Methods of making ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UMWPE) having increased strength and/or wear resistance, such as high yield strength, high tensile strength, high load strength, and/or high impact strength. Some embodiments include making UHMWPE having increased strength and/or wear resistance, such as that listed above, where the UHMWPE has co-monomers.

Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW PE) is well known for, among other properties, its chemical resistance, low friction coefficient, high toughness, and resistance against wear. As a result, it has found numerous applications in demanding environments where the above properties are required, such as in the chemical industry, mining, mechanical engineering, the field of biomedical implants and the textile industry. Equally well known is the intractability of this polymer, which is due to the fact that UHMW PE, above its crystalline melting temperature, does not form a fluid phase that is of a viscosity that permits melt-processing techniques used with common thermoplastic polymers. A negative consequence of the fact that above its crystalline melting temperature UHMW PE merely passes into a viscoelastic state, is that the original polymer particles soften but still retain their shape, and long processing times and/or high temperatures are generally required to process UHMW PE into useful objects. Indeed, even at 200° C. and after prolonged heating, the initial powder morphology often is retained, and generally is present in articles made of UHMW PE. The latter, in fact, is thought to contribute to abrasive wear and ultimate failure of, for example, artificial implants made from this polymer.
The above problems have been recognized since long, and various methods have been proposed to improve processing of UHMW PE, reduce the processing times and associated costs, reduce the granular nature of products made thereof, and generally further improve their properties, notably the resistance against wear. See, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,621,070, U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,334, U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,163, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,037,928. In the methods described in these patents, objects of UHMW PE are produced essentially by compression and sintering under different pressure- and temperature time protocols. The sintering processes described in these patents are comparatively lengthy, however. Another method to process UHMW PE into shapes is described by Corbeij-Kurelec, L. (Ph. D. Thesis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 2001). In this method, a particular as-polymerized or virgin UHMW PE powder is compacted and subsequently melted. As the author notes, however, the process appears to be not generally applicable and typically limited to polymers based on single-site metallocene catalysts (p. 48).
Other techniques to circumvent the intractability of UHMW PE include, for example, the addition of solvents, lubricants, plasticizers, and processing aids, as well as polyethylene grades of lower molecular weight. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,658,992 and 5,422,061. The aforementioned additions of lubricants, plasticizers, and processing aids or lower molecular weight polyethylenes, however, tend to cause a deterioration of some or substantially all of the beneficial properties of UHMW PE.
Unfortunately, the above methods generally are cumbersome, time consuming, not economical or ill defined, and/or severely limit the types and characteristics of objects and products that can be manufactured with UHMW PE.
Thus, a need continues to exist for a method that readily processes ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylenes into coherent articles and exploits the outstanding properties of this unique polymer in a wider and more economical spectrum of product forms.
Accordingly, it is one objective of the present invention to provide UHMW PE compositions of highly beneficial sintering characteristics.
Yet another object is to provide a method to produce UHMW PE compositions of highly beneficial sintering characteristics.
Additionally, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method to process UHMW PE compositions into useful shapes and articles.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide useful shapes and articles that are manufactured by sintering of UHMW PE compositions

Sintering ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene


A self-contained, floating, waterway supplied and moveable synthetic fuel plant includes apparatus for receiving components of and for making synthetic fuel of coal and binder for energy consumers. Processes are disclosed.

Use of synthetic fuel comprising coal treated with liquid binder is known. There are a number of approved binders suitable for use in synfuel plants, the most popular being latex-based. Typically, mined coal is sprayed with a binder compound or mixture, optionally formed into briquets or pellets, and then delivered to the furnace of a synthetic fuel consumer such as an energy producer. Such synthetic fuel treatment plants are made, for example, by Startec, Inc. of Dublin, Ohio. Significant tax credits are available for synthetic fuel producers under strict IRS guidelines, as the product is typically more energy efficient in BTUs produced or the like.
Current plants producing such synthetic fuels, however, are attended by many significant problems. For example, a plant is typically erected on or near an energy producing site on land in a fixed location. Mined coal is delivered to the plants most typically in one or two ways: plants sited along a navigable waterway receive most of if not all shipments by barge; those in landlocked locations receive most if not all shipments by rail. In both cases, the coal is unloaded at a storage site onto ground. The liquid binder product is most typically delivered by over-the road tanker trucks. The coal must then be moved over the ground to load the processing equipment of the sunfuel plant. This process entails heavy equipment and conveyor systems which pose both air and land environmental concerns. Multiple handling equipment is necessary to move the coal from the storage site to the synfuel facility and then to the boilers, ovens or furnaces of the energy producer. Finally, because the synfuel facility is typically erected on or proximate the facility of the energy plant and dedicated to that site, it must meet all the cerfification and other regulatory requirements of the governmental body such as a state and/or municipality having jurisdiction over the location.
There are about 25,000 miles of commercially navigable inland waterways in the United States and it is desirable to provide improved structures and means for supplying synfuel to energy producers situated alongside them. Accordingly, it has been objective of the invention to provide an improved process and apparatus for manufacturing synthetic fuel for use at these sites.
It has been another objective of the invention to provide an improved process and apparatus for manufacturing synthetic fuel.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide improved process and apparatus for making synthetic fuel autonomously from an energy plant in which the fuel will be used.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide improved process and apparatus for making synthetic fuel while avoiding the need for regulatory compliance with the governing bodies having jurisdiction over the energy plant where the synthetic fuel will be used.
Another objective of the invention has been to eliminate ground and surface water contamination by coal delivered to the processing plant.
Another objective of the invention has been to eliminate the overland delivery of coal and liquid binder to a synthetic fuel manufacturing plant.
Another objective of the invention has been to provide an improved synthetic fuel processing plant not fixed or dedicated to the energy facility in which the fuel will be used.
Another objective of the invention is to eliminate the need for construction of land-based foundation structures and the demolition/restoration of the site once the synfuel plant has completed its commitment.
Another objective of the invention is to eliminate the need to dismantle the synfuel plant and move it overland on multiple flatbed trucks to a new location.


A side rock device attaches a first member to a second member to be openable. The side rock device includes a pair of lock arms, a housing which holds the lock arms movably, a slider defining inclining holes which engage with the lock arms and urge the lock arms to protrude and retract, the slider disposed in the housing, and an elastic member which elastically urges the slider toward a predetermined direction. When the slider is operated against an elastic urging force of the elastic member, the lock arms are retracted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a side lock device for locking a glove box itself, which is attached onto the instrument panel side of a vehicle so that the glove box can be opened and closed, or for locking an independent lid of the glove box.
2. Description of the Related Art
EP0850342B1 and WO095/27115 disclose a side lock device of this kind.
Essentially, the conventional side lock device adopts a rotary system in which a glove box itself or an independent lid of the glove box is locked onto the instrument panel side while the glove box can be opened and closed.
Therefore, in the conventional side lock device, it is necessary to provide a pair of right and left lock arms extending from the rotary center to both sides. Accordingly, compared with the single lock, the size and volume of the rotary body connecting the lock arms doubles. Therefore, the size and volume of the device itself is increased.


Disclosed are processes for preparing an epoxidized and/or hydroxylated α-olefin/diene copolymer materials such as ethylene/dicyclopentadiene. These processes comprise contacting in a reaction medium a) a copolymeric precursor component with b) a hydrogen peroxide oxidizing agent, in the presence of alkyl-trioxorhenium-based catalyst, under certain reaction conditions. The copolymeric precursor component comprises copolymers of α-olefins and dienes with these copolymers containing at least one double bond in each diene-derived comonomer. The reaction medium is maintained under reaction conditions which promote formation of oxirane rings at, and/or diol formation across, the sites of the diene-derived co-monomer double bonds in the copolymeric precursor material.

