A re-enterable end-to-end hydrophone assembly which is at least partially transparent, so that the routing of the hydrophone fibers is visible during all phases of assembly and operation. The inventive hydrophone assembly includes a cylindrical sensing mandrel with at least one optical fiber wrapped around its outer wall, and an at least partially transparent oil-filled reference housing attached to the sensing mandrel. The reference housing contains an internal support for holding at least one end of the optical fiber, as well as other hydrophone components such as input couplers, output couplers, and the like. The inventive hydrophone assemblies can be easily disassembled, repaired, and reassembled, facilitating recovery and reuse of expensive optical components.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hydrophones. More particularly, it relates to fiber optic hydrophone assemblies which can be easily taken apart and repaired, rather than being discarded when a defect arises.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hydrophones are well known in the art of acoustic sensing devices. Hydrophones are typically used in underwater operations, and are often configured into cylindrical shapes. During the assembly of conventional fiber optic hydrophones, optical fibers and other components are inserted into an inner chamber without the benefit of visual inspection. This process presents a risk of breakage and subsequent discarding of expensive assembly components. This process also makes diagnosis of sensor malfunctions difficult, since key components are often hidden from view. While components such as splices and couplers are typically tacked to the inside walls or other structures within this chamber, optical fibers must remain unrestrained to complete the insertion process. This causes the fibers to vibrate freely, and to impart a small acceleration sensitivity to the hydrophone device, which is only intended to be sensitive to acoustic pressure. This is particularly undesirable in applications where other sensors are used to sense the motion in the acoustic medium, and "crosstalk" among the sensors can reduce the fidelity of the sensing system.
Furthermore, cylindrically configured hydrophones also require optical fibers to pass into a cavity which is then sealed, to protect it from ambient pressure. These points of fiber penetration require small segments of the fiber to be embedded in stiff epoxies at points of high stress build-up, and are prone to breaking the fiber.
The present invention provides a solution to these problems. This invention provides a re-enterable, end-to-end hydrophone assembly which is at least partially transparent, so that the routing of the hydrophone fibers is visible during all phases of assembly and operation. This provides an advantage in that the hydrophone assembly can be easily disassembled, repaired, and reassembled.
The inventive assembly may be used in various applications, such as in producing hydrophones for use in towed arrays or bottom-mounted cables for undersea surveillance or surveys. This invention may be particularly useful in seismic applications, where large numbers of sensors are required, and where the cost and skill level of assembly operators is very high.
Several conventionally acoustic sensing assemblies are known. U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,342 teaches the use of concentric mandrels for fiber optic acoustic sensing. In particular, it describes two fiber-wrapped mandrels with a support mandrel between them. U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,424 also relates to concentric mandrels. It teaches a two-mandrel sensor without a support mandrel. Specifically, it teaches the use of two hollow concentric mandrels with a means for spacing them apart with a watertight, sealed cavity between them and a reference coil in the cavity. U.S. Pat. No. 6,288,975 teaches an end-to-end mandrel having a reduced diameter, a grooved flexible interlink, and hemispherically shaped end caps.
The present invention offers advantages over such known assemblies. For example, the related art offers only non-visible, closed assemblies, wherein hydrophone components are stuffed into mandrels thus risking breakage. This problem is solved by the present invention which offers an at least partially transparent reference housing which enables a user to view the inside of the assembly. The hydrophone assembly of the invention can be easily fabricated due to the full visibility of the fiber during fabrication. This also allows one to better control the component position and routing. Furthermore, the fabrication of the hydrophone assembly of the present invention can be made reversible. That is, the hydrophone assembly can be taken apart, repaired, and reassembled without having to scrap the expensive hydrophone components such as optical fibers and the like.

