A semiconductor device equipped with secondary pads having adequate arrangement for an arbitrary packaging process. The secondary pads are connected with the primary pads of the semiconductor device with a novel lead wire structure, which is characterized by its low electric resistance, good mechanical strength to protect active components of the device, good adhesion to bumps, and anti-electromigration property. The semiconductor device has: semiconductor circuit elements 2 embedded in a semiconductor substrate 1; a plurality of conductive primary pads 4 each formed in a region above, and surrounding, the circuit element 2; a first protective insulation substrate 5 covering the substrate and having first openings 6 for the primary pads 4; lead wires 7 each consisting of a conductive bulk layer 15 made of copper and a metallic top layer 16, the bulk layer formed on the first protective insulation substrate 5 and having one end connected with a corresponding one of the primary pads 4 through an associated opening 6 and the other end located in a region surrounding the opening 6, while the top layer made of a metal having Vickers hardness of more than 100; and a second protective insulation substrate 8 having second openings 9 for exposing the top surfaces of the other ends of the lead wires 7 serving as the secondary pads 17.

The first mode of the invention will be now described.
In manufacturing electronic devices, wire bonding technology has been utilized in packaging an LSI chip or chips on a semiconductor substrate. The electronic devices are provided with pads for electrical connection of the devices with external lead wires which are made of a material containing aluminum as a major composition. So-called tape Automated Bonding (TAB) technology and Flip Chip technology are also used in packaging LSIs. All of these techniques commonly utilize bumped electrodes which are formed on the pads.
It is noted that these pads must be positioned in an adequate arrangement suitable not only for a design of the LSI but also for a particular bonding technique used, since the arrangement of such pads generally depends on the type of the packaging technology used.
This implies that even those LSI chips having an identical basic structure and identical functions must be packaged in different ways if they are packaged by different techniques. They would then require different packaging designs and additional product management as if they were different LSIs. This would in turn add undesirable complexity and increased cost to the management of the products, thereby rendering the final LSIs costly.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide chips that may be equally packaged by different types of packaging techniques, thereby unaffected by the disadvantages mentioned above.
One way to achieve this feature is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open Nos. 2-121333 and 5-218042, in which the chip is provided with primary pads at positions independent of packaging techniques, and the pads are rearranged in accordance with the packaging technique employed.
Briefly, the pad rearrangement techniques as disclosed in the foregoing patents are based on the formula in which lead wires are formed on a protective insulation substrate having openings or through-holes for primary pads, and additional or secondary pads are mounted on the lead wires extending between the primary pads and secondary pad sites away from the primary pads, so that external lead wires may be connected to the secondary pads at arbitrary positions.
Briefly, these pad rearrangement techniques are based on the formula that additional pads or secondary pads are mounted on lead wires at arbitrary positions away from the original pads so that external lead wires may be connected at those arbitrary positions. These secondary pads are formed on a protective insulation substrate laid on the substrate and having openings for the primary pads.
In the prior art techniques mentioned above, the lead wires have a multi-layered lead structure, which consists of, for example, three layers of titanium (Ti), nickel (Ni), and gold (Au), or two layers of titanium and copper (Cu), deposited in the order mentioned.
Similar prior art techniques for multi-layered lead wires have been also disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication Laid Open Nos. 60-136339, 57-122542, 62-183134, and 1-290232.
The first of these publication concerns with Ti-Cu-Ni layers; the second with Ti-Cu-Ti layers; the third with Ti-Pd-Ti layers; and the last with Al-V-Al layers and Al-Ti-Al layers.
It should be kept in mind, however, that the secondary pads must be necessarily located at sites above the corresponding active semiconductor circuit element (or active component), and hence that the active component must be protected from the weight of the pads plus the bonding load acting on the active component during bonding of the external lead wires onto the secondary pads.
It should be also kept in mind that the sheet resistance of the lead wires must be sufficiently low, since otherwise the lead wires acquire high resistance due to the fact that the secondary pads must be properly spaced apart from their primary pads, so that the lead wires extending between them can be long.
Further, it should be noted that the secondary pads must have good adhesive power to bumps to be formed on the pads.
Still further, the rearrangement structure of the lead wires for the secondary pads must have a structure that may prevent electromigration between them, especially in the case where the chip density of the LSI is increased and accordingly the spacing between the lead wires is decreased. Particularly, the lead wires containing Cu, Au or Ag must have a structure immune to such electromigration.
However, any of the prior art lead wire structures can not satisfy these requirements altogether. There is accordingly a need for a semiconductor device having a novel lead wire structure which meets all the requirements.
The second mode of the invention will be now described.
There have been known many types of techniques for mounting semiconductor chips or electronic devices such as LSIs on a printed circuit board. Choice of an appropriate technique depends on the particular terminal arrangement of the electronic devices to be mounted.
A well known terminal arrangement for electronic devices like LSIs is a peripheral type terminal arrangement, in which terminals extend outwardly from the periphery of the package. A typical example of this type is a quad flat package (QFP).
However, in order to meet a recent requirement for miniaturization of electronic devices and for high density packaging thereof, a mounting technique utilizing so called "face down" solder bumps has been frequently used because these bumps permit of external connection of the terminals and occupy a relatively small mounting area. The solder bumps are mounted on bump lands or terminals provided on an insulation layer. Thus, each of the bump lands needs a predetermined area. Now that an electronic device such as LSI has a very large number of gates, it necessarily has many input and output terminals. Therefore, the electronic device is mounted using a bump grid array in which the bump lands are arranged in the form of generally planar grid in order to arrange many bump lands neatly on the insulation layer. This type of bump structure is also called area array bump structure.
An example of such area array bump structure is shown in FIG. 6A, which shows in a partial side elevational cross section a major portion of a semiconductor device having a conventional solder bump structure. Formed together with various bonding pads and lines on an insulation substrate 52 of a material such as polyimide, is a plurality of bump lands 53 for mounting thereon solder bumps.
A semiconductor chip such as LSI (not shown) is die-bonded at a predetermined position on the top surface of the insulating material 52, using appropriate glue.
The terminals of the semiconductor chip and the bonding pads (not shown) formed on the insulation substrate 52 are electrically connected as needed by means of, for example, an appropriate wire bonding technology. In order to increase the reliability of the electronic device, it is coated with a sealing resin 51.
Each of the bump land 53 is provided with a small through-hole or opening 55 formed in the insulation substrate 52, which is smaller in area compared to the bump land 53. Solder bumps 54 are bonded on the bump lands 53 in the respective openings 55 by overturning the insulation substrate 52, placing the solder bumps 54 in the respective through-holes 55, and applying solder re-flow treatment.
The diameter of each through-hole is constant throughout the thickness of the insulation substrate 52. Thus, the configuration of the through-holes for accommodating the solder bumps 54 is generally cylindrical. That portion of the solder over-flown out of each through-hole has a generally round shape due to the surface tension. This is how solder bumps are formed in packaging a semiconductor device.
In conventional packaging methods using an area array bump structure as mentioned above, connection failures can happen when and after a semiconductor device is bonded to a printed circuit board and installed further in an electronic equipment.
The inventors of the present invention have examined many of such connection failures associated with the area array bump structures and have found that most of the connection failures are caused by the exfoliation (indicated by reference number 42) of the solder bump lands 53 of the semiconductor devices from the solder bumps 54 as shown in FIG. 6B.
The inventors have found that such exfoliation of the bump lands 53 from the solder bumps 54 is caused by an excessive external stress that arises from handling of the semiconductor device or the printed circuit board 61, installing the printed circuit board 61 to the electronic equipment, and mismatching of thermal expansions of the insulation layer 52 accommodating the bumps and the printed circuit board 61, and that concentrate in the bonding interfaces between the solder bumps 54 and the bump lands 53.
The inventors have reached a conclusion that such exfoliation of the bump lands 53 and the solder bumps 54 can be avoided if the solder bumps are provided with mechanically weak portions that may deform to absorb the external stresses. The invention is based on this principle.
It might seem a common practice to make the initial configuration of the solder bumps in the through-holes in any desired form, for example a straight cylindrical shape, a barrel shape having a diametrically larger middle section, or a "bongo " shape having a diametrically smaller middle section, in accord with the configuration of the through-holes formed in the insulation substrate. It should be appreciated, however, that positive provision of the bump configuration having such mechanically weak portions is based on a novel and useful findings of the inventors, which is useful in avoiding the exfoliation of the solder bumps by concentrating external stresses at the weak portions of the solder bumps, thereby absorbing such stresses applied to the printed circuit board and the semiconductor devices during and after mounting the semiconductor devices on the printed circuit board.


A chair can include a chair back, or backrest, that is coupled to a base of a chair above a seat of the chair. A tilt mechanism can attach the backrest to the base. In some embodiments, the tilt mechanism can be configured so that the backrest rotates about multiple pivots as it reclines from an upright position to a reclined position to drive motion of the seat during recline of the backrest.

Chairs often include a base that supports a seat. Examples of chairs may be appreciated from U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,216,416, 8,167,373, 8,157,329, 8,029,060, 7,887,131, 7,198,329, 6,824,218, and 6,817,667 and U.S. Pat. App. Pub. Nos. 2003/0168901, 2006/0006715, and 2008/0290712. Some chairs may be configured to have a back that tilts from an upright position to a recline position.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A user can be notified of certain events or occurrences according to time and location information specified by the user. In some embodiments, a user can specify a location such as an office or warehouse, and can select an automatic range such that whenever the user is within the automatic range of that location, notifications are automatically delivered to the user. The user can also specify a management range, such that when the user is outside the automatic range but inside the management range the user will not receive the notification unless the notification has been pending for a specified delay period. Such an approach enables notifications to be delivered when the notifications are most relevant. If the maximum delay has passed or the user is outside the management range, the notification can be automatically delivered to the user or another user can be selected to receive the notification.

