A system is configured to receive, from a user device, information associated with a request to receive a service from a server device, the information including a unique identifier, an identifier, associated with a user of the user device, being encoded with a key to obtain the unique identifier. The system may also be configured to extract the unique identifier from the information; retrieve, from a memory, the identifier, associated with the user, that corresponds to the unique identifier; obtain an indication whether the identifier, associated with the user, is trusted; perform one or more additional authentication operations on the user when the identifier, associated with the user, is trusted; and transmit, to the server device, a notification that indicates that the user is authenticated when the one or more additional authentication operations indicate that the user device is authenticated.

Service provider networks transport more and more traffic associated with a variety of services, applications, and content. The service provider networks cannot always verify the trustworthiness of a user that is using a user device to access the services, applications, and content and/or to obtain information associated with the service provider network. Not knowing and/or verifying the trustworthiness of the user and/or the user device may cause the service provider network to become vulnerable to an unknown and/or nefarious user, user device, network, and/or application attempting to access the services, applications, and/or content.

Multi-factor authentication using a unique identification header (UIDH)


A laser engraving device which can adjust its machining position is disclosed. The device includes a laser machine for supplying laser beam, a guide rod adjacent to and parallel to the laser machine, a galvanometric scanner coupled to the guide rod and being movable with the guide rod, and a driver disposed at an end of the guide rod for driving the guide rod.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to laser engraving, particularly to engraving with galvanometers in a large area.
2. Related Art
Laser processing technology has applied in industry for over several decades, for example, applications of welding and cutting. Particularly in the recent years, compact industrial laser becomes popular due to the progress of laser beam sources, a laser engraving device primarily using Nd-YAG laser (i.e. Laser-Marking) is commonly used in metal processing, hand tools, plastic products, electronic components, ceramics, electroplated goods and various gifts.
A general laser processing technique can be divided into two types, which are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. As shown in FIG. 1, a laser source 10 is fixed at a fixed position. A workpiece 12 is moved by an X-Y carrier 11 and its moving path is controlled by a laser beam, so that the workpiece 12 can be engraved by the laser source 10. FIG. 2 shows the other type, in which the laser source 10a is guided by galvanometers 13, 14 and then focused by a composite lens 15 onto the workpiece 12a after fast scanning. Thus a desired pattern can be obtained. These two conventional treatments have their respective advantages and drawbacks. The former's advantages are a precision treatment position and allowance of treatment in a large area, but its carrier 11 moves slowly so as to make the whole treatment period too long. Particularly, speed and quality of laser treatment will be reduced when the workpiece 12 is too large in size or weight. Thus, it is not suitable for mass production.
However, when the workpiece 12 is too heavy or large to be moved, the efficiency and quality of the laser processing must be disadvantageously affected. More recently, the pen-writing galvanometric scanner appears in the market. But such an approach makes the processing range and the smallest size of laser spot is limited by the focusing lens of the galvanometer. To enlarge the processing range, the focusing lens must be replaced with a one with different focal length. Besides the smallest size of laser spot, the processing height will be increased and the processing exquisiteness will also be varied. The advantages of the latter are a small-sized guiding system, fast treatment and high accuracy, but its drawback is that the treatment area is limited to the composite lens 15 under the galvanometers 13, 14. As shown in FIG. 2, under a situation of large-sized treatment, the composite lens 15 must adjust its working heights 16, 17, 18 to make the focused minimum laser spot become larger. This will reduce treatment accuracy and increase the buying cost of the composite lens 15.


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor body with a base layer and a field shaping zone of a first conductivity type. The base layer extends parallel to a back surface of the semiconductor body in a central portion and into an edge portion that surrounds the central portion. The field shaping zone is formed in the edge portion and has a maximum dopant concentration exceeding at least three times a maximum dopant concentration in the base layer. A back side metal structure directly adjoins the back surface in the central portion and extends over the edge portion. A dielectric structure is between the back side metal structure and the field shaping zone. Leakage current mechanisms reducing the reverse blocking capabilities are reduced.

RB-IGBTs (reverse blocking insulated gate bipolar transistors) provide improved blocking characteristics in the reverse direction. For example, in a reverse blocking mode a first part of an edge construction guides a potential applied to the back side to the front side, where a second part of the edge construction relieves the electric field. It is desirable to provide semiconductor devices with enhanced reverse blocking capabilities.

Semiconductor device with back side metal structure


The present disclosure provides a quantum dot device baseplate, a manufacture method therefor and a quantum dot device. The quantum dot device baseplate comprises: a substrate; a cathode disposed on the substrate; an electron transport layer disposed on a surface of the cathode away from the substrate; a linking layer disposed on a surface of the electron transport layer away from the substrate and bonded to the electron transport layer via a chemical bond; and a quantum dot layer disposed on a surface of the linking layer away from the substrate and bonded to the linking layer via a chemical bond.

With emergence and development of new display technologies, the demand for high resolution display products in the market is increasing. Fluorescent quantum dot is an important inorganic fluorescent nanomaterial recently discovered. Due to excellent physical, chemical and optical properties, quantum-dots light emitting diodes (QLED), in which fluorescent quantum dots are used as a luminescent material in the light emitting diode field, have attracted more and more attentions in the academic community and industry community. Currently, it is required to perform one patterning process separately for fluorescent quantum dots of each color. In order to perform patterning of fluorescent quantum dots of different colors (i.e., introducing red, green and blue light emitting layers side by side in one pixel and so on), it needs to repeat the patterning process for several times. However, the quantum dots are liable to falling off and loss during the patterning.

Quantum dot device baseplate, manufacture method therefor and quantum dot device

BEIJING BOE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CO., LTD.


A system for providing an anchor member on a fabric portion of a tent, such as a tent body or a tent fly, includes an anchor member and an anchor patch sewn to at least a portion of the anchor member with threads. The anchor patch is laminated to the fabric portion of the tent without the threads extending through the fabric portion of the tent. A tent including such a system is also disclosed, as well as the method of providing the anchor member on the fabric portion of the tent.

The large segment of society that enjoys outdoor camping seeks a tent construction that provides increased portability and durability under extreme weather conditions. Campers seek not only shelter from external elements of wind, rain or snow, but they also desire adequate ventilation within the internal environment of the tent. To meet these needs, the typical tent construction includes a fabric tent body that is supported by a plurality of poles, with the tent body commonly having one or more mesh windows or vents, and a door. In order to maximize both the tent's weather resistance and ventilation, tents also commonly include a tent fly. A tent fly is an additional layer of fabric that is attached to the tent body and/or tent poles, with an open space formed between the tent body and the tent fly to provide for ventilation. The tent fly forms the outermost layer of the tent, and thus it is important that the tent fly is impervious to wind, rain, snow or any other external elements.
Tent flys are commonly attached to the tent poles using anchors such as loops of hook-and-loop fastener material, or clips attached to a length of webbing. Regardless of the specific type of anchor used, the anchor must be attached directly to the tent fly. This is commonly done by sewing a portion of the anchor directly to the tent fly. Direct sewing creates thread holes through the tent fly which may allow rain, melted snow, or wind to penetrate the tent fly. To minimize the adverse effects of the thread holes, tent manufacturers commonly apply one or more layers of waterproof fabric, commonly referred to as "seam tape", over the stitches. Providing seam tape over the stitches, however, does not always provide a sufficient barrier against the elements, especially in view of the high stresses that may be applied to the stitches in high wind conditions, which may cause the stitches to enlarge and/or tear the thread holes in the tent fly.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for a system that will permit stitchless, waterproof attachment of an anchor member to a tent fly or other portion of a tent. Additionally, such a system must maintain an adequate seal when the tent fly is subject to variable multi-axial load conditions, such as may be experienced during high winds. Finally, the system must be light weight, pliable, easily administered, strong, and must not unduly interfere with the transmission of light into the tent enclosure.

Waterproof system for attaching an anchor member to a portion of a tent and related method


A device for hydroponic cultivation, the device including one or more room(s) for receiving one or more seed(s), one or more source(s) of artificial light, arranged to produce photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) to the one or more room(s). The device further includes a control unit for adjusting the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) of the artificial light based on the growing phase of the plant(s) being grown in the device.

The invention relates to a device for hydroponic cultivation, the device comprising one or more room(s) for receiving one or more seed(s), one or more source(s) of artificial light, arranged to produce photosynthetically active radiation to said one or more room(s).
Hydroponics means the cultivation of plants without soil. Plants are cultivated using a liquid solution of water and nutrients.
Hydroponic indoor gardening devices have been created for cultivation of e.g. vegetables and herbs in end user environments, such as domestic environment, restaurants, and institutional kitchens etc.
Due to the demand for easy and convenient gardening, said hydroponic indoor gardening devices usually use removable baskets or cups or cartridges including growing medium therein. The plants are grown to maturity in said growing medium. These baskets or cups are easy to arrange into and remove from the cultivation devices. Still, there is a need in the art for even more convenient devices for indoor gardening.


The disclosure relates to highly temperable colored glass compositions. The colored glass compositions have high coefficients of thermal expansion and high Young's moduli that advantageously absorb in the ultraviolet and/or blue wavelength ranges. Methods of making such glasses are also provided.