Functionalized polyolefin (FPO) materials have potential usefulness for a number of commercial applications. Polyolefins which are reactive or polar can, for example, provide products for major applications, such as high temperature elastomers resistant to oil, and can also provide structural polyolefins. Polyolefins in the form of oil resistant elastomers could compete with chloroprene and nitrile rubber in oil resistant applications but could offer better high temperature performance and service life than ethylene-propylene diene rubbers at a comparable price. Structural polyolefins could be low cost polymeric materials with improved stiffness, strength and use temperatures that would extend the boundary of polyolefins to structural applications, for example to uses within the automotive area.
Post-polymerization functionalization requires synthesis of precursor olefin copolymers which carry functionalizable "reactive hooks", such as residual double bonds or aromatic rings. Such "reactive hooks" can then be appropriately functionalized using various chemistries.
The present invention concerns utilization of functionalizable copolymer precursors which contain reactive hooks in the form of residual double bonds. Copolymer precursor materials of this type are realized by incorporating a diene co-monomer into the copolymers that can subsequently be functionalized. One of the double bonds in the diene comonomer permits co-polymerization of this co-monomer with one or more α-olefins. The remaining unreacted double bond in each of the pendent co-monomer moieties along the polymer chain is then available for conversion to selected polar groups via a separate process, generally in a different reactor.
This olefin-diene approach allows production of a wide range of products using a single technology. Functionalization of the diene co-monomers within the copolymer precursor permits the introduction of polarity for oil resistance and can also improve the thermal and chemical stability characteristics of the resulting functionalized copolymer materials. Further, glass transition temperature, Tg, of the resulting functionalized copolymer can be adjusted by both the choice and content of the diene co-monomer.
One type of known functionalization of olefin/diene copolymers involves reaction of the copolymer precursor material with an oxidizing agent to provide an epoxidized material having oxirane groups formed at the sites of the residual double bonds within the copolymer precursor. Further hydrolysis of such epoxidized materials can convert the oxirane groups to diol moieties within the resulting functionalized copolymers.
It is known to epoxidize olefin-diene copolymer materials, such as ethylene/dicyclopentadiene, using peracids such as performic acid or m-chloroperbenzoic acid as an oxidizing agent. Such epoxidation reactions can provide quantitative or near-quantitative conversion of the residual diene co-monomer double bonds into oxirane groups, with the further possibility of converting some or all of such oxirane moieties to diols. Representative prior art disclosing epoxidation and/or hydroxylation of olefin-diene copolymer materials includes Marathe et al., Macromolecules, Vol. 27, pp. 1083-1086 (1994); Hafren et al., Macromol. Rapid Commun, Vol. 26, pp. 82-86 (2005); Song et al., J. Polym. Sci. Polym. Chem., Vol. 40, pp. 1484-1497 (2002); Shigenobu et al. (Maruzen Petrochemical); Japanese Patent Appln. No. JP2001-031716A; Suzuki et al., Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 72, pp. 103-108 (1999); and Li et al., Macromolecules, Vol. 38, pp. 6767-6769 (2005).
The catalytic functionalization of unsaturated materials is also known. Rhenium-containing catalysts have been used, for example, to epoxidize and/or hydroxylate a variety of non-polymeric alkenes. And there are a few examples in the art of catalytic oxidation being used to introduce epoxy groups into copolymers containing relatively low levels of unsaturation or unsaturation which is primarily found within the copolymer backbone. Representative prior art disclosing rhenium-catalyzed epoxidation and/or hydroxylation of alkene materials includes Herrmann et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., Vol. 30, pp. 1638-1641 (1991); Herrmann et al. (Hoechst A G); U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,247, Issued Oct. 13, 1992; Van Vliet et al., Chem Commun., pp. 821-822 (1999); and Soldaini, SYNLETT No. 10, pp. 1849-1850 (2004).
Epoxidation, and, if desired, subsequent hydroxylation, of copolymers having higher levels of unsaturated co-monomers is, however, more difficult than functionalization of non-polymeric alkenes, either without or with an epoxidation (or hydroxylation) catalyst. Such functionalizable copolymers with higher levels of diene-derived co-monomers therein have enhanced potential for side reactions and cross-linking which can be brought about by the presence of greater amounts of organic peracids used as epoxidizing agents. Use of an epoxidation (or hydroxylation) catalyst can eliminate the need for the presence of large amounts of acidic reagents and can permit the use of hydrogen peroxide alone as an oxidizing agent. But the presence of a catalyst can also promote crosslinking or side reactions of the diene-derived comonomer-containing copolymer and/or can also potentially degrade the hydrogen peroxide oxidizing agent which is being used along with the catalyst.
Given the actual and potential usefulness of functionalized olefin/diene copolymers—and especially those functionalized by epoxidation and/or hydroxylation—for a variety of commercial applications, it would be desirable to identify especially effective and efficient processes for preparing such epoxidized and/or hydroxylated copolymer materials. Such effective and efficient processes would be catalytic processes for which suitable unsaturated copolymer precursors, oxidizing agents, catalysts and reaction conditions have been selected and which, in combination, provide commercially advantageous conversion of the unsaturated copolymers to useful epoxidized or hydroxylated materials.

Catalytic epoxidation and hydroxylation of olefin/diene copolymers

Abstract: Epoxidation and hydroxylation generally increases the glass transition temperature, Tg, of these copolymers and imbues polarity which imparts oil resistance. Functionalization in this manner thus provides a different balance between properties, cost, and processing range, and can make the resulting functionalized polyolefin materials especially useful as oil resistant, thermally stable elastomers or as structural engineering thermoplastics or precursors thereof.


The present invention relates to a method for producing a fermented dairy product including the use of an oxidase for the conversion of lactose to lactobionic acid. Moreover, it refers to a method for affecting firmness and/or sourness of a fermented dairy product. Hereby is produced a fermented dairy product having improved functional and/or organoleptic properties.

In the production of fermented dairy products, such as yoghurt, cream cheese, cottage cheese etc. functional and/or organoleptic properties, as well as nutritional value are of importance. Among the organoleptic properties sourness, firmness and mouthfeel of the dairy product is of great importance for customer acceptance. Moreover, there are differences in customer acceptance based on national and cultural differences, which fact requires these properties to be adjustable.
Many efforts have been exercised in order to generate dairy products of nutritional value and with improved functional and/or organoleptic properties, including acidified, edible gels on milk basis. A typical example of such products is desserts, especially yoghurt and curd. In order to prepare such products of satisfactory quality, it is today necessary to ferment dairy ingredients (whole or low fat milk, skim milk, condensed milk, and dried skim milk) using bacterial cultures. Some of these may be indigenous to milk or introduced during processing. Fermentation not only reduces pH of the milk, but also results in the smooth, viscous liquid or soft curd characteristic of yoghurts. Stabilizers and sweeteners are often added during processing to modify texture and/or prevent syneresis as well as reduce intensity of the tart or sour flavor (Kosikowski & Mistry: Cheese and fermented milk products). For example, Swiss-style yoghurt uses large amounts up to 0.75% of stabilizer to obtain products of high viscosity.
In many fermented dairy products, particularly yoghurt products, firmness and sourness are of great importance. E.g. yoghurt is a soft-textured product where texture and sourness are of specific importance for the final product to be used, eaten as such, or used in a prepared ready-to-eat form. Metabolic activity of the bacterial cultures generate volatile flavor compounds such as acetic acid, diacetyl, and acetaldehyde which coupled with the acidity contribute to the unique sour or tart flavor characteristic of yoghurts. However, the tartness or sourness may be too intense and may need to be reduced by adding sweeteners. Another unique characteristic of yoghurt is its viscosity and smooth mouthfeel. The occurrence of syneresis during storage releases whey from the smooth gel matrix resulting in significant changes in texture. Hence the addition of stabilizers to prevent or control syneresis. Excessive addition of stabilizers, however, could also make the product too viscous adversely affecting mouthfeel and taste.
Wright and Rand, 1973; J. Food Sci. 38: 1132-1135 discloses enzymatic conversion of lactose to lactobiotic acid and its use to acidify milk.
Lin et al., 1993; Biotech. Adv. 11: 417-427 discloses the use of an oligosaccharide oxidase to convert lactose to lactobionic acid in a wheat bran substrate.
Satory et al., 1997; Biotechnol. Lett. 19:1205-1208 discloses the use of glucose-fructose oxidoreductase (GFOR) for the conversion of lactose to lactobionic acid.
None of these references discusses the use of enzymatic conversion of lactose to lactobionic acid for affecting functional and/or organoleptic properties, such as firmness and sourness of a dairy product.
Thus, there is a need for an improved method for the preparation of fermented dairy products, in particular a method for providing dairy products having improved functional and/or organoleptic properties.
One object of the present invention is to provide a method for the preparation of a fermented dairy product having improved firmness. Specifically, it is an object to provide a less firm fermented dairy product.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for the preparation of a fermented dairy product having improved taste. Specifically, it is an object to provide a less sour fermented dairy product.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method for affecting firmness and sourness of a fermented dairy product. Specifically, it is an object to provide a less firm and less sour fermented dairy product.

