The invention provides, for example, a gene comprising a polynucleotide coding for the polypeptide having the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:3. The gene shows amplification in the 9p23-24 region, has a PX domain and PHD finger motifs, plays an important role in cell growth and differentiation, and in tumorigenesis, and is useful in elucidating the pathology of various diseases caused by a protein involved in cell differentiation in malignant tumor or the like, and in the diagnosis and treatment of such diseases.

Gene amplification is often observed in tumor cells. Such amplification constitutes one of the mechanisms of protooncogene activation that influences the progress of tumor (Stark, G. R. et al., Cell, 57, 901–908 (1989)). The identification of amplification of a target gene occurring in the amplified region and the characterization of the same provides important information in clarifying the molecular mechanisms of the development and advancement of cancer.
Esophageal carcinoma is ranked as the sixth cause of deaths due to cancers in the world (Pisani, P. et al., Int. J. Cancer, 83, 18–29 (1999)). The two main histopathological types of tumors found in esophageal cancer tissues are squamous cell carcinoma and adenomatous carcinoma. Squamous cell carcinoma is the type most frequently found in Japan as in other countries (Public Welfare White Paper 1999).
Several gene modifications involved in development, advancement and metastasis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (inclusive of amplification of MYC, EGFR and CCND1) have already been identified (Lu, S. H. et al., Int. J. Cancer, 42, 502–505 (1988); Jiang, W. et al., Cancer Res., 52, 2980–2983 (1992)).
Recent studies based on the comparative genomic hybridization technique (CGH; Kallioniemi et al., Science, 258, 818–821 (1992)) have newly revealed at least ten amplification regions in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (Pack, S. D., Genes Chromosomes Cancer, 25, 160–168 (1999); Shinomiya, T. et al., Genes Chromosomes Cancer, 24, 337–344 (1999); Du Plessis, L. et al., Cancer Res., 59, 1877–1883 (1999)). However, no genes involved in esophageal squamous cell cancer have been identified in those detected chromosomal amplification regions.
The inventors searched for abnormal DNA copy numbers in 29 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell lines and, as a result, detected several new amplification regions. These amplification regions can be confirmed in the chromosome region 9p23-24 with high frequency.
On the other hand, a genomic change in the chromosome region 9p23-24 is reported to be associated with various malignancies such as nonsmall cell lung carcinoma, liver carcinoma, ovarian carcinoma, uterine cervix carcinoma, mammary carcinoma, osteosarcoma and mediastinal B cell lymphoma (Knuutila, S. et al., Am. J. Pathol., 152, 1107–1123 (1998)).
Taking this report into consideration, it is inferred that there is a possibility that one or more genes capable of functioning as an oncogene activated by amplification might be found in the above chromosome region 9p23-24, irrespective of tissue type.


A water/soap sprayer for attachment to a kitchen faucet includes a sprayer unit having a handle section and a nozzle section having an outflow nozzle end. A water flow conduit extends through the sprayer unit for transferring water through the sprayer unit and to the outflow nozzle end, the water flow conduit including a Venturi passage section for accelerating fluid flow therethrough. A detergent flow conduit extends through the sprayer unit and is connected in fluid connection with the Venturi passage section of the water flow conduit within the sprayer unit. A water flow control valve is mounted within the sprayer unit, the water flow control valve operative to restrict and permit water flow through the water flow tube, the water flow control valve in the water flow conduit positioned upstream from the Venturi passage section of the water flow conduit. A detergent flow control valve is mounted within the sprayer unit, the detergent flow control valve operative to restrict and permit detergent flow into the Venturi passage section of the water flow conduit. A flexible water supply conduit and a flexible detergent supply conduit are connected, respectively, to the water flow conduit and the detergent flow conduit and respectively to a water source and a detergent repository. The sprayer unit is operative to clean items by actuation of the water flow control valve and the detergent flow control valve whereby a water/detergent mix is output through the nozzle section of the sprayer unit.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to water and soap dispensers for kitchen faucets and, more particularly, to a water/soap sprayer which includes a nozzle and handle combination, the handle including individual controls for water and detergent flow, a nozzle including a removable cleaning brush, the handle being further connected to a water source and a detergent source.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Since the invention of the dish, there has been a need for a simple and efficient way to clean them. Dish towels, sponges, rags, brushes, and steel wool have all been used for many years with varying degrees of success. With the advent of the dishwasher, many of the problems encountered in cleaning dishes were apparently solved. However, dishwashers to this day remain expensive and cannot be used in many older homes or apartments without major structural modification of the kitchen area. Also, there are numerous other cooking and serving devices which cannot be cleaned in a dishwasher, including electric frying devices, china, crystal, roasting pans, cookie sheets and assorted other dinnerware and cookware. Therefore, while a dishwasher remains one of the best dish cleaning tools available, there remains an unfulfilled need for a tool that can accompany a dishwasher or take the place of a dishwasher where no dishwasher is present. The search is thus continued for an easily operable and efficient cleaning device.
Several examples are found in the prior art which disclose improvements of dish cleaning devices. For example, Gottwald, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,662,768, discloses a hand held kitchen sink spray apparatus with cleaning attachments attached by a quick-release connector. Various brushes and nozzles may be fitted onto the head of the sprayer unit in order to provide different types of cleaning (i.e., water spray, brush, etc.) Several other patents found in the prior art also disclose sink sprayer heads and/or attachments thereto, including Shames, et al., U.S. Design Pat. No. 288,228 and Nicholson, U.S. Design Pat. No. 317,988. It should be noted that none of these references, however, include a means for dispensing soap from the cleaning device, thus requiring that the user of the device add soap from a soap dispenser or the like. There is therefore a need for a sink sprayer which will be capable of dispensing detergent soap in addition to dispensing water therefrom.
Improved attempts at solving the problem of washing dishes are found in the prior art also, including such devices as Manville, U.S. Pat. No. 2,508,958 and Weber, U.S. Pat. No. 2,540,064. Both of these inventions provide improvements over the dish washing devices found previously, yet each include inherent drawbacks. Specifically, while both Manville and Weber disclose dispensing means for liquid soap, neither device includes any means whatsoever to prevent water flow through the system except by turning off the water at the faucet or deactivating the diverter valve which is located on the faucet. This design flaw is unacceptable for several reasons, the most important being that when an individual is cleaning a dish within the sink, one hand will be supporting the dish itself while the other hand is using the cleaning device to clean the dish. As the majority of people in this world only have two hands, the individual cleaning the dish cannot shut off the water flow without setting the dish down. Of course, when the dish is set down, it may become dirty again if water remains in the sink, thus rendering the entire cleaning process meaningless. There is therefore a need for a sink sprayer which includes a cutoff valve for the water on the handle of the sink spray unit itself.
Finally, the position of any such cutoff valve for water on the handle of the sink sprayer unit must be such that it will not interfere with the dispensing of soap into the water stream. Many of the sprayers presently used include a water cutoff valve directly adjacent the nozzle of the sprayer unit. Clearly, the positioning of the water cutoff valve in such a manner would interfere with the placement of any detergent addition mechanism within the sprayer unit. There is therefore a need for a sprayer unit designed such that the water cutoff valve and detergent flow valve will not interfere with the operation of each other.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved water/soap sprayer for kitchen faucets.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a water/soap sprayer for kitchen faucets which includes separate and individually operable water cutoff and detergent dispensing valves.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a water/soap sprayer for kitchen faucets which includes a detergent and water mixing chamber operative to enable the sprayer to dispense a water/detergent combination through a single nozzle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a water/soap sprayer for kitchen faucets which can be quickly and easily fitted to existing faucets or can be installed on any faucet with a sprayer connection.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a water/soap sprayer for kitchen faucets in which the valves for the water cutoff and detergent dispenser may be operated by use of a single finger or thumb.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a water/soap sprayer for a kitchen faucet which includes a nozzle, a handle and two fluid delivery tubes extending into the handle end and connected, respectively, to a detergent dispensing repository position under the sink and a water dispensing spigot.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a water/soap sprayer for a kitchen faucet which includes a nozzle to which attachments may be removed or connected, including such devices as brushes, spray directors, and other such attachments.
Finally, an object of the present invention is to provide water/soap sprayer for a kitchen faucet which is relatively simple and inexpensive to manufacture and safe and efficient in use.


A bumper reinforcement has a generally reversely positioned U-shaped cross section, which is adapted to be combined with a bumper face having a generally U-shaped cross section to constitute a bumper. The bumper reinforcement is removably assembled to within an opening of the bumper face with an opening side of the bumper reinforcement directed toward the bumper face. Also, the bumper reinforcement has a plurality of vertical reinforcing ribs that extend vertically to link upper face portion and lower face portion of the bumper reinforcement with each other, and for segments partitioned by the vertical reinforcing ribs, diagonal reinforcing ribs extend diagonally in the segments and stretched diagonally across vertical reinforcing ribs on both sides of each segment, linking them with each other. The vertical reinforcing ribs and the diagonal reinforcing ribs are integrally molded in the bumper reinforcement.

The present invention relates to a bumper reinforcement to be placed within a bumper face in bumpers of vehicles, such as automobiles.
As the bumper structure for vehicles such as automobiles, there has conventionally been widely well known a bumper structure in which a bumper reinforcement as a reinforcing member is placed inside the bumper face and between them is disposed an impact energy absorber made of, for example, urethane resin foaming material or the like.
In recent years, with a view to reducing the parts count and thereby realizing the simplification of the structure, as well as reducing manufacturing cost, it has also been under consideration to impart impact energy absorbency to a bumper reinforcement and make up a bumper from this reinforcement and the bumper face. In this case, generally, the bumper reinforcement is formed from synthetic resin.
As a bumper of this type, for example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication SHO 63-166855 has disclosed a bumper in which the bumper reinforcement is formed into a U shape in its cross section and placed on the rear face side of the bumper face with the open end side of the U shape directed forward, where the two members are fixed to each other with adhesive.
However, if the bumper face and the bumper reinforcement are adhesively fixed as in the above conventional case, there would be disadvantages such as needing a time consuming bonding process, which requires drying time of adhesive. Moreover, the whole bumper including the bumper reinforcement, needs to be replaced even when only the bumper face is damaged. Further, because a metallic bracket for use of mounting the bumper reinforcement to vehicle-body side members generally needs to be preliminarily provided inside the bumper reinforcement and this metallic bracket could not be removed even at disposal of the bumper reinforcement, the bumper reinforcement formed from synthetic resin would result in poor recyclability another disadvantage.
As to the bumper performance at a collision of the vehicle, when a collision load is input to the bumper face, the less backward displacement of the bumper reinforcement rear face (in particular, the rear face of central portion in the direction of vehicle width) is preferable in terms of the protection of the vehicle body. For example, in the legal regulations of the United States, so-called pendulum tests are provided in PART 581.
Under the circumstance that the structure for improving such performance has been being discussed in various ways, there is a need for a bumper reinforcement without any complication of the prior art structure and increased manufacturing cost and the like.