Thermally-tempered glass, sometimes called safety glass, is often applied in situations where safe fracture behavior is required to prevent injury in the case of failure. For example, safety glass is used to strengthen automobile side and rear windows, as well as objects such as shower doors. The property of tempered glass that makes it so desirable in safety applications is that when it breaks, it shatters into rock salt-like, cubicle pieces which do not have sharp edges or needle-like points. This desired fracture behavior is called "dicing" and occurs when the glass has achieved full temper.
In addition to the safety aspect of thermally tempered glass, tempering strengthens the glass, making it more damage resistant and durable. Because of the increased durability, tempered glass can be used in applications where normal glass would quickly break—for example, automotive windshields, where the glass may be impacted by rocks or other hard materials. Due to the increase in glass use in architectural, automotive, and electronic device applications, there is a continuing unmet need for safe, strengthened glasses having improved tempering capabilities.

Colored glasses with improved tempering capabilities


The present invention provides a curing agent for casting a water glass, including an ester and an amorphous silicon dioxide obtained by a thermal decomposition of ZrSiO4; and the curing agent for casting the water glass does not contain water. According to the present invention, the curing agent for casting the water glass has a strong adhesion-enhancing effect and a long shelf life, and is easy to use.

Casting is one of the most polluting industries in the machinery manufacturing industry, in which the adhesive for mold and core-making is the main source of pollution. Currently, organic adhesives such as furan resin and urethane resin are widely used in the foundry. When molten metal is poured into the sand mold, the organic adhesives may be burned and decomposed to release toxic gases and harmful substances such as toluene, xylene, phenol, carbon monoxide and suspended matter. In order to avoid emissions of decomposition products during the casting process, inorganic adhesives may be considered.
Typically, water glass is an inorganic adhesive synthesized by silica sand and soda ash. Water glass is one of the most resource-rich substances on the earth and is the casting resin with the least impact on the environment. However, under the same amount of addition, the mechanical properties of the water glass adhesive are lower than that of the organic resin, and the water glass has poor sand collapsibility, which hinders its promotion and application. Therefore, the specific strength of the water glass is improved by adding a water glass reinforcing agent (a curing agent for casting water glass).
Amorphous silicon dioxide can be used as the above-mentioned water glass reinforcing agent. For example, Chinese Patent having a publication No. CN101027147A discloses a mold-making material mixture for preparing sand molds for metal processing, including a refractory mold-making base material and a water glass-based adhesive, wherein a certain proportion of particulate amorphous silicon dioxide is added to the adhesive as a reinforcing agent. Although the mold-making material mixture can greatly improve the strength of the sand mold after molding, the particulate amorphous silicon dioxide as the reinforcing agent is a solid powder, which has poor continuity of addition and is inconvenient for metering and addition; the working environment deteriorated due to the dust flying during the feeding; and especially when used in ester hardened water glass sand, the additions of multiple components increase the complexity of the operation. Therefore, the amorphous silicon dioxide is disadvantageous for industrial applications.
On the other hand, compared with the amorphous silicon dioxide from other sources, amorphous silicon dioxide prepared by a thermal decomposition of ZrSiO4 (amorphous silicon dioxide obtained by the thermal decomposition of ZrSiO4) is preferred, because a mold core with higher weight can be obtained with the same amount of addition, which indicates that the sand mold particles are stacked more closely. In addition, in the preparation of a mixture, the amorphous silicon dioxide prepared by the thermal decomposition of ZrSiO4 exhibits particularly excellent properties, and the mixture has lower viscosity and better fluidity, and is more convenient to be added and used.
However, if the above-mentioned amorphous silicon dioxide obtained by the thermal decomposition of ZrSiO4 is stored in liquid for more than three months, when it is used as a curing agent of water glass, it will show a sharp reduction in the adhesive strength and even fail to play the role of self-hardening.
Therefore, if the above-mentioned amorphous silicon dioxide obtained by the thermal decomposition of ZrSiO4 is prepared into a liquid form of water glass reinforcing agent, it is doubtful whether the water glass reinforcing agent can still exert a strong adhesion-enhancing effect.

Curing agent for use in casting water glass

JINAN SHENGQUAN GROUP SHARE-HOLDING CO., LTD.


A component with an geometrically adapted contact structure and a method for producing such a component are disclosed. In an embodiment a component includes a contact structure including a contiguous contact layer having a plurality of openings and being assigned to a first electrical polarity of the component and a plurality of individual contacts at least in part having different vertical heights, wherein the contacts extend in the openings throughout the contiguous contact layer, wherein the contacts are laterally spaced from each other and assigned to a second electrical polarity of the component, and wherein the contacts are arranged with respect to their different heights and their positions such that a height distribution of the contacts is adapted to a predetermined geometrically non-planar contour profile.

In the case of hetero-integration of components, in particular with a plurality of light dots, a reliable connection of the light dots to a driver circuit is necessary. Thermomechanical tension between different functional levels of the component often leads to undesired deformations—also known as "bowling"—resulting in an unreliable connection, such as an unreliable solder connection, between the components. The deformations can be grinded flat, but there is a great risk that the components will be damaged. This issue concerning tensions can also be addressed by adjusting the coefficients of expansion of the layers located at a connection plane or by applying layers with suitable counter-tensioning. However, such methods prove to be costly and often not sufficiently reliable.

Component with geometrically adapted contact structure and method for producing the same


A material for an organic electroluminescent element contains a compound represented by Formula (1):

A typical organic electroluminescent element (hereinafter also referred to as an organic EL element) is composed of a cathode, an anode, and a luminous layer containing a luminous compound and disposed therebetween. An electric field applied to such a light-emitting element recombines holes injected from the anode with electrons injected from the cathode in the luminous layer to generate excitons, which are deactivated with luminescence (fluorescence and/or phosphorescence). The organic EL element can emit light by such a mechanism. The organic EL elements are completely solid elements each including submicron films composed of organic materials, the films being disposed between electrodes and being capable of emitting light at an applied voltage of about several volts to several tens of volts. Such organic EL elements have great potential in applications to next-generation flat panel displays and illumination devices.
Since Princeton University reported an organic EL element by phosphorescence from the excited triplet state, phosphorescent materials at room temperature have been extensively investigated for practical use.
The luminescence efficiency of organic electrophosphorescent elements, in principle, can be about four times higher than that of traditional organic electrofluorescent elements, and world-wide studies and developments have been conducted on phosphorescent materials, layer configurations, and electrodes included in light-emitting elements. Especially, tremendous expectations have been placed on the development of novel materials for enhancing the performance of the organic EL elements.
As described above, the phosphorescent mechanisms have significantly high potential. Unlike organic EL devices utilizing emission of fluorescence, however, the organic phosphorescent devices should satisfy the following technical requirements for the efficiency and the service life of organic EL devices through control of the central position of light emission, particularly control of recombination of holes with electrons inside the luminous layer to attain stable light emission.
One of known solutions to such problems is multi-layered elements each including a laminate of a luminous layer, a hole transporting layer adjacent to an anode, and an electron transporting layer adjacent to a cathode. The luminous layer is composed of a mixed layer of a luminous host and a phosphorescent compound as a luminous dopant in many cases.
As for the materials, development of novel materials has been tremendously expected for enhancing the performance of organic EL elements.
A variety of materials for organic EL elements have been reported. For example, it is already known that dibenzofuran or dibenzothiophene compounds having specific substituents are useful as materials for organic EL elements in view of heat resistance and reduced defects of pixels (for example, see Patent Literature 1, 2, 3, and 4).
Unfortunately, high luminescence efficiency in organic EL elements requires homogeneous dispersion of a dopant as a luminous material for a reduction in concentration quenching caused by agglomeration of the dopant or quenching caused by interaction between excitons. It has been found that organic EL elements containing the compounds described in these documents as luminous hosts have insufficient luminescence efficiency and emission lifetimes, in regions containing particularly high concentration of dopants, and additional techniques are required to attain sufficient luminescence efficiency and prolonged emission lifetimes.
The performance of organic EL elements highly depends on the morphology of thin films. Typically, the organic EL elements suitably include amorphous thin films. Microcrystals present in a thin film function as nuclei to grow into crystals in the film during a driving mode and storage over time of the organic EL elements. These crystals increase grain boundaries into which an electric field is concentrated, resulting in unsatisfactory electrical characteristics and short service lives of the organic EL elements.
It has been reported that the control of molecular orientation even in amorphous films is important to control the electrical and optical characteristics of organic EL elements. For example, the results of detailed analysis of the molecular orientation (for example, see Non-Patent Literature 1) suggest that charge transportation is significantly influenced by the molecular orientation in amorphous films. Molecules in amorphous films are normally oriented in different directions. Such different directions of orientation reduce interaction between the molecules and preclude movement of carriers, leading to an increased driving voltage.
Requirements for an increase in area of organic EL elements, a reduction in cost, and higher productivity lead to expectations on wet processes. In addition, the wet processes can form films at lower temperature compared to vacuum processes to reduce damage of an underlying organic layer and increase the luminescence efficiency and the service life of the organic EL elements.
Bottlenecks in preparation of organic EL elements by wet processes are the film forming characteristics of the luminous host included in a luminous layer and an electron transporting material deposited on the luminous layer, and the solubilities of these materials in solvents for preparing coating solutions. The present inventors have found that traditional luminous hosts and electron transporting materials have low solubilities in solvents and solution stability at a practical level, and should be further technically improved.
In conclusion, such traditional materials cannot produce high-performance organic EL elements, and novel materials have been demanded for enhancing the performance of organic EL elements. Such materials should preferably be suitable for preparation of organic EL elements by wet processes.