People are increasingly relying on electronic devices for a variety of different purposes. For example, merchants can rely on email messages or pager notifications when an item is sold that needs to be prepared for shipping. While such notifications are beneficial in many situations, the merchant typically has little control over when or where the notifications are received. For example, the merchant might not want to receive notifications while at home or otherwise away from the office. While the merchant has the option of turning off the device configured to receive the notifications, such an approach can be undesirable in at least some situations because the merchant might miss emergency messages or other important notifications, or at least might not be able to utilize the device for other purposes during those times.


A static mixer is described in which rows of mixing plates are used in a combination with nozzles that are located with respect to the mixing plates in a manner that is designed to produce a high level of mixing without significantly impeding the flow of flue gas passing through the rows of mixer plates. In various embodiments, the static mixer includes rows of tilted plates, and the injection lance nozzles are positioned to align with row boundaries corresponding to the boundaries between consecutive rows of mixing plates. In some embodiments, there are N rows of mixing plates and N-1 rows of nozzles. In some embodiments the nozzles are positioned to coincide with the boundaries between rows. The mixer assembly including injection nozzles and/or lances can be implemented in a relatively compact manner allowing for it to be placed in a shorter length of flue than many other mixer assemblies.

Many electric power plants burn fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas in order to generate electricity. In the combustion process, various undesirable products are created including nitrous oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), mercury (Hg), and particulate material (coal ash). These pollutants must be removed from the combustion gas stream to levels below those prescribed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before the "cleansed" gas is emitted from the plant stack. Various types of pollution control equipment are used to remove these chemical compounds and particulate. One such system is the Selective Catalytic Reactor (SCR), which removes the NOx from the gas stream through a catalytic reaction Ammonia (NH3) is injected into the NOx-laden gas stream and a reducing reaction occurs through the catalyst, converting the NOx to nitrogen (N2) and water vapor (H2O).
The design of an SCR system to reduce NOx emissions from these plants involves a number of engineering disciplines including chemical, mechanical, fluid dynamic, and structural engineering. With respect to the fluid dynamic design, there are a number of flow-related parameters that need to be addressed in order to optimize the SCR performance. It is vital to achieve a uniform distribution of velocity, temperature, NOx, and NH3 through the catalyst material while also minimizing the system pressure losses. Unfortunately, these goals often work counter to each other. For example, attaining uniform, streamlined velocity patterns and low pressure drop requires an aerodynamic design of the ductwork that conveys the gases from the combustion zone (the boiler) to the SCR. Aerodynamic elements, such as turning vanes, flow straighteners, and other devices are used to provide a smooth, controlled flow stream. This runs counter, however, to the requirement for uniform temperature, NOx, and NH3. These parameters benefit from turbulent, chaotic mixing of the gas species, so static mixing devices are often inserted into the gas stream to homogenize the flow.
Thus, an optimally-designed system requires a careful balance of these competing flow-related goals. In particular, the industry has found it challenging to mix the gaseous species of NOx and NH3 sufficiently without creating an adverse effect on the gas velocity uniformity and/or pressure drop. Static mixers are frequently used to induce the turbulence and the mixing action. Some mixers do this by creating a swirl or a rotational vortex. Other mixers divide the flow and angle it in different directions, resulting in shear layers where turbulent mixing occurs. All of these mixing concepts tend to cause the velocity patterns to become misaligned with the primary flow direction, generating angular or swirling flow vectors. This can have a negative impact on the other primary goal of achieving a smooth, uniform velocity distribution with no angular vector as the flow enters the catalyst. Thus, these types of mixers can require long distances for the flow to smooth out, or they require additional flow control devices (adding to cost and pressure drop) to re-align and distribute the flow. Some of these mixers are also overly-sensitive such that subtle changes to incoming flow conditions (i.e., NH3 injection locations or incoming NOx profile from the boiler) result in significantly different mixing behavior.
Though there are a number of different static mixers that have been developed for SCRs, they tend to fit into one of two categories based on the fluid-dynamic behavior that they induce, i.e., shear mixers and vortex mixers. Many shear mixers redirect flue gas in a manner that alters the flow significantly from its original direction thereby promoting significant angular velocity components that are not aligned with the duct direction. These flow angles can persist and may result in a non-uniform velocity distribution downstream of the static mixer at the catalyst. Unless the ducts have long lengths for the flow to redistribute, additional flow devices will be needed to control the flow and obtain the required velocity profile at the catalyst.
Also many, but not all, shear mixers generate shear in only one direction (i.e., length-wise of the duct cross section) as a primary focus. Often, a second mixer is required to promote shear in the other duct direction (i.e., width-wise). The need for multiple mixers to insure adequate mixing can require a relatively long length to ensure a proper level of mixing is achieved.
In addition to shear mixers, there are "vortex mixers". Vortex mixers induce rotational eddies and vortices. These are often large plates or other bluff bodies located in the gas stream to block the flow and divert it. A large wake is created by these plates and thus a low pressure region exists on the downstream side. The NH3 is generally injected into this wake, downstream of the mixer, and the eddies created by the vortices induce NH3 mixing. This can provide quite reasonable NH3 and NOx mixing for SCR systems, but because of their nature the vortex mixers do not allow for much adjustability, or tuning of the NH3 if it is needed. Vortex mixers can also be sensitive to incoming flow conditions but have no mechanism which would allow for easy system adjustments.
For static mixers to perform well, meeting the ammonia and NOx mixing objectives, temperature mixing objectives, and pressure drop objectives often associated with SCR systems while avoiding negative influences on velocity distribution or angularity is highly desirable. In SCR systems such objectives have to be accomplished under what are often rather adverse conditions including the presence of erosive particulate in the flow stream (especially for coal-fired power plants), elevated temperatures, and varied incoming conditions (such as gas flow rate or NOx profile from the boiler). To be practical, in addition to meeting the functional objectives, static mixers should also be affordable and reasonably easy to install and maintain.
Thus it should be appreciated, that there is a need for new mixing devices which balance the competing flow-related goals of mixing one or more reagents with a gas flow, e.g., flue gas flow, without significantly impeding the flow while still achieving a desirable level of mixing.

Static mixer assembly suitable for use with injected gas in SCR and/or other applications

MITSUBISHI HITACHI POWER SYSTEMS AMERICAS, INC.


A control method for a refrigerator includes sensing a temperature of a storage room; operating a cool air supply at a cooling power when the sensed temperature of the storage room is equal to or above a first reference temperature; operating the cool air supply at a delay power, which is less than the cooling power, when the sensed temperature of the storage room is equal to or below a second reference temperature, which is less than the first reference temperature while the cool air supply is operating at the cooling power; and adjusting the cooling power or the delay power of the cool air supply according to the temperature of the storage room while the cool air supply is operating at the delay power, and operating the cool air supply at the determined adjusted cooling power or delay power.

Refrigerators are home appliances that store foods at a low temperature. It is essential that a storage compartment is always maintained at a constant low temperature. At present, in the case of household refrigerators, the storage compartment is maintained at a temperature within the upper and lower limit ranges on the basis of a set temperature. That is, the refrigerator is controlled through a method in which when the storage compartment increases to the upper limit temperature, a refrigeration cycle operates to cool the storage compartment, and when the storage compartment reaches the lower limit temperature, the refrigeration cycle is stopped.
A constant temperature control method for maintaining a storage room of a refrigerator at a certain temperature is disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 1997-0022182 (published on May 28, 1997).
According to the prior art document, when a storage room temperature is higher than a set temperature, a compressor and a fan are driven, and simultaneously, the storage room damper is fully opened. When the storage room temperature is cooled to the set temperature, the driving of the compressor and/or the fan is stopped, and simultaneously, the storage room damper is closed.
The control method of the refrigerator according to the prior art has the following problems.
First, since a process of stopping an operation of the compressor is repeated when the storage room temperature is cooled to the set temperature or less after the storage room temperature of the refrigerator increases to the set temperature or more, and the compressor is driven, power consumption increases when the compressor is driven again.
Also, there is a disadvantage in that a large amount of cooling power is required at an initial stage of driving the compressor, and power consumption increases due to the driving of the compressor.
Second, since a damper is fully opened to cool the storage room, there is high possibility that cool air is excessively supplied to the storage room in a state in which the damper is fully opened so that the storage room is overcooled. That is, it may be difficult to maintain the constant temperature state of the storage room.
Third, in a structure in which the damper is installed on a partition wall for partitioning a freezing compartment and a refrigerating compartment, and the damper is fully opened to supply cool air of the freezing compartment into the refrigerating compartment, the refrigerating compartment is overcooled due to the excessive supply of the cool air, but a freezing compartment load rapidly increases.

Refrigerator having a cold air supply means and control method therefore


A composite material is obtained by mixing with water 100 parts in weight of binder, between 250 and 800 parts in weight of steel-based shot having a granulometric distribution comprised between 120 jim and 3000 jim, between 10 and 15 parts in weight of non-densified silica fume and a highly water-reducing superplasticizer. The ratio between the weight quantity of water and the weight quantity of hydraulic binder is comprised between 0.16 and 0.25. The composite material presents a very high abrasion resistance, an abrasion index measured according to the C.N.R protocol comprised between 0.15 and 1.0, the value of the D10 grain size of the shot being at least eight times greater than the value of the D90 grain size of the hydraulic binder.