The present invention relates to materials and methods for prevention, treatment and diagnosing of infections caused by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori). More specifically the present invention relates to new specific variable antibody regions, derivatives thereof and the fully human immunoglobulin, Abba3, which exhibit specific activity to the BabA antigen, expressed by H. pylori, methods for the production of said immunoglobulins, their isolation and use, for example in detection of disease causing H. pylori. The present invention also relates to immunization therapies, i.e. passive vaccination for the treatment and prevention of pathologic infections caused by H. pylori strains.

H. pylori is a Gram negative bacterium that colonizes the human gastric mucosa causing chronic gastritis that may progress to peptic ulceration and gastric cancer (Blaser, M. J., and D. E. Berg. 2001. Helicobacter pylori genetic diversity and risk of human disease. J Clin Invest 107:767-773). H. pylori expresses adhesins on its surface which provides intimate adherence to the gastric mucosa, allowing these auxotroph organisms to gain nutrients from host tissues. The BabA adhesin is a member of the paralogous family of outer membrane proteins (Alm, R. A., J. Bina, B. M. Andrews, P. Doig, R. E. Hancock, and T. J. Trust. 2000. Comparative genomics of Helicobacter pylori: analysis of the outer membrane protein families. Infect Immun 68:4155-4168) that binds to fucosylated ABO/Lewis b blood group antigens which are expressed on epithelial cells (Boren, T., P. Falk, K. A. Roth, G. Larson, and S. Normark. 1993. Attachment of Helicobacter pylori to human gastric epithelium mediated by blood group antigens. Science 262:1892-1895 and Ilver, D., A. Arnqvist, J. Ogren, I. M. Frick, D. Kersulyte, E. T. Incecik, D. E. Berg, A. Covacci, L. Engstrand, and T. Boren. 1998. Helicobacter pylori adhesin binding fucosylated histo-blood group antigens revealed by retagging. Science 279:373-37).
BabA is a possible vaccine candidate since a high proportion of clinical isolates has been shown to express BabA (Ilver, D., A. Arnqvist, J. Ogren, I. M. Frick, D. Kersulyte, E. T. Incecik, D. E. Berg, A. Covacci, L. Engstrand, and T. Boren. 1998. Helicobacter pylori adhesin binding fucosylated histo-blood group antigens revealed by retagging. Science 279:373-377; Kim, S. Y., C. W. Woo, Y. M. Lee, B. R. Son, J. W. Kim, H. B. Chae, S. J. Youn, and S. M. Park. 2001. Genotyping CagA, VacA subtype, IceA1, and BabA of Helicobacter pylori isolates from Korean patients, and their association with gastroduodenal diseases. J Korean Med Sci 16:579-584, and Mizushima, T., T. Sugiyama, Y. Komatsu, J. Ishizuka, M. Kato, and M. Asaka. 2001. Clinical relevance of the babA2 genotype of Helicobacter pylori in Japanese clinical isolates. J Clin Microbiol 39:2463-2465). Active vaccination against H. pylori is difficult, due to the low immune activity in the GI-tract. One other issue is the high recombination rate of H. pylori. Passive immunization on the contrary is more advantageous, because the Abba3 antibodies bind to the antigen, making it difficult for the H. pylori to adhere to the mucosa.
Recent studies have also demonstrated a significant association between the expression of BabA and development of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer (Gerhard, M., N. Lehn, N. Neumayer, T. Boren, R. Rad, W. Schepp, S. Miehlke, M. Classen, and C. Prinz. 1999. Clinical relevance of the Helicobacter pylori gene for blood-group antigen-binding adhesin. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 96:12778-12783 and Prinz, C., N. Hafsi, and P. Voland. 2003. Helicobacter pylori virulence factors and the host immune response: implications for therapeutic vaccination. Trends Microbiol 11:134-138). Currently, the feasibility of passive immunotherapy by delivery of highly ABO/Lewis b fucosylated glycoconjugates is being investigated (Gustafsson, A., A. Hultberg, R. Sjostrom, I. Kacskovics, M. E. Breimer, T. Boren, L. Hammarstrom, and J. Holgersson. 2006. Carbohydrate-dependent inhibition of Helicobacter pylori colonization using porcine milk. Glycobiology 16:1-10., and Xu, H. T., Y. F. Zhao, Z. X. Lian, B. L. Fan, Z. H. Zhao, S. Y. Yu, Y. P. Dai, L. L. Wang, H. L. Niu, N. Li, L. Hammarstrom, T. Boren, and R. Sjostrom. 2004. Effects of fucosylated milk of goat and mouse on Helicobacter pylori binding to Lewis b antigen. World J Gastroenterol 10:2063-2066). Alternatively, antibody derivatives that interfere with mucosal adherence could be administered orally or produced in situ by GRAS (Generally Recognised As Safe) microorganisms as shown by oral administration of IgG against H. pylori (Casswall, T. H., H. O, Nilsson, L. Bjorck, S. Sjostedt, L. Xu, C. K. Nord, T. Boren, T. Wadstrom, and L. Hammarstrom. 2002. Bovine anti-Helicobacter pylori antibodies for oral immunotherapy. Scand J Gastroenterol 37:1380-1385, and Keenan, J., S, Neal, R. Allardyce, and J. Roake. 2002. Serum-derived IgG1-mediated immune exclusion as a mechanism of protection against H. pylori infection. Vaccine 20:2981-2988), or by the administration of a Lactobacillus expressing a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) against Streptococcus mutants (Kruger, C., Y. Hu, Q. Pan, H. Marcotte, A. Hultberg, D. Delwar, P. J. Van Dalen, P. H. Pouwels, R. J. Leer, C. G. Kelly, C. van Dollenweerd, J. K. Ma, and L. Hammarstrom. 2002. In situ delivery of passive immunity by lactobacilli producing single-chain antibodies. Nat Biotechnol 20:702-706). scFv is a genetically engineered antibody that consists of the variable heavy chain (VH) and light chain (VL) of an immunoglobulin joined together by a flexible peptide linker.
The bacteria in the stomach are not only confronted by host-specific environmental conditions but also face changes of the mucosal glycosylation pattern during disease progression. The remarkable ability of H. pylori to establish a chronic and persistent infection despite is likely due to be due its extraordinarily high recombination rate (Falush, D., C. Kraft, N. S. Taylor, P. Correa, J. G. Fox, M. Achtman, and S. Suerbaum. 2001. Recombination and mutation during long-term gastric colonization by Helicobacter pylori: estimates of clock rates, recombination size, and minimal age. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:15056-15061).
The ability of H. pylori to switch between tight adherence and non-adherence gives the bacterium access to nutrients leaking from the inflamed tissue but also exposes the bacterium to the inflammatory host response (Rhen, M., S. Eriksson, M. Clements, S. Bergstrom, and S. J. Normark. 2003. The basis of persistent bacterial infections. Trends Microbiol 11:80-86).
BabA contributes to the flexibility in binding by frameshift-based variation in the CT-rich leader-sequence, horizontal gene transfer and gene conversion with babB and babC (Aspholm-Hurtig, M., G. Dailide, M. Lahmann, A. Kalia, D. Ilver, N. Roche, S. Vikstrom, R. Sjostrom, S. Linden, A. Backstrom, C. Lundberg, A. Arnqvist, J. Mandavi, U. J. Nilsson, B. Velapatino, R. H. Gilman, M. Gerhard, T. Alarcon, M. Lopez-Brea, T. Nakazawa, J. G. Fox, P. Correa, M. G. Dominguez-Bello, G. I. Perez-Perez, M. J. Blaser, S, Normark, I. Carlstedt, S. Oscarson, S. Teneberg, D. E. Berg, and T. Boren. 2004. Functional adaptation of BabA, the H. pylori ABO blood group antigen binding adhesin. Science 305:519-522; Backstrom, A., C. Lundberg, D. Kersulyte, D. E. Berg, T. Boren, and A. Arnqvist. 2004. Metastability of Helicobacter pylori bab adhesin genes and dynamics in Lewis b antigen binding. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:16923-16928 and Solnick, J. V., L. M. Hansen, N. R. Salama, J. K. Boonjakuakul, and M. Syvanen. 2004. Modification of Helicobacter pylori outer membrane protein expression during experimental infection of rhesus macaques. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:2106-2111), outer membrane proteins (OMPs) closely related to BabA in their N- and C-terminal region but located in different loci. Even though BabA is mainly found in the babA locus, gene conversion with BabB located in the babB locus leads to the formation of either full a length BabA under the control of the weaker BabB promoter or to chimeric BabA/BabB genes with the site of recombination upstream of the unique region that distinguishes BabA from BabB (Colbeck, J. C., L. M. Hansen, J. M. Fong, and J. V. Solnick. 2006. Genotypic profile of the outer membrane proteins. BabA and BabB in clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori. Infect Immun 74:4375-4378. 13. Dubel, S., F. Breitling, P. Fuchs, M. Braunagel, I. Klewinghaus, and M. Little. 1993. A family of vectors for surface display and production of antibodies. Gene 128:97-101). Recombination can also lead to the presence of BabB within the babA locus with subsequent loss of Lewis b binding in infected macaques and patients (Colbeck, J. C., L. M. Hansen, J. M. Fong, and J. V. Solnick. 2006. Genotypic profile of the outer membrane proteins BabA and BabB in clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori. Infect Immun 74:4375-4378; Dubel, S., F. Breitling, P. Fuchs, M. Braunagel, I. Klewinghaus, and M. Little. 1993. A family of vectors for surface display and production of antibodies. Gene 128:97-101; Hennig, E. E., J. M. Allen, and T. L. Cover. 2006. Multiple chromosomal loci for the babA gene in Helicobacter pylori. Infect Immun 74:3046-3051; Hennig, E. E., R. Mernaugh, J. Edl, P. Cao, and T. L. Cover. 2004. Heterogeneity among Helicobacter pylori strains in expression of the outer membrane protein BabA. Infect Immun 72:3429-3435 and Solnick, J. V., L. M. Hansen, N. R. Salama, J. K. Boonjakuakul, and M. Syvanen. 2004. Modification of Helicobacter pylori outer membrane protein expression during experimental infection of rhesus macaques. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:2106-2111). The third locus BabC, formerly only described in strain 26695, has recently been shown to be involved in the recombination exchange with BabA in additional strains (Colbeck, J. C., L. M. Hansen, J. M. Fong, and J. V. Solnick. 2006. Genotypic profile of the outer membrane proteins BabA and BabB in clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori. Infect Immun 74:4375-4378. 13. Dubel, S., F. Breitling, P. Fuchs, M. Braunagel, I. Klewinghaus, and M. Little. 1993. A family of vectors for surface display and production of antibodies. Gene 128:97-101; Hennig, E. E., J. M. Allen, and T. L. Cover. 2006. Multiple chromosomal loci for the babA gene in Helicobacter pylori. Infect Immun 74:3046-3051. 21. Hennig, E. E., R. Mernaugh, J. Edl, P. Cao, and T. L. Cover. 2004. Heterogeneity among Helicobacter pylori strains in expression of the outer membrane protein BabA. Infect Immun 72:3429-3435).
Backström et al. (Backstrom, A., C. Lundberg, D. Kersulyte, D. E. Berg, T. Boren, and A. Arnqvist. 2004. Metastability of Helicobacter pylori bab adhesin genes and dynamics in Lewis b antigen binding. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:16923-16928) have shown that among clinical H. pylori isolates which had lost their ability to bind Lewis b, a small fraction of the bacterial population harbored a BabB/BabA chimera and Lewis b binding could be reconstituted by panning with Lewis b coated magnetic beads in vitro. This will enable the bacterium to respond to a changing glycosylation pattern upon an inflammatory host response. Gene conversion leads to the formation of a mosaic pattern of BabA, but mutation of the CBD (carbohydrate-binding domain) will lead to the loss of function and thereby to a reduced survival of H. pylori in the acute phase of infection in which the blood group antigens are still highly expressed on the epithelial cells.