Method for producing a fermented dairy product


An electrical connector for interconnecting a camera module with a printed circuit board comprises a metal housing including a base wall and side walls extending upwardly from the edge of the base wall. Wherein one of the base wall and the side walls defines a grounding spring extending from the outer surface thereof to ourside. Therefore, when the electrical connector is assembled into a chamber formed on the mobile phone for accommodating the electrical connector, the grounding spring can be compressed between the housing and the inner wall of the chamber, thus, the electricity from the camera module can be transmitted to the mobile phone via the grounding spring and the electrical connector is not interfered by the other electric equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector for interconnecting an electronic module such as a camera module for use with a cellular phone or the like to an electrical member such as a printed circuit board. The electrical connector at least has a metal housing, a plurality of spring elements being formed on the outer surface of side walls and a bottom wall of the metal housing so as to realize the grounding function.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, electronic modules such as a camera module for use with a cellular phone has to be securely maintained in electrical connection with an electronic member such as a printed circuit board. Therefore, a camera socket is dimensioned to securely receive a camera module therein. Consequently, the camera module is electrically connected with the printed circuit board via the shielded connector.
In order to comply with a miniaturization trend of electrical connectors, a flexible printed circuit board is used in said electrical connector to reduce the height of the electrical connector and provide a reliable electric path between a camera module and a printed circuit board.
U.S. Pub No. 2008/0045085, published on Feb. 21, 2008, discloses an electrical connector for interconnecting a camera module and a printed circuit board. Said electrical connector includes a shielded shell and a supporting member attached to the shielded shell. The shielded shell includes a base wall and four side walls commonly defining a receiving space for accommodating a camera module, each side wall extending upwardly from an edge portion of the base wall. Said base wall defines a top surface for attached to the supporting member and a bottom surface opposite to the top surface and adapted for connecting with the printed circuit board. Said side walls comprises a pair of first side walls opposite to each other and a pair of second side walls opposite to each other, wherein each of the first side walls defining a locking finger extending from the inner surface thereof to opposite side wall so as to hold the camera module, each of the second side walls defining a grounding finger extending from the inner surface thereof to the opposite side wall adapted for connecting with the periphery of the camera module. The supporting member includes a main portion attached to the top surface of the shielded shell and a plurality of elastic arms extending from the opposite side edges to outside. When the camera module is inserted into the receiving space of the shielded shell, the elastic arms of the supporting member moves downwardly as the movement of the camera module, and the camera module located into the shielded shell by the elasticity of the supporting member and an electric path between the camera module and printed circuit board is provided.
It is well know that EMI (electro magnetic interference) is a key factor in an electrical connector. If not, the signal between the mobile phone will be interfered by the other electrical component. In order to solve said problem, said electrical connector disclosed by U.S. Pub No. 2008/0045085 includes a grounding finger formed on the shielded shell, therefore, when the electrical connector is assembled on the printed circuit board, the signal of the camera module is transmitted to the printed circuit by the grounding finger against the camera module, therefore, the EMI function has reached. However, it is usually possible that a gap is formed between the shielded connector and the print circuit board, at this moment, the EMI function can be interfered.
Thus, there is a need to provide an improved electrical connector to overcome the above-mentioned problems.

Metal module housing for mounting on a printed circuit board


The present invention is directed to pyrotechnic aerosol fire suppression compositions that burn rapidly, but coolly. The rapid burning of the compositions of the present invention produces a voluminous flame-suppressive aerosol that is useful in suppressing and/or extinguishing both small and large fires. The compositions of the invention contain at least one oxidizer and a fuel component comprising at least one organic acid salt, which combination produces a rapid burning composition that burns at low temperatures with little or no flame.

Flame suppressants are classified as either active (chemical) or passive (physical) suppressants. Active suppression agents react chemically with and destroy free radicals in the flame. Free radicals are very short-lived species that catalyze flame reactions. Their removal by the action of potassium salts, particularly halides, may be used to extinguish flames and even to reduce the secondary muzzle flash of guns.
One form of active suppressant is a class of materials called Halon™, which are composed of brominated or chlorinated fluorocarbon compounds, e.g., bromochlorodifluoromethane (CF2BrCl) and trifluorobromomethane (CF3Br). Halon™ materials have been used effectively as fire suppression agents for years, typically to protect electrical equipment since there is very little residue to clean up. Halon™ fire suppression agents typically interrupt the chemical reaction that takes place when fuels burn and depend on a combination of chemical effectiveness, e.g., quenching of free radicals, and some physical effectiveness, e.g., cooling the combustion flame and dilution of the combustion ingredients. Certain halogen-containing fire suppression agents, however, such as CF3Br, contribute to the destruction of stratospheric ozone. Although Halon™ materials are essentially nontoxic, passage through a flame or over hot surfaces produces some very toxic fluorine compounds.
To reduce the environmental effects associated with Halons™, most commercially available fire suppression agents designed today are passive, i.e., physically acting, agents. A passive suppressant does not react chemically with the flame. These fire suppression agents either blanket the burning material to deprive it of oxygen, or they dilute the oxygen in the environment to below the point that can sustain the flame, or they cool the burning surface below its ignition temperature.
Examples of physically-acting fire suppression agents include sodium bicarbonate and sand as well as inert gases, e.g., carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor (H2O), and nitrogen (N2). When applied to a fire, inert gases physically displace oxygen from the combustion region while simultaneously serving as a heat sink to reduce the temperature of the flame. The combination of the two physical actions results in suppression of the fire. Gaseous passive agents cannot be used as total flooding agents in occupied spaces because they must reduce the oxygen content below the amount that will sustain life. This is especially true for carbon dioxide because it also interferes with human respiration at high concentrations.
Unfortunately, physically-acting fire suppression agents tend to be less efficient than chemically-acting fire suppression agents. Accordingly, a larger quantity of a physically-acting fire suppressant is required in order to suppress a fire and, consequently, equipment and storage must be large to accommodate the large quantity. Such large equipment is a disadvantage in limited spaces. Applications in which space and weight are limited include military or civilian aircraft or ground vehicle engine bays, automobiles, spacecraft, or military or civilian aircraft drybays. Another disadvantage of dry physical suppressants is their particle size, which requires physical blowing or shoveling to emplace them. The large size of the particles also prevents penetration of the agent to combustion areas which are concealed or relatively inaccessible.
As a result, relatively small areas are typically equipped with handheld fire extinguishers that require a person to operate. Because aircraft cargo bays and cargo containers on ships and trains are generally left unmonitored, a fire in these areas can become serious before anyone becomes aware that the fire even exists. The spread of fire from these relatively small areas can result in the loss of the entire vehicle. Thus, current fire suppression methods in such areas depend on human intervention, providing that such intervention occurs promptly enough to prevent the fire from spreading and causing large scale damage.
An advantageous alternative to the above suppressant agent systems is the use of a pyrotechnically-generated aerosol flame free radical suppressant. This generation method may provide such fine particles that their free-fall velocity is less than the velocity of air currents in an enclosed space. As such, the particles stay suspended in the exhaust of the pyrochemical generator, and seek out even concealed fires such as those that might be found inside aircraft cargo subcontainers, such as the LD-3 container used on commercial aircraft. The smoke-like suspension characteristics of the aerosol provide long "hang times," referring to the length of time a single generator function can continue to suppress recurrent flame. Another advantage of such pyrochemically generated aerosol is that their ozone-depleting potential may approach zero, that their inhalation toxicity may be much lower than that of inert gas, and that no toxic irritant gases may be generated on passage through flame or with hot surfaces.
The use of currently known pyrotechnic flame suppressant aerosol generating compositions as can be problematic. For example, such aerosol generating compositions have some thermal stability problems and are significantly sensitive to accidental ignition by mechanical impact or friction. This sensitivity poses a safety concern in their manufacture, storage and use.
Prior art aerosol generating flame suppressants typically produce unduly hot and destructive gases. Such gases may include permanent gases and suppressant vapor prior to its condensation to an aerosol, the form in which the flame suppressant is delivered. If these gases are not cooled, structures, machinery, cargo and living beings may be damaged. In fires in an enclosed space, hot gases rapidly rise and can carry an aerosol flame suppressant up above a low-lying fire, where it cannot extinguish the fire.
The use of solid coolants, however, condenses and traps at least a portion of the aerosol generating flame suppressant, rendering it ineffective in putting out the flames. As a result, it is necessary to use a larger amount of aerosol generating flame suppressant, which detrimentally produces additional heat and destructive gas. Moreover, solid coolants are heavy and voluminous, often being two or six times the weight and volume of the aerosol generating flame suppressant. In addition, the coolants often produce toxic gases, such as carbon monoxide, to the peril of nearby persons.
As such, there is a need in the art for clean, effective, non-toxic, non-ozone depleting, and inexpensive fire extinguishing agents.