The invention relates to a composite material obtained by mixing with water a composition comprising:                a hydraulic binder formed by cement having a tricalcium aluminate content at least less than 5% in weight with respect to the total weight of hydraulic binder,        steel-based shot having a granulometric distribution comprised between 120 μm and 3000 μm,        non-densified silica fume having a granulometry less than or equal to 2 μm,        a highly water-reducing superplasticizer,the ratio between the weight quantity of water and the weight quantity of hydraulic binder being comprised between 0.16 and 0.25.
The invention also relates to a method for producing such a composite material.

High-wearing-resistant composite material comprising steel-based shot and method for producing said material


The present invention relates to the BSND (barttin) protein and nucleic acids encoding the BSND protein. The present invention provides assays for the detection of BSND and barttin polymorphisms and mutations associated with disease states.

Antenatal Bartter syndrome (aBS) comprises a heterogeneous group of autosomal recessive salt-losing nephropathies (Rodriguez-Soriano, Pediatr. Nephrol. 12, 315-327 (1998)). Bartter's Syndrome, also known as is hypokalemic alkalosis with hypercalciuria, is a rare inherited disorder characterized by growth deficiency, potentially resulting in short stature; muscle weakness; cramps; and/or loss of potassium from the kidneys (renal potassium wasting). In some cases, affected individuals may exhibit mental retardation. Individuals with Bartter's Syndrome have a disturbance in their acid-base ratio (i.e., an accumulation of base or loss of acid) associated with a loss of potassium (hypokalemic alkalosis). Low amounts of potassium may result from overproduction of a certain hormone (aldosterone) that is essential in controlling blood pressure and regulating sodium and potassium levels (hyperaldosteronism).
There is no cure for Bartter's syndrome. The treatments consist of supplements to replace what is lost and medications to prevent urinary wasting of potassium and magnesium. In younger children growth hormone may be used to prevent the short stature and prostaglandin inhibitors to decrease the elevated prostaglandin levels. Treatments include potassium chloride supplements, magnesium supplements, spironolactone amilioride, triamterene, indomethacin, captopril, and growth hormone.
The limited prognostic information available suggests that early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of infants and young children with Classic Bartter Syndrome may improve growth and perhaps neurointellectual development. On the other hand, sustained hypokalemia and hyperreninemia can cause progressive tubulointerstitial nephritis, resulting in end-stage-renal disease (Kidney failure).
Clearly there is a great need for identification of the molecular basis of Bartter's syndrome, as well as for improved diagnostics and treatments for Bartter's syndrome.


A dual pivot material handler including a base section, a container, a pivot frame, a hydraulic power unit, a hydraulic control unit, and hydraulic cylinders for rotating the container about two pivot points. The container is pivotably mounted to one end of the pivot frame at a container pivot point, and a second end of the pivot frame is pivotably mounted to the base section at a base section pivot point. To rotate the container about the container and base section pivot points, hydraulic cylinders are mounted between the pivot frame and the container and between the base section and the pivot frame. At the initiation of a dump cycle, the cylinders mounted between the pivot frame and the container are actuated to rotate the container about the container pivot point to a horizontal position. In the horizontal position, the container rests on the pivot frame. Next, the cylinders mounted between the pivot frame and the base section are actuated to rotate the pivot frame, with the container resting thereon, about the base section pivot point to a full dump position.

Material handlers or dumpers are used in a wide variety of industrial applications to enable efficient sorting, organization, and transportation of large volumes of bulky materials. Material handlers automatically elevate and dump such materials, allowing products to flow from containers at controlled rates to predetermined locations. For example, material handlers are used in the automobile manufacturing process to assist employees in sorting and organizing parts, and in postal applications for delivering mail from large containers onto conveyers for sorting.
Depending on the intended application, the handler may be designed in a variety of shapes and sizes for handling either solids or liquids. In addition, a handler may be designed as either a stationary or mobile unit. One particular feature of a handler which is important in many applications, however, is the container dump height variation. The term "dump height variation" refers to the change in vertical height of the lip of the container when the container is moved by the handler from a horizontal position to a "full dump position". It is well understood that container dump height variation directly affects the controllability of a dumping operation. In handlers that produce large container dump height variations, the dumping process is difficult for an operator to control, and materials tend to flow out of the container in uneven amounts in the dumping cycle. Thus, a goal in the design of material handlers is to minimize container dump height variation.
Compactness of motion of the container is another important feature of a material handler. The height and space available to operate the handler is usually limited. Thus, a material handler preferably has a compact motion resulting in efficient use of industrial space and improved controllability.
To date, prior art material handlers have failed to fully minimize dump height variation and container motion in a simple and cost-effective design.


A braided shield includes a housing formed from a plurality of wires braided together and having a dual-layer configuration. The housing has an outer layer integrally formed with an inner layer. A support is at least partially disposed in the housing, and the inner layer is disposed between the support and the outer layer. The inner layer and outer layer reduce electromagnetic radiation leakage into/out of the housing by reducing the number of holes in the housing. Forming the braided shield includes providing the housing, which defines a longitudinal axis and a passage extending along the longitudinal axis. The housing has an end portion, and the end portion is compressed transverse to the longitudinal axis. The end portion is then forced into the passage. Accordingly, the braid shield reduces or eliminates electromagnetic radiation while providing a strong and consistent crimp with the support.

Although electromagnetic radiation can be generated from any number of sources, including natural phenomenon like lightning strikes, the emergence of electronic devices, and specifically telecommunication devices, has rapidly increased the amount of electromagnetic radiation propagating through the air. This external electromagnetic radiation can interfere with electronic devices by causing a current to flow through wires and other metallic objects. Since this extraneous current may generate unwanted signals, including a spike in current that can damage electronic components, some treat the rapid increase in electromagnetic radiation as a form of pollution. In addition, electromagnetic energy produced from internal electromagnetic sources, such as high current cables, can also radiate out of the wire and interfere with other electronic devices.
One way to combat these extraneous currents is to protect the wires of electronic devices from external electromagnetic radiation by using a braided metallic shield that covers and extends along the length of the wire. The braided metallic shield also prevents electromagnetic radiation from leaking out of the wire, reducing interference to external devices. A terminal end of the shield may include a solid metal support that is crimped to the shield. When the support is placed inside the shield, the terminal end of the shield is expanded, which separates the wires that form the braid in the shield, creating "holes." Unfortunately, the "holes" provide a means for electromagnetic radiation to penetrate through the wire and interfere with transmitted signals on the wire. Also, as the terminal end of the shield ages, the wires that make up the shield may begin to unravel, causing additional "holes" in the shield. In addition, the unraveling weakens the crimp to the metal support, resulting in the braid having reduced pull strength. Finally, the terminal end of the shield, as it begins to unravel, can cause galvanic corrosion between the shield and the metal support.
Accordingly, a braid shield is needed that reduces or eliminates the number of holes in the shield to reduce or eliminate electromagnetic radiation into and out of the cable while providing a strong and consistent crimp with the support.


A device for water cooling rolled steel sections, particularly for cooling the flanges of girders placed on a roller table, includes a plurality of spray nozzles arranged on both sides of the roller table and at a distance above the conveying plane of the roller table, wherein the spray nozzles are arranged spaced apart from each other and wherein the spraying direction of the spray nozzles is adjustable in a vertical plane. The spray nozzles may be arranged in such a way that the angles of the spraying directions of the spray nozzles can be adjusted concurrently in vertical planes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for water cooling rolled steel sections, particularly for cooling the flanges of girders placed on a roller table.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various proposals for such a water cooling device have become known in the art. For example, the girders are conveyed through water curtains arranged above and laterally of the roller table, or the girder surfaces are wetted by means of cooling water boxes which are component parts of the linear centering guides arranged in front of or following the roll stands of a rolling train.
All the known measures and devices operate with a relatively high water consumption, they do not allow for a specifically directed cooling and they are not particularly effective, especially if the girders are to be cooled while being moved on the roller table.

Device for water cooling of rolled steel sections


The present invention provides a human source gene targeting sequence a gene vector and gene expression strategies. The invention includes the following: (1) Using a DNA sequence without important physiological function-related genes in the short arms of human group D, G chromosomes, or a DNA sequence sharing 50% or over 50% identity to the sequence selected from human D, G group chromosomes, as a targeting sequence for gene targeting and (2) Construction of a gene vector containing the targeting sequence. the nucleolus organizing region in D, G group chromosomes that is described above is used as the target site, the gene of interest is integrated into the short arms where the gene expresses actively in D,G group chromosomes of human cells. The present invention provides a novel gene targeting sequence by which the gene vector construction and gene expression strategies are realized. The gene expression strategies can be used for human gene therapy and for manufacturing protein.