The exclusive presence of babB in the babA locus of analyzed strains at the end of an experimental infection of rhesus macaques has led to the hypothesis that antigenic variation is used to avoid the host immune response (Solnick, J. V., L. M. Hansen, N. R. Salama, J. K. Boonjakuakul, and M. Syvanen. 2004. Modification of Helicobacter pylori outer membrane protein expression during experimental infection of rhesus macaques. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101:2106-2111). The antigenicity of H. pylori antigens in patient's sera has been tested in two reports but since the proteins were denatured with urea prior to 2D-separation, the possibility to detect conformational dependent membrane proteins was rather limited (Haas, G., G. Karaali, K. Ebermayer, W. G. Metzger, S. Lamer, U. Zimny-Arndt, S. Diescher, U. B. Goebel, K. Vogt, A. B. Roznowski, B. J. Wiedenmann, T. F. Meyer, T. Aebischer, and P. R. Jungblut. 2002. Immunoproteomics of Helicobacter pylori infection and relation to gastric disease. Proteomics 2:313-324 and Kimmel, B., A. Bosserhoff, R. Frank, R. Gross, W. Goebel, and D. Beier. 2000. Identification of immunodominant antigens from Helicobacter pylori and evaluation of their reactivities with sera from patients with different gastroduodenal pathologies. Infect Immun 68:915-920).
Polyclonal anti-BabA sera have been raised by immunization of rabbits with recombinant BabA isolated from inclusion bodies (Yamaoka, Y., J. Souchek, S. Odenbreit, R. Haas, A. Arnqvist, T. Boren, T. Kodama, M. S. Osato, O. Gutierrez, J. G. Kim, and D. Y. Graham. 2002. Discrimination between cases of duodenal ulcer and gastritis on the basis of putative virulence factors of Helicobacter pylori. J Clin Microbiol 40:2244-2246) and shown to recognize BabA in a majority of strains. To date, two monoclonal BabA specific scFvs have been described which were generated by immunization of rodents with a BabA-GST fusion protein, covering the BabA-J99 domain from amino acid 128 to 310 (Hennig, E. E., R. Mernaugh, J. Edl, P. Cao, and T. L. Cover. 2004. Heterogeneity among Helicobacter pylori strains in expression of the outer membrane protein BabA. Infect Immun 72:3429-3435). Only about half of the analyzed strains were positive by Westernblot analysis, probably due to the more restricted epitope of a monoclonal antibody in comparison to a polyclonal serum. In addition, the phage selection of the described scFv was performed on recombinant protein containing only a portion of BabA with no defined functional conformation.
A new approach in preventing infectious diseases transmitted through mucosal sites consists of the in situ delivery of antibody fragments by lactobacilli or other GRAS microorganisms (Kruger, C., Y. Hu, Q. Pan, H. Marcotte, A. Hultberg, D. Delwar, P. J. Van Dalen, P. H. Pouwels, R. J. Leer, C. G. Kelly, C. van Dollenweerd, J. K. Ma, and L. Hammarstrom. 2002. In situ delivery of passive immunity by lactobacilli producing single-chain antibodies. Nat Biotechnol 20:702-706).
The BabA adhesin has previously been identified and shown to be localized on the bacterial surface of H. pylori (SE 9602287-6). The blood group binding activity was shown to be pH dependent and the present inventors present evidence that the binding affinity to the Lewis-b receptor reveals a high equilibrium constant.
Intensive research has been directed to the immunological treatment and prevention of H. pylori induced infections. EP 0 484 148 (Ando & Nakamura) describes a method for treating and/or preventing upper gastrointestinal disease in mammals, said method comprising orally administering to a patient in need thereof an effective amount of a pharmaceutical composition comprising anti-H. pylori polyclonal immunoglobulins and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The description further dwells on the combination of said treatment in combination with the administration of antibiotics. As the method of producing said polyclonal antibodies, EP 0 484 148 describes the isolation and purification of anti-H. pylori immunoglobulins from the sera and milk of mammals. H. pylori itself was not found in the stomachs of cows, goats, sheep, swine or horses, according to EP 0 484 148, but it was assumed that these animal species have colonizing microorganisms with antigenic determinants similar to those of H. pylori because they have immunoglobulins which cross-react to strains of H. pylori found in humans. Preferably, according to EP 0 484 148, large mammals, e.g. pregnant cows, are immunized with whole cells of H. pylori and the immunoglobulins subsequently extracted from the milk or colostrum. In the immunization experiments, NCTC Strain 11362 and clinical isolate H. pylori No. 153 were used to trigger the production of immunoglobulins. On the other hand, NCTC Strain 11637 was used for analyzing purposes. Immunization is claimed to yield an anti-H. pylori titer in the milk of such magnitude, that daily doses of 0.01-0.1 g/day immunoglobulin composition, are sufficient for successful therapy. The claimed interval of 0.01-0.1 g/day is however not supported by the experiments presented by Ando & Nakamura and so low doses have hitherto not proven efficient in clinical tests. The doses actually used in example 5 and 7 are in the order of magnitude of 1 g/day, i.e. 10-fold the upper limit of the given interval. Furthermore, it is very unlikely that unspecific immunoglobulin mixtures as those manufactured by Ando & Nakamura would be effective in claimed doses as similar doses are ineffective against other gastrointestinal pathogens. The simultaneous administration of antibiotics, extensively discussed in the description, underlines the insufficiency of the disclosed immunoglobulins.
EP 0 469 359 (Cordle & Schaller) likewise describes the immunization of mammals, preferably pregnant cows, with formalin killed H. pylori bacteria (ATCC Strain 26695). Anti-H. pylori polyclonal antibodies were isolated and purified from the milk and finally fed to piglets, in amounts of about 0.5 g immunoglobulins, three times daily. The results were assessed by determination of the number of biopsy specimens, which were positive for Gram-negative bacteria after the trial. Gram-negative bacteria were found in 78% of the piglets fed a non-immune nutrient but only (Sic!) in 35% of the piglets fed a nutrient containing so called specific anti-H. pylori antibodies.
US20040234529, a patent application of the same inventors as in the invention herein, discloses the BabA protein. Said adhesins and/or DNA are useful for diagnosis and therapy and/or prophylaxis directed against H. pylori induced infections, e.g. gastritis and acid peptic disease, i.e. active vaccination. They also disclose an immunoglobulin composition, which exhibits specific activity to a Lewis b antigen binding Helicobacter pylori adhesion for treatment and/or prevention of gastrointestinal diseases, caused by H. pylori for passive vaccination. Unlike the invention herein the antibody is an animal antibody and not a specific selected human antibody. Furthermore the applicants of the US20040234529 do not mention detection in fecal samples.
Even though the central part of BabA is most heterogeneous and determines the specificity of receptor binding (Aspholm-Hurtig, M., G. Dailide, M. Lahmann, A. Kalia, D. Ilver, N Roche, S. Vikstrom, R. Sjostrom, S. Linden, A. Backstrom, C. Lundberg, A. Arnqvist, J. Mandavi, U. J. Nilsson, B. Velapatino, R. H. Gilman, M. Gerhard, T. Alarcon, M. Lopez-Brea, T. Nakazawa, J. G. Fox, P. Correa, M. G. Dominguez-Bello, G. I. Perez-Perez, M. J. Blaser, S, Normark, I. Carlstedt, S. Oscarson, S. Teneberg, D. E. Berg, and T. Boren. 2004. Functional adaptation of BabA, the H. pylori ABO blood group antigen binding adhesin. Science 305:519-522 and Ilver, D., A. Arnqvist, J. Ogren, I. M. Frick, D. Kersulyte, E. T. Incecik, D. E. Berg, A. Covacci, L. Engstrand, and T. Boren. 1998. Helicobacter pylori adhesin binding fucosylated histo-blood group antigens revealed by retagging. Science 279:373-377), the yet unmapped carbohydrate-binding domain (CBD) cannot be subjected to a high rate of mutation without loss of function; nevertheless fine-tuning during evolution was shown by adaptation of BabA in H. pylori strains isolated from indigenous South American population that preferentially bind to O-Lewis b, which is the predominant blood group antigen in this continent (nominated as "Specialists" strains). Contrarily, strains isolated from continents in which the A/B Lewis b blood group antigens are more evenly represented in the host population demonstrate a more general binding capability against A/B Lewis b (including O-Lewis b) and were hence named "Generalist" binder (Aspholm-Hurtig, M., G. Dailide, M. Lahmann, A. Kalia, D. Ilver, N. Roche, S. Vikstrom, R. Sjostrom, S. Linden, A. Backstrom, C. Lundberg, A. Arnqvist, J. Mandavi, U. J. Nilsson, B. Velapatino, R. H. Gilman, M. Gerhard, T. Alarcon, M. Lopez-Brea, T. Nakazawa, J. G. Fox, P. Correa, M. G. Dominguez-Bello, G. I. Perez-Perez, M. J. Blaser, S, Normark, I. Carlstedt, S. Oscarson, S. Teneberg, D. E. Berg, and T. Boren. 2004. Functional adaptation of BabA, the H. pylori ABO blood group antigen binding adhesin. Science 305:519-522). The BabA sequences were aligned but no specific babA domains that would correspond to Generalist versus Specialists could be mapped. We therefore aimed to develop an antibody with specificity for the receptor-binding site and used the phage display technique to enrich for antibodies from patients whose sera featured competitive BabA binding characteristics towards Lewis b.
It is already known in the art how to produce human scFv-libraries derived from peripheral blood lymphocytes against various peptides. It is also known how to select for denaturated, linear, non-native peptides of H. pylori. But no previous documents describe the selection method, selecting for the native, non-denaturated, three-dimensional BabA polypeptide.
Here, we present a human scFv-library derived from peripheral blood lymphocytes of H. pylori infected patients and one of the identified and selected BabA-specific human single chains was converted to a human IgG1 antibody, named Abba3. Abba3 scFv refers to the variable binding regions and includes derivatives thereof. Surprisingly the antibody binds to a majority of H. pylori clinical isolates and demonstrated similar binding characteristics as the A-Lewis b or B-Lewis b blood group sugar antigens, i.e. preferential recognition of the "Generalist" type of BabA, distributed most commonly world-wide. Abba3 antibodies neutralize the H. pylori by binding to BabA, making it difficult for the bacteria to adhere to the mucosa. Consequently the bacteria/antibody-complex disappears naturally from the GI-system. Since there is a low immunoactivity in the stomach-tract, antibody detection is less useful than antigen detection. Accordingly, a detection kit using Abba3 antibodies for detection of H. pylori in faecal samples are preferred. Because Abba3 is a fully human IgG1 antibody it has the advantage of being effective in the activation of complement-directed lysis of the bacteria, accordingly, also activating the immune system.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide the antibody Abba3 selected for its ability to specifically bind to BabA of H. pylori, for use in passive vaccination. It is also an object of the invention to use Abba3 for antigen detection of H. pylori in faecal samples. Furthermore an object of this invention is to provide any antibody selected using the method described in the invention herein for its ability to specifically bind to BabA of H. pylori. Other objects and advantages will be more fully apparent from the following disclosure and appended claims.