Disclosed are a crystallization pattern, and a method for crystallizing amorphous silicon. The method includes the steps of forming an amorphous silicon film on a glass substrate, forming a crystallization pattern by patterning the amorphous silicon film, and crystallizing the crystallization pattern into polycrystalline silicon by irradiating a laser onto the crystallization pattern. The crystallization pattern includes a peripheral region located within a first distance from an edge of the crystallization pattern, and an internal region located away from the edge of the crystallization pattern by more than the first distance. The internal region is divided into at least one sub-region, each sub-region includes one crystallization inducement pattern, and an edge of each sub-region is located within a second distance from the crystallization inducement pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a crystallization pattern for forming a multi-crystalline silicon thin film transistor and a method for crystallizing amorphous silicon using the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As generally known in the art, a thin film transistor (TFT), which is used as a switching device in a liquid crystal display device, is the most important part for performance of the liquid crystal display device. Herein, mobility or current leakage, which is the basis for determining performance of the TFT, significantly relates to a state or a structure of an active layer, which is a movement path of a charge carrier. That is, the mobility or current leakage may vary depending on the state or the structure of a silicon thin film forming the active layer.
In the case of a liquid crystal display device, which is currently used in the field, an active layer of a TFT mainly includes amorphous silicon (a-Si). However, an a-Si TFT including the active layer made of a-Si represents low mobility of about 0.5 cm2/Vs, so there are limitations in fabricating all switching devices used in the liquid crystal display device by using the a-Si TFT. That is, a driving device used for driving a peripheral circuit of the liquid crystal display device must operate at a high speed, but the a-Si TFT cannot satisfy the operational speed required for the driving device for the peripheral circuit. Thus, the a-Si TFT is not suitable for realizing the driving device for the peripheral circuit.
In contrast, a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) TFT including an active layer made of poly-Si represents high mobility of about several tens to hundreds of cm2/Vs, so the poly-Si TFT can be operated at a high speed suitable for the driving device for the peripheral circuit. For this reason, if a poly-Si layer is formed on a glass substrate, it is possible to easily provide a pixel switching device in addition to driving parts for the peripheral circuit.
The poly-Si thin film cannot be directly formed on the glass substrate. Thus, it is necessary to crystallize a-Si in order to form the poly-Si thin film on the glass substrate. In order to crystallize a-Si, there have been suggested an excimer laser annealing (ELA) scheme using a laser, and sequential lateral solidification (SLS) scheme for sequentially irradiating a patterned laser onto a substrate being moved. Such ELA and SLS schemes have been successfully commercialized.
According to the ELA scheme, a laser having low energy causing partial melting is repeatedly irradiated onto a substrate while the substrate is being moved in such a manner that 90% of the laser can be overlapped on the substrate, thereby obtaining a poly-Si thin film. However, since the ELA scheme is performed while repeatedly irradiating the laser onto the same location about 10 to 20 times, productivity is significantly lowered. In addition, since the maintenance period for laser equipment is short, the maintenance cost thereof may increase.
According to the SLS scheme, a laser is irradiated onto an a-Si thin film through a mask formed with a slit pattern, thereby completely melting the a-Si thin film in such a manner that the lateral growth may occur from both boundary lines of the solid phase and the liquid phase. Such a lateral growth continuously occurs when the laser is repeatedly irradiated, so that a poly-Si thin film having large-size grains can be obtained. In the case of the SLS scheme, in particular, in the case of a 2-shot SLS scheme, which has been commercialized, it is sufficient if laser irradiation is performed with respect to the a-Si thin film by two times, so the SLS scheme has a process window larger than that of the ELA scheme. In addition, the SLS scheme can obtain small-size grains having high quality corresponding to single crystal, so the SLS scheme is variously used.
However, when crystallizing a-SI through the SLS scheme, the characteristic of the TFT may be changed depending on the position and number of grain boundaries included in a TFT channel. In particular, in view of an array substrate, TFT characteristics may be irregular depending on pixels.
Therefore, it is very important to obtain uniform TFT characteristics when employing the SLS scheme. In order to solve this problem, there have been suggested various conventional schemes, such as a tilted SLS scheme, a pixel mixing scheme, a scheme using a bending type gate, a scheme for irradiating the laser on a-Si after forming a metal pattern having a reflection characteristic on the a-Si thin film (Korean Patent Application No. 1996-080083), and a scheme for irradiating the laser on a-Si after forming an anti-reflection layer pattern, such as an insulating layer, on the a-Si thin film (Korean Patent Application No. 1996-050488).
Although it is not illustrated or described in detail, as generally known in the art, the tilted SLS scheme can solve ununiformity of the TFT characteristics derived from the grain boundaries by varying the tilt angle. However, if the tilt angle is too large, a non-crystallized region may exist, thereby lowering the efficiency of the crystallization process. In addition, in the case of the pixel mixing scheme, productivity is reduced and the process is complicated as the mixing degree is increased.
In the case of the scheme using the bending type gate, which is under discussion, a wasted space may exist due to the structure of the bending type gate, so that the aperture of a pixel section may be reduced, space utility at a peripheral circuit may be lowered, and a design of the bending type gate may be complicated.
In addition, in the case of the scheme using the metal pattern, the metal may cause contamination. In the case of the scheme using the pattern, such as the metal pattern and the anti-reflection layer pattern, it is difficult to deal with devices having various sizes. In particular, in the case of the crystallization scheme using the pattern, the crystallization process proceeds from an outer lateral side of an a-Si pattern toward an internal region of the a-Si pattern, so that poly-Si having large-size grains is grown in a region located within a predetermined distance from the outer lateral side of the pattern, and poly-Si having small-size grains is grown in a region located away from the outer lateral side of the pattern by more than the predetermined distance, thereby causing irregular poly-Si. Thus, this scheme also represents limitations in use.

Crystallization pattern and method for crystallizing amorphous silicon using the same


An autotensioner having a support shaft affixed to a base, and a cup of a swing member provided swingably about the support shaft. The cup opens to the base and houses inside it a torsion coil spring for biasing the pulley in the direction tensioning the belt. A damping member braking the swing member is fixed to the base. A ring-shaped spring brings it into close contact with the inner circumferential surface close to the opening of the cup. The damping member frictionally slides with the inner circumferential surface at the time of swing of the swing member and supports the swing member in the radial direction at the base side from the bearing supporting the support shaft.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an autotensioner for imparting a suitable tension to a belt and attenuating the vibration generated at the belt.
2. Description of the Related Art
An autotensioner is provided with a pulley attached to the end of a swing member swingably supported by a support shaft, so that a suitable tension imparted to a belt, which is in contact with a pulley, due to a change of the relative position of the pulley in association with swing of the swing member. The rotating shaft of the pulley is parallel to and away from the support shaft by a predetermined distance. While the distance between the two shafts is reduced because of the demand for reduction of the size of the autotensioner, the pulley or belt has to be provided at a position different in the axial direction from the swing member so that it can rotate without interfering with the swing member.
Since the pulley is pushed in one direction when the belt is tensioned, a moment load making the swing member tilt about the support shaft acts on the swing member. The further the position in the axial direction away from the swing member, the larger the moment load, so a problem arises where the swing member is easily tilted.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an autotensioner in which tilt of the swing member is reduced and the assembly is made as small as possible.
According to the present invention, there is provided an autotensioner comprising a base, a support shaft fixed to the base, a swing member, a pulley and a damping member.
The swing member has a cup having a bottom and opening toward the base, a bearing extending from the bottom toward the base and supported by the support shaft, and an arm extending from an outer circumferential surface of the cup. The swing member can swing about a rotational axis of the support shaft. The pulley is attached to an end of the arm. The damping member is fixed to the base and provided at a position close to the base in comparison with the bearing. The damping member frictionally slides over the approximately entire circumference with respect to an inner circumferential surface of the cup, and supports the swing member.
The autotensioner may further comprise a ring-shaped spring. In this case, the damping member is provided with a tubular portion having the rotational axis as the axial center and is biased by the ring-shaped spring provided inside the tubular portion by a substantially uniform force in the circumferential direction toward the inner circumferential surface of the cup.
Preferably, the autotensioner further comprises a torsion coil spring wound spirally around the support shaft. The torsion coil has two ends engaged with a bottom of the cup and the base. The base side of the torsion coil spring is formed into a pigtail end shape so as to avoid interference with the damping member and the ring-shaped spring. Due to this, it is possible to make efficient use of the space in the cup and reduce the size of the autotensioner.
The inner circumferential surface of the cup may be provided with a step such that the inner diameter of a part of the bottom side of the inner circumferential surface becomes smaller than the inner diameter of the other part of the inner circumferential surface. The damping member is provided inside the other part, so that the damping member is positioned in the axial direction. Preferably, a part of the damping member is inserted to the other part of the inner circumferential surface.
The damping member may have an outer circumferential surface provided with a flange, which is provided between the opening of the cup and the base and is in close contact with the cup and the base. Due to this, interference between the cup and the base and entry of dust and water, etc. into the cup is prevented. In this construction, the outer diameter of the flange may coincide with the outer diameter of the cup. Further, the base may be provided with a first circular groove, which is provided with a second circular groove formed concentrically inside the first circular groove. The outer circumferential surface of the damping member is in close contact with a side surface of the second circular groove, an end surface of the base side of the damping member is in close contact with the bottom of the second circular groove.


