released publicly, following the former officer's acquittal on a misdemeanor assault charge last week.
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text: No recent wiki edits to this page. Origin As a child Evey grew up on Shooters Hill in south-east London, her mother died following a nuclear war in the early 1980s, and her father was arrested and executed by the Norsefire, the fascist dictatorship that seized power during the war's aftermath, because of his socialist political leanings. Sent to live in a youth hostel, she is forced to work packing matches into boxes for shipment, and later worked at a munitions factory. V V She would later meet the freedom fighter V who saved her from being raped by "Fingermen" while working as a prostitue. After letting her watch him destroy the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben V soon allows her to live in his home/headquarters called the Shadow Gallery. Evey trusts V and confinds in him the stroy of her parents and wants to repay his kindness by helping him in his vendetta. V has her dress up as a young girl and sends her to distract Anthony James Lilliman, a paedophile bishop whom he has targeted for his vendetta. Evey is guilt stricken over her help in the bishop's murder, and realizes that V is far more sinister and violent than she once thought. Evey is abandoned by V and is left on the streets when she meets a man named Gordon Deitrich. He is a criminal and the two soon become lovers, but he was killed by a Scottish gangster named Alistair Harper. She attempts to take revenge, but is arrested by the Police due to the fact that Harper was going to see his partner Commander Peter Creedy of the Finger. She is arrested and tortued due to her connection to V. However Evey finds a letter written by a inmate of the cell next to her's named Valerie Page and the letter is the story of Valerie's life, from her first love to her film career to her imprisonment for being a lesbian. This letter inspires her to stan her tortued and not reveal any information on V. Evey is surprisingly set free and finds that it was all and illusion created by V to strengthen Evey. She tells him that the stroy was real and that it was given to him by Valerie when he was imprisoned in Larkhill After V gaisn his revenge V is mortally wounded when he allows Detective Eric Finch, the head of London's police force, to shoot him numerous times. V dies in Evey's arms and she continues his work by giving him a Viking Funeral and blowing up 10 Downing Street. She dons his Guy Fawkes mask and saves Sergeant Dominic Stone from an angry mob and brings him to the Shadow Gallery to train him as her pupil as she is the new V. Film Evey is portrayed by Natalie Portman in the 2006 film adaptation. Evey is not a would-be prostitute, but she is still caught by a fingerman during the city curfew. She is older, more independent and free-thinking than in the graphic novel. In the film, she has an older brother who is killed by a virus that was secretly developed by the government and first tested on V's fellow inmates at Larkhill. Her parents become political activists and participate in anti-government protests. The Hammonds are arrested by the Fingermen and die in Belmarsh prison, Evey's mother starves to death during a hunger strike, while her father is shot by British soldiers during an assault on the prison. Evey's last memory of her mother is of watching her head being covered by a black bag as she is dragged away. Suddenly orphaned, Evey is sent to a child reclamation camp and is working for the British Television Network when the film begins. Evey does form a relationship with Deitrich who is a popular talk show host and acquaintance of hers at the network, aren't lovers, because inthe film he is homosexual. In the graphic novel, V abandons Evey after he kills Lilliman; in this version, she runs away from him. Evey is abducted by V when Party Leader Peter Creedy raids Deitrich's home and captures him; V gets to her before Creedy does. The ensuing sequences involving the torture Evey undergoes and the inspiration she finds in Valerie's letters, are taken from the graphic novel. She doesn't become V after his death, but she does grant him his final wish and give him a Viking funeral in a train car filled with explosives. Like the graphic novel, London's chief of police, Inspector Eric Finch, discovers her. However, unlike the graphic novel, Peter Creedy and his have already mortally wounded V, and he is dead by the time Finch finds them. Finch's hatred for the government overpowers him and he lets her pull the lever triggering the explosives. Evey and Finch then watch as Parliament is destroyed by V's funeral car, ending Norsefire's oppressive reign over England.


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OSRAM SYLVANIA Files Suit to Enforce Induction Lighting Patent
DANVERS, Mass., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ — North American lighting manufacturer OSRAM SYLVANIA announced today it has commenced a lawsuit in federal court against American Induction Technologies, Inc. of Anaheim, Calif. for selling and offering to sell electrodeless induction lamps that are alleged to infringe OSRAM SYLVANIA's U.S. Patent No. 5,834,905. The action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. OSRAM SYLVANIA is represented in the case by the Cantor Colburn law firm.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091201/NE19218 )
"This is the second lawsuit we've filed in North America this year to enforce our intellectual property rights to the ICETRON induction lighting system," said Peter Lawler, head of the OSRAM SYLVANIA Low Pressure Discharge business unit. "We are committed to educating the marketplace about our rights and taking action against those who violate them."
The ICETRON inductively coupled electrodeless lighting system was developed by OSRAM SYLVANIA and is the subject of several patents in the United States and other countries throughout the world. Manufactured by OSRAM SYLVANIA, the ICETRON lighting system is sold by OSRAM SYLVANIA and its affiliate, OSRAM.
About OSRAM SYLVANIA
OSRAM SYLVANIA is a leader in lighting solutions that feature innovative design and energy saving technology. The company sells products for homes, businesses and vehicles primarily under the SYLVANIA brand name, and also under the OSRAM brand. Headquartered in Danvers, Mass., OSRAM SYLVANIA is the North American operation of OSRAM GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG. For more information, visit www.sylvania.com.


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Action Follow
Bill Capo / Eyewitness News
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com | Twitter: @billcapo
When I arrived for a second look at the 900 block of Philip Street three months after the initial Action Report, it was shocking to see the condition of the street. A large hump took up the middle of the driving lane, the top scraped bare, and surrounded by deep ruts.
'It's unbelievable,' Michael Pelias said. 'Now we have a pothole within a pothole.'
When we first visited in March, you could see the road was not in such bad shape then. But I did contact city leaders about repairing it. So did the neighbors, but nothing happened
'I've been in touch with the city,' Pelias said. 'I got bounced around (to) different agencies.'
'I can't believe the city has not repaired or done anything to this,' David Weick said. 'Somebody else is going to have a bad accident. It's going to be worse than what I had.'
Weick emailed me after his car hit the hump in March, which scraped a hole in his oil pan, an expensive repair job.
'It's a lot of money,' he said. 'A lot of money. $700 is a lot of money.'\
I helped David seek reimbursement from the city.
'They did make me go through a long process - three estimates, I had to get it notarized, etc,' Weick said. 'I followed through with everything. You even told me it would take 90 days, and it did. It took exactly 90 days. I did get reimbursed, partially, but not the full amount, but at least I came out on top.'
But what about the road?
So I had to get back in touch with the Mayor's office. I asked them why it has taken so long. It needs to be done ASAP.