Material for organic electroluminescent element, organic electroluminescent element, illumination device, and display device

Abstract: where R1 to R3 independently represent a group such as a deuterium atom and a halogen atom; at least one of R1 to R3 is a group represented by Formula (2); if pluralities of R1 to R3 are present, these substituents may be the same or different or may be bonded to each other to form a ring; n1 represents an integer of 0 to 8; n2 represents an integer of 0 to 3; n3 represents an integer of 0 to 4; n1+n2+n3 is 1 or more; Cbz represents a carbazolyl group; X represents an oxygen atom or a sulfur atom; and L1 represents a single bond or a divalent linking group.


Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a tubular lamp with a coiled filament having an overwind wrapped around the coil. In one embodiment, the tubular lamp has a coiled coil filament, and the coiled coil has an overwind wrapped around the coiled coil.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a tubular lamp. More particularly, embodiments described herein relate to a tubular lamp for a rapid thermal processing (RTP) apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
RTP systems are employed in semiconductor chip fabrication to create, chemically alter, or etch surface structures on semiconductor substrates or wafers. RTP typically depends upon an array of high-intensity incandescent lamps fit into a lamphead and directed at the substrate. The lamps are electrically powered and can be very quickly turned off and on and a substantial fraction of their radiation can be directed to the substrate. As a result, the substrate can be very quickly heated without substantially heating the chamber and can be nearly as quickly cooled once the power is removed from the lamps.
Typically the lamps for RTP apparatus are single-ended lamps each having a socket for electrical contact disposed at one end of the lamp. The single-ended lamps generally are oriented vertically with respect to the substrate. In this configuration, only the end opposite the socket is directed at the substrate, while the elongated body of the lamp radiates heat in a direction that is parallel to the substrate. Typically, about half of the radiant energy from the lamp goes out towards the substrate. About half of the radiant energy from the lamp is absorbed in the lamp and in the lamphead structure. This can cause the lamp to reach much higher temperatures as compared to a lamp radiating in open space. If the lamp gets too hot, the average lamp lifetime can be substantially reduced. Heat absorbed in the lamphead can also cause the lamphead to deform. One approach to maintain the same radiation energy output while reducing the filament temperature is to increase the surface area of the filament inside the single-ended lamp, such as providing an overwind to the filament. However, it is desired to have a higher heating efficiency and lower filament temperature.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved lamp for a RTP apparatus.


An impact-resistant laminate has adhered to a rear glass face, opposite to the face which receives the impact, a polycarbonate sheet up to about 3 mm thick which is sufficiently thin to conform to the rear glass face and to be adhered thereto without preforming. Preferably the thickness of the polycarbonate sheet is in the range about 0.25 mm to about 0.64 mm, and it has an abrasion-resistant self-healing coating. The laminate may include toughened or annealed glass sheets.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to impact-resistant laminates, and in particular to impact-resistant window panels which embody at least one glass sheet. Some such panels are bullet-resistant and resist bullets or other high energy impacts with little or no spalling from the rear face of the panel opposite to the face which receives the impact. Other such panels are "anti-vandal" panels which resist manual attack with weapons such as hammers or pick handles, and impacts of stones and bricks, but do not necessarily resist bullets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Prior proposals for bullet-resistant glass laminates, and anti-vandal glass laminates usually either accepted the risk of spall from a rear glass face of the laminate or have included a rear plastics sheet, for example a thick polycarbonate or stretched acrylic sheet which is adhered to the rear glass face to combat spall.
In one example of use of the laminate as a vehicle window panel, the front sheet which receives the impact is a glass sheet and the rear sheet which is inside a vehicle is a thick polycarbonate sheet which is ductile and has good resistance to spalling. Impact-resistant laminates often comprise a number of glass sheets which are laminated together with a rear polycarbonate sheet which provides good resistance to spalling. GB 1 504 198 describes an impact resistant laminate comprising a number of glass sheets with a rear sheet made of polycarbonate having a brittle scratch-resistant coating on its exposed face. The tendency of the polycarbonate sheet to spall, due to some extent to the brittle nature of the protective layer, is said to be reduced by reducing the thickness of the polycarbonate sheet to a thickness in the range 0.76 to 5.6 mm, and the results given indicate that under certain conditions of "medium power" impact the laminate functions satisfactorily.
In GB 2 011 836 A there is a proposal for an improved impact resistant laminate, which resists a single shot, and which comprises a number of sheets of glass which are adhered together by means of transparent plastics interlayers which serve as the impact shock receiving layers of the laminate. These laminated glass sheets are mounted in a frame and are separated by an air space from a polycarbonate sheet 9.5 mm thick to which a scratch-resistant coat of self-healing polyurethane is applied.
GB 1 394 271 describes laminated glass windshields for vehicles. The windshield may comprise a glass sheet, a sheet of plastically deformable layer, for example polyvinylbutyral, adhered to the glass, and a composite structure adhered to the polyvinylbutyral. The composite structure may comprise a reinforcing sheet 0.1 to 0.2 mm thick, with a protective layer of self-healing polyurethane. A number of materials are suitable for the reinforcing sheet, for example an amorphous polyamide or copolyamide, a cellulose acetobutyrate or triacetate, a polycarbonate, an ionomer or a polyester. The total thickness of the wdndshield would be about 4mm.
FR 2181635 discloses the use of a polyurethane coating 0.75 mm to 3.8 mm thick, but preferably at least 1.27 mm thick, as anti-spall shield to prevent spall from glass or plastics, particularly polycarbonate. The polyurethane layer is protective cladding and accordingly requires a relatively large thickness of from 0.75 mm to 3.8 mm to act as an effective anti-spall shield.
EP 0130886 discloses bullet-proof glazing wherein a polycarbonate sheet is adhered to a rear surface of a glass sheet. The polycarbonate sheet preferably has a thickness of between 2 mm and 5 mm. A self-healing coating is adhered to the polycarbonate sheet by an adhesive coating of polyurethane. In preferred embodiments, the thickness of the self-healing coating is 0.5 mm when applied to polycarbonate sheet 2 mm thick.
GB 1142817 discloses a laminated safety pane comprising a layer of polycarbonate 0.5 to 2 mm thick adhered by a layer of clear adhesive 0.05 to 1 mm thick to a glass pane 2.5 to 7 mm thick. The polycarbonate is used to provide impact strength and is not used as an anti-spall layer. There is also no suggestion that the polycarbonate sheet could be effective as an anti-spall layer.
GB 1221285 discloses a vehicle windscreen having an inner sheet of plastics, which can be polycarbonate, which is of smaller overall dimensions than the glass enabling the windscreen to shear around its edge on head impact. The polycarbonate layer is used in place of a glass inner layer to stop the head of a passenger penetrating a glass layer on impact.
The use of a polycarbonate or stretched acrylic sheets as the rear impact resistant ply of a laminated window panel has added considerably to the cost of the laminate. In some cases the risk of spall from a rear glass sheet has been tolerated, rather than incurring the additional cost of such a rear ply.
The Inventor has found that a thin polycarbonate sheet having an outer self-healing coating can act as an effective spall-resistant rear lamina when adhered to a rear glass face of an impact-resistant laminate, in particular an impact-resistant window panel.
Further the Inventor has provided a solution to the problem of the effective application of a self-healing abrasion-resistant anti-spall shield to the rearmost glass face of a curved glass laminate, for example for use as impact resistant window panels for aircraft and railway locomotives, or as anti-vandal windows for automobiles.

Curved, laminated impact-resistant panel


An electro-hydraulic drive system for a work machine which drives an upper rotary body by controlling a flow rate of a hydraulic fluid by a control valve, includes an electro-hydraulic pump including a hydraulic pump driven by an engine, and a first electric motor, and an electro-hydraulic motor including a hydraulic motor rotated by the hydraulic oil supplied from the electro-hydraulic pump, and a second electric motor, and a controller which determines an operating state of the first electric motor and an operating state of the second electric motor based on a load of the electro-hydraulic pump and a load of the electro-hydraulic motor, and is able to perform an efficient operation by using a hydraulic pressure (fluid pressure) and electric power.

Conventionally, power machineries such as hydraulic shovels, cranes, wheel loaders, and bulldozers (in specification and claims, these power machineries are collectively referred to as "work machines") have been employed in various fields. For example, a hydraulic shovel will be described. The hydraulic shovel is configured such that an upper rotary body (structure body) is mounted to an upper portion of a lower travelling object, and the upper rotary body includes an engine, a driver seat, an arm attached with a bucket at a tip end thereof, a boom coupled to the arm, etc. Thus, the hydraulic shovel has a great weight. The upper rotary body is rotatable at the upper portion of the lower travelling object by operating a remote control valve provided in the driver seat during a work, and the bucket attached to the tip end of the arm performs various kinds of works.
In recent years, as one example of the work machines, there is proposed a work machine including an electric motor as a drive device for driving the upper rotary body, etc.
For example, there is a work machine in which a hydraulic pump and a generator/electric motor are mounted in parallel to a reduction gear device which is driven by an engine as a driving power source and they are driven, a hydraulic actuator is driven by a hydraulic oil from the hydraulic pump, electric power generated in the generator is stored in a battery, and the generator/electric motor is operated as an electric motor as necessary (e.g., see Patent Literatures 1, 2).
As another prior art, there is a work machine in which a hydraulic pump is attached to an engine as a driving power source, the hydraulic pump is provided with a generator/electric motor via a reduction gear device or a coupling, a hydraulic cylinder or a travelling hydraulic motor is driven by a hydraulic oil from the hydraulic pump driven by a driving power of the engine, and electric power generated in the generator is stored in a battery and used to rotate the rotary electric motor (e.g., see Patent Literatures 2, 3).
As another prior art, there is a work machine in which an engine as a driving power source and a generator are integral with each other, a hydraulic cylinder or the like are driven by a hydraulic oil from a hydraulic pump driven via the generator, and an upper rotary body is driven by the electric motor (e.g., Patent Literature 4).