A d- or l-tartaric acid amide derivative serving as a host compound and a method of producing the amide derivative which combines with a guest compound to form a clathrate compound and which is expressed by the following Formula (A) or (B): ##STR1##

The present invention relates to a tartaric acid amide derivative which is capable of forming clathrate compounds with various organic compounds and to methods of forming such clathrate compounds, particularly with target compounds in the presence of a plurality of compounds.
The inventors have previously clarified that particular types of diamides serving as host molecules take in alcohols and phenols of wide range that serve as guest molecules to form crystals of clathrate compounds.
For example, as such diamide compounds, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 61-207363 and 61-271235 disclose fumaric acid amide and oxalic acid amide, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-271267 discloses benzenetricarboxylic acid amide and benzenetetracarboxylic acid amide, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-123161 discloses phthalic acid amide, 1,2-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid amide, .DELTA..sup.4 -cyclohexene-1,2-dicarboxylic acid amide, phenylmalonic acid amide and pyridinedicarboxylic acid amide.
However, each of these diamide compounds exhibits an excellent effect in terms of inclusion, but does not contain any asymmetric carbon atom in itself. Therefore, when these diamide compounds are used with racemic alcohols and phenols for forming clathrate compounds, the clathrate compounds formed have no optical activity. These diamide compounds therefore have no ability to optically resolve racemic modifications.
It is thought that an optically active diamide compound may be synthesized for the purpose of obtaining an optically active clathrate compound. However, this cannot be done easily.
It is well known that a compound which is synthesized by a chemical method alone is generally a racemic modification containing dextrorotatory and levorotatory components in equal quantities and is optically inactive. Since optical resolution is therefore necessary in order to obtain an optically active compound from such a compound, use of such a compound makes the method of obtaining an optically active compound troublesome and economically disadvantageous.
For example, the inventors disclose d- and l-propargyl alcohol derivatives serving as optically active host compounds and a method of producing these compounds in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 150526/1983. In other words, a class of propargyl alcohol having the structural formula described below combines with an alkaloid ((-brucine) in a natural form to form a complex, with an optically active clathrate compound in which propargyl alcohol serves as a host compound being crystallized as a result. ##STR2## From the so-formed clathrate compound, either a diastereomer of l-brucine and d-propargyl alcohol derivative or a diastereomer of l-brucine and l-propargyl alcohol derivative is crystallized by utilizing the difference in solubility of each according to the reaction conditions. Then, the crystallized diastereomer is decomposed by using an acid to isolate optically active propargyl alcohol derivative.
However, since this method requires the process of synthesizing a racemic modification of the host compound and the subsequent process of optically resolving the racemic modification, the method involves much labor and is troublesome.
The above is also the same with optically active amides which cannot be easily obtained by a method comprising chemical synthesis and optical resolution, and there is no method available which can be put into practical use.

Tartaric acid amide derivative and method of producing the same


The present invention refers to conjugates of erythropoietin with poly(ethylene glycol) comprising an erythropoietin glycoprotein having an N-terminal α-amino group and having the in vivo biological activity of causing bone marrow cells to increase production of reticulocytes and red blood cells and selected from the group consisting of human erythropoietin and analogs thereof which have the sequence of human erythropoietin modified by the addition of from 1 to 6 glycosylation sites or a rearrangement of at least one glycosylation site; said glycoprotein being covalently linked to one poly(ethylene glycol) group of the formula—CO—(CH2)x—(OCH2CH2)m—ORwherein the —CO of the poly(ethylene glycol) group forms an amide bond with said N-terminal α-amino group; and wherein R is lower alkyl; x is 2 or 3; and m is from about 450 to about 1350.

Erythropoiesis is the production of red blood cells which occurs to offset cell destruction. Erythropoiesis is a controlled physiological mechanism that enables sufficient red blood cells to be available for proper tissue oxygenation. Naturally occurring human erythropoietin (EPO) is produced in the kidney and is the humoral plasma factor which stimulates red blood cell production (Carnot, P and Deflandre, C (1906) C.R. Acad. Sci. 143: 432; Erslev, A J (1953 Blood 8: 349; Reissmann, K R (1950) Blood 5: 372; Jacobson, L O, Goldwasser, E, Freid, W and Plzak, L F (1957) Nature 179: 6331–4). Naturally occurring EPO stimulates the division and differentiation of committed erythroid progenitors in the bone marrow and exerts its biological activity by binding to receptors on erythroid precursors (Krantz, B S (1991) Blood 77: 419).
Erythropoietin has been manufactured biosynthetically using recombinant DNA technology (Egrie, J C, Strickland, T W, Lane, J et al. (1986) Immunobiol. 72: 213–224) and is the product of a cloned human EPO gene inserted into and expressed in the ovarian tissue cells of the Chinese hamster (CHO cells). The primary structure of the predominant, fully processed form of human erythropoietin (hEPO) is illustrated in FIG. 1 of Egrie et al. There are two disulfide bridges; between Cys7–Cys161 and Cys29–Cys33. The molecular weight of the polypeptide chain of EPO without the sugar moieties is 18,236 Da. In the intact EPO molecule, approximately 40% of the molecular weight is accounted for by the carbohydrate groups that glycosylate the protein at glycosylation sites on the protein (Sasaki, H, Bothner, B, Dell, A and Fukuda, M (1987) J. Biol. Chem. 262: 12059).
Because human erythropoietin is essential in red blood cell formation, the hormone is useful in the treatment of blood disorders characterised by low or defective red blood cell production. Clinically, EPO is used in the treatment of anemia in chronic renal failure patients (CRF) (Eschbach, J W, Egri, J C, Downing, M R et al. (1987) NEJM 316: 73–78; Eschbach, J W, Abdulhadi, M H, Browne, J K et al. (1989) Ann. Intern. Med. 111: 992; Egrie, J C, Eschbach, J W, McGuire, T, Adamson, J W (1988) Kidney Intl. 33: 262; Lim, V S, Degowin, R L, Zavala, D et al. (1989) Ann. Intern. Med. 110: 108–114) and in AIDS and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy (Danna, R P, Rudnick, S A, Abels, R I In: M B, Garnick, ed. Erythropoietin in Clinical Applications-An International Perspective. New York, N.Y.: Marcel Dekker; 1990: p. 301–324). However, the bioavailability of commercially available protein therapeutics such as EPO is limited by their short plasma half-life and susceptibility to protease degradation. Several concepts, including pegylated EPO derivatives, have been proposed to overcome these disadvantages.
Common approaches for preparing pegylated proteins yield mixtures of mono- and oligo-pegylated proteins. Moreover, the polyethylene glycol compound (PEG) is bound at several positions of the proteins depending on the amount and reactivities of the available reactive groups on the protein surface. Such a mixture may have severe shortcomings: PEG may be bound at positions which interact with the protein specific receptor and conclusively reduce or even prohibit therapeutic efficacy. To solve this drawback either separation and purification of active ingredients of such a mixture or a selective synthetic route to avoid formation is required. Avoiding formation of any mixtures would greatly simplify the synthesis of a pure active pharmaceutical ingredient in terms of a single positional isomer in essentially higher yields. This is particularly true because separation of positional isomers of PEG-protein mixtures may not be possible using common production scale-synthesis.
Several methods have been proposed for the selective modification of recombinantly produced polypeptides.
European Patent Application EP 651,761 discloses the selective modification of recombinantly produced polypeptides at terminal α-carbon reactive groups. The first step in the method is to form a recombinantly produced polypeptide so that it is protected at the terminal α-carbon reactive group with a biologically added protecting group. The biologically added protecting group is preferably an amino acid, peptide and/or polypeptide that contains at least one site that is cleavable enzymatically or chemically, and preferably has a sequence that is not present in the sequence of the desired polypeptide. Once formed, the biologically protected polypeptide is reacted with chemical protecting agents to protect the side chain groups and then is cleaved with a cleavage reagent specific for the biologically added protecting group. By these means, a polypeptide is produced having an unprotected N-terminal amino group and protected side chain reactive groups. The unprotected N-terminal amino group is modified with a modifying agent to form an N-terminally modified and side-chain-protected polypeptide. It is then deprotected to form an N-terminally modified polypeptide. EP 651,761 suggests that any sequence of amino acids may be attached as biologically added protecting groups. However, in mammalian expression systems, EPO is expressed with a leader signal sequence which is cleaved off by a signal peptidase in order to yield the processed, mature EPO. Such signal peptidases recognise only restricted amino acid residues at the P1′ and P3′ cleavage site (R. E. Dalbey et al. Protein Sci. 6, 1129 (1997). Thus, a biologically added protecting peptide has to be built up from an N-terminal amino acid sequence of at least three amino acids for cleavage of the signal sequence, followed by an amino acid sequence for enzymatic or chemical removal of the protecting group. If the recognition sequences of both the signal peptidase and the cleavage protease are identical or closely related, then the sequence of the biologically added protecting group can be reduced to a few amino acids.
In another method, N-terminal selective modification is obtained by chemoselective ligation to an aldehyde (or ketone)-functionalized target macromolecule (European Patent Application EP 788,375; Gaertner, H F, Offord, R E, Bioconjugate Chem., 7 (1), 38–44 (1996)). However, this method only works for N-terminal serines or threonines.
In yet another method, selective modification at N-terminal alanine is accomplished by transamination of alanine to pyruvate (European Patent Applications EP 964,702 and EP 605,963). The disadvantage of this method is that the EPO derivative obtained possessed reduced in vitro activity. Also the transformation agents Cu2+/glyoxylic acid/NaOAc are likely to produce side reactions within the EPO molecule.
Site specific N-terminal modification was also shown by transglutaminase-mediated incorporation of poly(ethylene glycol) derivatives (Sato, H., Yamamoto, K, Hayashi, E, Takahara, Y, Bioconjugate Chem. 11(4), 502–509 (2000)). But this method showed only low yields and needs incorporation of a peptide tag at the N-terminus and hence modifies the polypeptide structure.
Modification with glyoxylyl-based labelling reagents also enables selective N-terminal modification (Zhao, Z G, Im, J S, Clarke, D F, Bioconjugate Chem. 10, 424–430 (1999)) but is restricted to cysteine.
There exists a need for a pegylated EPO composition that is essentially comprised of a single EPO positional isomer and can readily be synthesized with current state of the art production-scale technology.