Repairable fiber optic hydrophone assembly


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer formed partially on a semiconductor substrate by epitaxial growth, an embedded oxide film embedded between the semiconductor substrate and the semiconductor layer, first and second gate electrodes disposed on sidewalls of the semiconductor layer, a source layer formed in the semiconductor layer and disposed in the first gate electrode, and a drain layer formed in the semiconductor layer and disposed in the second gate electrode, wherein the sidewalls of the semiconductor layer are film-forming surfaces of the epitaxial growth.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, and in particular, it is preferably applied to a field-effect transistor having a channel on the sidewall of the semiconductor layer.
2. Related Art
In a semiconductor device of the related art, there is disclosed a method of enhancing the integration density of the transistor while assuring a current drive capability by forming a fin structure of Si on a Si substrate and disposing a gate electrode along the sidewall of the fin (see, for example, Extended Abstract of the 2003 International Conference on Solid State Device and Materials, Tokyo, 2003, pp. 280-281).
However, in the fin type transistor in the related art, the fin structure forming the channel region is formed by a dry etching process using a resist pattern as the mask. Therefore, since damage by the dry etching process causes a defect in the channel region resulting in increase in the interface state and degradation in the mobility, the electrical characteristics of the field-effect transistor is problematically degraded. Further, since the fin structure forming the channel region is formed by a photo etching process, variation in the thickness of the fin is easily caused, and moreover, the thickness of the fin forming the channel region is limited due to the exposure wavelength. Therefore, thinning of the fin is problematically limited.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing semiconductor device


A system having a plurality of memory cells organized in rows and columns. Each column includes upper and lower sets of memory cells connected to corresponding common upper/lower bit lines. Each column includes an evaluation circuit coupled to the upper and lower bit lines and configured to evaluate signals on these bit lines and to produce an output signal. Each of the upper and lower bit lines has an associated bit line delay, one of which is greater than the other. The evaluation circuit has first and second inputs which have associated evaluation delays, one of which is greater than the other. In each column, the bit line having the greater bit line delay is connected to the evaluation circuit input having the smaller evaluation delay, and the bit line having the smaller bit line delay is connected to the evaluation circuit input having the greater evaluation delay.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to memory systems, and more particularly to systems for increasing the worst-case speed with which memory cells can be read.
2. Related Art
There is a continuing demand in the design of electronic circuits for increased computational power and decreased size and power consumption. These goals are achieved in various ways, such as by improving the physical characteristics of the devices. For example, computational power may be increased by developing components that can operate at higher clock speeds than previous components. Device size may be reduced by using technologies that allow smaller features to be constructed on an integrated circuit die. Lower power consumption may be achieved by using Lower power supply voltages. Many other techniques are also used to meet these demands.
There are, however, physical limitations to some of these techniques. For instance, the frequency and I clock signal used in a digital circuit cannot be increased beyond the point at which the components that use the clock signal become unstable. Similarly, a power supply voltage cannot be reduced to a level at which the components operating on this supply voltage no longer function properly, and the physical size of a circuit components cannot be reduced to a size which is too small to be resolved using available process technologies. It is therefore necessary to find better ways to take advantage of the available technologies.
Once such way of taking advantage of available technologies in the context of memory devices is the use of a hierarchical bit line scheme to read SRAM memory cells. In a conventional system, many SRAM cells (e.g., 128) might be connected to a single, common bit line. Typically, there is a small amount of leakage current between each SRAM cell and the bit line. As a result of the current leaks in all of the cells connected to the bit line, it can be difficult to reliably read data from a single one of the cells. Hierarchical bit line schemes were developed to allow the SRAM cells to be grouped together in smaller numbers so that each cell could be reliably read, despite the leakage from the smaller number of cells.
In a conventional hierarchical bit line scheme, a first group of cells (16, for example) is coupled to a first bit line, while a second group of cells is coupled to a second bit line. Each of the bit lines is input to an evaluation circuit. The outputs of multiple evaluation circuits are then input to further evaluation circuitry. In this manner, a number of cells equivalent to a conventional system (e.g., 128) can be read, even though the cells are grouped into smaller numbers (e.g., 16) on each common bit line.
Even this hierarchical bit line scheme can be improved, however. Because of the physical layout of each SRAM cell, there are certain orientations of the cells that enable optimization of the overall layout of an array of cells. Normally, the cells connected to a particular bit line are arranged in a column. Every second cell in the column can be flipped so that it is a mirror image of the adjacent cells. This allows two adjacent cells to be connected to the bit line at a single junction, which reduces the capacitance of the bit line and thereby increases the speed of the bit line.
As a result of the physical layout of the individual SRAM cells, cells in adjacent columns are flipped with respect to each other, but are not mirror images of each other. Consequently, one column of N cells will have N/2 junctions between the cells and the corresponding common bit line, while the adjacent column of N cells will have N/2+1 junctions between the cells and the common bit line for that column. The columns in an array of memory cells will therefore alternate between N/2 junctions and N/2+1 junctions. Because the alternating bit lines have different numbers of junctions, they will have slightly different capacitances and slightly different speeds. This difference is aggravated by the fact that a typical evaluation circuit based on a NAND gate has one input which is slightly slower than the other. Because all of the memory cells must operate according to the same clock signal, the frequency of this clock signal must be low enough to accommodate the worst case of reading a cell connected to a slower one of the bit lines which is coupled to the slower input of the corresponding evaluation circuit.
It would therefore be desirable to provide systems and methods for reducing these worst case delays.