They did. They came out with a work crew, they spread new asphalt, filled in the dips and smoothed out the lump.
And now thanks to the city, it's a much smoother ride down Philip Street.


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August 16, 2011
As seen from Discovery's cabin, STS-114 Remote Manipulator System (RMS) robot arm flexes above Earth. Crews of Space Station and Discovery will later use RMS and boom to study Shuttle's tiles.
Topics: Environment, Spaceflight, Space Shuttle program, Space exploration, Space station, STS-60, Orbiter Boom Sensor System, Robotic arm, STS-114, STS-41-B, Canadarm, Edwards Air Force Base, Space, Disaster Accident


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In Man of Steel, is Superman supposed to be the only superhero that exists or is WB allowing a universe where the Justice League could exist?
Superman Reboot (Man of Steel)
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No one can confirm this.
Last I heard Christopher Nolans wanted this to be stand alone. But reports are saying that WB wants Christopher Nolans to produce Justice League. So he might set the two universe together having MOS leading into Justice League then having individual characters spin off from the Justice League movie.
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@toptom said:
i don't think there will be any JLA movie at all
A JLA movie if made well could be way more awesome than Avengers.
I still prefer a dc trinity movie
@HolySerpent said:
I still prefer a dc trinity movie
As good and practical as that sounds it's kinda a childhood fantasy of mine to see Martian Manhunter, Flash and Aquaman in a well made JLA movie.
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@ssejllenrad said:
@toptom said:
i don't think there will be any JLA movie at all
Your point?
Besides I really prefer to keep the DC characters separate for now...
if they are going to do a jla movie they have to do like marvel: a film for every character of the team in order to introduce them to the public...and i mean GOOD films,not like the green lantern one. if man of steel will be a succes (as i really hope) dc will probably have to make a flash film and a cyborg film too...so maybe we will have a jla movie,but it has a long way to come.
-_- They won't make a flash or a cyborg movie
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@HolySerpent: Probably not a Cyborg movie, but I think that Flash has enough of a fanbase to warrant his own film.
@KainScion said:
@Sundipped_Superman: why would a movie that doesnt even exist in writing let alone in cast (bale wont be batman) could be more awesome than a movie that exists and is awesome?
I don't know, it's wishful thinking i guess. Being a DC fan and all i'd appreciate a JLA movie more.
Highly unlikely to see flash on the big screen when wonder woman cant even get her own movie.
A JL movie would be cool but my main concern if they did do one would be Christen Bale as Batman cause even though he is good at it i just dount think The Bale_Batman would be good for that movie due to the gravel grawl that he does in all three movies.
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A JLA movies needs Superman and Batman...That's fundamental...hell just having batman and Superman together in the big screen is gonna make a billion dollars.
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I would have to see Dark Knight Rises first, but I would think that there would need to be a Batman, Superman and maybe and a Green Lantern movie to help set it up. I think the success of the Avengers has pushed WB to consider a JL movie, but like Marvel did, they need to build up to it. Maybe not the same way as Marvel did, but as of now, I think the current DC movies all act as stand alone movies and are not connected. Because it's not the comic fans that they need to set up for, it's everyone else. People will want to try and connect Christopher Nolan's films to it and when it doesn't add up could cause problems. Marvel did an excellent job connecting all the dots with their movies that they seems to just flow together in the Avengers.
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@Primmaster64 said:
A JLA movies needs Superman and Batman...That's fundamental...hell just having batman and Superman together in the big screen is gonna make a billion dollars.
Why don't they just make a Batman/Superman movie and then make the Justice League?First batman and superman then all the other members will get spin-off films.
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A Willard man pleaded guilty Monday to three felonies covering local vehicle and building break-ins.
Kyle S. Weiner, 23, of 410 E. Walton St., will be sentenced Jan. 22 for two charges of burglary and one count of theft of a credit card. In a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining six charges of his indictment -- two counts of burglary and four charges of breaking and entering.
Police from Greenwich, New London and Plymouth assisted the Huron County Sheriff's Office in the investigation that led to the arrests of Weiner and his two suspected co-defendants, William R. Barnett Jr., 21, of Shelby, and Alexander M. Hopkins, 21, of 133 1/2 McKim St., Bellevue. The victims of 300 vehicle and 150 building break-ins live in Celeryville, Greenwich, New London and Plymouth.
A story about this case was published in Tuesday's Reflector.


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text:
UW-RF Home > University Communications Home > This Month's News Releases
University Communications
For more information contact firstname.lastname@example.com or email@example.com.
UWRF to Participate in Pilot Sustainability Rating System
FEB. 1, 2008--The University of Wisconsin-River Falls is among more than 90 college and university campuses selected to participate in the pilot phase of a rating system for sustainability in higher education developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
The self-assessment system, called STARS (Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System), will launch on Feb. 4. Participating college and university campuses will test the system over the course of 2008, and provide feedback to AASHE that will inform STARS version 1.0, planned for release in spring 2009.
UWRF faculty and staff who will spearhead the STARS pilot program at UWRF say they excited to be a part of the process. "It will give our campus an opportunity to directly shape how efforts toward campus sustainability are guided and assessed nationwide," says Kelly Cain, director of the UWRF St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development. "Participation will provide a meaningful framework for benchmarking and tracking our own sustainable community development goals, especially since we have the current energy goal of being one of four Wisconsin schools that are 'off the grid' by 2012, as announced by Gov Doyle in 2007."
The 90-plus participating campuses were selected to represent a wide range of institutional types, sizes and geography. They include public and private schools, community colleges and research universities.
STARS organizers say the program is designed to help gauge the progress of colleges and universities toward sustainability in all sectors, from governance and operations to academics and community engagement. The program allows for meaningful comparisons across institutions as well as benchmarking within institutions and will create incentives for continuous improvement toward sustainability, facilitate information sharing about sustainability practices and performance in higher education, and build a stronger, more diverse campus sustainability community.
Given the rapid growth of sustainability initiatives at institutions of higher education in North America, measuring and assessing progress toward sustainability goals has become increasingly important. While many institutions have undertaken sustainability assessments and while a variety of assessment tools are available, there is currently no system that translates disparate sustainability indicators into a single metric that enables both institutional benchmarking and easy comparison across a large number of campuses in terms of overall level of achievement.
"The launch of the pilot phase is a major milestone in the development of STARS," said Judy Walton, AASHE's acting executive director. "It has taken nearly two years of hard work and the contributions of hundreds of individuals from every sector of the higher education community to bring us to this point."
The system is similar to the LEED (Leadership in Energy Environmental Design) green building rating system. STARS, however, is applied to an entire campus rather than a single building or set of buildings and evaluates social responsibility as well as environmental stewardship.