Statistical data of Mendelian inheritance in man demonstrates, up to now, that 1660 single gene disorders have been identified and 989 disease-related genes have been identified before Jun. 30, 2000. Most recessive genetic disorders may be treated by introducing the normal gene into cells of the patient. With the advancement of research, gene therapy regarding dominant genetic disorders and somatic cell-related tumors has begun. In 1995, E. Marshall put forward in Science that the key point of gene therapy research was novel vector development and discovery, but the problem of an effective gene therapy vector remain unsolved so far. The main reason is that the researchers do not step out of the circle of constructing a vector using viral components. General speaking, commonly-used viral vectors have many defects as follows: 1) Instability: gene insertion efficiency is low, and the vector exists in the cell nucleus partially as a form of an attached body that is not inherited stably during cell division. As a result, the therapeutic gene cannot be expressed for a long time and in a stable manner. 2) Poor safety: for example, mutation caused by random insertion may affect function of normal genes at integration sites, and even activate an oncogene, which may result in other diseases and tumors respectively. Furthermore, viral vectors may generate wild-type recombinant virus with replication ability and so harm the patient. In recent years, it was reported that an adenovirus vector caused a patient death during the conduct of a gene therapy. 3) Immunogenicity: the proteins produced by viral genes and protein contaminating the vector during purification could induce an immunogenic reaction and influence the expression of the therapeutic gene.
In the middle of the 1980's, a gene targeting vector was developed based on the principle of homologous recombination to achieve site-directed integration, which could avoid immunogenicity and random integration, but the gene targeting vector used for site-directed repair in gene therapy and replacement of a defective gene have to utilize specific fragments of the two sides of the gene as targeting sequences, therefore its application is limited and the transfection efficiency is still low. In fact, it is useful for gene knock-out in embryonic stem cells and fertilized egg cells, but is not suitable for site-directed integration in mature somatic cells (Galli-Taliadoros L A, Sedgwick J W, Wood S A, et al. J Immunol Meth 1995, 181:1-15; Hasty P, Rivera-Perez J, Chang C, et al. Mol Cell Biol 1991, 11(9):4509-4517).
Rosenbery concluded that no case had shown certain clinical efficacy among hundreds of gene therapy experiments (Rosenbery L E & Schechter A. N. Science, 2000; 287:1751). Thus, development of a novel, stably inherited gene vector causing no harm to a human body remains a key problem to be solved.

Human source leading sequence, gene vector and gene expression strategy


An object of the present invention is to provide a ferrite magnetic material capable of providing a permanent magnet in which high Br and HcJ are kept, and which has a high Hk/HcJ. A ferrite magnetic material in accordance with a preferred embodiment has a ferrite phase having a hexagonal structure and has a main composition represented by Ca1-w-x-yRwSrxBayFezMmO19 (R is at least one element of rare earth elements (including Y) essentially including La, and Bi, and M is at least one element of Co, Mn, Mg, Ni, Cu, and Zn essentially including Co), where 0.25<w<0.65, 0.01<x<0.45, 0.0002<y<0.011, y<x, 8<z<11, 1.0<w/m<2.5, and 0.017<m/z<0.065 are satisfied. The total amount of a Si component is 0.1 to 3 mass % based on the amount of the main composition, and respective elements satisfy the relationship of 1.5≦[(Ca+R+Sr+Ba)−(Fe+M)/12]/Si≦3.5.

As the material for a permanent magnet formed of an oxide, there is known hexagonal system M type (magnetoplumbite type) Sr ferrite or Ba ferrite. The ferrite magnetic materials made of the ferrites are made available as permanent magnets in the form of ferrite sintered bodies or bonded magnets. In recent years, with miniaturization and enhancement of performances of electronic components, permanent magnets made of ferrite magnetic materials have also been required to have high magnetic characteristics while being small-sized.
As the indexes of the magnetic characteristics of a permanent magnet, generally, the residual magnetic flux density (Br) and the coercive force (HcJ) are used. Those which are high in these are evaluated as having high magnetic characteristics. Conventionally, from the viewpoint of improving the Br and the HcJ of the permanent magnet, a study has been done by the changing of the composition such as the inclusion of a prescribed element in a ferrite magnetic material.
For example, in the following Patent Document 1, there is shown oxide magnetic materials capable of providing a ferrite sintered magnet having high Br and HcJ by allowing M type Ca ferrite to include at least La, Ba, and Co.
Further, in the following Patent Document 2, there are disclosed oxide magnetic materials capable of providing ferrite sintered magnets having high Br and HcJ by allowing M type Ca ferrite to include La, Sr, and Co. Further, in the following Patent Document 3, there are disclosed sintered magnets having high Br and HcJ by allowing M type Sr ferrite to include Sr, La, and Co.


A valence band quantum-well structure with a modulation doping for an optical-component implemented in Si technology. With this component, a high quantum efficiency and detection efficiency are accomplished. By way of spatial separation of the doped zone from the almost undoped SiGe quantum well, the Coulomb scattering and the recombination probability of the charge carriers drifting in the externally applied electrical field is greatly reduced at the doping material cores.

The invention relates to an optoelectronic component implemented in Si technology having a quantum-well structure with at least one pseudomorphously formed SiGe layer forming a quantum well in the valence band structure between layers made from Si and/or SiGe.
The invention is used, inter alia, for the production of infrared detectors using Si technology.
Known silicon/germanium infrared (IR) detectors are based on the principle of heterointernal photoemission (HIP; see, e. g., J. Lin et al., OPTICAL ENGINEERING, Vol. 33, p. 716, 1994; B. Y. Tsaur et al., OPTICAL ENGINEERING, Vol. 33, p. 72, 1994), In a highly p-doped (p>5.multidot.10.sup.20 cm.sup.-3) SiGe layer, which is epitaxially grown on an undoped Si layer, the defect electrons (holes) disposed on the acceptor atoms are optically excited from the SiGe quantum well and transported towards the contacts by means of an externally applied electrical field and thus cause current to flow. However, these structures have several drawbacks because of the high doping of the SiGe wells. In particular:
a) for multiple quantum-well structures, the Coulomb scattering and recombination processes of the charge carriers previously photogenerated and drifting to the contacts are increased at the charged ion cores in the SiGe well, and thus, the efficiency of such multiple quantum-well structures is low due to the increased recombination probability; PA1 b) the optical transition selection rules are cancelled in the SiGe well, thus, the optical excitations of the localized holes in the SiGe well have a relatively small oscillation strength; and, PA1 c) the epitaxial quality of the SiGe/Si hetero-interface is greatly impaired because of the high doping in the quantum well by boron diffusion and segregation.
Therefore, it is the object of the invention to provide an optoelectronic component with a quantum-well structure by means of which component a high quantum efficiency and thus detection sensitivity can be accomplished.

Optoelectronic component having a modulation-doped layer structure


The present invention relates generally to a rotatable camera attachment and, more particularly to a rotatable lens system that works in conjunction with after-market digital and video cameras by means of a corresponding electronic device. The rotatable camera attachment comprises a lens that rotates 360° horizontally and 180° vertically to simultaneously capture the images surrounding a primary image recorded with the conventional camera. The electronic device is provided as a means to process the images so they can be viewed together. The instant abstract is neither intended to define the invention disclosed in this specification nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a rotating camera attachment and, more particularly, to a rotatable lens system that works in conjunction with after-market digital and video cameras by means of a corresponding electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Special events have been captured ever since film-based cameras were introduced to the market nearly 100 years ago. The recent advent of digital cameras and digital camcorders enhances a person's ability to easily and inexpensively capture events in more striking detail. One disadvantage to this technology is that a person is only able to partially capture a moment based on a very limited field of view typical of most cameras. A standard camera affords its viewer only a 90° field of view while a wide-angled camera can approach a 150° field at best.
The limited fields adequately allow a viewer to record a particular object within view, but they prevent the viewer from simultaneously recording the events that occur around and the ones that react to the primary object. Accordingly, there is a long-felt need for a means to capture and to simultaneously display a primary object and the supporting objects in the periphery and the background. A means that accomplishes the dual-recordings in an easy and an effective manner will provide later viewers a stronger impression of an event captured with even greater accuracy.
The present invention provides such a means. A search of the prior art revealed no patents that read on the claims of the present invention; however the following references were related:
U.S. App. No. 2003/0165344 to Becker et al. teaches a means in which indicia on a mask are viewable to a user depending on what operating mode the camera is in;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,842 to Glaros et al. teaches an automatic camera that simultaneously takes a picture while providing the information with which the picture is identified;
U.S. Pat. No. 3,903,537 to Ettischer teaches an alternately moveable pair of lenses having a longer focusable lens and a shorter fixed-focus lens;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,874 to Ohmura teaches a side-by-side dual lens pair having a long focus lens and a short focus lens;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,903 to Labaziewicz and U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,958 to Stoneham both teach a dual lens pair having a long and a short focus lens selectively for telephoto and wide angle photography;
U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,849 to Harris et al. teaches a security camera that can photograph a person and the person's documentation in a single exposure;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,721 to Burnham teaches a pivotable camera lens carrier with alternative taking lenses;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,419 to Carbery teaches a system to display a three-dimensional video image by means of a dual-lensed camera that generates signals to represent a subject from each of two different perspectives;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,088 to Fuss teaches a method to advance photographic film on a dual-lens camera by means of aligning unexposed film with each lens;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,973 to Mizukawa teaches a telescope lens and a standard lens comprised on a camera to provide a means for telescope and wide-angle photgraphing;
U.S. Pat. No. 5,852,753 to Lo et al. teaches a dual-lens camera that comprises shutters, wherein a first shutter is released to take a two dimensional photo with a first lens and the second shutter is released to take a three dimensional photo with dual lenses;
U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,334 to Fantone teaches a dual focal length camera compacted by means of four mirror arrangements; and,
U.S. Pat. No. 6,351,291 to Asano teaches an image processing apparatus that comprises a first memory to store background image data and a second memory to store on-screen display image data.
International Patents 0 324 424 A1, 0 325 140 A1 (Europe) and GB 2 257 597 (United Kingdom) are also considered related.
There is presently no technology that achieves the objects of the present invention.