Memory system having distributed read access delays


A closure for an opening through a partition includes a flange having first and second surfaces and a first extension on a first edge, the flange having a perimeter greater than the opening perimeter. A barrier protrudes from the first surface of the flange and is surrounded by a wall having an outside surface perimeter approximating the opening perimeter. A spring member has a proximal end coupled to a second edge of the barrier and a distal end overlying a portion of the flange first surface including the first extension. The spring distal end has a contact portion confronting the first extension and a knob for manipulating the closure toward the opening.

The present invention relates to a hole closing plug, sometimes called an obturator, for closing an aperture in a barrier such as a metal door, water craft body panel, automobile body panel, double walled appliance wall and exterior wall of a fixed or mobile residence, and the like. The present invention has particular utility for closing an opening through a partition leading to an enclosed volume that is to be filled with insulating foam.
Hole closing plugs are used to tightly close apertures generally produced in barriers, partitions, dividers and walls that can be part of an overall enclosure and can be formed of a variety of materials including sheet steel. The hole closing plugs are typically formed of an injection molded thermoplastics material that are at least somewhat flexible and resilient. The hole closing plugs of the prior art typically have a central portion surrounded by a peripheral rim adapted to come into tight abutment against the periphery of the aperture sought to be closed. The hole closing plugs are typically retained in place by flanges or lugs that engage the periphery of the aperture. Examples are to be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,739,936; 4,053,084; 4,037,754; and 6,296,136.
Some hole closing plugs, shown for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,173,843; 3,904,071; and 4,915,252, include handles by which the plugs can be manipulated during insertion. Other hole closing plugs, shown for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,434, are intended to be trimmed after insertion into the hole. While each of these structures have their own features and functions, there is still a need for a hole closing plug that can be stably pre-positioned adjacent to a hole and quickly moved into a hole closing position with a simple movement. There is also a need for a hole closing plug that can be manipulated with a knob or other protrusion that is removable subsequent to insertion of the closure into the opening. There is particularly a need for such a hole closing plug from which the handle can be removed quickly. There is also a particular need for such a hole closing plug that can be used, for example, to close a hole in a hollow wall or door of a structure, such as a refrigerator or other appliance, mobile home or recreational water craft, in which one desires to place insulation, particularly foaming insulation which is installed in a liquid form and then permitted to expand to fill the space within the hollow wall, preferably prior to any expansion of the foam so that the insulation is retained within the space rather than spilling out.


The present invention relates to a drill comprising a cemented carbide or high speed steel substrate and a coating wherein the coating comprises: a first layer system having a multilayered structure covering substantially the whole active part of the drill, a second layer system having a multilayered structure covering only the tip area of the drill.