Campuses may earn credits in three categories: 1) curriculum and research, 2) operations, and 3) administration and finance. Within each category are subsections of credits, ranging from "purchasing" and "buildings" in operations to "investment" and "planning" in administration and finance.
For a list of participating institutions see: http://www.aashe.org/stars/pilot_institutions.php . For other information about STARS, including a copy of the Pilot Phase One Guide, see: www.aashe.org/stars .
Last updated:
Thursday, 22-Apr-2010 16:08:47 Central Daylight Time
University of Wisconsin - River Falls


text:
The Reformation Study Bible (2015) notes are now available on Bible Gateway! Click to learn more.
4:1 Paul praises the Thessalonians for their progress in learning how to please God, but challenges them to excel further. Paul recognized the constant need for growth and for "straining forward" (Phil. 3:13). Spiritual complacency contradicts a believer's confession.


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Rating 1/10
Cabin Flown
Value for Money
Seat Comfort
Staff Service
Overall a very good product in First Class. Ground service at other airports is not on the same level as Frankfurt or Munich
but that's to be expected. Food quality is good but could still be improved. One point I would like to critique is that the
drinks menu promises a choice of champagne but usually there is only one of the choices on board. While I was never
dissatisfied with the champagne that was offered it annoys me to be offered a choice only to hear that there really is no
choice. Another points I would like to make is about the inflight entertainment system. First off I have to say that it has
improved tremendously on the content side. Sadly there is still no improvement on the user input side which is very
unresponsive and on the design of the "Lufthansa Media World" is still confusing and overly complex. Service from the flight
attendants was very good but felt a bit scripted and unenthusiastic. The seat is excellent for lounging as well as sleeping
and has plenty of adjustment options. A nice extra for the seat would be a massage function like you get on Swiss First and
many other competitors.
A330 FRA-IAD, business class. LH's business class product on this aircraft, is unacceptable. I never thought I'd say United
beats them in every respect - but on this flight, they did. Angle-flat, uncomfortable seat. Ridiculously clunky AVOD with
poor selection. Food - geez. Bite size piece of veal. No easily accessible headphone jack? Seat barely worked - had to
wiggle the switches back and forth many different ways to get the seat to recline. A failed experience in every respect. I
had a fully flexible C class fare booked on UAL, and to get home two hours earlier, switched to this flight. While it was
nice to see the family 2 hours earlier, I was astonished at how poor this product is. I hope (and am sure) that the 747-8
and other newer airplanes are better - this thing needs to be retired.
Rating 8/10
We have a good flight with Lufthansa. The staff was nice and entertainment good. We found some film in our native language.
The only remark, from my point of view is that on flight LH410 too many people ask the rice as hot food and when it will
arrive my turn it has finished (should happen), but the staff remember at the second time to serve me first.
Rating 7/10
Seat and display were not clean. The seat was very uncomfortable and even if I am only of average height, there was not even
enough space to cross or uncross my legs. I could not move around at all. Unfortunately, catching some sleep under these
conditions was not possible at all, which is really bad for an overnight flight from Boston to Munich. Also the restroom was
in really bad condition (thanks to fellow travelers, who obviously do not know the basic rules of etiquette) I liked the
touch screen of the inflight entertainment system, which responded really well and delivered really good picture quality, and
the staff was really friendly, as always.
Premium Economy
LH 422 and 425. Boston - Munich and Frankfurt - Boston. Improvement in staff: kind and welcoming. On the downside
the entertainment program did not offer a wide range of movies, selection is also difficult as it does not have a
flexible menu. Meals are repetitive for frequent flyers.
Brussels-Munich-Seoul. First flight excellent. Surprised to get a sandwich, coke and tea on such a short flight.
FA's very friendly. Munich to Seoul on the A340-600. Plane pretty old but well kept. Food was good: hot dinner and
hot breakfast. Some FA's very friendly, some pretty robotic. Poor entertainment system, but still good enough to
get me through the flight. Excellent value for money.
Rating 6/10
LH414, May 10 2014. The flight was ok, but here are some comments: Seat is not as comfortable as United Airlines.
I liked that the amenity kit was event specific (soccer world championship). Many seats were empty in business
class, but I had a neighbour. The entertainment system is better now but there is still room for improvement. Too
many old movies.
Rating 9/10
Just flew Munich - Sao Paulo, on a A340-600. Flight was packed. Very attentive and nice cabin crew: I did ask for
a sleeping mask, was told it is meant for business class passengers. But I got one delivered 3 minutes later: very
nice touch. Cabin crew, almost all young men, kept asking passengers if everything was fine. Food quality ok,
nothing special. Selection of movies on the IFE good but have seen better. The worst thing on this A346 was the
seat: way too narrow to have some good sleep on this 12.50 hrs trip. Overall, Lufthansa is still my number one
choice when flying throughout Europe, or to US/South America.
Rating 5/10
The flight was 3 legs: flight from Tampa, FL to Belgrade, Serbia. These flights were operated by United (Tampa to
Washington DC) and 2 flights on Lufthansa. Even though the system on both Lufthansa and United showed that I could
do an online check-in within 24 hours of the first flight and select seats - I was not able to do so. Systems are
just not connected even they market this as a Star Alliance. It is a shame that it is not possible to choose seats
online and that systems are not connected within the alliance.
VIE-FRA-HKG, Business Class on an A321 then top deck on the new 747-800 with new business class seats. All flights
on time. First leg acceptable, although no IFE/moving map, and food service was merely a tray of small, but tasty
canapes. On the flight to HKG, must say that the new business class seats are very narrow and not particularly
comfortable to sleep in. There's also no privacy screen between seats. Meals were acceptable although on both
occasions my first choice was not available, which I found strange being in the middle of a half-empty cabin.
Service is functional/automated, not very warm and cabin crew didn't appear happy to serve unlike
SIA/Emirate/others. The IFE monitors were not sharp, high resolution like onboard new Austrian business class. All
in all, would rate 6/10. Don't expect anything special, it's not 4* service. LH's strengths are VFM and
reliability, so you can count on getting from A-B on time and a reasonable price, if not in luxury.
Rating 2/10
On a direct flight, Munich to Los Angeles, I found myself in row 39 (economy class) of an aircraft with a
downstairs bathroom area. The bathroom configuration is a great innovation, but next to my seat loomed the very
imposing cover for the stairway to the bathroom. Mine was the inside seat of only two in that row because of the
stairway. My elbow bumped into the stairway wall, and my vision was totally blocked on that side. Claustrophobic
alley! A kind attendant was able to reseat me. Meals? The plane departed at noon and lunch was served at 1 pm.