The present invention relates to a laser processing apparatus and the like having a structure for implementing at the same time both an efficient laser processing in the place where a laser beam is difficult to reach and a laser processing without damages in the place where the laser beam is easy to reach. This laser processing apparatus comprises a laser light source, an irradiation optical system applying a laser beam to an object while scanning the laser beam, a photo-detector detecting the laser beam applied from the irradiation optical system, and a control section of making switching between a continuous oscillation and a pulse oscillation of the laser beam at the laser light source. In particular, the control section makes a continuous oscillation of the laser beam with respect to the laser light source in the case in which the laser beam applied from the irradiation optical system is detected at the photo-detector; while it makes a pulse oscillation of the laser beam with respect to the laser light source in the case in which no laser beam applied from the irradiation optical system is detected at the photo-detector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser processing apparatus and a laser processing method.
2. Related Background Art
By applying a laser beam with respect to the surface of an object to be processed, this irradiated portion on the surface of this object can be processed. As such a laser processing technique, for example, methods as described in the following Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 are disclosed.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 06-055281    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 08-186918

Laser processing apparatus and laser processing method


A method for recognizing shapes is disclosed. A computer, such as a handheld computer with pen input, is used to receive a drawing from a user. The user's drawing is then analyzed to identify the location of potential vertices of angles or knots of splines using a technique of hypothesizing lines between known important points and calculating the distance between other points and that Postulated line. This process is repeated until all important points are located. Also disclosed is a method for determining whether a set of points is straight or curved.

This invention relates to the field of computer software that recognizes shapes drawn by a user.
In the field of computer systems with graphical interfaces, it is sometimes necessary for the computer to allow a user to draw a shape or figure on the computer screen. Users typically draw shapes or figures on the computer screen through an input device, such as a touch-sensitive screen, mouse, track ball, tablet, or similar input device that captures the user's hand movements and translates these movements into figures on the screen. In the field of handheld computers, many user interfaces employ a stylus and a touch sensitive screen. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,496 to Sklarew, "Handwritten keyboardless entry computer system," discloses the combination of a touch-sensitive screen laid over a liquid crystal display matrix. Computer systems that allows users to draw shapes directly on the screen by converting hand movements into "freehand" lines and curves on the screen are well known in the art.
A known problem with this freehand method of drawing is that drawings can appear to be unclear. Because these drawings are typically done without the aid of a straightedge or other drafting apparatus, lines and curves drawn by the user's hand can appear to be crooked, uneven, and jagged. Further, a touch sensitive matrix laid over a display screen sometimes has a lower resolution than the resolution of the display screens. This results in undesirable drawings that are unclear.
A solution to this problem is to program the computer system to analyze the shapes drawn by a user, determine what shapes the user drew, and re-draw those shapes using straight lines and smooth curves. Such systems typically perform three steps.
First, this system allows the user to draw a freehand drawing through the use of an input device, such as a touch sensitive screen. Second, the system performs an analysis of the user's drawing. Third, the system erases the user's freehand drawing and draws a perfected drawing using the drawing analysis made in the prior step. This drawing is typically made through any of a number of prior art methods that are well known in the field.
One prior art system described in Theo Pavlidis & Christopher J. Van Wyk, "An Automatic Beautifier for Drawings and Illustrations," Siggraph vol. 19, pp. 225-234, San Francisco, Jul. 22-26, 1985 [hereinafter "Pavlidis & Van Wyk"] used a clustering technique. Pavlidis & Van Wyk disclose a system that groups together sets of points drawn by the user when the difference in values in the distance between adjacent elements is less than some small constant. Following this grouping, the clustering algorithm disregards clusters that are wider than some other predefined constant, and splits clusters in two when their width indicates they may contain more than one line. The algorithm then derives equations that can be used to draw lines. The Pavlidis & Van Wyk system does not store or analyze data such as the order in which the user drew each point or the speed with which each point was drawn. The Pavlidis & Van Wyk system produces undesirable results when it is applied to drawings that contain a large number of points, especially drawings that contain closely overlapping lines, because it depends on the proper prior selection of the aforementioned constants in order to distinguish between closely spaced lines.
Another prior art system disclosed by Bozinovic et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,265, "Shape recognizer for graphical computer systems" records the speed and trajectory of a stylus as it passes over a screen. Bozinovic discloses a system that analyzes drawings by determining line segment end points and then determining whether segments between end points are straight or curved. Bozinovic does not disclose a method by which the system determines the location of the end points or how the system determines whether a segment is straight. Bozinovic requires a number of computationally expensive calculations.
Another prior art system is described in Joaquim A. Jorge & Manuel J. Fonseca, "A Simple Approach to Recognise Geometric Shapes Interactively," Departamento de Engenharia Informática, IST/UTL, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal [hereinafter "Jorge & Fonesca."] Jorge & Fonesca analyzed drawings by calculating geometric characteristics of the user's drawing, and comparing these geometric characteristics to those of a set of known ideal figures. Jorge & Fonesca's method calculates the convex hull, smallest-area regular polygons, perimeter and area scalar ratios of the user's drawing and compares these characteristics with the characteristics of known figures. This method has the disadvantage of recognizing only those ideal figures that were anticipated by the system's designers. If a user draws a figure that the system's designers did not anticipate, it will not correctly recognize it, because it will be unable to compare the drawing's geometric characteristics with ideal geometric characteristics for that figure. This system also carries an undesirable risk of incorrect analysis when two ideal figures, such as an isosceles triangle and a right triangle, have similar characteristics.