Electro-hydraulic drive system for a work machine


A method includes receiving, at a device from a first media device, audio data and image information. The audio information indicates vibrations of an object caused by sound in a vicinity of the object. The method includes generating, at the device, an audio signal based on the audio data. The method includes transmitting the audio signal from the device to a second media device conditioned upon a quality of the audio signal satisfying a threshold. Conditioned upon the quality of the audio signal failing to satisfy the threshold, the method further includes generating audio information based on the vibrations, generating audio content associated with the first media device from the audio information, and transmitting the audio content from the device to the second media device.

Electronic devices may use networks to communicate audio information (e.g., audio files representing recorded speech) to users. As an example, users of electronic devices may use video meetings (e.g., video chats and video teleconferences) to communicate with other users.
In a video meeting, a first participant may use an image sensor (e.g., a camera) to capture video content and may also use an acoustic sensor (e.g., a microphone) to capture audio content. The video content and the audio content may be transmitted over a network and provided to an electronic device of a second participant (e.g., a display device and a speaker). Similarly, the second participant may communicate video content and audio content to the first participant.
In some circumstances, quality of audio content transmitted during the video meeting may be reduced due to noise or interference. To illustrate, if both participants of the video meeting are viewing a common television program, then the audio content captured by the first participant (e.g., speech) may include a representation of sound from the television program. Once the audio content is transmitted via the network and reproduced for the second participant, a delay between the transmitted sound and the sound generated by the television of the second participant may cause the second participant to perceive an "echo." Further, in some cases, the sound from the television program may "drown out" the speech from the first participant, which may render the audio content unintelligible for the second participant.

Image-based techniques for audio content


A method of assembling a battery assembly includes forming battery packs, each pack including battery cells and cooling passages extending along a length of the pack, connecting terminals of each pack to a dc source and charging each pack to a desired state of charge, installing battery packs on a tray located on an automatically guided cart, using the cart to carry the battery assembly to locations where method steps are performed including performing testing for fluid leaks in a cooling circuit comprising interconnected passages of each pack on the tray and installing electric circuits in the assembly.

The present invention relates generally to the module of a complete battery pack in a vehicle whose propulsion system is at least partly electric powered.
A rechargeable electric storage battery is mounted on a tray located at the underside of a vehicle with its lower surface exposed to the road. It has been conventional practice to form such battery trays in multiple pieces of high strength material such as multiple stampings that are welded together. The lower surface of the tray is covered with a panel.
A battery tray casting in one-piece would reduce overall complexity of a battery tray formed of multiple welded stampings.
A need exists in the industry for a method for assembling battery packs for automotive and other applications using a tray formed in a single piece and multiple battery packs supported on the tray. Preferably the battery tray would minimize the number of required fasteners and eliminate or avoid tooling required during vehicle and component assembly to accommodate a multi-piece battery tray.

Method of assembling electric storage battery packs


The present invention relates to novel methods of making soluble proteins having free cysteines in which a host cell is exposed to a cysteine blocking agent. The soluble proteins produced by the methods can then be modified to increase their effectiveness. Such modifications include attaching a PEG moiety to form pegylated proteins.