Lufthansa has been touted for its meals, and I was looking forward to this part. The meal itself was good, from
my experience with airplane food. A few hours later an attendant passed out Toblerone chocolate bars. Several
hours after that, more chocolate bars. Mind you, this was a direct flight. It landed 12 hours after it departed.
The passengers had last eaten a meal 11 hours earlier! I think most people would need at least a sandwich or
light meal in that 11-hour period. There were no meals for purchase on board, no help in sight. I think Lufthansa
definitely needs to look carefully at their meal policy for such extended flights. If I ever travel on this
airline again, I'm bringing my own food!
Rating 10/10
LH419, May 7. Enjoyed the new First Class: Food, Service and Amenities were excellent, like the new seat more than
the "private cabin" approaches of some Arab or Asian airlines. Recent service upgrades are notable, upgraded
entertainment system in the new 747-8 includes Box sets of TV shows, which I like.
LH 457, LAX-FRA: The design of the new Lufthansa first class (Boeing 747-800) is very good and the service was
excellent. High quality standards!
A330-300 was clean, The staff was courteous, the AVOD monitor with its Camera and gave a
true picture of aircraft position and terrain. I like their Chanel 5 for Pop music.
Third return flight with LH First Class product. This time MUC-EWR on board A 340-600 and back on 747-400, EWR-
FRA. LH First Class is absolute perfection. From ground staff, through flight service to after touch down. It's a
completely different way of air travel. It's expensive of course but you know exactly what you're paying for.
Besides that it's even better when First Class is an upgrade.
We were scheduled to fly out of SFO on April 3rd, UA1169. Then to Addis Ababa on April 4th:
LH419. Unfortunately we were not notified of the pilots strike until Wednesday afternoon, April
2nd. We went to the SFO airport on April 2nd and were unable to obtain alternate flights that
day. After several hours, Lufthansa scheduled us to go through Seoul, Hong Kong and on to Addis.
However, in the arrangement, the last leg of our return flight on May 3rd had been deleted from
the Lufthansa reservation list. The flight out of Addis, LH 599 was 2 hours late leaving (no
explanation given) which meant we had to run through the terminal in Frankfurt to catch the flight
to Los Angeles. That flight left and arrived on time. Then we found we had no reservation from
LAX to FAT. It was not a good experience! I have flown Lufthansa for 40 years and will continue
to do so, however, this trip was not good for us.
DUS-EWR. Lufthansa has improved many things in the past, which was also more than
necessary, nothing to complain
on this flight, crew was also unusual friendly. The new business class seats are another big improvement. Not yet
top-class, but I was quite happy with everything.
May 5. Flight LH 430 from Frankfurt to Chicago. I was little bit disappointed because the TV did not work and the
foods I wanted were out. But other than that services were good.
LH410, 3rd May 2014. Good quality and price, unfortunately the temperature of the cabin was too low. Several
passengers required to increase the temperature to the crew, without satisfaction. Low rating for seat comfort is
related to this reason.
LH456 on May 4. This was a standard Trip on Lufthansa's Boeing 747-8i and the exit row window seats in economy are
almost perfect for a daytime intercontinental flight. The entertainment systems performance was a little sluggish
first, but recovered the longer I used it. Food was OK for Economy, service was as you expect from Lufthansa. As a
premium customer you get individually greeted here and they even offered to bring a round of premium drinks from
the Business class selection. The only pain point was, that one of the lavatories was broken, so the lines were
bothersome all the time. I wonder why such a Premium plane does not get fixed before heading from FRA to LAX.
Rating 4/10
26 April 2014, Verona-Monaco. LH 434, 26 April 2014, Monaco-Chicago. UA 8838, 26 April 2014, Chicago-Madison.
Superb Lufthansa service, than you land in the USA and there is a long line at Passport control and no way to have
an express service. I missed my connecting flight and what a surprise it was my fault and I had to pay for the
hotel, transport, food etc.
FRA-IAH on 4/14 diverted to DFW due to weather problems in Houston. Arrived DFW around 4 pm, was told only option
was to take their chartered buses which did not depart until around 10 pm and arrived IAH around 0230. I
understand the weather issue, but my issue is with the compulsory bus ride when there are multiple flights between
DFW and IAH. Why was another flight not an option?
We had two flights in business class from Malaga to Dusseldorf and then to Heathrow. The flights were what we
always have (and expect) with Lufthansa. Flights are on time, boarded efficiently, smiling staff, tasty food and a
nice sized chocolate treat. Some of the passengers are grumpy and impatient. The staff from Dusseldorf to
Heathrow, April 12, were some of the best we've encountered. A great sense of humor. No inflight entertainment,
but there isn't on any of the short flights we've seen in Europe.
I was travelling from FRA to ORD in economy class on board 747-8. Seat comfort was ok, Wi-Fi working well, most
importantly flight attendants were nice, they had good selection of beverages (incl. alcohol like whisky or
cognac), ordered special food was really good. So we had good and smooth trip. Satisfied.
Went First Class FRA-MIA on the A380, 21st April. Excellent service on all levels. Comfortable seats, low cabin
noise - very pleasant trip. Went Washington - FRA on 26th on the new 747-800. A not so pleasant flight. It took
two hours to get the inflight entertainment system to restart, but service was good otherwise and the same type of
seat in the A380. My preference although is the 747-400 with the first Class on the upper deck - much more space
and more quiet.
Several flights in April: Rome via Munich to Sao Paulo and back from Rio de Janeiro via Frankfurt to Nice. All
Lufthansa operated. Consistent quality on all flights: All on time (some ahead of schedule), very professional and
courteous employees on board. I don't understand why their cabin crews have a reputation of being cold and
robotic. Not true at all. Very service orientated. Seats improved on long haul flights. I liked the new inflight
touch screens, like an ipad - easy to use, large and better variety of movies. Food as always very good departing
from Germany and only average from Rio. But beverage service (also alcoholic) excellent, nice snacks like Milka
chocolate bars in the galleys throughout the flight. Airbus A340-600 much quieter and nicer to fly than even
refurbished 747-400 back from Rio. Munich airport simply great to transfer. Frankfurt new Z-area a great plus.
Baggage handling despite short connexion time good. Always arrived with us. A great way to fly, very recommended!
LH 454, FRA-SFO, 16 April 2014. LH 457, LAX-FRA, 30 April 2014. Inflight entertainment and movie variety improved.
Seat comfort is ok. No major difference to other airlines' economy. Staff service and friendliness is varying
between employees. No consistency in friendliness and service. Food and beverage services take very long until
guests are served. Breakfast is poor in terms of quantity, content and quality. Just one additional beverage
service after lunch/dinner. No sleeping masks provided.