Method of shape recognition using postulated lines


A method for burning data into a tire pressure monitoring device includes the steps of preparing a burning tool and a tire pressure monitoring device and connecting them electrically with a single wire to enable data or signal transmission between the burning tool and the tire pressure monitoring device, thereby achieving single-wire data burning and two-way communication between the burning tool and the tire pressure monitoring device.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique of burning data into a tire pressure monitoring device and more particularly to a method for burning data into a tire pressure monitoring device through a single wire.
2. Description of Related Art
To enhance car and driving safety, it is now common practice to additionally install a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) and related devices into a car. The system includes a tire pressure detector, equipped with either a pointer indicator or an electronic display, for measuring in real time the pressure, temperature, and so on of each tire of a car before the car is started or while the car is running, thereby ensuring the driver's and passengers' safety on the road.
Currently, most tire pressure monitoring systems are configured for two-wire data burning. That is to say, a typical tire pressure monitoring device and a typical burning tool for burning programs into the tire pressure monitoring device are each provided with a transmission port (TX) for transmitting data to the other and a receiving port (RX) for receiving data from the other, and because of that, two data lines are required, each connecting a corresponding pair of transmission port and receiving port. The two ports at the ends of each data line are dedicated to data transmission and data reception respectively.
As it is often desirable to increase the data transmission/receiving ports between the burning tool and the tire pressure monitoring device, the additional ports are bound to raise the port installation cost of the tire pressure monitoring device. Moreover, in order for the burning tool to set the tire pressure monitoring device into the program burning mode, the tire pressure monitoring device must be in the initialization state or a state in which all abnormal conditions have been eliminated. In other words, program burning cannot begin until the data lines are properly connected between the burning tool and the tire pressure monitoring device, or more particularly between the corresponding transmission/receiving ports, which is very inconvenient to program editors. Hence, the conventional method for burning data into a tire pressure monitoring device demands improvement.

Method for burning data into tire pressure monitoring device


A computer program signature may be determined based on the function flow grammar for a given source code. The function flow grammar may be determined based on reduced control flow graphs generated based on control flow graphs for each function within the source code. A polymorph of a computer program may be detected by comparing the determined computer program signature with computer program signatures, which may be included in a database.

Polymorphic computer programs are computer programs, which have object code that varies between instances of the computer program. For example, polymorphic viruses are computer viruses, which have object code that varies between instances of the virus. Polymorphic viruses or computer programs may also be referred to as metamorphic or permuting. Some well-known methods of permutations and some polymorphs, for example, Win95/Bistro may perform combinations of types of permutations. In the alternative, some polymorphic replicators may be encrypted and decrypted using varying keys, which may change the object code of the virus before decryption.
Polymorphs such as, for example, Zperm may create varying copies of their own opcodes, which may perform the same tasks as the original opcodes. Other polymorphs such as, for example, Lexotan and W95/Puron may execute the same opcodes in the same order, but insert filler (or garbage) instructions and/or jumps between executed instructions. Other computer viruses may reorder their own subroutines (e.g., the Win32/Ghost virus), and/or recompile themselves into a polymorphic form with inserted filler (or junk) code on an infected machine with a compiler (e.g., Win32/Apparition).
Existing flow-graph-based commercial polymorph detectors may use, for example, reverse engineering and/or flow graphs including lines of assembly code. In one example, control flow graphs for functions may be mapped while ignoring instruction reordering and changes in register functions. A computer program may be reverse engineered and organized into a function call graph, with each function internally represented as a control flow graph.
In another example, a control flow graph including nodes, which are lines of assembly code may be created. In this example, matching may be automated, including, for example, recognition of opcodes, which may perform the same operation but have a different name. However, in this example, a human must recognize shuffled opcodes within remaining unmatched code.
In yet another example, polymorphs may be detected using both static and dynamic analysis. For example, a virtual computer may be created within a computer system for executing potentially infected files. A static analysis may use a byte sequence signature string analysis with wildcards for areas with varying opcodes. Byte sequence signature strings may be referred to as behavior signatures. A dynamic analysis may run the object code within an emulator (virtual computer), and may track the system requests (i.e., interrupt calls).
In another example, autoimmune systems may profile a computer or network to identify a normal state of self, for example, in terms of typical network connections and/or system calls. Regular checks of current state may then be compared to the stored profile. Unusual activity due to a virus, including polymorphic viruses, may be detected using these autoimmune systems.


An automotive lamp is provided, including a circuit board, at least one carrier and at least one light-emitting element. The carrier is connected with the circuit board obliquely. Each carrier carries at least one said light-emitting element, and the at least one element is electrically connected with the circuit board.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lamp, and more particularly to an automotive lamp.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Usually, in a conventional automotive lamp, an oblique lamp slot is recessed in a heat dissipating base to allow a light-emitting element to be arranged therein in an angle. A light emitted by the light-emitting element irradiates on an optical reflection face of the lamp cover, and the light is reflected by the optical reflection face and projected through a frontal lamp cover.
However, in this type of conventional automotive lamp, a cathode lead wire and an anode lead wire are further needed to connect the light-emitting element and the circuit board, so the automotive lamp needs more space. In addition, two lead wire holes are disposed through the heat dissipating base and a lamp shell for the lead wires to be disposed therethrough and connected with the light-emitting element disposed in the lamp slot. It is dangerous that the cathode and anode lead wires are exposed.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.


The invention relates to a composition comprising, in a cosmetically acceptable medium, at least one particular fluorescent dye.

There are essentially two types of dyeing.
The first is semi-permanent dyeing or direct dyeing, which involves dyes capable of giving the hair's natural colour a more or less pronounced change.
The dyes used are coloured and colouring substances that have a certain affinity for keratin fibres.
It should be noted that this type of dyeing fades out after several washes, which may be an inconvenience.
When it is desired to obtain a coloration that is lighter than the original colour of the fibres, it is necessary to use, with the direct dyes, at least one oxidizing agent, under alkaline pH conditions.
However, these conditions of use are not free of consequences on the properties of the treated fibres. Specifically, in the long run, the fibres are more or less degraded and have a tendency to become coarse, dull, brittle and difficult to style.
The second is permanent dyeing or oxidation dyeing. This is performed with oxidation dye precursors, which are colourless or weakly coloured compounds, comprising at least one oxidation base optionally combined with one or more couplers. Once mixed with oxidizing products, at the time of use, the precursors may give rise to coloured compounds and dyes via a process of oxidative condensation.
Given the necessary presence of an oxidizing agent in this type of dyeing, the drawbacks mentioned above also occur in this case.
It has recently been found that compositions comprising at least one fluorescent compound represent an advantageous alternative to standard processes using an oxidizing agent. Thus, for dark hair, more particularly hair with a tone height of less than or equal to 6 (dark blond), preferably less than or equal to 4 (chestnut-brown), it can be seen that there are regions for which the curve of reflectance as a function of the wavelength (between 500 and 700 nm) of hair treated with the composition comprising the fluorescent compound is higher than the curve corresponding to untreated hair. Consequently, the hair appears lighter, without it being necessary to use an oxidizing agent.
It is recalled that the notion of "tone" is based on the classification of the natural shades, one tone separating each shade from the shade immediately following or preceding it. This definition and the classification of the natural shades are well known to hairstyling professionals and are published in the book "Sciences des traitements capillaires [Hair treatment sciences]" by Charles Zviak, 1988, published by Masson, pp. 215 and 278. The tone heights range from 1 (black) to 10 (light light blond), one unit corresponding to one tone; the higher the figure, the lighter the shade.
Although such compositions constitute an advance in this field, it nevertheless remains that the stability on storage of these compositions has room for improvement.
Moreover, it would also be advantageous to further increase the wash-fastness and shampoo-fastness of the colorations obtained using these compositions.

Composition comprising at least one substituted 2-[2-(4-amino phenyl)ethenyl]-1-pyridinium derivative, process for treating keratin fibres using it, device and use thereof

Abstract: The invention also relates to a process for treating keratin fibres, in particular human keratin fibres, using this composition, and also to a device comprising it.

Abstract: Finally, the invention relates to the use of the composition according to the invention as a lightening agent or as a colouring agent for the said fibres.


A filling compound for electrical and optical equipment in the form of cables, connectors, plugs etc. and to assemblies thus produced, is provided. Electrical and optical equipment in the form of cables, connectors, plugs etc. have to be protected against harmful influences penetrating from outside, particularly water, and also against mechanical damage during laying or as a result of exposure to heat. The filling compound is based on a stellate substance, i.e. a substance having a branched molecular structure in which, ideally, 3 or more branches, more particularly polymeric chains, radiate from a single branching point. The filling compound is flexible at very low temperatures but, on the other hand, does not run out, even at extremely high temperatures.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a filling compound for electrical and optical equipment in the form of cables, connectors, plugs etc. and to assemblies thus produced.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Electrical and optical equipment in the form of cables, connectors, plugs etc. has to be protected against harmful influences penetrating from outside, particularly water, and also against mechanical damage during laying or as a result of exposure to heat. This is because moisture penetrating at a given point spreads and thus adversely affects the performance of the line. This problem has been known for some time and various measures have already been proposed with a view to solving it. Thus, EP 0 206 234-B1 describes a filling compound consisting of 65 to 90% by weight mineral oil, 2 to 25% by weight of an organic thickener, more particularly a poly-.alpha.-olefin, 2 to 10% by weight of a highly disperse silica and, optionally, 0.2 to 10% by weight hollow microbeads and 0.1 to 5% by weight of a dispersant. Substantially the same composition is described in FR-PS 2 644 004.
Although compositions of the type in question are capable of satisfying the stringent requirements of the cable industry both in regard to performance properties and in regard to processability, even more exacting requirements, particularly in regard to extreme temperature influences, are now being imposed for certain applications. Thus, on the one hand, the filling compound should still be flexible at very low temperatures but, on the other hand, should not run out, even at extremely high temperatures. In addition, the filling compound should have a high flash point. The other requirements which filling compounds for electrical and optical equipment in the form of cables, connectors, plugs, etc. are normally expected to meet shouldof course still be satisfied. Depending on the particular application involved, these other requirements may relate, for example, to the
dielectric constant PA1 dielectric strength PA1 resistivity PA1 filler absorption by surrounding materials PA1 water (vapor) permeation. PA1 Density by weighing a defined bubble-free volume (>100 ml) of the mass to be determined at the measuring temperature. The calculation is carried out in known manner. PA1 The increase in weight is determined in accordance with DIN 57472: test plates measuring 40.times.40.times.3 mm are stored in the filling compound for 10 days at 70.degree. C. The difference is gravimetrically determined. PA1 The flash point is determined in accordance with DIN ISO 2592. PA1 Fed. Test method STD. NO. 791 B or PA1 JIS K 2220, page 7 or PA1 CNET ST LAA/ELR/CSD/543,


A method of controlling an inductive charging system on those occasions in which the combined power requests of a plurality of secondary devices exceed the power capacity of the power supply. The method includes at least one of (a) powering each device at a level below its requested level, (b) powering each device sequentially, and/or (c) powering each device in a repetitive pattern (e.g. time multiplexing). Also disclosed is a method of controlling an inductive charging system at least partially as a function of information received from the power management unit (PMU) of each secondary device.