The present invention relates generally to methods of making proteins and more specifically to recombinant proteins containing a xe2x80x9cfreexe2x80x9d cysteine residue that does not form a disulfide bond.
There is considerable interest on the part of patients and healthcare providers in the development of low cost, long-acting, xe2x80x9cuser-friendlyxe2x80x9d protein therapeutics. Proteins are expensive to manufacture and unlike conventional small molecule drugs, are usually not readily absorbed by the body. Moreover they are digested if taken orally. Therefore, proteins must typically be administered by injection. After injection most proteins are cleared rapidly from the body, necessitating frequent, often daily, injections. Patients dislike injections, which leads to reduced compliance and reduced drug efficacy. Some proteins such as erythropoietin (EPO) are effective when administered less often (three times per week for EPO) but this is due to the fact that the proteins are glycosylated. Glycosylation requires that the recombinant proteins be manufactured using mammalian cell expression systems, which is expensive and increase the cost of protein pharmaceuticals.
Thus, there is a strong need to develop protein delivery technologies that lower the costs of protein therapeutics to patients and healthcare providers. One solution to this problem is the development of methods to prolong the circulating half-lives of protein therapeutics in the body so that the proteins do not have to be injected frequently. This solution also satisfies the needs and desires of patients for protein therapeutics that are xe2x80x9cuser-friendxe2x80x9d, i.e., protein therapeutics that do not require frequent injections.
Covalent modification of proteins with polyethylene glycol (PEG) has proven to be a useful method to extend the circulating half-lives of proteins in the body (Abuchowski et al., 1984; Hershfield, 1987; Meyers et al., 1991). Covalent attachment of PEG to a protein increases the protein""s effective size and reduces its rate of clearance from the body. PEGs are commercially available in several sizes, allowing the circulating half-lives of PEG-modified proteins to be tailored for individual indications through use of different size PEGs. Other documented in vivo benefits of PEG modification are an increase in protein solubility, stability (possibly due to protection of the protein from proteases) and a decease in protein immunogenicity (Katre et al., 1987; Katre, 1990).
One known method for PEGylating proteins uses compounds such as N-hydroxy succinimide (NHS)-PEG to attach PEG to free amines, typically at lysine residues or at the N-terminal amino acid. A major limitation of this approach is that proteins typically contain several lysines, in addition to the N-terminal amino acid, and the PEG moiety attaches to the protein non-specifically at any of the available free amines, resulting in a heterogeneous product mixture. Many NHS-PEGylated proteins are unsuitable for commercial use because of low specific activities and heterogeneity. Inactivation results from covalent modification of one or more lysine residues or the N-terminal amino acid required for biological activity or from covalent attachment of the PEG moiety near the active site of the protein.
Of particular relevance to this application is the finding that modification of human growth hormone (hGH) with amine-reactive reagents, including NHS-PEG reagents, reduces biological activity of the protein by more than 10-fold (Teh and Chapman, 1988; Clark et al., 1996). GH is a 22 kDa protein secreted by the pituitary gland. GH stimulates metabolism of bone, cartilage and muscle and is the body""s primary hormone for stimulating somatic growth during childhood. Recombinant human GH (rhGH) is used to treat short stature resulting from GH inadequacy, Turner""s Syndrome and renal failure in children GH is not glycosylated and is fully active when produced in bacteria. The protein has a short in vivo half-life and must be administered by daily subcutaneous injection for maximum effectiveness (MacGillivray et al., 1996).
There is considerable interest in the development of long-acting forms of hGH. Attempts to create long-acting forms of hGH by PEGylating the protein with amine-reactive PEG reagents have met with limited success due to significant reductions in bioactivity upon PEGylation. Further, the protein becomes PEGylated at multiple sites (Clark et al., 1996). hGH contains nine lysines, in addition to the N-terminal amino acid. Certain of these lysines are located in regions of the protein known to be critical for receptor binding (Cunningham et al., 1989; Cunningham and Wells, 1989). Modification of these lysine residues significantly reduces receptor binding and bioactivity of the protein (de la Llosa et al., 1985; Martal et al., 1985; Teh and Chapman, 1988; Cunningham and Wells, 1989). hGH is readily modified by NHS-PEG reagents, but biological activity of the NHS-PEG protein is severely compromised, amounting to only 1% of wild type GH biological activity for a GH protein modified with five 5 kDa PEG molecules (Clark et al., 1996). The EC50 for this multiply PEGylated GH protein is 440 ng/ml or approximately 20 nM (Clark et al., 1996). In addition to possessing significantly reduced biological activity, NHS-PEG-hGH is very heterogeneous due to different numbers of PEG molecules attached to the protein and at different amino acid residues, which has an impact on its usefulness as a potential therapeutic. Clark et al. (1996) showed that the circulating half-life of NHS-PEG-hGH in animals is significantly prolonged relative to non-modified GH. Despite possessing significantly reduced in vitro biological activity, NHS-PEG-hGH was effective and could be administered less often than non-modified hGH in a rat GH-deficiency model (Clark et al., 1996). However, high doses of NHS-PEG-hGH (60-180 xcexcg per injection per rat) were required for efficacy in the animal models due to the low specific activity of the modified protein. There is a clear need for better methods to create PEGylated hGH proteins that retain greater bioactivity. There also is a need to develop methods for PEGylating hGH in a way that creates a homogeneous PEG-hGH product.
Biological activities of several other commercially important proteins are significantly reduced by amine-reactive PEG reagents. EPO contains several lysine residues that are critical for bioactivity of the protein (Boissel et al., 1993; Matthews et al., 1996) and modification of lysine residues in EPO results in near complete loss of biological activity (Wojchowski and Caslake, 1989). Covalent modification of alpha-interferon-2 with amine-reactive PEGs results in 40-75% loss of bioactivity (Goodson and Katre, 1990; Karasiewicz et al., 1995). Loss of biological activity is greatest with large (e.g., 10 kDa) PEGs (Karasiewicz et al., 1995). Covalent modification of G-CSF with amine-reactive PEGs results in greater than 60% loss of bioactivity (Tanaka et al., 1991). Extensive modification of IL-2 with amine-reactive PEGs results in greater than 90% loss of bioactivity (Goodson and Katre, 1990).
A second known method for PEGylating proteins covalently attaches PEG to cysteine residues using cysteine-reactive PEGS. A number of highly specific, cysteine-reactive PEGs with different reactive groups (e.g., maleimide, vinylsulfone) and different size PEGs (2-40 kDa) are commercially available. At neutral pH, these PEG reagents selectively attach to xe2x80x9cfreexe2x80x9d cysteine residues, i.e., cysteine residues not involved in disulfide bonds. Cysteine residues in most proteins participate in disulfide bonds and are not available for PEGylation using cysteine-reactive PEGs. Through in vitro mutagenesis using recombinant DNA techniques, additional cysteine residues can be introduced anywhere into the protein. The newly added xe2x80x9cfreexe2x80x9d cysteines can serve as sites for the specific attachment of a PEG molecule using cysteine-reactive PEGs. The added cysteine residue can be a substitution for an existing amino acid in a protein, added preceding the amino-terminus of the protein or after the carboxy-terminus of the protein, or inserted between two amino acids in the protein. Alternatively, one of two cysteines involved in a native disulfide bond may be deleted or substituted with another amino acid, leaving a native cysteine (the cysteine residue in the protein that normally would form a disulfide bond with the deleted or substituted cysteine residue) free and available for chemical modification. Preferably the amino acid substituted for the cysteine would be a neutral amino acid such as serine or alanine. Growth hormone has two disulfide bonds that can be reduced and alkylated with iodoacetimide without impairing biological activity (Bewley et al., (1969). Each of the four cysteines would be reasonable targets for deletion or substitution by another amino acid.
Several naturally-occurring proteins are known to contain one or more xe2x80x9cfreexe2x80x9d cysteine residues. Examples of such naturally-occurring proteins include human Interleukin (IL)2, beta interferon (Mark et al., 1984), G-CSF (Lu et al., 1989) and basic fibroblast growth factor (Thompson, 1992). IL-2, G-CSF and beta interferon contain an odd number of cysteine residues, whereas basic fibroblast growth factor contains an even number of cysteine residues.
However, expression of recombinant proteins containing free cysteine residues has been problematic due to reactivity of the free sulfhydryl physiological conditions. Several recombinant proteins containing free cysteines have been expressed as intracellular proteins in bacteria such as E. coli. Examples include natural proteins such as IL-2, beta interferon, G-CSF, basic fibroblast growth factor and engineered cysteine proteins of IL-2 (Goodson and Katre, 1990), IL-3 (Shaw et al., 1992), Tumor Necrosis Factor Binding Protein (Tuma et al., 1995), IGF-I (Cox and McDermott, 1994), IGFBF-1 (Van Den Berg et al., 1997) and protease nexin and related proteins (Braxton, 1998). All of these proteins were insoluble when expressed intracellularly in bacteria. The insoluble proteins could be refolded into their native conformations by performing a series of denaturation, reduction and refolding procedures. These steps add time and cost to the manufacturing process for producing the proteins in bacteria. Improved stability and yields of IL-2 (Mark et al., 1985) and beta interferon (DeChiara et al., 1986) have been obtained by substituting another amino acid. e.g., serine, for the free cysteine residue. It would be preferable to express the recombinant proteins in a soluble, biologically active form to eliminate these extra steps.
One known method of expressing soluble recombinant proteins in bacteria is to secrete them into the periplasmic space or into the media. It is known that certain recombinant proteins such as GH are expressed in a soluble active form when they are secreted into the E. coli periplasm, whereas they are insoluble when expressed intercellularly in E. coli. Secretion is achieved by fusing DNA sequences encoding growth hormone or other proteins of interest to DNA sequences encoding bacterial signal sequences such as those derived from the stII (Fujimoto at al., 1988) and ompA proteins (Ghrayeb et al., 1984). Secretion of recombinant proteins in bacteria is desirable because the natural N-terminus of the recombinant protein can be maintained. Intracellular expression of recombinant proteins requires that an N-terminal methionine be present at the amino-terminus of the recombinant protein. Methionine is not normally present at the amino-terminus of the mature forms of many human proteins. For example, the amino-terminal amino acid of the mature form of human growth hormone is phenylalanine. An amino-terminal methionine must be added to the amino-terminus of a recombinant protein, if a methionine is not present at this position, in order for the protein to be expressed efficiently in bacteria. Typically addition of the amino-terminal methionine is accomplished by adding an ATG methionine codon preceding the DNA sequence encoding the recombinant protein. The added N-terminal methionine often is not removed from the recombinant protein, particularly if the recombinant protein is insoluble. Such is the case with hGH, where the N-terminal methionine is not removed when the protein is expressed intracellularly in E. coli. The added N-terminal methionine creates a xe2x80x9cnon-naturalxe2x80x9d protein that potentially can stimulate an immune response in a human. In contrast, there is no added methionine on hGH that is secreted into the periplasmic space using stII (Chang et al., 1987) or ompA (Cheah et al., 1994) signal sequences; the recombinant protein begins with the native amino-terminal amino acid phenylalanine. The native hGH protein sequence is maintained because of bacterial enzymes that cleave the stII-hGH protein (or ompA-hGH protein) between the stII (or ompA) signal sequence and the start of the mature hGH protein. While the periplasmic space is believed to be an oxidizing environment that should promote disulfide bond formation, coexpression of protein disulfide isomerase with bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor resulted in a six-fold increase in the yield of correctly folded protein from the E. coli periplasm (Ostermeier et al., (1996). This result would suggest that periplasmic protein folding can at times be inefficient and is in need of improvement for large scale protein production.
hGH has four cysteines that form two disulfides. hGH can be secreted into the E. coli periplasm using stII or ompA signal sequences. The secreted protein is soluble and biologically active (Hsiung et al., 1986). The predominant secreted form of hGH is a monomer with an apparent molecular weight by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of 22 kDa. Recombinant hGH can be isolated from the periplasmic space by using an osmotic shock procedure (Koshland and Botstein, 1980), which preferentially releases periplasmic, but not releases periplasmic, but not intracellular, proteins into the osmotic shock buffer. The released hGH protein is then purified by column chromatography ((Hsiung et al., 1986).
When similar procedures were attempted to secrete hGH variants containing a free cysteine residue (five cysteines; 2N+1), it was discovered that the recombinant hGH variants formed multimers and aggregates when isolated using standard osmotic shock and purification procedures developed for hGH. Very little of the monomeric hGH variant proteins could be detected by non-reduced SDS-PAGE in the osmotic shock lysates or during purification of the proteins by column chromatography.
Alpha interferon (IFN-xcex12) also contains four cysteine residues that form two disulfide bonds. IFN-xcex12 can be secreted into the E. coli periplasm using the stII signal sequence (Voss et al., 1994). The secreted protein is soluble and biologically active (Voss et al., 1994). The predominant secreted form of IFN-xcex12 is a monomer with an apparent molecular weight by SDS-PAGE of 19 kDa. Secreted recombinant IFN-xcex12 can be purified by column chromatography (Voss et al., 1994).
When similar procedures were attempted to secrete variants containing a free cysteine residue (five cysteines; 2N+1), it was discovered that the recombinant IFN-xcex12 variants formed multimers and aggregates when isolated using standard purification procedures developed for IFN-xcex12. The IFN-xcex12 variants eluted from the columns very differently than IFN-xcex12 and very little of the monomeric IFN-xcex12 variant proteins could be purified using column chromatography procedures developed for IFN-xcex12.
An alternative method to synthesizing a protein containing a free cysteine residue is to introduce a thiol group into a protein post-translationally via a chemical reaction with succinimidyl 6-[3-2-pyridyldithio)porpionamido]hexanoate (LC-SPDP, commercially available from Pierce Chemical Company). LC-SPDP as with lysine residues to create a free sulfhydryl group. Chemically cross-linked dimeric EPO was prepared using this reagent in conjunction with a maleimide protein modifying reagent (Sytkowsk et al., 1998). A heterologous mixture of chemically cross-linked EPO proteins was recovered after purification due to non-specific modification of the various lysine residues in EPO. Enhanced pharmacokinetics and in vivo potency of the chemically cross-linked EPO proteins were observed.
Another method that has been used to increase the size of a protein and improve its in vivo potency involves dimerization of the protein using chemical crosslinking reagents GH is thought to transduce a cellular signal by cross-linking two GH receptors. A GH-GH dimer might facilitate enhanced receptor dimerization and subsequent amplification of the intracellular signal.
Chemically cross-linked dimeric hGH proteins have been described by Mockridge et al. (1998). Using a water soluble cross-linking reagent 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-carbodiimide (EDC), GH was randomly derivatized to give predominantly amide-linked dimers but also amide-linked multimers, depending on the concentration of EDC reagent used. While an increase in in vivo potency was observed, the final protein preparation was heterogeneous due to non-specific reaction of the EDC reagent with various amino acids in the protein, including lysine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid residues and the amino- and carboxy-termini. Injection of such a preparation into humans would be undesirable due to the toxic nature of EDC, potential immunogenic response to the unnatural amide bond formed between the proteins. Generating consistent batches of a purified protein also would be difficult at the manufacturing scale.
Therefore, despite considerable effort, a need still exists for a process for generating homogeneous preparations of long acting recombinant proteins by enhancement of protein molecular weight. A need also for methods that allow secretion and recovery of recombinant proteins containing free cysteine residues in high yield. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides related advantages as well.
The present invention relates to methods for obtaining a soluble protein having a free cysteine. The methods are generally accomplished by obtaining a host cell capable of expressing the soluble protein, exposing the host cell to a cysteine blocking agent and isolating the soluble protein from the host cell. In one embodiment in which the protein is not secreted into the media by the host cell, the host cell is disrupted in the presence of cysteine blocking agent and the soluble protein is isolated or purified from the soluble fraction of the disrupted host cell. In another embodiment in which the soluble protein is secreted by the host cell into the media, the host cell is exposed to the cysteine blocking agent before, during or after synthesis of the soluble protein by the host cell.
Suitable host cells include bacteria, yeast, insect or mammalian cells. Preferably, the host cell is a bacterial cell, particularly E.coli.
Preferably, the soluble protein produced by the methods of the present invention are recombinant proteins, especially cysteine variants or muteins of a protein. The methods are useful for producing proteins including, without limitation, human growth hormone, EPO and interferon, especially alpha interferon, their derivatives or antagonists. Other proteins include members of the TGF-beta superfamily, platelet derived growth factor-A, platelet derived growth factor-B, nerve growth factor, brain derived neurotophic factor, neurotrophin-3, neurotrophin-4, vascular endothelial growth factor, or a derivative or an antagonist thereof. Cysteine muteins of heavy or light chain of an immunoglobulin or a derivative thereof are also contemplated.
Useful cysteine blocking agents include any thiol-reactive compound, including for example, cystine, cystamine, dithioglycolic acid, oxidized glutathione, iodine, hydrogen peroxide, dihydroascorbic acid, tetrathionate, O-iodosobenzoate or oxygen in the presence of a metal ion.
The present methods further include various methods of attaching a PEG moiety to the soluble protein to form pegylated proteins in which the PEG moiety is attached to the soluble protein through the free cysteine. Higher order multimeric proteins involving the coupling of two or more of the soluble proteins are also within the present invention.
The present invention further includes the soluble proteins and their derivatives, including pegylated proteins, made by the methods disclosed herein. Such pegylated proteins include monopegylated hGh, EPO and alpha interferon.
The present invention also provides methods for pegylating the soluble proteins obtained by the methods described herein. Such methods include purifying the protein, reducing at least partially the protein with a disulfie-reducing agent and exposing the protein to a cysteine-reactive moiety. Optionally, the modified cysteine protein can be isolated from unmodified protein.
Methods of treating conditions treatable by growth hormone, EPO and alpha interferon are also within the present invention. The soluble proteins or their derivatives, including pegylated derivatives, are administered to patients suffering from conditions in which known growth hormone, EPO or alpha interferon is effective.