Departure LH 431 on April 16th and arrived LH 430 on May 2nd from Chicago O'Hare. Lufthansa had a Boeing 747 for
this flight and it was great with individual TV's for movie watching. Air hostesses had great attitudes and
served with a smile. It was refreshing to see a good service throughout and made the long flight bearable. Only
suggestion I would make is to provide more and better choices for movies. This is especially critical for long
LH 419, from IAD to FRA, April 30th. Good Airline in terms of flight schedule and punctuality. Seats are not as
comfortable as could be, compared to other airlines, mainly on intercontinental flights. The recent changes in
miles accrual has turned out into a price increase, therefore the "value for money" index, decreases.
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text:
Branched alkylhydroxycycloalkyl methacrylate monomers, such as t-butylhydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate, are polymerized with hydrophilic monomers and crosslinking agents to produce compositions for shaped biomedical devices, including soft contact lenses. Such copolymers have high oxygen permeability and good mechanical properties.
1. The polymerization product of a mixture comprising: 35 to 90 part by weight of N-vinylpyrrolidone; 0.1 to 5 parts by weight of crosslinking agent; 0.01 to 5 parts by weight of catalyst; and 10 to 65 parts by weight of a strengthening agent represented by the general formula
R1 is O or NH;
R2 is a divalent alkylene radical chosen from the group consisting of --CH2 --, --CHOH-- and --CHR4 wherein R4 is a branched alkyl group with 3 to 8 carbon atoms, and
R3 is H or CH3 ;
and wherein at least one R2 radical is --CHOH-- and at least one R2 is --CHR4 and are separated by at least one --CH2 -- radical, and n is 4, 5, 6 or 7.
2. The polymerization product of claim 1 wherein said strengthening agent is 4-t-butyl, 2 hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate.
3. The polymerization product of claim 1 wherein said strengthening agent is 4-t-butylhydroxycyclohexyl methacrylamide.
This invention relates to polymeric compositions formed by reacting a hydrophilic monomer, a hydrophobic strengthening agent monomer, a crosslinking agent monomer and a polymerization iniatiator. The novel hydrophobic strengthening agent monomer provides increased strength without decreasing the oxygen permeability of the polymer material.
Soft contact lens materials are made by polymerizing and crosslinking hydrophilic monomers such as 2-hydroxyethylmethyacrylate, N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone, and combinations thereof. The polymers produced by polymerizing these hydrophilic monomers exhibit significant hydrophilic character themselves, and are capable of absorbing a significant amount of water in their polymeric matrices. Due to their ability to absorb water, these polymers are often referred to as "hydrogels". These hydrogels are optically clear and, due to their high levels of water of hydration, are particularly useful materials for making soft contact lenses. However, the high levels of water of hydration of hydrogels contributes to their relative lack of physical strength which results in hydrogel contact lenses being relatively easy to tear.
Various hydrophobic monomers have been copolymerized with these hydrophilic monomers in order to obtain polymers with improved physical strength. Such hydrophobic monomers include styrene, and various acrylates and methacrylates such as methylmethacrylate, isobornylmethacrylate, and t-butylcyclohexylmethacrylate.
For instance, Chromecek teaches that t-butylcyclohexylmethacrylate is a particularly useful monomer when copolymerized with 2-hydroxyethylmethylacrylate in U.S. Pat. No. 4,436,887. However, while these state of the art hydrophobic monomers do increase the physical strength of hydrogel polymers, they also produce polymers with lower levels of water of hydration than unmodified hydrogels. It is an object of the present invention to provide polymeric materials with increased physical strength and high levels of water of hydration.
According to the present invention it has been found that certain hydrophobic monomers act as strengthening agents when copolymerized with hydrophilic monomers such as 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate, N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone and the like. These hydrophobic strengthening agent monomers are represented by the general formula ##STR1## wherein: R3 is H or CH3 ;
R2 is an divalent alkylene radical chosen from the group consisting of --CH2 --, --CHOH--, and --CHR4 where R4 denotes a branched alkyl group with 3 to 8 carbon atoms and preferably with 4 to 6 carbon atoms; and
R1 denotes O or NH; the R2 radicals are chosen so that at least one --CHOH-- radical is present, at least one --CHR4 -- radical is present and is separated from the --CHOH radical by at least one --CH2 -- radical; and n is 4, 5, 6, or 7.
Copolymers of the present invention's hydrophobic monomers with hydrophilic monomers used in the production of hydrogel materials exhibit substantial hydrophilic character, and substantially greater mechanical strength than state of the art hydrogel materials.
The present invention relates to hydrophobic monomers which can be copolymerized with hydrophilic monomers used in making soft contact lenses in order to provide polymeric materials with improved strength. These materials may also contain crosslinking agents and polymerization initiators. Thus, the present invention also relates to the product of polymerizing hydrophilic monomers with hydrophobic monomer strengthening agents and, optimally, crosslinking agents and polymerization initiators.
By weight the hydrophilic monomers comprise from 35 to 90 weight percent of a mixture useful in forming soft contact lenses. The novel hydrophobic strengthening agents comprise from 10 to 65 weight percent, the crosslinking agent comprises from 0 to 5 weight percent and the polymerization initiator comprises from 0 to 5 weight percent of the mixture to be polymerized.
The novel hydrophobic strengthening agent monomers of the present invention useful in soft contact lens compositions are represented bY the general formula ##STR2## wherein: R1 is O or NH;
R2 is chosen from the group of radicals consisting of --CH2 --, --CHOH--, and --CHR4 -- where R4 denotes a branched alkyl radical with 3 to 8 carbon atoms and preferably 4 to 6 carbon atoms;
R3 is H or CH3 ; and
n is 4, 5, 6 or 7.
At least one R2 radical is --CHOH-- and at least one R2 radical is --CHR-- and these two radicals are separated by at least one --CH2 -- radical.
These branched alkyl hydroxy cycloalkyl acrylates, or the corresponding methacrylates, acrylamides and methacrylamides are effective strengthening agents in soft contact lens polymeric compositions. The resulting polymers are optically clear and possess a combination of high levels of water of hydration and good mechanical properties.
Non-limiting examples of the hydrophobic strengthening agent monomers of the present invention include: ##STR3## (4-t-butyl, 2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate (TBE)); ##STR4## (4-t-butyl, 2-hydroxycyclopentyl methacrylate); ##STR5## (methacryloylamino-4-t-butyl-2-hydroxycyclohexane); ##STR6## (6-isopentyl,3-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate); ##STR7## (methacryloylamino, 2-isohexyl, 5-hydroxy cyclopentane);
The hydrophilic monomers useful in the present invention are those known in the art to be useful in making soft contact lenses. The following are non-limiting examples of hydrophilic monomers useful in contact lens formulations of this invention: ##STR8## (2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA)); ##STR9## (N-(2-hydroxy ethyl)-methacrylamide); ##STR10## (N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (NVP)); ##STR11## (glyceryl methacrylate (GM)); ##STR12## (N-methacryloyl glycine (MG)); ##STR13## (2-hydroxyl-3-methacryl(propyl)-4 meloxy phenylether); ##STR14## (2-hydroxy cyclohexylmethacrylate).