The present invention relates to wireless power systems and more particularly to such systems capable of powering multiple devices simultaneously.
Wireless power or charging systems are well known and widely used. Such systems typically include a primary power supply and one or more secondary devices. The primary inductively powers the secondary devices when they are brought into proximity with the primary.
While such systems are well known, a number of potential problems are associated with such systems.
First, each primary supply is typically sized for a particular application depending upon the power to be drawn from the power supply. Issues arise when the power requirements of the secondary devices are greater than the power capacity of the primary supply. The secondary device may shut down, or the secondary device may attempt to charge at the reduced power level available which may not be appropriate for the device. Typically either result happens without feedback or warning to the user. Consequently, the device may be charged improperly or not at all.
Second, multiple power supplies typically are required for multiple secondary devices—i.e. one for each device. This can result in a multitude of power supplies, which are expensive and difficult to store, use, and match with the secondary devices.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Wireless charging system with device power compliance


The present disclosure generally relates to providing perceptual notifications containing information about a measured activity-based value of a swim characteristic. In some examples, the perceptual notifications utilize colors and haptic taps to convey measured values of the swim characteristic without requiring the swimmer to interact with the perceptual notification while the swimmer is swimming.

Swimmers who are swimming frequently use wearable devices to monitor activity-based metrics related to swimming characteristics. For example, swimmers want to monitor their pace, swim time, and a swim direction for open swimming. Notifications are often difficult for swimmers to read while swimming because they contain too much text. Providing perceptual notifications that are optimized to convey information in a glance allow swimmers to obtain information about the measured activity-based metrics in real-time during their swim without having to stop.

Swim tracking and notifications for wearable devices


A self-wringing mop including an elongated handle, a sleeve slidably mounted on the handle and a flexible relatively long mopping member having a first end attached to the sleeve and a second end attached to a lower end of the handle. The mopping member includes material defining a plurality of flaps which are movable to a location below the lower end of the handle in response to movement of the sleeve toward the lower end of the handle. The plurality of flaps are connected to each other by a circumferentially extending extent of material of the mopping member to form a bonnet adjacent to a lower end of the flaps.

The present invention relates to a self-wringing mop and, more particularly, to a self-wringing mop having a mopping member with a specially configured end portion to facilitate alignment of mop strands for the mopping member during a wringing operation.
Conventional self-wringing mops are typically provided with mop strands having lower ends connected to a bottom or base of a shaft or handle, and opposing ends connected to a tubular member that may be rotatably slid along the handle to move the mop strands between a wringing position and a use position. The mop strands may be wrung dry by extending the length of the mop strands and twisting the tubular member, and the upper ends of the mop strands, about the handle.
One problem associated with prior art self-wringing mops arises from misalignment of the strands as they are moved from a use or mopping position to the wringing position. During a mopping operation, the mop strands often become bunched or tangled as a result of movement of the bottom of the mop handle, and associated mop connection location, relative to the loops of strands engaged with a floor surface. When the sleeve holding the upper end of the mop strands is subsequently drawn upwardly to wring the strands, the bunched or tangled strands will interfere with the bottom of the mop handle resulting in a nonuniform distribution of the strands along the handle during the wringing operation. Such a nonuniform distribution of strands may result in incomplete wringing of the strands and a resultant reduction in the efficiency of the mop.
Prior art solutions to address the problem of bunching and tangling mop strands include providing ties wrapped around adjacent mop strands at predetermined intervals to maintain proper alignment between the strands. However, providing ties between the strands requires additional assembly steps, and further does not necessarily ensure that the bottom portion of the mop handle will not pass through and become entangled in untied areas of the strands.


A foot massaging appliance, includes a housing adapted to be supported on a flat horizontal surface and including an upper face facing upwardly of the housing when so supported; at least one massaging unit mounted within the housing for cyclical movement and including a plurality of massaging elements projecting upwardly from the upper face thereof for massaging the sole of a user's foot when placed thereon; and a motor drive for cyclically moving the massaging unit.

The present invention relates to a foot massaging appliance for massaging a user's feet, e.g., in order to promote blood circulation, to relieve aches, pains and tension and/or to remove excess fluid. While the foot massaging appliance of the present invention is useful for general application, it is particularly designed for use by diabetics to counter degeneration of blood vessels and/or nerves to which diabetics are particularly susceptible.
The therapeutic value of massage for promoting blood circulation in the feet and other parts of the human body is well known, and many massaging appliances have been developed for this purpose.


A compressor is disclosed generally comprising a cylinder head mounted to a cylinder block having a cooling chamber and a piston channel via a bolt. A piston is disposed in the piston channel and has a contact portion that contacts the channel wall, which is integrally formed with the cylinder block, as it slides within the channel. The bolt and the cooling chamber each extend from at least as high as the highest contact point between the contact portion of the piston and the channel wall to at least as low as the lowest contact point between the contact portion of the piston and the channel wall. In certain embodiments, the cooling chamber is located between the bolt and the piston channel. In some embodiments, a crankcase is integrally formed with the cylinder block.

As is well known, various parts of certain vehicles require the use of compressed fluid, such as compressed air, for their operation. For example, the brake systems of trucks and other large vehicles often use compressed air to bias various braking mechanisms, such as spring-based actuators, into braking and non-braking positions.
Accordingly, piston compressors are generally known in the art for generating this compressed fluid. These compressors typically employ a cylinder block with a plurality of piston channels. A plurality of pistons are slidably disposed in the piston channels and are coupled to some mechanism, such as a crankshaft, for causing them to reciprocate back and forth within the piston channels, thereby alternately creating suction and compression strokes. As the pistons reciprocate within the piston channels of the cylinder block, they alternately draw fluid to be compressed into the channels, and subsequently compress and discharge this fluid.
In order to control the introduction and discharge of fluid to and from the piston channels, these compressors also typically include a compressor head having inlet and outlet ports, as well as inflow and outflow channels connecting the ports to the piston channels. Additionally, the compressor heads often include valves, or else separate valve plates are disposed between the compressor head and the cylinder block having such valves, which regulate the inflow and outflow of the fluid. These valves permit the piston channels to communicate with the inlet and outlet channels, and ultimately, the inlet and outlet ports, in the compressor head.
However, one problem with these compressors is that the walls of the piston channels will sometimes become distorted during assembly of the compressor. As previously noted, a cylinder head is typically mounted to the cylinder block by a set of fasteners, usually by inserting a series of bolts through the cylinder head and into threaded openings in the cylinder block. As the head and the block are clamped together by tightening the bolts, the clamping force will often distort the walls of the piston channels adjacent thereto. Uneven application of the tightening forces to the various bolts positioned around the block can further exacerbate this distortion. Additionally, the channel wall with which the piston makes contact as it slides along the channel is often a liner placed within a cylinder bore, which is typically even more prone to distortion.
Distortion of the piston channel walls is a serious problem, as it affects the seal between the piston and the channel wall. For example, often the pistons will include a set of compression rings coupled to the piston head, the annular shape of which engages the cylindrical shape of the piston channel and thereby prevents the passage of oil from the compressor to the fluid compression chambers above the piston head. If the channel wall becomes distorted, and thus, the channel wall is no longer cylindrical, the engagement between the compression rings and the channel wall is less than perfect. This loss of a continuous seal will result in leakage of oil into the compression chamber above the cylinder, which can contaminate the compressed fluid and can affect the components downstream of the compressor. For example, often, an air dryer is used in conjunction with the compressor to remove moisture in the air being supplied by the compressor before it is supplied to the relevant parts of the vehicle. If oil leaks into the compression chamber above the piston head, this oil will contaminate the air dryer system when the compressed air is communicated to it. As another example, if the leaked oil proceeds to the air control valves, it can prevent them from working properly.
Similarly, the piston heads in these types of compressors are also commonly fitted with oil scraper rings that contact the walls of the piston channels. After oil has been deposited on the channel walls due to the exposure of those walls to the oil during the pistons' upward compression strokes, the oil scraper rings serve to scrape the oil off of the walls during the pistons' downward suction strokes, thereby helping to ensure that this oil does not ultimately end up in the compression chambers above the piston heads. However, when the piston channel walls become distorted, the scraper rings, much like the compression rings, are effectively lifted off of the surface of the channel wall, thereby decreasing their ability to scrape the oil therefrom.
A related problem that exists with these types of compressors is that, as the pistons slide within the piston channels, the continuous sliding contact made between part of the piston and the wall of the channel causes the channel wall to heat up. This increase in temperature causes the channel walls to be even more prone to distortion as a result of additional stresses placed on the channel walls by the clamping force of the bolts.
Another problem that results from these types of compressors is that, even if the heat resulting from the friction between the piston and the channel wall does not cause the channel wall to become deformed, it ends up heating the air that is being compressed at the top of the piston channel, which can lead to numerous problems. For example, as previously mentioned, an air dryer is often used in conjunction with the compressor to remove moisture in the air being supplied by the compressor to the relevant parts of the vehicle. Because the air is hotter, it is able to hold more water vapor, and therefore, the air dryer must work harder to remove the moisture. Another problem created by this additional heat is that it causes oil to be more prone to "coking up"—burning and leaving behind carbon deposits. Yet another problem caused by excessive amounts of very hot air is that components of the compressor, and downstream from the compressor, will tend to have a shorter life, in part because of contraction and expansion of those parts from unnecessary levels of heating and cooling.
What is desired, therefore, is a piston compressor where the walls of the piston channels do not become easily deformed. What is further desired is a piston compressor where the walls of the piston channels do not become excessively hot.