Methods for making proteins containing free cysteine residues


A lighter-than-air airship system, having a multitude of uses, with a primary purpose being the dispensing of water over a raging fire, where access by personnel and ground equipment is difficult. The airship system comprises an aerodynamically configured structure having a semi-rigid keel or skeleton, where lift is provided in part by helium, with the keel mounting a liquid management mechanism preferably consisting of a reservoir open to the outside for resupply of liquid or water, a conduit leading to a holding tank, and a piping distribution and nozzle assembly below the airship system to spray or dispense the liquid or water, like an artificial rain, over selected areas to control or extinguish the raging fire. Alternate systems are provided for replenishing or filling the holding tank from ground locations.

This invention is directed to the field of semi-rigid or hybrid, lighter-than-air airships, of the kind that can deliver and disperse quantities of a liquid, such as water or other fire suppressant materials to forest fires, for example, rain of water to a draught area or other disaster area.
The present invention relates to a lighter-than-air, airship, or rapid deployment hybrid platform system that offers particular utility as a fire control vehicle to dispense large quantities of water, i.e. man made rain, or other fire suppressant materials over out-of-control fire areas. However, the system hereof is sufficiently versatile to use over other types of disaster areas. Notwithstanding the broad uses available to the system, the further description will be directed to its use in fighting forest fires. As has become all to common for many areas of the world, vast and furious forest fires are an unfortunate fact of life for many people, especially in the western states of the United States.
Forest fires are presently controlled by ground personnel using backfires and fire breaks, and by air drops of fire-fighting materials from helicopters and fixed wing airplanes. These methods put large numbers of personnel at risk and the payloads of fire-fighting aircraft are very small. The air drops are high impact, which are a danger to ground personnel and particularly inefficient because they are so concentrated. They are the equivalent of dropping a pail of water on a stadium fire.
A number of the different airborne types of fire fighting apparatus are illustrated and described in the following U.S. Patents:
a.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,868, to Chadwick, teaches a bucket, for suspension from the cargo hook of a helicopter, where the bucket is provided with a plurality of valves and valve actuating means presenting a low profile and compact construction. The valve actuating means depend from arms extending inwardly from the bucket sides.
b.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,828,857, to Mason, relates to a container which may be filled by immersing the lower portion thereof into a fluid and allowing the fluid to enter the container through a main valve and a number of one-way secondary valves in this lower portion. The main valve is connected to a float which closes the valve when a predetermined level of fluid has entered the container. The secondary valves are closed by the action of the fluid when the container is raised from the reservoir of fluid. The main valve is held closed by a latch mechanism which may be tripped from a remote station allowing the valve to open and discharge the fluid from the container.
c.) U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,829, to Eason, describes an airborne fire suppression unit adaptable for installation on an aircraft, particularly, a helicopter, for fighting fires in locations inaccessible to other types of fire fighting equipment. The fire suppression unit comprises a fluid reservoir tank mountable on the floor within the aircraft body, a boom assembly having a nozzle mounted thereon adaptable for coupling with the reservoir tank and a motor-driven pump for directing fluid under pressure from the tank to the nozzle, all adapted for rapid detachable mounting to the aircraft. The boom assembly is mountable so as to extend the nozzle laterally from the aircraft, and is rotatably connected at its mounting point so as to reciprocate laterally with respect to the aircraft. The nozzle is pivotally secured to the extended end of the bottom to reciprocate in a substantially vertical plane. Manually powered control means, operable from within the aircraft to regulate the position of the boom assembly and nozzle, respectively, are provided. A suction conduit coupled with the pump inlet port and adaptable to extend from the helicopter into a body of fluid is provided to permit rapid refilling of the reservoir tank while a fire is in progress. Selectable valve means coupling the pump with the nozzle, tank and suction conduit, respectively, permit the pump to direct fluid either from the tank to the nozzle for fire-fighting purposes, or from the suction conduit to the tank for refilling purposes, or alternatively recirculate the fluid through the tank when neither the nozzle nor suction conduit are being utilized.
d.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,489, to Bonaparte, is directed to a forest fire extinguishing device comprising a projectile filled with an inert gas under pressure which is dropped into a fire and automatically disperses the gas. When the device impacts the ground, a plurality of ports are simultaneously opened, allowing the fire extinguishing material to be expelled over a prescribed area.
e.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,389, to MacDonald et al., teaches a fluid dispensing system for an aircraft. The system, between the open and closed positions, includes a bottom door panel controlling release of fluid from an airborne container containing the fluid, and is governed by both the height of the fluid in the container and the instantaneous position of the door panel.
f.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,571, to MacDonald, relates to an apparatus for producing a delayed foaming action in mixed liquids useful as suppressants for fire area control and curtailment of chemical spills. The apparatus is self-powered and sized to be transported to a target area by a variety of land and sea vehicles as delivery platforms. The apparatus is particularly designed for airborne delivery and is especially adaptable to helicopter applications.
g.) U.S. Pat. No. 5,590,717, to McBay et al., describes a fire extinguishing capsule for the cooling and quenching of destructive fires. The fire extinguishing capsule comprises two double-walled hemishapes which are sealed together by an equatorial belt seal which may be ruptured in order to disperse the extinguishing in the capsule. The capsule may be suspended from a hook and ladder system, for example, a helicopter in the case of forest fires, oil well fires, or transported by sled to a fire scene.
h.) U.S. Pat. No. 4,009,850, to Hickey, covers airships for transporting liquid that includes storage tanks located midship with their inlet conduits opening through the forward part of an upper deck enabling the tanks to be filled while the airship is moored to a special tower. The tank contents are discharged through outlet conduits that are lowered to the receiver station. Where different liquids are to be carried, the tanks are arranged to minimize ballasting problems during loading and unloading.
i.) U.S. Pat. No. 1,609,762, to Morgan, relates to a system for extinguishing fires that includes the combination of a dirigible balloon and a water tank supported by the balloon and transported therewith. The water tank includes means whereby it may be filled either through a pump operated by a motor, or by dipping into a vessel of water and allowing the tanks to fill as the system travels forward.
It is clear from the foregoing prior art that the preferred modes of fighting fires from aircraft type systems are limited to helicopters and fixed wing airplanes, all of which are heavier-than-air. Though the latter two patents teach the use of a dirigible type system, the present invention represents a dramatic departure from the traditional modes by the use of hybrid platform aircraft systems that are known for their many flying characteristics, such as vertical take off and landing (VTOL), and/or running vertical take off and landing (R-VTOL), and/or super take off as landing (S-STOL) capabilities, derived through their unique shape and design, and thus their different lift principles. U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,468to Bothe, illustrates a recent development in the area of hybrid aircraft. Heretofore, one problem related to LTA was the lack of speed and its inherent limitations. Hybrid aircraft systems were thus developed to overcome this speed deficiency, as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,591,112, et al. Further efforts to improve the performance of hybrid airships resulted in the design of partially buoyant airships which derive some limited lift from their hull shape, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,025, to Clark et al. Still another effort in this area is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,688, to Miller, Jr.
Returning to the development by Bothe, the patentee teaches a hybrid aircraft that is intended for passenger and cargo use. The system thereof has VTOL, R-VTOL and S-STOL capabilities. The aircraft has lifting body hull and four wing sections arranged in tandem which are pivotally moveable about their neutral axis. Each wing section has mounted thereon a pivotal propeller-rotor assembly for providing thrust substantially in a range between horizontal and vertical. The wings and propellers are integrated to the hull by an outrigger designed to be very stiff and to distribute forces from the wings and propellers to the hull. The hull is shaped to provide aerodynamic lift in an airstream and to facilitate construction by minimizing the number of panels of differing curvature required. As an alternative, the patent teaches that plural high speed fans may be used in place of the propeller-rotors. Though the latter group of patents describe details of a hybrid aircraft, where such details are incorporated herein by reference, they fail to teach a hybrid system having the means for the continuous 24 hour supply of fire suppressing material, such as water, to virtually provide for a man made or artificial rain over the raging fire, particularly in remote areas where ground vehicles cannot reach the fire scene. The manner by which the present invention these goals to fruition will become more apparent in the description which follows, especially when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
This invention relates to a [lighter-than-air] hybrid airship, platform system for dispensing large quantities of liquid in flight and hovering modes, preferably a rapidly deployment hybrid platform system that is shaped to provide aerodynamic lift in an air stream, and has particular utility for fire control of fires where ground personnel may be in danger, or where access by vehicles may be limited. The system hereof also has utility in providing drought or fire control for both man made and natural disasters. Further, It should be noted that the system hereof has applicable uses other than fire control, such as fertilizing large fields, insect spraying along coastal or swampy regions, irrigation, air quality measurement and monitoring, and aerial seeding and reforestation. Notwithstanding the above, fire control remains the primary application of the system, hence the further description will be so limited for convenience and understanding.
The system of the invention comprises a hybrid airship, platform system formed of a semi-rigid keel or skeleton within which helium is contained as one of the lifting forces for the airship, where the balance of lift is achieved by its shape which provides aerodynamic lift in an air stream. Externally, the airship features a pilot cabin, plural engines fans, and stabilizing means for controlling the steering and hovering of the airship. In the preferred embodiment, the airship system includes at least a single liquid storage and related distribution mechanism, including an externally accessible reservoir for resupplying or replenishing the liquid, such as water, for eventually distribution over the fire area. The liquid storage and distribution mechanism includes at least a first storage tank it communication with the externally accessible reservoir, and a liquid distribution manifold extending from the storage tank(s) to below the airship. The manifold may consist of plural distribution arms featuring arrays of nozzles or cannon that may be selectively operated for the desired distribution pattern. To protect and insure the efficiency of the system hereof, various filters are incorporated into the mechanism to separate unwanted debris that may enter the liquid supply.
Accordingly, a feature of this invention is to provide a lighter-than-air airship system that includes a large liquid payload capacity to develop and maintain a man made or artificial rainfall over selected areas of need, such as a forest fire.
Another feature hereof is the provision of a means to provide refilling of the liquid payload while the airship system remains continuously in flight, thus providing an endless supply of liquid, i.e. water to a selected fire area.
A further feature of the invention is a means to alternately fill the payload when the airship system is either tethered to the ground, or hovering or moving above a water supply, i.e. lake or pond, such that upon release the system will be immediately available for its intended activity.
These and other features of the invention will become more apparent from the specification and drawings which follow.