The hanger strap and shoulder covers relates in general to a system for efficiently storing garments on a hanger while allowing for said garments to properly rest upon said hanger such that they do not form bumps, creases, or other wrinkles in general. This is accomplished by securely attaching wide shoulder covers to the shoulder rails of a typical wire, plastic, or other similar hanger. A hanger strap may thereafter be attached to the neck of the hanger. The lower portion of this hanger strap is designed to receive the hook portion of another hanger. This additional hanger may also have wide shoulder forms attached to it. This system may effectively double the space of a typical closet while ensuring that garments retain their proper form.

A hanger is an excellent device for storing garments including shirts, pants, jackets, or any other type of garment made out of any particular material, be it natural or synthetic. If it can be worn, it can be hung. Hanging garments, however, presents a host of issues.
Generally, hangers have a tendency to cause bumps and creases in clothing, making it look unnatural or improperly cared for. For example, after washing and drying a particular garment such as a shirt, one may hang it on a typical plastic hanger. These hangers are relatively thin and provide very little support. Even if a shirt is perfectly placed upon such a hanger, after time, gravity pulls downward while the hanger stubbornly resists, leaving a perceptible aberration upon the shirt.
Various hangers have been developed to address these issues. Broad shouldered hangers, for example, provide much more support while eliminating the aberration problem. U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,201,298 and 6,964,360 are examples of such hangers. The problem with these types of hangers, however, is that they tend to be relatively expensive to manufacture, assemble, and ship. They may also be heavy. Other hanger forms such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,446 are generally formed into a given length and may only be efficiently used with garments of specific sizes. These captive design hangers lack adjustability.
A further limitation that is of particular note with broad shouldered hangers relates to the issue of efficiently using available closet space. These hangers require more horizontal space on the closet hanging rod, thus reducing the number of garments that may be hung. Moreover, in a poorly designed closet, one may be able to hang two dozen shirts in a row, but still be left with several inches of empty space below the shirts that cannot be realistically utilized.
Yet another limitation with all of the hangers described above is that more new hangers lead to more unnecessary waste. Perfectly good old hangers will likely be discarded to make room for the newly purchased hangers.
There is a need in the art for a hanger form that provides adequate support, that conserves valuable space, and that may be adapted to a wide variety of common hangers. It is to these ends that the hanger strap and shoulder covers have been developed.