Compressor with fortified piston channel


This invention relates a process for preparing MTT zeolites which process includes the preparation of a sol-gel from an aluminate solution, mixing a structure directing agent with the sol-gel to form a structure directing mixture, mixing a silica with the structure directing mixture to form a reaction mixture, heating the reaction mixture in a microwave reactor to form an initial zeolite, and removing the structure directing agent to form the MTT zeolite. The invention also relates to MTT zeolites produced by the process, including ZSM-23 zeolites, as well as zeolite membranes, coating and catalysts.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for producing a zeolite possessing an MTT-type framework structure, specifically ZSM-23, by employing microwave irradiation, the zeolite produced by the process, membranes and coatings containing this zeolite, and zeolite catalysts containing this zeolite.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Zeolitic materials, both natural and synthetic, are known to have catalytic properties for various reactions. Certain zeolitic materials are ordered, porous crystalline metallosilicates having a definite crystalline structure as determined by X-ray diffraction. Within these ordered, porous structures there are a number of smaller cavities which can be interconnected by a number of even smaller channels or pores.
Under ideal circumstances the cavities and pores of zeolitic materials are uniform in size. Because the dimensions of these pores allow for the adsorption the molecules of certain dimensions while rejecting other molecules of larger dimensions, zeolitic materials have come to be known as "molecular sieves" and are utilized to exploit this phenomenon of selective adsorption.
Such molecular sieves, both natural and synthetic, include a wide variety of positive ion-containing crystalline aluminosilicates. These aluminosilicates have a rigid three-dimensional framework of SiO4 and AlO4 in which the tetrahedra are cross-linked by the sharing of oxygen atoms such that the ratio of the total aluminum and silicon atoms to oxygen atoms is 1:2. The electro valence of the tetrahedra containing aluminum is balanced by the inclusion in the crystal of a cation, for example an alkali metal or an alkaline earth metal cation.
This cross-linked framework can be expressed by the relationship of aluminum to the cations, wherein the ratio of aluminum to the number of various cations, such as Ca/2, Sr/2, Na, K, Cs or Li, is equal to unity. One type of cation may be exchanged entirely or partially with another type of cation utilizing ion exchange techniques in a conventional manner. By using such cation exchange, it has been possible to vary the properties of a given aluminosilicate by suitable selection of the cation.
Earlier techniques have resulted in the formation of a great variety of synthetic porous, crystalline metallosilicate zeolites. The zeolites have come to be designated by letter or other convenient symbols, as illustrated by zeolite A (U.S. Pat. No. 2,882,243), zeolite L (U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,006), zeolite X (U.S. Pat. No. 2,882,244), zeolite Y (U.S. Pat. No. 3,130,007), zeolite ZK-5 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,247,195), zeolite beta, (U.S. Pat. No. 3,308,069), zeolite ZK-4 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,314,752), zeolite ZSM-4 (Great Britain Pat. No. 1,117,568), zeolite ZSM-5 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,886, now U.S. Pat. No. Re. 29,948), zeolite ZSM-11 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,979), zeolite ZSM-12 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,832,449), zeolite ZSM-20 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,983), zeolite ZSM-22, zeolite, ZSM-23 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,842), zeolite ZSM-34, zeolite ZSM-35 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,245), zeolite ZSM-39 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,259,306), zeolites ZSM-21 and ZSM-38 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,046,859), ZSM-48 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,573), ZSM-51 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,654), zeolite EU-1 (European Patent Application 0042 226), zeolite EU-2 (UK Patent Application No. GB 2077709 A), zeolite EU-4 (European Patent Application No. 0 063 436), and zeolites NU-6(1) and NU-6(2) (U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,825), merely to name a few.
Zeolites containing a framework element other than, or in addition to, aluminum, e.g., boron, iron, titanium, zirconium, germanium, gallium, etc., are known from, by example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,328,119; 3,329,480; 3,329,481; 4,414,423 and 4,417,088.
The SiO2/Al2O3 ratio of a given zeolite is often variable. For example, zeolite X can be synthesized with SiO2/Al2O3 ratios of from 2 to 3, and zeolite Y can be synthesized with SiO2/Al2O3 ratios from 3 to about 6. In some zeolites, the upper limit of the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio is unbounded. ZSM-5 is one such example wherein the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio ranges from at least 5 up to infinity.
Because the catalytic activity of zeolite is affected in part by the size of the channels and pores responsible for selective absorption, micropore size is an important characteristic in these materials. Zeolites that are most widely used catalytic materials in oil refining and petro-chemicals typically have micropores less than 1 nm which limits mass-transfer of molecules into and out of the micropores.
In addition to micropore size affecting the mass-transfer limitation, the morphology of zeolites may also affect absorption and the resulting catalytic activity. Some zeolites with one-dimensional (1D) pore systems have needle and rod-like morphologies where the pore-mouth can be blocked by coke deposition. In addition to the mass-transfer problem, several silicon-aluminate crystals have needle- or rod-like crystal shapes which may also be subject to rapid deactivation due to their morphology.
Needle-like crystals with very high crystal aspect-ratio (length-to-width ratio) are common in certain zeolitic frameworks. Because the one-dimensional channels in these zeolites are parallel to the growth direction of the needle crystals, the catalytic activity of such zeolites can degrade over time due to the resulting long diffusion path.
Zeolite morphology can be affected by controlling the process of crystallization. Zeolite catalysts having efficient mass-transfer properties can be obtained by reducing the crystals size of zeolites to sub-micrometer and even to nanometer range. This mechanism of size reduction is aimed at reducing the diffusion path length of reactant molecules into the active sites in zeolite crystals.
Synthetic zeolites are generally prepared by providing an aqueous solution of the desired oxides and other required components of the crystallization reaction medium and thereafter crystallizing the zeolite under heat and pressure. An ideal crystallization method directed to catalytic zeolites would provide relatively small crystals at higher rates of productivity compared to known hydrothermal crystallization procedures.
Relatively small zeolitic crystals exhibit greater catalytic activity because their relatively small size permits faster diffusion of reactants into the catalytic sites (absorption), as well as faster diffusion of products out of the catalytic sites (desorption). While the rate of nucleation leading to zeolytic crystallization is not greatly influenced by temperature, the crystal growth process itself is more temperature-sensitive so that when conventional hydrothermal processes are utilized in obtaining relatively small crystals it is necessary to reduce the temperature.
Consequently, in order to obtain relatively small crystals, conventional hydrothermal crystallization processes require significantly more time to effect crystallization leading to ideally small zeolyte crystals. Such longer crystallization periods not only reduce productivity, but they also increase the risk that the desired crystalline material will become contaminated with undesirable crystalline material.
One approach to solving this dilemma involves the use of structure-directing or templating agents to bias favorable crystallization. When small-molecule organic compounds are employed for this purpose, they are often referred to as organic structure directing agents (OSDA).
In such an approach, aluminophosphates, for example, may be prepared by hydrothermal crystallization of a reaction mixture containing a reactive source of phosphate, alumina and water and at least one OSDA which can include, for example, an organic amine and a quarternary ammonium salt. Alternatively, silicoaluminophosphates, for example, may be synthesized by hydrothermal crystallization of a reaction mixture containing reactive sources of silica, alumina and phosphate, in the presence of an OSDA, preferably with a compound of an element of Group VA of the Periodic Table, and optionally in the presence of an alkali metal. In both of these methods, hydrothermal crystallization occurs in a reaction vessel inert toward the reaction system by heating until sufficient crystallization is complete—usually for period lasting as long as two weeks. The solid crystalline reaction product is then recovered by any convenient method such as filtration or centrifugation.
Zeolites with the MTT topology are molecular sieves having pores defined by parallel non-intersecting 5-, 6- and 10-membered ring (MR) channels having cross-sectional dimensions of about 4.5 Angstrom by about 5.2 Angstrom. Examples of MTT framework type molecular sieves include ZSM-23, SSZ-32, EU-13, ISI-4 and KZ-I. ZSM-23, which is a MTT zeolite having medium-sized pores composed of one dimensional pores made up of 10-membered rings, is known to be a potential catalyst for dewaxing, skeletal isomerization of paraffin, selective catalytic cracking and related shape-selective reactions.
One variant of ZSM-23 is composed of 10-membered-rings channels having pore diameters of 0.45×0.52 nm. This variant may be useful as a solid-acid catalyst for a number of important refinery processes such as selective cracking and isomerization. However, long-needle crystals of ZSM-23 are known to cause short catalytic lifetime due to blockage of the zeolite pore mouth by coke species. See S. van Donk, J. H. Bitter, K. P. de Jong, Deactivation of solid acid catalysts for butane skeletal isomerization: on the beneficial and harmful effects of carbonaceous deposits, Appl. Catal. A: Gen., 212 (2001) 97-116.
Other limitations of ZSM-23 relate to the inability with the conventional hydrothermal crystallization techniques to adequately control the acidity and the Si/Al ratio of the formed zeolite.
ZSM-23 can be synthesized using different OSDAs such as pyrolidine, isopropyl amine and a range of organic amines and quaternary ammonium templates. See K. Möller, T. Bein, Crystallization and porosity of ZSM-23, Micropor. Mesopor. Mater., 143 (2011) 253-262; C. Baerlocher, W. H. Meier, D. H. Olson, Atlas of Zeolite Frameworks Types (5th ed., 2001) (Elsevier, Amsterdam) 266; G. Kuhl, Verified Syntheses of Zeolitic Materials (2nd ed., 2001) (Elsevier, Amsterdam) 258. Rollmannn and co-workers extended the OSDAs which can be applied in MTT synthesis. See The Atlas of Zeolite Structure Types, www.iza-online.org.
The synthesis of ZSM-23 by conventional hydrothermal synthesis has been reported elsewhere such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,566 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,342.
The typical synthesis time of ZSM-23 in hydrothermal synthesis is between 66 and 72 hours with a relatively narrow synthesis window. K. Möller, T. Bein, Crystallization and porosity of ZSM-23, Micropor. Mesopor. Mater., 143 (2011) 253-262. Further, the range of acidities (relating to the Si/Al ratio) of the resulting MTT zeolites is considered to be relatively small.
The unique properties of H-ZSM-23 zeolite in particular correspond with its one-dimensional non-interacting 10 member-ring (10-MR) structures having pore channels of 0.46×0.57 nm. A. W. Burton, A Priori Phase Prediction of Zeolites: Case Study of the Structure-Directing Effects in the Synthesis of MTT-Type Zeolites, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 129 (2007) 7627-37. However, blockage of the zeolite pore mouth by the coke and other species of byproducts is considered to account for the relatively rapid deactivation of H-ZSM-23. S. van Donk, J. H. Bitter, K. P. de Jong, Deactivation of solid acid catalysts for butane skeletal isomerization: on the beneficial and harmful effects of carbonaceous deposits, Appl. Catal. A: Gen., 212 (2001) 97-116. Furthermore, common methods to improve porosity such as desilication have resulted in detrimental effects to zeolite morphology, blockage of microporosity, and uncontrolled Al removal. D. S. Kim, J. S. Chang, J. S. Hwang, S. E. Park S E, J. M, Kim, Synthesis of zeolite beta in fluoride media under microwave irradiation, Micropor. Mesopor. Mater., 68 (2004) 77-82.
Efforts to improve mass-transfer in one-dimensional (1D) pore zeolites can be classified into two strategies: (i) scaling-down the crystal size from micrometer to nanometer; and (ii) development of a hierarchical pore system. Möller and Bein reported the preparation of a high crystal-aspect-ratio (length/width) variant of ZSM-23, wherein a crystal-aspect-ratio above 400 was obtained. K. Möller, T. Bein, Crystallization and porosity of ZSM-23, Micropor. Mesopor. Mater., 143 (2011) 253-62. This high aspect-ratio, however, induces fast deactivation and such rod-like morphology can be easily poisoned by cokes tending to block the pore-mouth.
Therefore, development of MTT crystals having shorter crystals with significantly lower crystal-aspect-ratios is one aspect of the present disclosure, because lowering of the crystal-aspect-ratio may reduce diffusion constraints which limit the catalytic effectiveness of ZSM-23. Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to the unfavorable synthesis constraints on the preparation of ZSM-23 using conventional techniques as well as the presence of impurity phases such as cristobalite and dodecasil. See A. W. Burton, A Priori Phase Prediction of Zeolites: Case Study of the Structure-Directing Effects in the Synthesis of MTT-Type Zeolites, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 129 (2007) 7627-37.
Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis (MAHyS) has found many applications in synthetic chemistry to shorten synthesis time, to produce narrow size distribution, and to obtain different morphologies. See Mintova, N. H. Olson, V. Valtchev, T. Bein, Mechanism of Zeolite A nanocrystal growth from colloids at room temperature, Science, 283 (1999) 958-60; D. S. Kim, J. S. Chang, J. S. Hwang, S. E. Park SE, J. M, Kim, Synthesis of zeolite beta in fluoride media under microwave irradiation, Micropor. Mesopor. Mater., 68 (2004) 77-82; O. Muraza, E. V. Rebrov, J. Chen, M. Putkonen, L. Niinistö L, M. H. J. M, de Croon, J. C. Schouten, Microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis of zeolite Beta coatings on ALD-modified borosilicate glass for application in microstructured reactors, Chem. Eng. J., 135 (2008) S117-S120. A range of nanozeolites have been reported using MAHyS (e.g., MFI, BEA, LTL, and LTA).
In some instances, the use of MAHyS appears to reduce the time required for zeolite crystallization. For instance, Li and co-workers reported rapid fabrication of MOR zeolites by MAHyS where the synthesis time was reduce to 6 hours at 190° C. G. Li, H. M. Hou, R. S. Lin, Rapid synthesis of mordenite crystals by microwave heating, Solid State Sci., 13 (2011) 662-64. The use of MAHyS in the presence of OSDAs has also been reported for preparing a number of zeolites. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,666.
Although MAHyS can be used with OSDAs to affect greater control of the crystallization of certain zeolites. The existing methodology is insufficiently rapid and reliable for producing MTT zeolite crystals such as ZSM-23 possessing the characteristics of relatively small pore size and crystal-aspect-ratio. Improved morphologies applicable to catalysts having significantly longer catalytic lifetimes than previously known ZSM-23 zeolites are therefore needed.
The present disclosure has been made to address the above-described problems.
One objective of this disclosure is to provide a method for controlled nucleation and growth of MTT zeolites by using MAHyS, to allow a synthesis of MTT zeolites such as ZSM-23 which is rapid and produces MTT zeolites having relatively small crystal sizes with low crystal-aspect-ratios and with improved morphologies that are less susceptible to impurities and catalytic deactivation. A further objective of the present disclosure is to provide MTT zeolites having improved catalytic properties by optimization of synthesis parameters and by employing techniques such as structure-directed synthesis, seed-assisted synthesis and alkaline post-treatment.
Additional objects, advantages and other features of the present disclosure will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from the practice of the present disclosure. The advantages of the present disclosure may be realized and obtained as particularly pointed out in the appended claims. As will be realized, the present disclosure is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modifications in various respects, all without departing from the present disclosure. In this regard, the description herein is to be understood as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