The crosslinking agents which are useful in the present invention are those crosslinkers known in the art to be useful in making soft contact lenses. The following are non-limiting examples of crosslinking agents useful in contact lens formulations of this invention: ##STR15## (allyl methacrylate); ##STR16## (ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA)); ##STR17## (divinyl ethylene urea (DVEU)); and ##STR18## (1,3-bis (4 methacryloxybutyl) tetramethyl disiloxane).
Various mixtures of hydrophilic monomers, hydrophobic strengthening agent monomers, and optionally crosslinking agents can be used to produce polymeric materials useful in contact lenses. The following table provides several examples of such useful mixtures. The table does not exhaust the list of examples which are within the scope of the invention.
TABLE I__________________________________________________________________________Hydrophilic Strengthening CrosslinkingMonomer(s) Agent Monomer(s) Monomer(s)__________________________________________________________________________hydroxyethylmethacrylate 4-t-butyl-2 ethyleneglycol(HEMA) hydroxy- dimethacrylate cyclohexyl- (EGDMA) methacrylate (TBE)HEMA 4-t-butyl-2- EGDMA hydroxy- cyclohexyl- methacrylamide (TBA)HEMA octafluoropentyl EGDMA methacrylate (OFPMA)/TBEHEMA/N-methacryloyl glycine TBA EGDMAN-vinyl 2-pyrrolidone TBE DVEU(NVP)NVP TBE DVEU/EGDMANVP TBE Allyl methacrylateGlyceryl methacrylate TBE EGDMA(GM)HEMA/GM TBE EGDMANVP OFPMA/TBE DVEU__________________________________________________________________________
The most preferred contact lenses of the instant invention have an oxygen transport rate of at least about 2�10-6 cm3 /(sec. cm2 atm.), are hydrolytically stable, biologically inert, transparent, resilient, and have a softness preferably of about 60 or below on the Shore hardness A scale when hydrated. The more preferred materials have a Shore hardness between 25 to 35 on the A scale. The tensile modulus of elasticity of these hydrated polymers is at least about 50 g/mm2, preferably from about 75 g/mm2 to about 100 g/mm2 and the tear strength is at least about 2.0 g/mm thickness, preferably from about 2.0 g/mm to about 250 g/mm thickness. High tensile modulus of elasticity is desirable for strength and durability. High tear strength is desirable in order to prevent damage to the contact lens (1) due to tearing during patient use, i.e., the removing and the placing of the lens in the eye, and (2) to prevent damage to the lens during cleansing and disinfecting.
Soft contact lenses, made from the polymers of the instant invention, can be made large enough to cover the entire cornea of the eye, resulting in more comfort because of their good oxygen permeability. Conventional hard contact lenses have to be made smaller due to their poor oxygen transportability. Furthermore, the larger the lenses, the easier it is to locate the optical center of the lenses. The larger the lens the easier it is to maintain the optical axis which is required in making special lenses for people with astigmatism. Another advantage of the preferred soft lenses of the instant invention is the instant preferred soft lenses have a softness similar to HEMA lenses but are more oxygen permeable. HEMA lenses are not oxygen permeable or capable of transporting oxygen to a degree necessary to meet all the requirements of the human cornea, especially for extended wear applications.
While the polymers of the instant invention can be used to prepare contact lenses, these polymers can also be used to make other shaped articles for use in biomedical applications. These polymers can be used to make biomedical devices such as dialyzer diaphragms used in artificial kidneys and other biomedical implants, such as disclosed in Wichterle, U.S. Pat. No. 2,976,576 and Wichterle U.S. Pat. No. 3,220,960. The instant polymers can be used in preparing therapeutic bandages as disclosed in Shephard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,043. The instant polymers can also be used in preparing such medical surgical devices as heart valves, vessel substitutes, intrauterine devices, membranes, films, dialyzer diaphragms, catheters, mouth guards, denture liners and other such devices as disclosed in Shephard U.S. Pat. No. 3,520,949 and Shephard U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,231. The instant polymers can be used to modify collagen to make blood vessels, urinary bladders and other such devices as disclosed in Kliment U.S. Pat. No. 3,563,925. The instant polymers can be used to make catheters as disclosed in Shephard U.S. Pat. No. 3,566,874. The polymers can be used in semipermeable sheets for dialysis, artificial dentures and all of such disclosures as set forth in Stoy U.S. Pat. No. 3,607,848. The instant polymers can be used in ophthalmic prostheses and all other uses disclosed in Wichterle U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,504.
The shaped articles for use in biomedical applications made from the polymers of this invention have physiochemical properties rendering them suitable for prolonged contact with living tissue, blood or the mucous membrane such as surgical implants, blood dialysis devices, blood vessels, artificial ureters, artificial breast tissue and membranes intended to come in contact with body fluids outside of the body, for example, membranes for kidney dialysis and heart/lung machines, and the like. For example, it is known that blood is rapidly damaged in contact with artificial surfaces. The design of a synthetic surface which is antithrombogenic and nonhemolytic is necessary for prosthesis and devices which contact blood. The polymers of the present invention provide such surfaces.
The polymers disclosed herein can be boiled and/or autoclaved in water without being damaged, whereby sterilization may be achieved. Thus, an article formed from the instant polymers disclosed herein may be used in surgery where an article compatible with living tissue or with the mucous membrane is required.
The polymers disclosed herein can be used in shaped articles in hydrated states and can contain high amounts of water of hydration.
The utility of the compositions of this invention as soft contact lens formulations is illustrated in the following examples Examples 1, 3, 6, 7, 8 (in part), and 9 illustrate the use of 4-t-butyl-2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate (TBE), a preferred strengthening agent of this invention. Example 2 illustrates the use of 4-t-butyl-2-hydroxy cylohexyl methacrylamide, which is another preferred strengthening agent of this invention. For comparative purposes, examples 4, 5, 8 (in part) and 10 illustrate the use of t-butylcyclohexyl methacrylate, which is a state of the art strengthening agent outside the scope of this invention, and which differs from the strengthening agent of the invention only in the absence of a hydroxy group on the cycohexyl substituent of the monomer.