Liquid dispensing lighter-than-air airship system


A dishwasher includes a washing chamber surrounded by walls. The walls include a water-impermeable inner wall and an insulation layer. At least a first wall of the walls has in a first region on an outside thereof an emission changing device configured to change an emission of thermal radiation. The emission changing device includes a layer having a variable emissivity.

German Patent Application DE 103 46 964 A1 describes a dishwasher whose walls are provided with an insulation having a variable thermal conductivity. This makes it possible to adjust the thermal insulation layer during the dishwashing operation in such a way that it has a low thermal conductivity and the thermal energy is retained in the washing chamber. On the other hand, during the drying process, the thermal conductivity can be increased so that an inner wall is cooled by removal of thermal energy to then accelerate the removal of moisture by condensation. In order to change the thermal conductivity, hydrogen in a metal hydride lattice is released, the hydrogen then changing the thermal conductivity. The use of such a metal hydride lattice in a thermal insulation layer involves a relatively high degree of complexity, because electrical heating means must be provided for the operation of the thermal insulation layer.
Other commercial dishwashers have a washing chamber surrounded by walls which are thermally insulated by an insulation layer. It is possible, for example, to provide an insulation layer of bitumen. However, the thermal conductivity of such insulation layers cannot be changed. Therefore, the thermal conductivity remains constant, irrespectively of whether the heat should be retained in the washing chamber during the dishwashing operation, or whether, during the drying operation, the heat should be removed from the washing chamber as efficiently as possible so as to cool an inner wall and accelerate the condensation process.

Dishwasher having means for changing heat dissipation


A cutting chamber housing for an underwater pelletizer having an inlet for cooling fluid and an outlet for cooling fluid with pellets. The cutting chamber housing encloses a cutting device having a rotary drive and a cutting head with rotating cutting knives. An extrusion head having a perforated plate projects into the cutting chamber housing. The cutting chamber housing has a stationary upper housing half and a movable lower housing half along a separation plane arranged at an oblique angle so that the cutting chamber housing can be opened at least downwards along the separation plane. Features such as slide rails, swivel joints, or rotary joints can be added to enable easy opening of the cutting chamber housing.

The present disclosure relates to a cutting chamber housing for an underwater pelletizer having an inlet for cooling fluid and an outlet for cooling fluid with pellets. The cutting chamber housing encloses a cutting device having a rotary drive and a cutting head with rotating cutting knives and an extrusion head having a perforated plate for outputting molten plastic formed into strands, wherein the output direction of the plastic and the axis of rotation of the cutting device are oriented horizontally and/or substantially horizontally, and the inlet direction of the cooling fluid and the outlet direction of the cooling fluid with pellets are oriented vertically and/or substantially vertically thereto.
A cutting chamber housing of this kind is previously known. Prior art discloses an underwater pelletizer having a perforated plate comprising nozzles through which molten material to be processed is extruded in the horizontal direction. A cutting device for cutting the thermoplastic plastic material, which is extruded by the nozzles in the horizontal direction, into pellets is provided in the cutting chamber housing.
For this purpose the cutting device comprises a horizontally oriented axis of rotation, wherein the cut pellets flow through a cooling fluid which flows vertically from an inlet of the cooling fluid below the horizontal axis of rotation to an outlet of the cooling fluid above the horizontal axis of rotation. The cutting chamber housing comprises a circular shape as seen from the front, and the inlet for introducing cooling fluid into the cutting chamber housing as well as the outlet for outputting the cooling fluid with the pellets comprise a diverging shape in order for the cooling medium to be guided to the perforated plate within the cutting chamber housing.
Such a cutting chamber housing forms a compact tubular horizontally oriented container which has no possibilities whatsoever for interfering during the initial stage of underwater pelletizing or during the initial stage of the flowing out of the strand-shaped plastic from the perforated plate, until a thermal balance between the plastic melt flowing out of the perforated plate in the form of strands and the forming of pellets by the rotating cutting knives of the cutting device has been achieved.
Prior art also demonstrates a cutting chamber housing as it is illustrated in detail by FIG. 1 as state of the art.
Due to the typically compact construction of the cutting chamber housing, it has so far been necessary to perform a comparatively long initial stage until constant properties of the extruded material and a stable pelletizing process were achieved.
It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a cutting chamber housing which offers the possibility of interfering both in the initial stage of the forming of the strand-shaped melt in the perforated plate as well as in the initial stage of the pelletizing of the strands at the output of the perforated plate to form pellets, until a stable process flow can be guaranteed, thereby overcoming the disadvantages of the state of the art.
It is an object of the present disclosure for the initial stage during underwater pelletizing to be performed in a more economic manner. Also, for inspection, maintenance, and repair operations, accessibility to the cutting device, the rotary drive, and the drive shaft is improved. This reduces the working times for inspection, maintenance, and repair operations.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.