Aerodynamic wing to propel a broad range of transport means, principally sail craft. The wing provides a single layer kite structure capable of flying without surface discontinuity, bridles, or rigid or semi-rigid structure. All stresses within the wing are converted into pure tension and transferred through the wing surface outward to attachment lines. The wing shape defines a large diameter self-supporting rolled over leading edge of an airfoil and the wing profile approaching the trailing edge exhibits increasing convexity. The wing is useful to propel, or supplement propulsion to, transportation means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to aerodynamic devices or wings typically used to propel boats, vehicles or persons across water, land or ice or snow, to propel airborne craft above ground or in space, or to propel nano-technological devices. More specifically this invention relates to an improved aerodynamic device and method of using the same designed to replace specialized downwind and cross wind sails on sailing boats sometimes referred to as spinnakers. The improved aerodynamic device and method of the present invention is applicable to mono-hulled, and multi-hulled boats in a variety of tonnages.
2. Description of the Related Art
A search of the prior art located the following United States patents which are believed to be representative of the present state of the prior art: U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2003/0140835A1, published Jul. 31, 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,817, issued Oct. 18, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,683, issued Jul. 1, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,272, issued Feb. 5, 1985, U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,698, issued Jul. 23, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,078, issued Nov. 24, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,296,704, issued Oct. 27, 1981, U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,272, issued Dec. 12, 1978, U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,180, issued Mar. 13, 1973, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,059, issued Dec. 5, 1967.
While the following discussion focuses on recreational sailcraft applications, the example is not intended to be limiting. The device of this invention may be used in other flying situations and also with other types of vessels, vehicles and marine structures.
While using kites, parachutes and other kite-like devices to draw sailing vehicles is not a new enterprise, to date most existing sailcraft utilize a fundamentally imbalanced force couple when connecting their wind-effected elements to their water-effected elements. This imbalance causes a lateral overturning moment, which most sailing craft counter either by the addition of ballast below the vessel's center of buoyancy, or by offsetting significant structure athwartships, or both. Either solution offsets the boat's center of gravity and center of buoyancy as the boat heels, offering a countering, or righting, moment. In addition to cost, weight and drag increases associated with either solution, a stability limit is eventually reached whereby no more sail area, or no greater wind speed may be utilized. A kite's entire force may be attached to the boat at the deck, or even near or below the waterline, reducing the overturning moment arm to near zero, ameliorating much or all of the overturning torque at its source, thus obviating the need for traditional solutions.
A corollary to the above relates to longitudinal overturning moment. A typical sailcraft develops a significant longitudinal or pitching moment as well, again due to the sails' resultant force being vertically offset from the hull's drag forces. This is particularly evident in powerful and fast racing craft, and is typically countered by increasing the buoyancy of the craft's hull(s) forward, shifting weight aft, or by de-powering the sailing rig at top speed, in order to remain within the vehicle's performance envelope. Bringing a kite's attachment point down to the deck or below reduces or eliminates this pitching moment, allowing the vessel to safely be sailed harder at higher speeds. It also allows the designer to contemplate hull shapes, equipment layouts and weight trimming schemes which do not need to counter this said pitching or overturning moments, but can maximize the vessel's speed, ride and/or cost savings instead. Such a vessel can carry ordinary sized kites in appreciably higher winds, or appreciably larger kites in ordinary winds. Alternatively, such a vessel can be designed with far less inherent stability, or utilizing significantly decreased weight, cost, and/or complexity. Such considerations may allow new classes of sailing boats to sail significantly faster, safer and/or more comfortably than existing sailing vessels.
The use of kites also allows sailing rigs to be placed on non-sailing craft or other mobile marine or vehicular structures without regard for whether or not such boat or structure has sufficient transverse stability to carry a conventional sailing rig. For example, commercial vessels, cargo ships, oil drilling rigs and barges of all types may be self-powered with kites, without significant alteration to their structure.
If fitted in lieu of the sailboat's mast and all rigging, a kite can reduce a vessel's all-up weight significantly; also her all-up windage, cost and structural complexity. Since ordinary sailing vessels rely on highly tensioned shrouds and stays, taken to the vessel's extremities, and commensurately highly compressed mast and mast mounting structures, with all forces dissipated throughout the vessel's structure, such structure must be engineered to withstand such forces, in addition to forces associated with payload, sea state and prudent safety margins. When replaced by a kite, there are only pure traction forces which can be concentrated at a single attachment point or small attachment area in the central part of the vessel, and all non-traction rigging forces can be eliminated completely, leaving the designer or structural engineer with much smaller, centralized forces to dissipate through the structure. This may lead to lighter, stronger, faster and less expensive racing boats, and also to simpler, lighter, less expensive retrofitting of kites to existing sailing and non-sailing boats, ships and marine structures.
Flying a boat's wind-effected structure(s) at altitudes higher than a boat's typical mast and sail can yield more wind energy than current practice harvests. Friction and turbulence with the water's surface slows surface winds appreciably for some distance above the water's surface. Meteorological studies estimate approximately as much as 20–30 percent higher velocity to wind at 100–150 feet above the surface than at 10–20 feet, for a range of typical wind velocities and sea states. Energy in the wind varies with the square of the wind's velocity, a 30 percent increase in velocity yields a potential 69 percent increase in available energy, if the vessel's sails can be deployed in such higher velocity stream. Simply flying an identically-sized kite at higher altitude than a competing racing yacht's sail, for instance, can yield a race-winning advantage through the greater energy available.
Since a free flying kite is functionally decoupled from the boat it is pulling, it is free to accelerate and/or to fly at speeds different from those the hull experiences. For instance, if a kite begins high in the sky, and is then dived towards the water at the same time the hull begins to accelerate, the kite will reach a high percentage of the wind's speed (often greater than unity) far sooner than will the hull. The apparent wind experienced by the kite will be much greater than that experienced by the boat. If sailed alongside an identical boat with identically-sized sails, such a maneuver will yield faster acceleration of the kite-driven hull than of the conventionally driven one.
Similarly, if the kite is flown in a constant zig-zag or sine wave pattern, it may fly at all times faster than the hull and will experience continually higher apparent wind than either its own hull or the hull and sails of similar competitors nearby. It will thus harvest and deliver commensurately more power to its attached hull, yielding higher speed than its competitors. At the same time, since the hull does not travel at the kite's speed, the entire vessel does not suffer appreciably increased drag penalties due to increased aerodynamic drag on the hull, crew and associated appendages.
Conversely, using such maneuvering of the kite, or "dynamic sheeting" to increase power, a kite powered vessel may develop similar power and boat speeds as other similarly sized vessels while using significantly smaller kites than the other boats' sails. This might yield significant cost savings, weight savings, or allow the effected boat to use smaller sail handling equipment, fewer crew, smaller control energy inputs, etc. Such downsizing can result in a "beneficial spiral," whereby utilizing smaller lighter equipment and crews allows smaller, lighter hulls to be used, resulting in the need for even smaller, lighter kites, lighter control equipment and crew, etc.
Flying the kite decoupled from the boat, at altitudes substantially above the water's surface can generate lower transient or shock stresses on the kite structure. Motions of the boat, and especially of its masthead and other extremities when sailing in rough water largely aren't transferred to the kite structure. Perturbations of the wind's flow caused by friction and interference with surface discontinuities (water waves) which adversely effect normal sails largely do not effect kites. As a result of these factors, airflow across the kite is smoother and aerodynamic effects are largely not interrupted. In addition, since the kite structure does not experience large and sudden accelerations due to such motions, either at its attachment points or throughout its structure, building of materials which are light weight, of high modulus and/or very limited in stretch characteristics may be contemplated. These materials are contra-indicated in ordinary spinnakers whose shock loads often exceed the mechanical properties even of superior materials.
It should be noted that the simultaneous use of all of the above: non-heeling, lighter or non-existent masts and sail handling equipment, higher winds aloft and dynamic maneuvering of the kite can create a synergistic effect, pushing the "beneficial spiral" ever farther.
Prior art in the field teaches kites and kite-like devices which have limitations for use aboard sailing vessels. Some are difficult to deploy or fly in close proximity to boat hulls. Others are difficult or dangerous to assemble, launch or recover in high winds. Others have low wind thresholds, or stall speeds, which are too high to make them useful in light winds. Still others are expensive to produce or difficult or expensive to maintain and repair. Others require specialized equipment to launch, control or recover. Still others have features or physical characteristics which render them not rule-legal for yacht racing under widely accepted yacht racing rules and definitions (e.g., the International Sailing Federation, "ISAF").
Launch and recovery techniques and equipment have been investigated by others. Various levels of complication, reliability and expense have been proposed, from pre-launched leader or pilot kites to air cannons to hydraulically extendable masts to the use of lighter than air gas-filled balloons, aerostats and other shapes as kite launch assistors. A system which is simple, reliable and fits within sailors' existing skill-sets has eluded invention to date.
Kite designs may be broadly characterized according to their construction. The range of constructions covers a broad spectrum from framed, semi-framed or unframed single skin kites to double skinned, air filled or "ram air" type kites, to hybrid combinations of these various types. Regardless of their construction type, all kites must have some means of maintaining their chord wise and span wise shape while flying.
Several ways of forming or contributing to the form of the profile and chord wise and span wise shape of a wing while it is flying are known and practiced in the art.
One approach is the use of kites which have little or no aerodynamic refinement. Profiles which resemble hemispherical parachute canopies have been proposed, including various methods to control both position and power of such kites. See, for example, Bedford (U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,683) or Stanford (U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,497) and also toy-like devices consisting of flat rectangular pieces of cloth with lines attached to the 4 corners.
Other apparatus and methods use rigid or semi-rigid frame assemblies. See for example Roeseler (U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,182).
Another approach is to build non framed, air filled wing shaped structures and to contrive for air pressurization by being open near a flow stagnation point to bleed into internal spaces within the wing, which pressurized air then functions as a structural element. This is often referred to as the ram air system after Jalbert (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,285,546).
Yet another approach is to arrange some elements of the wing's aerodynamic surfaces to be otherwise than perpendicular to the general axis of the flying lines and set so as to generate aerodynamic forces that cause the wing tips to pull away from each other. See, for example, Lynn (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0132348).
In another approach, multiple bridle lines may be attached to the wing at intervals span wise and chord wise and these bridle lines converge to the flying lines at a point or points between the operator and the wing. Such bridles, by distributing the tension in the flying lines more evenly over the surface of the wing, reduce the bending load on span wise structural elements and therefore assisting in the retention of span wise form. See, for example, Schimmelpfennig (U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,698)
In the case of kites with rigid or semi-rigid frames, multiple bridles or else triangular or quadrilateral shaped pieces of material attached at one edge and standing out from the kite's surface called keels or flares make it possible for these frame elements to be proportionally smaller and lighter, however both the weight of the frame and the air drag of multiple bridle lines or keels are detrimental to cost, aerodynamic efficiency and manufacturing simplicity.
Limitations of Current Art
In the case of simple soft flat or hemispherical-shaped kites the major drawback for sailing use revolves around two issues; multiple bridle lines and aerodynamic efficiency. Many-bridled kites are difficult to launch from the crowded and complex confines of typical boat decks. Kites with low aerodynamic efficiencies (Lift/Drag ("L/D")≦1) can only be used for a narrow range of sailing courses, perhaps 20–40 degrees either side of dead downwind. Playsail-type kites (for example, see: http://www.nyke.org/Play Sail Workshop.htm) need a large separation of their flying anchors and suffer leading edge collapse upon acceleration, thus are not presently used in sailing applications.
In the case of conventional Jalbert, parafoil or parapent style foil kites that use ram air inflation as their structural element, the pressure differential available is so small as to allow no possibility of sufficient span wise beam strength without support from multiple bridles spaced at intervals both chord wise and span wise. Because more bridles allow thinner and more aerodynamically efficient airfoil sections to be used and also permit higher aspect ratio form thereby reducing induced drag there has been a tendency in recent years for parafoil style traction kites to have upwards of 60 bridle lines.
In the case where aerodynamic forces are used to retain or assist in the retention of span wise form, multiple bridles typically reduce the proportion of the kite's aerodynamic surfaces that are required to be other than approximately perpendicular to the flying lines and hence increase the proportion of surface area that can be applied directly to supplying pull on the flying lines. An advantageous consequence of this can be a higher lift coefficient, which manifests as more pull in proportion to overall size. Bridle lines do however, in themselves, add undesirable drag and often tangle during launching from deck or during flying in such a way as to prevent satisfactory operation of the kite.
Traction kites using various combinations of these contributions to chord wise and to span wise shape are known and used. Each have inherent advantages and disadvantages pertaining to cost, tangle resistance, luff resistance, specific power, upwind ability, packing ease, relaunch ease (especially from water), gust responsiveness and other values.
Examples of rigid or semi rigid framed kites include Allison (U.S. Pat. No.2,737,360) and Roeseler (U.S. Pat. No. 5,366,182). These kite types rely largely on the cantilever strength of their struts or frames for their aerodynamic shape. These kites are typically heavier than non-framed kites and are not amenable to scaling to large sizes, due to physical scaling factors increasing their specific weight (weight per unit area) unfavorably.
An example of a traction kite using mainly a combination of multiple. bridle lines and aerodynamic forces to hold span wise form is described in WO99/59866. This kite has a very flexible spar or bundle of spars comprising the leading edge of the kite and multiple panels, separated from each other by sets of bridles arranged in the flow wise direction and with these panels arranged and shaped so that the aerodynamic pressure distribution around them provides the major contribution to the span wise form for the kite. This kite is still heavier than frameless kites and, as it partially relies on its rigid framework, still suffers from scaling factors at large sizes. In addition, both these and framed kites are typically characterized by sharp leading edges, which limit the kite's ability to respond efficiently to varying or extreme angles of attack.
An example of a traction kite using a combination of only aerodynamic forces and multiple bridles to hold its span wise and chord wise form and with no rigid, semi-rigid or ram air structural elements is what has become known as the NASA parawing or NPW (e.g., http://www.npw5.com/). A bridle line is a line which does not run uninterrupted from the kite wing surface to the ultimate end of attachment, but rather joins together with other such lines, typically in a grouped or cascaded manner. These grouped bridle lines typically move as a group when their controlling attached "flying line" is manipulated by the kite forces or the handler. The NASA para-wing traction kite has a single skin, shaped and supported by bridles in such a way as to generate aerodynamic forces that are sufficient to form the span wise and chord wise shape of the kite. NASA wings are themselves ramifications of earlier wings after Rogallo (See U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,546,078 and 2,751,172). This type of kite is light in weight as it is both frameless and is built of a single layer of structural material, but it suffers drag penalties associated with its multiple bridle lines (typically 30–50 lines) and its generally non-smooth surface shape. In addition, multiple-bridled kites suffer from tangling issues during launch and recovery operations. Also, as many of the bridle lines are taken to the kite's interior surface, strong tearing and peeling loads are created throughout the structure, which make local reinforcing necessary and scaling problematic.
Also see an improved form of NASA wing known as ESB (http://home.swipnet.se/telsplace/ESP12/ESPMod2.Html) and also (http://home.swipnet.se/telsplace/Tug ESP3/ESPMod3.html which has a more aerodynamically efficient shape and reduced number of bridle lines, but remains in a state of development pending improvements in stability, controllability and launch from boat decks.
An example of a traction kite using ram air inflation as its span wise structural element in combination with multiple bridle lines is described in Schimmelpfennig (U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,698). This kite is a double skin ram air inflated envelope with airfoil profile ribs, without any frame but with multiple bridles distributed chord wise and span wise over the surface of the kite, and primarily near to the kite's leading edge, to assist retention of chord wise and span wise form. It uses aerodynamic forces to reduce the number of chord wise bridle lines, but it does not use significant contribution from aerodynamic forces to maintain its span wise shape. These kites are typically heavier and more expensive than single-skinned frameless kites, yet lighter than rigid or semi-rigid framed kites. They suffer from minimal available inflation pressure, necessitating either thicker than optimal airfoil profiles, the need for multiple bridle lines with their attendant tangling and drag problems, or both.
An example of a traction kite using ram air inflation in combination with a span wise semi-rigid structural element and some contribution to span wise form from aerodynamic forces but without multiple bridling is described in Jones, et. al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,458). This kite is a double skin ram air inflated airfoil with a semi-rigid spar spanning its leading edge. Only two flying lines are used, one attached to each wing tip at the leading edge. The trailing edge of the kite is unsupported by bridles or flying lines. This kite solves the multiple bridle issue, but substitutes unwanted added weight of a substantial cantilevered solid spar at its leading edge, and also suffers from scaling issues.
An example of a traction kite using a semi-rigid frame in combination with a single or double skin and some use of aerodynamic forces but without multiple bridles or at least with very few bridles is described for instance in Legaignoux (U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,078). This kite has an armature of inflated tubes covered by one or two flexible skins. The tubes can be inflated through one or more sealable orifices using a pump for example to pressures significantly greater than would be available by ram air inflation. These tubes form a semi-rigid spar along the leading edge of the kite and usually also a series of chord wise orientated spines extending from the leading edge to the trailing edge at intervals across the span of the kite. Heavier than other single skin kites and heavier than even most double skin frameless kites, this kite may be categorized as a semi-rigid frameworked kite as it relies ultimately on the cantilever strength of its inflated tubes for its ability to maintain its aerodynamic shape in sizes larger than those used for small sailboards and the like. The tubes must be of sufficiently large diameter and remain sufficiently inflated to maintain the shape required for the kite to fly satisfactorily. This kite thus suffers similar scaling issues to framed kites previously cited.
Examples of kites which use primarily aerodynamic forces to maintain their shape, with or without substantial ram air inflation are for example those of Barish (U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,298,635 and 3,558,087) and Lynn (U.S. Patent Publication No. 2003/0132348). These kites either have substantially a single layer skin (Barish) or minimal bridle lines (Lynn), but each suffers from one or more of the drawbacks of other kites cited above, i.e., high weight, peel or tearing forces, manufacturing complexity, line tangling or scaling limitations.
No existing kite or kite type in any combination of the above attributes or any others, prior to the preferred embodiment of this invention, are currently capable of being ruled as legal spinnaker sails for sailcraft racing, for instance under existing International Sailing Federation (ISAF) 2002 Yacht Racing rules. Such yacht racing rules specifically prohibit double skins or interior structure, inflated components, ram air, framing or supporting materials of any kind, prohibit openings into or holes through any part of the structure or flares or other surface discontinuities and prohibit more than three total flying lines, each lead directly to the corners of a substantially triangular piece of foldable, flexible material.
It is therefore an object of this invention to develop a class of kite-like structures capable of flying freely while towing a vehicle, supporting itself in stable, controllable tethered flight at L/D ratios in excess of two. The structure and the vehicle it powers therefore benefit from all the attributes of sailing kites as cited earlier.
It is a further object of this invention to achieve the above in a class of structure which have only a single layer of foldable, flexible, lightweight material, for instance nylon spinnaker cloth, without pressure inflated, ram air inflated or rigid or semi rigid struts or appendages of any kind.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to achieve the above without the use of multiple bridle lines, but to do so with as few as two, three or four total flying lines, each taken directly to the kite structure.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to achieve the above by creating a class of shapes in which all aerodynamic and tether line forces devolve into the kite's structure substantially as tension-only forces, thus largely eliminating compressive, cantilever, tear or peel forces from the (typically) fabric structure, allowing scaling of the device to relatively very large sizes without undue deleterious scale effects. The class of structure should use only aerodynamic forces to maintain its flying shape.
Yet another object of the present invention is to create a class of kite-like devices which may be easily and familiarly launched, flown and recovered from small and large vessels while afloat without assistance and with or without specialized sail-handling equipment, by sailors with typical expertise and strength.
Still another object of the present invention is to achieve all of the above while resulting in a class of devices which are efficient to manufacture, easy to maintain and to repair, inexpensive to transport and that "look and feel" similar to existing spinnaker sails so as to be readily acceptable by amateur and professional sailors of average ability.
It is a further object of the present invention to create a class of flying structures which hew specifically to the legal definition for "spinnakers" as defined in the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) 2002 yacht racing rules and/or other similar yacht racing rules.
It is still further an object of the present invention to provide for the simple addition of lighter than air (LTA) gasses to the class of structure, with minimal alteration or aerodynamic effect, in order to effectuate extremely light wind performance, launch and retrieval.