A mixture was made containing 77.0 g of glycerylmethacylate, 22.5 g of 4-t-butyl-2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate, and 0.5 g of ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate. To this mixture was added 0.5 g of benzoin methyl ether, an ultra violet induced polymerization initiator. The solution was cast between glass plates separated by a Teflon (DuPont registered trademark) perfluoro polymer gasket 0.3 mm thick and cured. After curing, the film was released from the glass plates and hydrated and extracted in hot distilled water for 4 hours.
Next the film was placed in a borate buffered saline solution for testing. The resultant material was optically clear and had a water content of 53% and an oxygen permeability of 18.0�10-11 cm3 cm/(sec. cm2 mmHg) The mechanical properties were measured according to the following test methods and gave the following results:
______________________________________PROPERTIES (RESULT) TEST METHOD______________________________________Young's modulus of elasticity (60 g/mm2) ASTM-D 1708Tensile strength (84 g/mm2) ASTM-D 1708% Elongation (164%) ASTM-D 1708Tear Initiation (3.8 g/mm) ASTM-D 1938______________________________________
A mixture of 83.5 parts by weight of 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate, 10 parts of 4-t-buty-2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylamide, 6 parts of n-methacryloylglycine, and 0.5 parts of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate was made. To this mixture was added 0.17 parts by weight of benzoin methyl ether, a U.V. initiator, and 10 parts by weight of ethylene glycol as a diluent. The mixture was placed between glass plates and cured as described in Example 1. The resultant polymer when hydrated had a water content of 65% and an oxygen permeability of 33�10-11 cm3 cm/(sec. cm2 mmHg) The mechanical properties measured were the following:
______________________________________PROPERTY MEASURED VALUE______________________________________Young's modulus of elasticity 44 g/mm2Tensile Strength 34 g/mm2% Elongation 139Tear Initiation 2.0 g/mm______________________________________
A mixture was prepared using 89.9 parts of n-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone, 10 parts of 4-t-butyl-2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate, 0.1 parts of divinyl ethylene urea and 1 part of 2,2-azobis(isobutyronitrile) and 0.1 part of 2-2 azobis(2,4-dimethyl-4-methoxyvaleronitrile). The solution was purged with nitrogen for 10 minutes and then poured into polypropylene tubes having a diameter of 18 mm and a length of 300 mm. The tubes were closed then immersed in a constant temperature bath and heated to 32� C. for 72 hours, then raised to 45� C. and held for 48 hours, and then raised to and held at 60� C. for 48 hours. The resultant rod was removed from the water bath and placed in an oven at 90� C. for 2 hours for post curing. Cylinders were cut from the rod and annealed by heating for 1 hour at 110� C. and cooled down very slowly. From these cylinders, flat discs or lenses were machined by conventional techniques. The lenses and discs were placed in hot distilled water for four hours to hydrate and extract solvents from them. Last, the lenses and discs were placed in isotonic saline for testing. The materials were optically clear, soft, tough and biologically compatible with eye tissue. Preliminary clinical testing of lenses was favorable. The discs have water contents of 83% and oxygen permeabilities of 59�10-11 cm3 cm/(sec cm2 mmHg). The mechanical properties of the materials measured were:
______________________________________PROPERTY MEASURED VALUE______________________________________Young's modulus of elasticity 60 g/mm2Tensile Strength 97 g/mm2% Elongation 223Tear Initiation 6.2 g/mm______________________________________
Mixtures of 40 parts of 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate, 60 parts of glyceryl methacrylate and X parts of 4-t-butylcyclohexyl methacrylate, 0.5 parts of ethylene glycoldimethacrylate and 0.5 parts of benzoin methyl ether, where X was 5, 7, and 10 parts, were made. Films were cast by placing the mixtures between glass plates as described in Example 1. After hydration, the films were not optically clear.
Example 4 was repeated except 4-t-butyl-2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate was used in place of t-butylcyclohexyl methacrylate. The resultant films were transparent and tough. Up to 30 parts of the 4-t-butyl-2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate was added to the mixture and the resultant films were optically clear. This demonstrates the solubilizing aspect of this strengthening monomer and shows that it can be used in higher concentrations than state of the art strengthening or strengthening agents.
Films were made by the methods of Example 1 using the following compositions:
(A) 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) 83.4 parts, n-methacryloylglycine (MG) 6 parts, ethyleneglycoldimethacrylate (EGDMA) 0.6 parts, t-butylcyclohexyl-methacrylate (t-BCM) 10.0 parts, and benzoin methyl ether (BME) 0.17 parts by total weight;
(B) HEMA 83.5 parts, MG 6.0 parts, 10 parts t-butylhydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate (TBE) and 0.5 parts EGDMA. To this mixture was added 0.17 parts by weight BME and 15 parts ethylene glycol as a diluent;
(C) HEMA 73.5 parts, MG 6 parts, 20 parts TBE and 0.5 parts EGDMA. To this mixture was added 0.17 parts by weight of BME and 15 parts of ethylene glycol as a diluent; and
(D) HEMA 63.5 parts, MG 6.0 parts, TBE 30 parts and 0.5 parts EGDMA. To this mixture was added 0.17 parts BME and 15 parts ethylene glycol.
The physical properties of the cast films were measured and are reported in Table 2.
TABLE 2______________________________________ FORMULATIONPROPERTY A B C D______________________________________Young's modulus of 142 44 97 5,860elasticity g/m2Tensile strength g/m2 65 40 49 293% Elongation 75 166 113 95Tear Initiation g/mm 51 25 78 66% Water 56 65 58 49Oxygen Permeability DK 16.2 34 27 16.2______________________________________
The results show substantially more TBE can be added without affecting the oxygen permeability of the resulting polymer. The upper solubility limit for t-BCM was found to be about 15 parts before films were not optically clear on hydration. Although more TBE is required to obtain the same toughness as obtained by the strengthening agents of the present invention, this does not impact the oxygen permeability.
A mixture was made using 84.7 parts of n-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone, 15 parts of TBE and 0.3 parts of EGDMA. To this mixture was added 0.5 parts of 2,2-azobis (isobutyronitrile). The mixture was cast between glass plates as described in Example 1. The samples were cured in an oven for 2 hours at 60� C., 1 hour at 80� C. and 1 hour at 100� C.. The film was released and boiled in distilled water for 4 hours, then put in a saline solution and tested. The properties of the film are reported below:
______________________________________PROPERTY MEASURED VALUE______________________________________Tangent modulus of elasticity 1100 g/mm2Tensile strength 220 g/mm2% Elongation 88Initial Tear 19.9 g/mm% Water 73.8Oxygen Permeability 40______________________________________
Example 7 was repeated except cyclohexl methacrylate and t-butyl-cyclohexyl methacrylate were used to replace the TBE. The film was clear on casting, but immediately turned cloudy on hydration. That is, the material was not optically clear. This supports the conclusion that the novel monomer acts to toughen the material and to solubilize the components in the polymer.