A holder has a protrusion which protrudes from a side surface at a side opposite in an axial direction with respect to a rolling element held in a pocket toward the side opposite in the axial direction. An oil supply hole which penetrates through the holder from the side surface to a surface at a side of the rolling element in the axial direction is formed in the holder. When the holder rotates, the protrusion guides oil into the oil supply hole, and the oil is introduced from the side surface of the holder to the surface on the side of the rolling element.

JP 2008-144777 A discloses a ball bearing in which a holder which holds a rolling element of a ball bearing in a manner to allow rolling is formed from a resin composition, and dimples are formed in a dispersed manner on the sliding-contact surface of the holder on which the rolling element slidingly contacts the holder, to thereby provide an oil-retaining characteristic.
JP 2008-144777 A discloses a measure to improve the oil-retaining characteristic by forming the dimples on the sliding-contact surface of the holder on which the rolling element slidingly contacts the holder in such a manner as to create an oil reservoir, to thereby suppress shortages of oil during high-speed rotation. However, when this bearing is rotated at a high speed, inflow of oil to a rolling surface onto which the rolling element, which is rolling on raceway surfaces of an outer ring and an inner ring, is in contact is drastically reduced. Under such circumstances measures to improve the oil-retaining characteristic of the sliding-contact surface of the holder described in JP 2008-144777 A may prove insufficient to ensure sufficient oiling of the rolling surface.
In light of the above, a testing apparatus was fabricated which enables visualization of a lubrication state inside a ball bearing which rotates with a high speed, and the lubrication state inside the ball bearing was observed when a ball bearing of the related art was rotated at a high speed. The ball bearing 1 used for the evaluation testing was a visualized bearing having a shape corresponding to a model 6808, and of which only the outer ring 2 was made of quartz. FIGS. 7 and 8 show an overall structure of the ball bearing 1. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the ball bearing 1 comprises the outer ring 2 which is made of quartz and transparent, an inner ring 3 made of a steel material, steel balls 4 which are rolling elements, and a holder 5 which holds the steel balls 4 spaced apart in the circumferential direction, in a manner to allow rolling.
FIGS. 9, 10, and 11 show the shape of the holder 5. In order to clearly show the shape of the holder 5, in FIG. 10 a cross section of only the holder 5 and the steel ball 4 are shown. On the holder 5, a pocket 6 which holds the steel ball 4 in a manner to allow rolling is formed on one side in an axial direction, with the pocket 6 having a shape with one side opened. A side surface 7 on the other side in the axial direction of the holder 5 is flat. On the side surface 7 of the holder, no oil-passing hole penetrating in the axial direction is formed.
FIG. 12 shows an overview of the testing apparatus used for the evaluation testing. A rotational shaft 8 extending in a horizontal direction is rotatably supported by two shaft supporting bearings 9, and is rotated by a motor 10. The rotational shaft 8 is inserted into and fixed on an inner side of the inner ring 3 of the ball bearing 1, and the inner ring 3 rotates integrally with the rotational shaft 8. The outer ring 2 of the ball bearing 1 is fixed at the inside of a housing 11. A camera 12 is placed above the ball bearing 1. Because an observation hole 13 is formed in the housing 11 above the ball bearing 1, the camera 12 can image a topmost part of the outer ring 2 from above.
An oil supply nozzle 14 supplies oil between the topmost part of the outer ring 2 and the inner ring 3, and the oil accumulated in the housing 11 below the ball bearing 1 is recovered and circulated by an oil pump 15. The oil used was a commercially available automatic transmission fluid (ATF), Toyota Auto Fluid WS, into which a fluorescent agent Coumarin-6 was mixed, and the distribution of an amount of oil was observed using a fluorescence method. An LED flash illumination with a wavelength of 405 nm was used as an excitation light.
FIG. 13 is a top view of the ball bearing 1. Because the outer ring 2 is made of transparent quartz, a raceway surface 3a of the inner ring 3 and a position of the steel ball 4 can also be evaluated when the ball bearing 1 is viewed from above. The region in FIG. 13 surrounded by a broken line is the observation region of the camera 12. The observation region 12 has a field of view of 23.6 mm×17.7 mm. When the LED flash was set to illuminate every 3 μsec, light was illuminated corresponding to a frame rate of 40 fps of the camera 12, and oil distribution inside the rotating ball bearing 1 was observed. With the oil supply to the ball bearing 1 maintained at a constant of 100 ml/min, and the radial load applied to the ball bearing 1 from above held at a constant 300 N, a rotational rate around the axis was varied between about 2000 rpm and about 20000 rpm for observation.
FIGS. 14 and 15 schematically show the resulting observed oil distribution around the rolling surface. FIG. 14 shows the result observed at an axial rotational rate of about 2000 rpm (specifically, 1910 rpm), and FIG. 15 shows the result observed at an axial rotational rate of about 20000 rpm (specifically, 20200 rpm). In FIGS. 14 and 15, the position of the steel ball 4 is shown with a solid line, a center line of the steel ball 4 is shown with a one-dot-and-chain line, and a position of the holder 5 is shown with a two-dots-and-chain line. The steel ball 4 revolves toward a right side of FIGS. 14 and 15. FIGS. 14 and 15 also show the oil supply nozzle 14. In FIGS. 14 and 15, regions where a greater amount of oil was observed are shown with thicker slanted lines, while white regions show where oil was almost non-existent.
As shown in FIG. 14, when the axial rotational rate is relatively low, about 2,000 rpm, the oil fills the entirety of all regions other than the region near an exit side of the steel ball 4 (left side of the steel ball 4 in FIG. 14). On the exit side of the steel ball 4, a region of a low amount of oil can be observed, which can be deduced as resulting from removal of the oil due to revolution of the steel ball 4 or occurrence of cavitation.
As shown in FIG. 15, when the axial rotational rate is relatively high, about 20,000 rpm, the oil does not fill the revolution raceway portion of the steel ball 4 and the holder 5, but is distributed at an outer side in the axial direction or near a boundary of the revolution raceway portion. This can be deduced to be caused by excessive increase of the rate of removal of oil with respect to the rate of inflow rate of oil due to the revolution of the steel ball 4 and the rotation of the holder 5 at high speed, and to enlargement of the cavitation region at the exit side of the steel ball 4 (at the left side of the steel ball 4 in FIG. 15) as a consequence of the higher rate of revolution of the steel ball 4. A large triangular shaped pool of oil is present at the entrance side of the steel ball 4 (the right side of the steel ball 4 in FIG. 15). This can be deduced to be caused by supply of the oil from the side of the inner ring 3 at an opening of the U-shape pocket 6 of the holder 5. However, in either case, as under the high speed conditions the amount of oil at the entrance side of the steel ball 4 and at a vertex portion of the steel ball 4 which becomes the rolling surface with the outer ring 2 is reduced as compared to under low speed rotation, it can be seen that an oil deficiency has occurred. From the viewpoint of reduction of a frictional torque, a lower amount of oil on the rolling surface is superior, but from the viewpoint of prevention of wear and seizing, excessive oil deficiency must be suppressed.
As described, observation of the distribution of the oil inside of the ball bearing 1 revealed that, during high speed rotation, the oil was wiped off by the steel ball 4 and the holder 5 rotating at a high speed, and the amount of oil flowing into the raceway portions of the steel ball 4 and the holder 5 was very low. Although it may be possible under such conditions to suppress seizing and wear by improving the oil-retaining characteristic through the measure described in JP 2008-144777 A for short-term usage, the oil will eventually dry up after a long period of time under such usage conditions, resulting in an inability to suppress seizing and wear. Thus, in order to suppress seizing and wear over a long-term usage of the ball bearing at a high speed rotation, it is necessary to promote oil inflow to the entrance side of the steel ball 4, for which the provision of the dimples as disclosed in JP 2008-144777 A is insufficient.
An advantage of the present disclosure lies in provision of a ball bearing in which, even with a high-speed rotation, the oil deficiency at the rolling surface can be suppressed, and occurrence of seizing or wear can be suppressed.