Apparatus and method for aerodynamic wing


An improved apparatus for blanching nuts, particularly peanuts, is provided wherein nuts are fed onto a conveyor belt by a single feeder means which carries them against a diagonally positioned nut engaging means that has a nut discharge end which extends beyond the edge of the conveyor belt. The nuts are rotated by the simultaneous forces of the conveyor belt and the nut engaging means, during which their skins are removed. After the nuts traverse the width of the conveyor belt against the nut engaging means, they are deposited into a collecting hopper at the side of the conveyor belt, where they await the next stage of preparation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a device for processing nuts, and more particularly, is directed towards an improved device which spin blanches peanuts to yield a greater percentage of non-split, blanched nuts.
2. The Prior Art
The preparation of edible nuts often involves a blanching stage, in which the thin dark skin of the shelled nuts is removed. Blanching may be achieved by a variety of procedures and equipment. For example, water blanching is an early process in which the nuts are soaked in water to loosen the skins and then passed along a horizontal belt beneath oscillating pads which rub the skins from the nuts.
More recently, dry blanching techniques have been employed. In this process, the nut skins are commonly first sliced by passing them through a pair of mounted blades. This stage is often followed by a thermoregulation cycle, where the nuts are heated and cooled to promote skin peeling at the sliced edges. The nuts are then dry blanched by depositing them on a moving conveyor belt by multiple vibrating nut feeders. The belt conveys the nuts against fixed abrasive nut engaging means, or baffles, positioned diagonally across and just above the surface of the conveyor belt. The combined action of the moving conveyor belt and the abrasive engaging means causes the nuts to spin and lose their skins as they pass across the conveyor belt. The amount of blanching action required is determined by the ripeness, size and water content of the particular batch of nuts being processed. To accommodate such variations, dry blanching devices are adjustable to alter the speed and distances traveled along the conveyor belt against the nut engaging means appropriate to effect skin removal.
Also, the collection means for blanched nuts in the prior art frequently results in subsequent nut splitting as the blanched nuts are roughly passed from the end portion of the nut engaging means to the fast moving conveyor belt for collection at the end of the belt. Furthermore, the volume of nuts passing through the dry blanching device after prolonged use causes substantial deterioration and wear to the baffles, which are not economically replaceable.


Concepts and technologies disclosed herein are directed to a pressure-based input method for user devices. According to one aspect disclosed herein, a user device can receive an output from a pressure sensor. The output can include parameters associated with a pressure applied to the pressure sensor by a user. The user device can analyze the output to determine a command to be executed by the user device. The user device can execute the command.

Humans interact with devices in various ways. Keyboards, mice and trackpads, for example, have been used for years to enable users to interact with computers and are still relevant input mechanisms for providing accurate input control with excellent tactile feedback. One downside of these input mechanisms, however, is limited customizability. Apart from adding additional keys and allowing for custom key bindings, keyboards are still restrained by the requirement to function correctly across a wide range of applications. Touchscreens, on the other hand, allow near limitless customizability since touchscreens can be customized through software to display any soft button or other graphical user interface ("GUI") element, and do not rely on hardware keys and buttons to be mapped to particular functions of a given application.
In recent years, human-machine interface designers have looked to voice and gestures to enable hands-free interaction with devices such as smartphones, computers, televisions, and gaming systems. Voice is a promising input method, but complications still exist to successfully enable voice recognition technology to understand natural language, and instead, users are often required to interact with a voice recognition system using a specific syntax with which the users must become familiar. Gesture-based input is another promising input method, but acceptance of gesture-based input has proven difficult for sustainable adoption by mainstream users.

Pressure-based input method for user devices


The present invention relates to the production of eriodictyol via bioconversion.