Cutting chamber housing for an underwater pelletizer


A round baler includes a bale chamber in which, in use of the baler, a bale of crop material is formed; a source of bale wrapping material; bale wrapping control apparatus; and a knife operable under the control of the wrapping control means to cut the wrapping material. The bale wrapping control apparatus comprises a first set of worm and sector gears operable to drive the knife to a position ready for cutting the bale wrapping material and a second set of worm and sector gears operable to determine the length of wrapping material to be dispensed from the source of wrapping material for wrapping a given bale and then to initiate operation of the knife to effect cutting of the dispensed wrapping means from the source. Both of the worm gears are carried on a single master shaft which is rocked in one direction to activate the first set of gears and in the opposite direction to activate the second set of gears.

This invention relates to so-called "round balers" which are balers operable to produce cylindrical or "round" rolls or bales of crop material. More particularly, the invention is concerned with apparatus for controlling the wrapping of a round bale with wrapping material.
When round balers first were introduced in the agricultural market, they were equipped with wrapping devices operable to wrap a completed bale with twine such as has been used for many years to wrap the traditional square or rectangular bale of crop material. Subsequently, round bales were wrapped with sheet material and more recently, with relatively large mesh netting. The use of sheet material or netting brought about the introduction of relatively sophisticated control mechanisms for the bale wrapping operation in order to control comparatively accurately the length of wrapping material dispensed for each bale so as to minimise the use and expense thereof. These sophisticated control mechanisms have to a great extent involved electronic and/or electro-mechanical arrangements with a relatively high initial cost and causing problems as regards maintenance in the field.
Less sophisticated mechanical systems have accordingly been proposed to overcome the above problems but these have proved unsatisfactory for other reasons For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,855 discloses wrapping apparatus for a round baler in which the bale wrapping operation is initiated by pulling on a lever with a rope or wire, the resulting pivotal movement of the lever serving both to raise cutter means and to initiate drive to a feed mechanism for the wrapping material. At the same time a mechanism for "timing" the feeding of wrapping material, and hence the length thereof dispensed, is primed. The disadvantages of this arrangement are that the cutter means has to be raised manually, requiring considerable force because of the inevitably heavyweight nature thereof to ensure cutting of the wrapping material on release, and that a certain force is also required to maintain engagement between a pair of friction rolls, one of which drives one of a pair of feed rolls for the wrapping material. The operator only releases his pull on the rope or wire when the wrapping material reaches the bale chamber in which the completed bale to be wrapped is rotating, whereupon the dispensing of the wrapping material from a source roll is taken over solely by the rotating bale, the friction drive ceasing on release of the wire or rope. The primed "timing" mechanism is then activated and operates to release the cutter means when the mechanism times out, whereby the wrapping material is cut and continued rotation of the bale takes up the remainder of the cut length. Thus with this arrangement, the satisfactory actuation of the wrapping apparatus is very dependent on the pull exerted by the baler operator on the wire or rope and the ability of the operator to judge when the wrapping material is in the correct position relative to the bale to be wrapped. Accordingly, the likelihood of mis-wrapping is unacceptably high.
In German Patent No. 3,418,681 there is disclosed a generally similar wrapping apparatus in that the pulling on a rope or wire by the operator raises or pivots cutter means ready for the subsequent cutting action and engages a drive mechanism which "times" the wrapping operation. Although in this arrangement the operator does not have to maintain the pull on the wire or rope to ensure that the feed mechanism for the wrapping material is actuated and then watch for when the wrapping material is in position for being taken up by the rotating bale to be wrapped, the arrangement still suffers from the disadvantage that heavy cutter means has to be raised manually.
In both of the known arrangements described above, the cutter means is primed for cutting on initiation of the wrapping sequence, whereby the cutter means are in the normal rest position which is not the case in the arrangement of European Application No. 0.239.761 in which the cutter means are primed as a wrapped bale is discharged from the baler and remain so until released at the end of the wrapping sequence. Thus the cutter means is not primed manually but the arrangement suffers from the disadvantage that the cutter means can be released inadvertently during normal operation of the baler or during baler maintenance which is highly undesirable.

Bale wrapping control apparatus for round balers


The application provides a display component and an electronic device using the display component. The display component comprises: a light source unit configured to emit source light; a polarization unit configured to at least partially convert the source light into a first polarized light with a first polarization direction; a first reflecting unit configured to at least partially convert the first polarized light into a first reflected light on a first reflective surface; and a display unit configured to receive the first reflected light and adjust the first reflected light to become initial light by adding information of an image to be displayed into the first reflected light.

In a display component that uses a light source unit to provide backlight, polarized light is required to illuminate so as to execute display. Natural light emitted from the light source unit is non-polarized light, cannot be directly used to illuminate a liquid crystal layer, natural light must be converted into polarized light. It has already been designed that a beam splitting unit (PBS) converts natural light into polarized light, converted S-polarized light is used to illuminate the liquid crystal layer. However, since the emitting surface of the beam splitting unit should cover the entire liquid crystal layer which deteriorates the miniaturization of the display component.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide a display component and an electronic device using the display component, which can facilitate the miniaturization of the display component.


A multi-purpose golf ball having 812 concave hexagonal surface depressions arranged in a uniformly arranged geodesic nine-frequency icosahedral pattern over the surface of the ball and each depression having a surface diameter in the range of from 0.090 inches to 0.140 inches and a depth in the range of from 0.002 inches to 0.014 inches.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to golf balls, and more particularly to a multi-purpose golf ball having a large number of dimples of predetermined size and shape arranged in a dimple pattern to impart more accurate putting and flight characteristics.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Golf balls are designed with individual depressions, or dimples, in the surface of the ball. The dimple or depression pattern and the depth and width of the dimples are designed to aerodynamically assist the travel distance and accuracy of the golf ball flight.
Conventional golf balls are formed with from 384 to 492 dimples, or concave depressions, in the surface of the ball. Conventional golf balls also utilize various dimple patterns such as; icosahedral (20 triangles), octahedral (8 triangles), dodecahedral (12 pentagons), double-dimple triangular design, icosahedral multiple parting line (12 pentagons within 20 triangles, and an interlock (80 small triangles within 20 large triangles).
These same conventional balls are used in both putting and driving strokes, and often a ball which has superior flight characteristics will have inferior putting characteristics. It would therefore be desirable to provide a multi-purpose golf ball having the optimum dimple pattern and also having dimples of the optimum width and depth for both putting accuracy and for driving distance and accuracy.
Suitable putting and driving tests with conventional golf balls having these conventional dimple patterns and having dimples of conventional diameter and depth have shown both putting and driving inaccuracies with resultant angular deviation of the ball line of motion (direction) relative to the club head line of motion (direction).
Tests have also shown that the inaccuracy, or angle of deviation, of the resultant putted or driven ball motion (direction) relative to the club line of motion (direction) is greater with a decrease of the club head force applied to the ball.
Suitable test equipment was developed and used for these putting and driving tests. A simple observation test can be performed by dropping a golf ball onto a level, smooth surface plate, and observing the angle of deviation of the ball return bounce from the vertical fall line of the dropped ball.
The surface of the ball is compressive. The compressive resistance area of contact of the ball from the club's force is proportional in size to the club force applied. In other words, when the force of the club is decreased, the size of the club-to-ball contact surface area is also decreased.
A low club compression force into the golf ball surface will produce a small area of ball surface resistance to the club contact force. The center of resistance of this small ball surface contact area can fall on the extreme edge of the depression, or dimple, of the ball, which can also be circumferentially offset from the center line of the stroke or swing direction relative to the center of the ball mass which will produce an inaccuracy, or deviation, of the resultant line of ball motion direction from the club's line of motion direction.
A greater club compression force into the golf ball surface will produce a larger area of ball surface resistance to the club contact force. The center of resistance of this larger ball surface contact area can result in compression of more of the edge of the depression, or dimple, of the ball, which will locate the center of the area of compression resistance more toward the center line of the stroke or swing direction relative to the center of the ball mass which will produce a smaller inaccuracy, or angle of deviation, of the resultant line of ball motion direction from the club's line of motion direction.
In accordance with Newton's Second Law of Motion, an unbalanced force acting on a body causes an acceleration of the body in the direction of the force of magnitude proportional to the force and inversely to the mass of the body. It is nearly impossible for a golf player to position a golf ball so that the club will accurately strike the depressions, or dimples, of the ball in balance with the club line of direction through the center of the ball. Thus the most likely result will be a deviation of the ball relative to the line of the stroke.
The patent to Badke, U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,898 (which is licensed to applicant) discloses a putting golf ball having concave depressions of from 0.08" to 0.02" surface diameter, and from 0.002" to 0.014" depth which cover from 20% to 90% of the surface of the ball. The size and depth of the dimples of this putting ball has proven to reduce the deviation in the putting game. However, the present invention is a significant improvement over the Badke patent as explained hereinafter.
The present invention is distinguished over the prior art in general, and the Badke patent in particular by a multi-purpose golf ball having 812 concave hexagonal surface depressions arranged in a regular geodesic nine-frequency icosahedral pattern over the surface of the ball and each depression having a surface diameter in the range of from 0.090 inches to 0.140 inches and a depth in the range of from 0.002 inches to 0.014 inches.