A wheel spacer is provided for spacing a reinforcing rod for a cementitious structure away from an object during fabrication of the structure. The spacer consists of two substantially semicircular sections configured for connection together with the rod abuttingly retained in saddles generally situated at the center of the sections when connected together in an assembled configuration for the spacer. Each section has, on an inner wall thereof in which the saddles are situated, primary inserting arms for insertion into apertures for locking engagement with teeth on the inserting arms with teeth on receiving arms of the other section. Retaining arms having guide walls further facilitate retention of the rod and guiding thereof towards the saddles while the spacer is placed in the assembled configuration.

Wheel spacers for positioning or spacing reinforcing rods which reinforce cementitious structures relative an object, such as a mold or wall containing the structure, during the manufacture of the structure are well known in the art. Such wheel spacers typically are circular in form on an outer wall thereof and have an inner saddle formed by an inner wall thereof in which the rod is held. The rod, seated in the saddle, is spaced from the object by abutment of the outer wall against the object.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,694,989 teaches a wheel spacer having a saddle for the rod essentially at the center thereof, relative the outer wall which abuts the object for spacing the rod therefrom. The rod is held in place in the saddle by a locking member which is slid into a groove, via a gap in the outer wall, leading into the saddle. Unfortunately, if equal and uniform spacing of each rod relative the object is desired, due to the gap in the outer wheel, each wheel spacer of this type must be positioned carefully with regard to every other wheel spacer of this type to ensure that either the gap abuts the object or the solid circular part of the spacer abuts the object. Otherwise, different rods in the structure may not be equally spaced relative the object.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,785 discloses a wheel spacer which partially circumvents the aforementioned difficulty. The spacer consists of two largely symmetrical and semicircular sections which each have a respective saddle extending on an inner wall thereof towards the respective outer wall thereof. Thus, the rod may be placed or aligned with one of the saddles of one section and then sections connected together in abutment with one another, notably the outer walls thereof. Thus, the rod is held in the saddles and there is no substantially gap in between the outer walls. Unfortunately, the attachment members by which the two sections are attached, essentially arms having single protrusions or clips on the ends thereof, allow for little adjustment of the space provided by the saddle, and thus the size of the rod held thereby. Further removal of the rod, which may be occasionally desired prior to manufacture of the rod, may be rendered difficult as the attachment members may make separating of the attachment members difficult. Further, and inconveniently, the rod must be precisely positioned in one of the saddles prior to attachment of the sections together as there is no means provided for retaining and guiding the rod into the saddles as the sections are being connected.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,347,787 discloses a single piece wheel spacer having two sections joined by a hinged portion on the outer wall, and which obviates some of the aforementioned difficulties by providing retaining arms which guide the rod towards the saddles. However, as the two sections of the wheel spacer are permanently attached to one another at the hinged portion, the wheel spacer may, in some circumstances where space is limited, be difficult to place around the rod. Further, removal of the spacer from the rod in the event that repositioning of the spacer is desired, for example before apply cementitious material for manufacture of the cementitious structure may be encumbered due the connection of the sections at the hinged portion. In addition, during seating of the rod in the saddles, there is always a risk that the rod will fall between the saddles and the hinged portion which may break the hinged portion or require lifting of the rod back into alignment with the saddles.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved wheel spacer for spacing a reinforcing rod during manufacturing of a cementitious structure.

Wheel spacer for reinforcing rods of cementitious structures


A method of forming a multiwell filtration plate comprising of first gluing a filter to a major surface of a multiwell plate so as to close off one entrance to the wells of the plate. The filter is then heat sealed so as to collapse the pores of the filter in the area between the wells so as to prevent lateral migration of fluid from one well to another.

Multiwell plates have existed for many years. Most are in multiples of 6, 8 or 12 such as 24, 96 or 384 wells in a single plate.
Methods to attach the filter material to the bottom of the plate so as to seal off the bottom of each well by the porous filter material have included mechanical means such as friction fitting of individual pieces in each well or clips or edge bands to hold the filter material against the bottom; adhesives, heat bonding, over molding and thermal bonding via an under drain.
Each approach has its drawbacks. Simply stuffing a cut piece into each well is time consuming and provides less than 100% sealing accuracy. With the 384 well format, this approach is impractical. Likewise, using a clamp or edge band allows the filter material in the middle to separate from the bottom of the wells allowing for cross talk or contamination between wells.
Adhesives require proper placement and alignment of the adhesive and filter material so as to prevent adhesives from spreading into the area of filter inside the well that reduces its active filtration area. Moreover, adhesives do not extend through the entire thickness of the filter material allowing for cross talk and contamination between wells through the filter material beyond the glue.
Overmolding or insert molding eliminates cross talk and forms an integral well, but it is costly to set up and run and is a relatively slow process. Moreover, its use at smaller well sizes (384+) is limited by the ability to form channels and gates for the introduction of the molten plastic in that small area.
Using thermal energy to bond and seal the filter to the bottom of the plate is difficult. Achieving 100% sealing of the filter to the bottom by thermal bonding is not possible. Some filter materials do not bond properly to the material of the plate, limiting this approach to only compatible materials. Other filters are extremely heat sensitive making this approach untenable as the filter structure tends to collapse to such an extent that active filtration area is compromised.
Using thermal energy to trap the filter between an upper plate and lower plate is possible. Again, it is limited in speed and cost to set up and run. Moreover, it requires the use of a fixed design for a bottom plate that may either be unnecessary or improperly suited for the desired application.
What is desired is a process that is fast, inexpensive and reliable for making a multiwell filtration plate where each well is integrally sealed about its edge and no cross talk or contamination between wells is possible. The present invention provides such a process.

Method of forming multiwell filtration plates


A network device for use in a data communication network comprises: a multiplicity of ports capable of receiving input data; a common buffer memory for storing in respective buffers data received by the input ports; and processing system for controlling the writing of data into buffers and the reading of data from said buffers. The processing system determines whether the extent of occupation of the common buffer memory exceeds a threshold defined to represent congestion of the memory. Counter system enabled by the processing system on detection of the aforementioned threshold count units of input data through the respective ports, the processing system decrementing these counters as data is read out from the common buffer memory.