Controlled growth of MTT zeolite by microwave-assisted hydrothermal synthesis

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology


An organic light-emitting display (OLED) panel includes a substrate and a light-emitting pixel array disposed on the substrate and including a plurality of light-emitting pixels, each of the plurality of light-emitting pixels includes a concave structure, a light-emitting layer, a planarization layer, and a convex microlens which are sequentially stacked up and aligned up on the substrate in such a manner that light emitted in an angle perpendicular to the light-emitting layer on the concave structure pass through an focal point of the convex microlens.

In recent years, OLED panels have gradually become the mainstream of mobile display terminal screens. An OLED panel includes a plurality of sub-pixels arranged in an array. Each sub-pixel includes a pixel driving circuit and a light-emitting layer connected to the pixel driving circuit.
Because part of the light photons emitted in a large angle from an OLED panel may not be collected by human vision system, this will cause light loss. To collect these light photons emitted in the large angle, in the related art, a micro convex lens is disposed above each OLED sub-pixel. This arrangement is based on an ideal scenario that light photons near the focal point of a convex lens will be refracted and emerged into a parallel light beam through the convex lens and then will reach to human vision system through long distance without dispersion or loss.
However, in the above arrangement, as a matter of fact, not all of the light photons emitted from a light-emitting surface with an area about the same size as an area of the convex lens can be converged and form a collimated light beam through the convex lens, since the light-emitting surface is no longer a point source. As consequence, a considerable amount of light photons emitted in the large angle will be wasted.

Organic light-emitting display panel comprising concave structure and convex microlens


A snowboard boot binding rotation system provides for detent notches that may be adjusted in rotational separation by the relative rotation of two co-rotating disks. Adjustment of the location of the lock engaging these notches and adjustment in the separation between the notches allows complete adjustment of the user's stance for snowboarding and skateboarding. A pawl mechanism allows for a hard-lock and soft-lock to be used in the snowboarding stance and skateboarding stance, respectively, for convenience of use by not requiring the boot to be removed from the binding to make the stance angle adjustments.

The invention relates generally to snowboard boot binding systems, and specifically to a binding system allowing the foot to be easily rotated between a snowboarding and skateboarding position preset to any of a variety of stance angles.
Traditional skis are designed so that each foot of the skier, within its own boot, is firmly fastened to a ski oriented along the center line of the ski.
Unlike skis, a snowboard is used by fastening both feet attached through boots fitting within boot bindings to a single board. The snowboard is ridden in a standing position facing sideways with the feet positioned transversely across the snowboard. One foot is fixed near the front of the board (nose) and the other fixed near the back of the board (tail).
A number of different binding systems exist for holding the user's booted feet in position on the board. Generally, these bindings can be attached to the board at different angles to allow the user to adjust the angle or stance that the user prefers for snowboarding. When the user is not snowboarding, but when moving on level areas, for example, through chair lift lines, the customary practice is for the snowboarder to remove his or her back foot from its binding leaving a front foot fixed to the binding in transverse position pushing with the free foot in a scooter-type fashion. This mode of movement will be called "skateboarding" to distinguish it from "snowboarding" in which the user is gliding under the force of gravity down a slope. During skateboarding, the angle of the front binding places the user's foot at an awkward angle that may be uncomfortable or promote injury.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,430 issued Aug. 15, 2000, hereby incorporated by reference and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, describes a snowboard boot binding that allows the user to quickly shift his or her foot between a snowboarding angle and a skateboarding angle. This particular invention provides two detent positions, one providing a "hard-lock" for use while snowboarding, which requires manual activation of a lock lever, and the other providing a "soft-lock" for use while skateboarding, that does not require manual activation of a lock lever, but allows the binding to be moved by applying force on the binding by the user's foot. In this invention, the user's foot is held securely for downhill snowboarding, can be released for skateboarding by movement of the lever, and then quickly returned to the snowboarding position by applying appropriate force to the binding.
While this system provides a simple and intuitive, rapid shifting between skateboarding and snowboarding modes, the predetermined hard-lock and soft-lock detent positions provide a fixed angular separation that may not be right for every user. While the angle of the binding as mounted on the snowboard may be readily changed during installation, it is not conveniently adjustable, for example, on the slope.
One possible solution to this problem is to provide for a large number of detent positions so that the rotation of the binding is essentially continuous and adjustable on the slope. This approach, however, has a significant disadvantage in that multiple detent positions make it difficult to flexibly implement a hard and soft detent. Further, multiple detents require that the snowboarder carefully select the appropriate detent position each time the snowboard mode is changed significantly reducing the convenience and fluidity with which the binding may be used. Carelessness in selecting among multiple detents may undesirably change the user's stance angle between snowboarding runs.

Snowboard binding rotational system with stance adjustment