The present invention is focused on the conversion of naringenin to eriodictyol. The present disclosure relates to the synthesis of eriodictyol via microbial fermentation.
Flavonoids are one of the most numerous and structurally diverse natural products present in the plant kingdom. They are known to have a variety of multi-beneficial medicinal and chemo-preventive effects on human health. Flavonoids have been shown to act as antioxidants, antibacterials, anti-inflammatory agents, and have demonstrated anticancer properties. However, the pharmaceutical application of these compounds is limited, because of their low water solubility and overall instability. Chemically, flavones are 2-phenyl-4H-1-benzopyran-4-ones in which hydroxyl groups may be present or even missing at various positions of the rings. One example of a flavone is apigenin of which the chemical name is 2-(p-hydroxyphenyl)-4H-1-(5,7-dihydroxybenzopyran-4-one. Accordingly, this definition includes flavans, flavan-3-ols (catechols), flavan-3,4-diols (leucoanthocyanidines), flavones, flavonols and flavonones in the traditional sense. The flavones of interest in the current invention are: naringin, naringenin and eriodictyol.
Flavonoids are secondary plant metabolites synthesized using the phenylpropanoid pathway (Winkel-Shirley, 2001) and are present in a great variety of plants. Flavonoid-derived compounds have drawn much attention because of their use as health-promoting components in the human diet. This is due to the variety of their cancer chemo preventive, antioxidant and anti-asthmatic activities (Bravo 1998; Lamartiniere 2000; File et al. 2001; and, Le Marchand 2002). However, the exact profile and amounts of specific flavonoids in plants differs greatly among species.
As stated above, flavonoids are important natural compounds with diverse biologic activities. Flavonoids derived from citrus sources constitute a potentially medically important series of flavonoids. Naringenin belongs to this series of flavonoids and has been found to display strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities in mammalian systems. Several lines of investigation suggest that another citrus-derived flavonoid, naringin, and naringin supplementation is beneficial for the treatment of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome in humans. Several molecular mechanisms underlying these beneficial activities have been elucidated. However, the mechanism of their effect on obesity and metabolic disorder remains to be fully determined.
Naringin
Naringin is a flavanone-7-O-glycoside that can be enzymatically modified to become naringenin. Naringenin occurs naturally in citrus fruits, especially in grapefruit, where naringin is responsible for the fruit's bitter taste. In commercial grapefruit juice production, the enzyme naringinase can be used to remove the bitterness created by naringin.
Naringin inhibits some drug-metabolizing cytochrome P450 enzymes, including CYP3A4 and CYP1A2, which may result in systemic drug-drug interactions. Ingestion of naringin and related flavonoids can also affect the intestinal absorption of certain drugs, leading to either an increase or decrease in circulating drug levels. To avoid interference with drug absorption and metabolism, the consumption of citrus (especially grapefruit) and other juices with medications is contraindicated in patients with medications that can be affected by citrus flavonoids.
Naringenin
Naringenin is a flavanone and can be found in grapefruit, oranges and the skin of tomatoes. This bioflavonoid is difficult to absorb on oral ingestion. However, when ingested, it has been shown to have an inhibitory effect on the human cytochrome P450 isoform CYP1A2. This beneficial property may also extend to being a potent inhibitor of the benzo(a)pyrene metabolizing enzyme benzo(a)pyrene hydroxylase (AHH). Similarly, naringenin has also been shown to reduce oxidative damage to DNA in vitro and in animal studies. Naringenin has also been shown to reduce hepatitis C virus production by infected hepatocytes (liver cells) in cell culture. This seems to be secondary to naringenin's ability to inhibit the secretion of very-low-density lipoprotein by the cells. Naringenin also protects LDLR-deficient mice from the obesity effects of a high-fat diet. Naringenin lowers the plasma and hepatic cholesterol concentrations by suppressing HMG-CoA reductase and ACAT in rats fed a high-cholesterol diet.
Eriodictyol
Eriodictyol is also a flavonoid compound found in some plants. Compared to naringenin it has an additional hydroxylation. It also has higher bioactivity. Eriodictyol is capable of masking bitter flavors and is widely used in medicine and food production.
In the extraction industry eriodictyol is taken from the Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon californicum) plant (Ley et al 2005). When used in tests eriodictyol was demonstrated to significantly decrease the bitter taste of caffeine without exhibiting intrinsic strong flavors or taste characteristics, which had a great potential in the modification of the taste profiles of food, drink and medicine. Moreover, eriodictyol has been shown to possess higher biological activity and have more anti-cancer activity than many other flavonoids (Lee et al 2007; Chu et al. 2016). Regarding the anti-cancer effect, eriodictyol was considered to have little or no effect on normal cultured human cells (Matsuo et al. 2005), but was shown to induce apoptotic DNA ladder formation, chromatin condensation and cytotoxicity in HL-60 leukemic cells (Ogata 2000).
As a secondary metabolite, flavonoids are often produced in small or variable amounts in particular plant species, which hampers their cost-effective isolation, and broad application. Moreover, some of these species are endangered in their natural habitats, thus further limiting the availability of some plant metabolites for commercial use.
In terms of additional utility in the pharmaceutical space it has been found that eriodictyol is an a TRPV1 antagonist and could be used as an analgesic. The vanilloid 1 receptor (TRPV1) is a calcium-permeable channel responsible for the transduction and modulation of acute and chronic pain signaling. As such, this receptor is a potential target for the treatment of several pain disorders.
It is known that in plants eriodictyol can be derived by the hydroxylation of naringenin in plants by the catalysis of flavonoid 3′-hydroxylase (F3′H), a cytochrome P450-dependent monooxygenase (Brugliera et al., 1999; Kaltenbach et al. 1999). In past decades, biocatalytic hydroxylation of naringenin was achieved due to the identification and engineering of some cytochrome P450 hydroxylases from plants and microorganisms (Kasai et al., 2009; Amor et al. 2010; Chu et al. 2016). However, as P450 hydroxylase is a membrane-bound protein, its activity depends on P450-reductase and heme biosynthesis, functional expression of P450s in prokaryotic system is challenging (Oeda et al., 1985). Recently some efforts have been taken to identify non-P450 hydroxylase for the bioconversion of naringenin to eriodictyol. Lin and Yan (2014) found HpaBC, which was initially identified as a two-component monooxygenase that catalyzes the ortho-hydroxylation of 4-hydroxyphenylacetate in Escherichia coli, could hydroxylate naringenin to eriodictyol (Lin and Yan 2014). Lee et al (2014) showed SAM5, a monooxygenase from Saccharothrix espanaensis catalyzing the hydroxylation of caffeic acid to ferulic acid, had the activity toward naringenin. However, the reported titers of eriodictyol via these non-P450 hydroxylase are low for scale-up production use. The expressed SAM5 enzyme alone showed low activity to flavonoid in E. coli cells. Co-expression of a P450 reductase was a way to increase the activity. However, the stimulation of hydroxylation of flavonoids through this way is limited and only approximately 34 to 50% enhancement was observed (Lee et al 2014).
Collectively, the purpose of this disclosure is to demonstrate the production of naringenin and eriodictyol via bioconversion and provide techniques that will enable an increased volume of such compounds to be available for industrial use as well as research in the pharmaceutical and cosmeceutical arena.
In this way, the limited quality and supply of eriodictyol can be better addressed by bio-conversion, where natural enzymes, or specific microbes can be modified to carry needed enzymes and use commercially significant fermentation processes to specifically increase the production of flavonoids of interest.
According to the current invention, a practical approach to improve the production of eriodictyol that will allow its economical production via bioconversion. Moreover, it is difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of specific flavonoids for use as a medicinal food or as a precursor for the development of new medicines since composition and quantity vary greatly due to weather conditions and according to geography even in plants known to produce them. To address this problem and supply sufficient amounts of bioactive flavonoids, one practical and promising approach is bio-transformation through bioconversion (Lim et al, 2004; Kim et al 2005). This will reverse the limited availability and high cost of sourcing these compounds from the plant world. This relative increased abundance will allow the production of several flavonoids for use in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.
Accordingly, there is a need for the flavonoids provided herein to be developed as commercial products and for such compounds to utilize a relative common starting substrate, such as naringin as a starting molecule, so that such production of desirable flavonoids can be commercially as cost effective as possible. The present disclosure provides a method of producing eriodictyol from naringin and/or naringenin.
Going further, the extraction process from plants, typically employs solid-liquid extraction techniques using solvents like hexane, chloroform, and ethanol for recovery. However, solvent extraction is itself energy intensive, leads to problems of toxic waste disposal, requires extensive acreage for the plants themselves to be grown and yields a product that requires further purification for minor constituents to be recovered. Thus, new production methods are also needed to reduce costs of eriodictyol production and lessen the environmental impact of large scale cultivation and processing. One such potential solution is the use of fermentation bio-conversion technology that allows the production in certain microbial species that increases the selectivity, abundance and purity of desired eriodictyols available for commerce.
In addition to the above, while consumers approve and actively seek natural and biological sources for food, feed, flavor or medicinal components they are also concerned about sourcing, consistent taste profile and environmentally sustainable production. Into this situation, the microbial fermentation and production methods of the current invention provide the flavonoids of the invention in quantities useful for a variety of industries and research while doing so in a more natural fashion than inorganic synthesis or current plant extraction techniques.
Accordingly, a need exists for the development of a novel method of producing eriodictyol economically and conveniently to further enable human industrial use and consumption.

Biosynthesis of eriodictyol from engineered microbes


A formulation, especially one that is topically administered, comprising a combination of rapamcycin and metformin in a molar ratio of about 20:1, 10:1, 5:1, 4:1, 3:1, or 1:1. The topical formulation may be a gel, an ointment, a cream or a lotion. The topical formulation may be used to treat a condition or disease of the skin or eye, wherein the condition or disease is associated with mTORC1 activation.

Rapamycin (marketed as sirolimus) is a macrolide produced by the bacterium Streptomyces hygroscopicus. Sirolimus is currently used as an immunosuppressant and is most often used to prevent rejection of transplanted organs. Sirolimus has two approved indications renal transplantation and lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). Rapamycin has also been shown to be potentially effective in treating Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC)-associated seizures, skin disease, brain lesions, pulmonary lesions, and renal lesions. Because rapamycin is an immunosuppressant, long-term (chronic) use of the drug may increase a patient's risk for developing serious side effects (such as infection and pulmonary toxicity). These findings have raised safety concerns about the suitability of rapamycin for long-term use.
Rapamycin is an inhibitor of mTOR complex 1 (mTORC1). mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) is a serine threonine kinase and is a master regulator of protein synthesis, cell growth, and cell metabolism. Excessive mTORC1 activity has been implicated in multiple disease conditions including tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC); polyhydramnios, megalencephaly, and symptomatic epilepsy (PMSE) syndrome; various cancers including breast, colon, kidney, lung, prostate, pancreatic, etc., inflammatory bowel disease, inflammatory arthritides (multiple types), inflammatory skin diseases (multiple types), Systemic Lupus Erythematosis, and neurodegenerative diseases (including Alzheimer's Disease).
Several studies have indicated that rapamycin may be used to treat or prevent some disease conditions by inhibiting the mTORC1 pathway. Approved rapalogs at current labeling and posology, however, have significant safety issues with a risk benefit profile considered inappropriate for use in patients without an advanced malignancy, organ transplant, or tuberous sclerosis complex.
Thus, there remains a need for safe and effective treatment utilizing rapalogs for these and other non-malignant conditions.
The present drug combination results in increased efficacy without increasing dosage amounts or frequency of doses of rapamycin

Composition comprising combination of rapamycin and an activator of AMP kinase and use thereof for treating diseases