The present invention relates to a twist drill for metal machining coated with a first and a second layer system, wherein the first layer system has been deposited over substantially the whole active part of the twist drill whereas the second layer system has been deposited only onto the tip area of the twist drill. The present invention also relates to a method of manufacturing such a twist drill.
Twist drills are often coated with a hard material to increase tool life by enhancing the wear resistance. A high wear resistance is advantageous at the tip area of the twist drill where the cutting takes place whereas properties like low friction and smoothness are advantageous on other parts of the twist drill, for example, to enhance chip transportation. The chip transport is particularly important when the drilled depth is relatively large compared to the nominal diameter. In some cases, by coating the chip flutes, the chip transport can, compared to an uncoated drill, even be decreased. Hence, achieving optimum properties for different parts of a twist drill can be difficult and several attempts have been made to accomplish this.
Another problem, which especially applies to twist drills coated along the cylindrical land, is referred to as pitting or pitting wear and includes spalling of the wear resistant coating on the cylindrical land and typically in the area close to the drill corner.
Pitting often includes not only spalling of the deposited coating but also part of the substrate from the twist drill. When the drill is used for the first time it is not a problem as the main cutting edge and the rake face, which are the areas determining the life time of the drill, are not affected by the pitting. The pitting appears at a small distance from the corner and the main cutting edge. However, when the drill is reconditioned it is often reduced somewhat in length and hence the worn region comes close to the cutting region and therefore the pitting can be detrimental to the life time of a reconditioned drill. As cemented carbide twist drills are very expensive it is necessary that it can be cut, reground and recoated several times and hence pitting has to be minimized to enable this.
Recently, new types of hard coatings usually with a multilayered structure, particularly useful for the wear protection of the main cutting edge and the rake faces, have been developed. Unfortunately, such coatings are very strongly prone to such pitting formation.
EP 0 983 393 B describes aperiodic multilayered coatings which leads to an increased hardness and increased wear resistance of the cutting edge. An example of such coating is alternating TiN and (Ti,Al)N layers having an individual thickness in the nanometer range, 3-100 nm.
JP 7237046A describes a method of depositing a coating onto a drill where the coating becomes thicker in the tip area compared to the rest of the drill body. The difference in thickness is achieved by partly covering the drill with a loose fitting metal cylinder which causes a gradual decrease in the amount of deposited material further away from the drill tip.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,688,817 B2 describes a drill that has been pretreated by applying an abrasive material to merely the tip, i.e. by a microblasting operation to roughen the surface. Thereafter substantially the whole drill is coated with a hard material. The coated drill will after coating have a larger surface roughness on the drill tip compared to the rest of the drill.
DE 196 02 030A describes a drill where only the tip has been coated, leaving the rest of the drill uncoated. The coating can be TiN, (Ti,Al)N or Ti(C,N).

Coated drill and method of making the same

Abstract: Drills according to the present invention have good wear resistance and improved properties when reconditioning the drill.

Abstract: The present invention also relates to a method of making a drill according to the present invention.


The audio peephole for doors (T) comprises two flange bushings (2, 3), which are inserted into one another and held together by a two-piece screw-type optical spy-hole (1), with the flange bushings (2, 3) having in their flange (2a, 3a) a central reception hole (4) for the optical spy-hole (1) and at a distance around this central reception hole (4) a plurality of sound apertures (5) penetrating the flange (2a, 3a) and terminating in the hollow space (H) of the flange bushings (2, 3). These sound apertures (5) can be opened for sound transmission and closed against sound transmission by means of a manually rotatable apertured disk (6) provided behind the flange (2a) of the flange bushing (2) on the interior of the door.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is aimed at the creation of a simple and cost-effective audio peephole, which consists of only a few components in a compact design and can be easily and securely mounted in a door and, in addition to the permanent view, also permits a sound transmission from the inside to the outside, and vice versa, and an interruption of this sound transmission.