Examples 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 show that polymer compositions employing the strengthening agents of this invention are optically clear, possess high water contents, good oxygen permeability levels and good mechanical properties. The best results of this invention were obtained in Example 3, wherein the hydrophilic agent is N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone. The formulation of Example 3 provides a remarkably high water level and oxygen permeability while retaining unusually good mechanical properties. Based upon this data, the polymeric hydrogels of this invention can have water of hydration contents of 60, 70 or 80 weight percent, or more
Polymeric soft contact lens hydrogels of the prior art can achieve moderately elevated water of hydration levels while retaining good mechanical properties but can only achieve highly elevated water of hydration levels at the expense of good mechanical properties. For example, many such hydrogels with water of hydration levels of about 70 weight percent retain some mechanical properties. However, soft contact lens polymeric hydrogels of the prior art having water of hydration levels of 80 percent, or more, exhibit sharply reduced mechanical properties. In contrast to the prior art, the present invention is capable of producing polymeric soft contact lens hydrogels having water of hydration levels of 80, 82 or 85 weight percent, or more, while retaining good mechanical properties including Young's modulus of elasticity of at least 50 g/mm2, generally; at least 75 g/mm2, preferably; a nd at least 100 g/mm2, most preferably; and an initial tear resistance of at least 2 g/mm, generally; at least 7 g/mm, preferably; and at least 10 g/mm, most preferably.
Table 1 shows the results of tests made with various formulations of N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NVP), 4-t-butyl, 2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate (TBE) and ethylene glycol dimethyacrylate (EDGMA) crosslinker. The formulations are given in weight percent.
TABLE 1______________________________________ Modulus of TensileMonomer-Wt. Percent Elasticity Strength ElongationNVP TBE EGDMA g/mm2 g/mm2 %______________________________________84.642 15.058 0.299 1100 220 88.584.391 15.001 0.604 1530 214 65.084.103 14.993 0.900 1990 231 51.987.176 12.497 0.321 604 130 83.686,868 12.500 0.632 794 157 66.486.587 12.516 0.898 868 173 66.489.672 10.003 0.325 178 83.6 97.489.381 10.011 0.608 313 94.9 72.389.067 10.008 0.912 448 106.0 57.389,668 10.006 0.300 192 83.5 83.691,677 8.017 0.306 835 48.2 81.693,673 6.011 0.310 20.7 22.6 73.289,723 10.048 0.276 208 78.4 81.590,727 9.038 0.282 134 69.1 95.591.762 8.007 0.266 75.5 44.5 79.891.653 8.005 0.319 69 43.9 84.391.354 8.031 0.602 156 68.2 79.491.101 7.999 0.854 217 77.9 67.589,607 10.074 0.299 174 77.7 97.089,060 10.039 0.602 308 93.3 74.889.137 8.012 0.847 200 68.4 62.393.697 6.003 0.299 21.2 13.4 51.193.051 10.029 0.597 26.6 92.0 81.493.084 10.008 0.892 36.2 103.0 65.0______________________________________
Table 2 shows the results of tests made to show water of hydration with various formulations of N-vinylpyrrolidinone (NVP), 4-t-butyl, 2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate (TBE), and diveinylethylene urea (DVEU). The results also show the amount of monomer and oligomers extractable from the polymer.
Table 2 shows the high water of hydration levels achieved with the tested polymeric composition of this invention. All of the polymers showed hydration levels above 60 weight percent, most of the polymers showed hydration levels above 70 or 75 percent and some showed hydration levels above 80 percent. High levels of water of hydration are conducive to good oxygen permeability.
Table 3 shows the results of tests performed with two different polymer formulations of this invention. The first formulation was prepared from N-vinylpyrrolidinone (NVP), t-butyl 2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate and divinylethylene urea (DVEU). The second formulation was prepared from N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidinone (NVP), t-butyl, 2-hydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate (TBE), divinylethylene urea (DVEU) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA).
TABLE 3__________________________________________________________________________Formulation Tear, Modulus of Tensile Elong- Tear, Propa- H2 O, Elasticity Strength ation Initial gation Wgt. (g/mm2) g/mm2 % (g/mm) (g/mm) %__________________________________________________________________________NVP/TBE/DVEU(Wgt. %)89.7/10/.3 48.7 58.1 233.0 5.0 82.586.7/13/.3 117.0 89.5 220.0 7.7 80.285.7/14/.3 132.0 100.0 238.0 10.9 79.183.7/16/.3 218.0 124.0 217.0 15.9 79.583.7/16/.3 283.0 132.0 234.0 15.4 75.7NVP/TBE/DVEU/EGDMA(Wgt. %)89.5/10/.25/.25 75.2 87.6 228.0 6.2 85.490/9/0/.3 129.0 97.0 111.0 5.9 82.7__________________________________________________________________________
Table 3 shows that the formulations of this invention which employ N-vinyl pyrrolidone as the hydrophilic monomer can achieve water levels of at least 85 weight percent. Formulations which employ t-butylhydroxycyclohexyl methacrylamide as the strengthening agent can achieve water levels above 79 weight percent. These high water levels are achieved while maintaining good mechanical properties.
The following three synthetic procedures describe the synthesis of two intermediates used to make TBE, and the TBE synthesis.
4-t-butylcyclohexene, an intermediate in the synthesis of 4-t-butylhydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate, is prepared by reacting 4-t-buylcyclohexanol, a commercially available material, with phosphoric acid. A mixture of 4-t-butylcyclohexanol and phosporic acid is made by slow addition of the acid to the 4-t-butylcyclohexanol. This mixture is refluxed at about 70� C. until the reaction is complete. The reaction mixture is extracted with an organic solvent such as ethylacetate, dried over Mg SO4 and filtered. The theoretical reaction is: ##STR19##
4-t-butyl-2-epoxycyclohexane, an intermediate in the synthesis of 4-t-butylhydroxycyclohexyl methacrylate, is prepared by reacting a 4-t-butylcyclohexane with m-chloroperoxybenzoic acid in ethylacetate below 5� C. until mixing is complete, and then at room temperature for two hours. The reaction mixture is washed with aqueous NA2 CO3, dried over MgSO4, and filtered. The theoretical reaction is: ##STR20##
4-t-butyl-2-epoxycyclohexane and methacrylic acid are reacted in the presence of CuCl, BHT and TEA for about 2 hours at about 90� C. Low boiling components are distilled off and the final product is purified by further distillation. The theoretical reaction is: ##STR21##
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