Network devices which have a multiplicity of input ports for the reception of data such as packet data, from a variety of sources commonly provide buffering of the input ports. Thus data received at a port is stored in a buffer memory temporarily until such time as it can be transmitted onwards to its intended destination. By way of example only, the device may include some system for giving data of one type or another or data from a source or group of sources priority over other data. For this purpose the network device might have a contention-resolution system, such as a csma/cd contention-resolution system wherein data from only one port at a time may be transmitted onwardly.
Modern network devices of this general character commonly include a single large memory, or possibly a set of memories which are operated as a single logical entity. The memory may be constituted by random access memory which is under the control of an appropriate processing device which may have recourse to a table of pointers which define and provide access to individual buffers within the memory. Data from any given port may be directed to a buffer by means of a respective pointer, this buffer remaining occupied until, normally under control of the processing means and a respective read pointer, the data is onwardly transmitted either directly or by way of an output buffer and the buffer is `returned`, that is to say made available for the storage of fresh data received from one or other of the input ports.
In systems of this nature, there is a significant danger that ports that are constantly busy can demand data storage in all the available memory space so that other ports which are receiving data are deprived of buffers for the storage of data received at those ports. In such circumstances data packets may be dropped, to the obvious detriment of the performance of the network, particularly in respect of traffic through non-congested ports.
It is common practice to provide some protection for the congestion of buffer memory. One example is to provide for each receiving port a respective buffer of which the operation is independent of the main common buffer memory and which acts as another stage of buffering. For example, a first-in, first-out (FIFO) memory may be provided for each port. Such a solution requires additional hardware and control for each port. Another solution is to associate in the main common memory certain groups of buffers with each port, so that a portion of the buffer memory is reserved for the use of each respective port. Such a system is more complex to control than an ordinary buffer memory and is somewhat inflexible.

Multi-port communication network device including common buffer memory with threshold control of port packet counters


This invention addresses the problem of inserting foreign or nonative DNA into a cell and, most particularly, into a plant cell. The solution to this problem of DNA transfer set forth in this invention is the use of a polycationic compound and cationic liposomes which act synergistically to accomplish host cell transformation.

Much excitement has been generated in the technical, scientific and lay communities about the potential benefits arising from the developments of genetic engineering technology. Most frequently, public attention and praise are focused on the pharmacological and public health benefits associated with genetic engineering. Examples of the genetically engineered pharmaceutical products that have been given kudos include genetically engineered tissue plasminogen activator and, more recently, erythropoietin.
It is understandable that these pharmaceutical and public health related achievements have garnered much of the public attention surrounding genetic engineering. However, application of genetic engineering technology to nonpharmaceutical related areas holds the same excitement and promise as application of genetic engineering technology to the public health sector. In particular, the application of genetic engineering tools to agricultural products, both plant and animal, holds out the exciting prospect of disease and pest resistant animals and plants. In this connection, great energies have been spent in these fields as well as public health fields to perfect or optimize the genetic engineering methods used by scientists to create these beneficial fruits of genetically engineered products.
This invention is not the type of genetically engineered discovery that appears on the front pages of newspapers, on the radio or on television. The "sex appeal" that is required to achieve such notoriety is not a part of this invention. Rather, this invention is principally directed to the methodology of genetic engineering. It is envisioned that the application of the methodology taught by this invention will someday result in the creation of a genetically engineered plant, animal or drug that will achieve the type of notoriety which results in extensive media coverage.
Many lay individuals who otherwise understand and, indeed, marvel at the benefits genetic engineering holds for society, do not fully appreciate the high degree of technical skill required to establish a scientific methodology or protocol that permits the actual genetic manipulation of cells. At the most basic level, genetic engineering is the transfer or movement of the "chemical blueprint" of cells, as encoded in nucleic acids, from one cell in which such a chemical blueprint naturally occurs to another cell, called the host cell, that does not naturally contain the chemical blueprint. It is important that this transfer occur in such a way that the host cell can accurately read and express the chemical blueprint even though the blueprint is not its own.
One of the many technical difficulties of genetic engineering is to find a way to move the chemical blueprint, called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), from the cell in which it naturally occurs into the host cell. This problem of DNA movement required to transfect or transform a host cell is particularly acute in the case of plant host cell transformation, although the problem is certainly also prevalent in the transformation of other cellular life forms.
Various methodologies have been introduced into the genetic engineering field to facilitate this transfer of DNA from one cell to another. Included in such transfer technologies are the methods of electroporation, high velocity microprojectiles, polyethylene glycol (PEG) transformation, calcium phosphate, microinjection and Aqrobacterium-mediated transformation. Problems, particularly with DNA transformation of cells especially plant cells and most especially monocot plant cells such as corn (maize), are extant with all these methodologies.
For example, electroporation is many times an inefficient and highly costly methodology. Although electroporation is a reliable procedure, it results in pronounced loss of cell viability (3, 7) caused by, among other factors, destruction of the cell membrane and/or of cell wall integrity. Microprojectiles are cumbersome to use, costly and, as their name implies, damaging to cell membranes and/or cell walls causing significant loss of cell viability by virtue of the fact that a bullet-like projectile is being "shot" into the host cell. Aorobacterium-mediated DNA transformation is a painstaking process. In addition, it is not useful for monocot plant species generally because certain species are not susceptible to infection or transformation by Aqrobacterium bacteria, a step necessary for subsequent DNA transfer. The PEG methodology for host cell transfection is an extremely difficult methodology over which a genetic engineering researcher has somewhat minimal control and this methodology is highly toxic to cells generally. In addition to the difficulties associated with the aforementioned methodologies, all DNA transformation techniques must address the problem of introducing foreign DNA into a host cell so that the foreign DNA manifests some significant stability in the host cell thereby achieving the ultimate aim of genetic transformation--to stably express the transformed DNA chemical in a host cell. This is referred to as stable transformation of the host.
Achieving stable host transformation is a problem that extends across all forms of cellular life. However, the problem is especially acute in plant cells. Unlike animal cells that have no cell walls, plant cells have cellulosic cell walls. It is a characteristic of these cell walls that they are very difficult to penetrate. Accordingly, transformation of plant cells has proved more difficult than transformation of other cells because scientists attempting to transform nonplant cells need not deal with the complex problems of moving DNA across the cellulosic plant cell wall. Thus, it is easier to move DNA into an animal cell than a plant cell. Scientists have surmounted this problem by modifying plant cells so that the cellulosic cell wall is removed providing direct access to the plant cell membrane. (Because animal cells lack cell walls, membranes form the outer boundary of animal cells.) Plant cells lacking cell walls are termed protoplasts or naked cells. Because the cell wall is removed from these plant cells, the ability to transform such cells with nonnative DNA is increased. In most cases, the cell walls regenerate in 6-24 hours.
The achievement of stable transformation is a relative criterion that is principally a function of the time in which foreign DNA is inside a host cell and in which the host cell maintains the ability to express the transformed DNA. In plants and in animals such stable transformation is best achieved by methods which lead to the incorporation of the foreign DNA into chromosomes. However, stable integration especially in animal cells can be achieved with certain vectors that replicate freely in animal cells without integration into chromosomes. Until stable transformation is achieved, the transformation is said to be transient. Obviously, any host cell that has been stably transformed has passed through a stage at which it could only be said that the host cell was transiently transformed. However, it must be appreciated that transient transformation of a cell (and transient expression of the transformed DNA) is not a guarantor that stable transformation will occur. Among the reasons for this is the relative unpredictability of biological systems.
The transformation technique of this invention is a simple and elegant protocol that uses two common, relatively inexpensive "off-the-shelf" chemicals in a combined or coordinated manner such that a synergistic effect between the two chemicals results as manifest by extremely efficient DNA transformation in all cells, most notably in plant cells and especially notably in monocot plant cells. Indeed, the two chemicals that are combined by this invention, a polycation compound and a cationic liposome compound, have been used individually to effect DNA transformation. Although other researchers have combined DNA transformation methodologies in the past, in particular combining the techniques of PEG and electroporation (29), the reports of the alleged success of this latter combination have been dubiously received by the scientific community. Regardless of that, the combination of the present invention results in a very efficient transformation, significantly greater than the PEG and electroporation combination even assuming that such a combination is effective. Thus, this invention teaches a methodology termed 2PC that permits transient and stable transformation of host cells.
This invention employs two common chemicals used in an extremely simple methodology that does not require sophisticated machinery or great expense. Accordingly, this invention has great application for all genetic engineering laboratory undertakings, whether in highly sophisticated molecular biology research labs such as are extant in major universities and corporations throughout the world, or whether in simple laboratory settings such as in a high school biology laboratory.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for transforming a host cell. More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide a method for transformation of plant cells, especially monocot plant cells.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a method of cell transformation that is applicable to all cells and that employs relatively low technology means thus providing for the use of this technology by a broad spectrum of laboratories.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide for transformed cells that have been transformed by the synergistic action of a polycation compound and a cationic liposome to effect both transient and stable transformation of the host cell.

Synergistic method for host cell transformation