A semiconductor chip S is formed with a plurality of photodiodes PD and comprises a plurality of output terminals T of the photodetector elements provided on the surface thereof. The circuit substrate C comprises a plurality of input terminals I to which signals from the output terminals T of the semiconductor chip S are input. The connecting means CM connects the respective output terminals T to respective input terminals I, and the interval between the input terminals I is set to a smaller dimension than the interval between the output terminals T. In this detector, since the signal reading circuit A is formed on the circuit substrate C in a region outside the region R1 where the input terminals are formed, it is possible to make the dimensions of the circuit substrate C smaller than those of the semiconductor chip S, and consequently, when a plurality of detectors D are arranged together, the respective semiconductor chips S can be positioned in mutually proximate or contacting fashion, and hence any decline in image resolution in the connecting section of the detectors can be suppressed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a detector for use in an X-ray imaging device, or the like.
2. Related Background Art
A conventional detector which can be used in an X-ray imaging device is described in the following references:
(1) Japanese Patent Laid-open No. (Hei)4-254377
This reference discloses an installation structure for an optical detector. In this installation structure, a back-illuminated photodiode array is connected via a pump to a signal processing section. Since the optical signal sampling electrodes are provided on the back face of the photoreceptor substrate, it is possible to use virtually all of the surface of the substrate as a light receiving face, and hence the aperture ratio is improved greatly compared to a conventional device. Moreover, the photoreceptor section uses a PIN type photodiode, the light incident via the I layer is absorbed with high efficiency, the junction capacitance can be reduced due to presence of the I layer, the depletion layer travel time of the carrier can be shortened by applying a high voltage, and the mechanical strength can be increased. The signal charge extracted from each pixel is input to a signal processing circuit substrate.
(2) Japanese Patent Laid-open No. (Hei)9-288184
This reference discloses a radiation detection device which adopts a layered structure for the light detecting section, wiring substrate, drive integrated circuit and signal processing integrated circuit, in order to protect the integrated circuits from radiation.
(3) Japanese Patent Laid-open No. (Hei)7-333348
This reference discloses an X-ray CT (Computer Tomography) device. Since the X-ray CT device emits the output of a photodiode array via a pump formed on the opposite side to the side on which the X-rays are incident, it permits the respective radiation detector elements to be arranged in a highly dense fashion in the two-dimensional direction, without reducing the detection sensitivity of the radiation detector elements, and therefore allows a broad range of X-ray data to be obtained in a single X-ray irradiation operation.
(4) Japanese Patent Laid-open No. (Hei)5-90554
This reference discloses a detector wherein the output of an HgCdTe photodiode array is connected via a pump in order to be read by an Si-CCD. The drive voltage from the DC power source driving the photodiode array is applied via the wiring on the Si-CCD. In other words, the surface on the Si-CCD side is formed with a dual wiring structure, a first wiring system being used to supply the output of the respective photodiodes to respective pixels (read-out regions) of the CCD via a pump, and the second wiring system forming wiring for supplying a voltage from the DC power source to a photodiode array.


Vacuum cleaning devices include foldable wands to provide a storage configuration and/or facilitate use. A vacuum cleaning device includes a wand having a first end coupled to a vacuum unit and a second end coupled to a vacuum head or surface cleaning head. The wand defines an air passage allowing air to pass from the surface cleaning head to the vacuum unit and includes a flexible air passage along at least a portion of the wand. The wand also includes a plurality of segments pivotably connected together such that the wand is foldable about 180° in a forward direction until the vacuum unit is positioned proximate a top of the surface cleaning head, thereby providing a storage configuration.

Vacuum cleaners devices are used in the home, office and other locations to treat floors and other surfaces. Some vacuum cleaners include a straight, rigid wand between a handle and a surface cleaning head that contacts a surface being cleaned. Some vacuum cleaners may also include a vacuum unit at an opposite end of the wand from the surface cleaning head. The rigidity of the wand often makes it more difficult to use the vacuum cleaner and to store the vacuum cleaner, particularly when a vacuum unit is attached to at an opposite end of the wand.

Vacuum cleaning device with foldable wand to provide storage configuration


A road marker includes a single piece of material having a width of approximately three inches or less. The piece includes a top surface, a bottom surface, and a sloped face disposed between the top surface and the bottom surface. The bottom surface is configured to enable the bottom surface to be connected directly to a floor of a channel of a roadway. The road marker further includes a reflector disposed on the sloped face. Another road marker disclosed herein includes a reflecting member including a reflective surface. The road marker also includes a housing configured to support at least a portion of the reflecting member below a surface of a roadway.

Roadways may include reflective or illuminated markers to improve visibility of road or lane boundaries, crosswalks, or other features of a roadway to assist motorists, bicyclists, and/or pedestrians. Conventional reflective markers may be disposed on or above a surface of the roadway or disposed below a surface of the roadway. A reflective marker that is recessed, or disposed at least partially below the roadway, may not be as visible or reflective as a marker disposed above the roadway surface. Further, a recessed marker may be more vulnerable to damage upon impact, such as by a vehicle, especially when a vehicle's wheel enters a channel in the roadway containing the recessed marker.
Therefore, there exists a need for a reflective road marker having increased visibility and reflectance to improve marking of roadway boundaries, lines, indicators, and other features. Further, there exists a need for a reflective road marker that is configured to withstand and/or be protected from impact and other threats on the roadway.


A process for preparing a conductive polymer article comprises the steps of preparing a dispersible neutral intrinsically conductive polymer; dispersing the intrinsically conductive polymer in a thermoplastic polymer to form a blend; processing the blend into the shape of the desired article; and, contacting the processed article with a dopant solution capable of both swelling the thermoplastic polymer and doping the intrinsically conductive polymer. A process for preparing neutral polyaniline comprises the steps of neutralizing doped polyaniline with a sodium carbonate solution and washing the polyaniline with a polyethyleneglycol solution. A conductive polymer article comprises a blend of an intrinsically conductive polymer and a thermoplastic polymer which is subsequently doped. A conductive polymer blend according to the invention, includes polyaniline, or insulating thermoplastic material and carbon black.

Intrinsically Conductive Polymers (ICP) have been studied since at the latest the 1970's. By "intrinsically conductive" it is understood to mean a material which has the inherent ability to be rendered conductive. The term "ICP" refers to organic polymers which have (poly)-conjugated .pi.-electron systems (e.g. double bonds, aromatic or heteroaromatic rings or triple bonds). Examples of such polymers are polydiacetylene, polyacetylene (PAc), polypyrrole (PPy), polyaniline (PAni), polythiophene (PTh), polyisothionaphthene (PITN), polyheteroarylenvinylene (PArV), in which the heteroarylene group can be the thiophene, furan or pyrrole, poly-p-phenylene (P.sub.p P), polyphthalocyanine (PPhc) and the like, and their derivatives (formed for example from monomers substituted with side chains or groups), their copolymers and their physical mixtures. They can exist in various states, each described by different empirical formulae, which can generally be converted essentially reversibly into one or the other by (electro-) chemical reactions such as oxidation, reduction, acid/alkali reaction or complexing. These reactions are also occasionally known as "doping" or "compensation" in the literature, or can be regarded as "charging" and "discharging" in analogy with the electrochemical processes in batteries. At least one of the possible states is a very good conductor of electricity, e.g. has a conductivity of more than 1 S/cm (in pure form), so one can speak of intrinsically conductive polymers. These forms of the ICP are generally recognized as being polyradical cationic or anionic salts.
A good overall review of the intrinsically conductive polymers synthesized to date with a chemical structure suitable for the present objective, is to be found in Synthetic Metals, Issues 17, 18, and 19 (1986), and in Synthetic Metals, Issues 27, 28 and 29 (1988), which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Despite several potentially useful properties exhibited by ICPs, their use as conductive materials has been limited because they do possess some undesirable properties such as, poor processibility (no melting or glass transition temperature), poor solubility in the doped form and environmental instability. To be commercially useful, it is necessary to render these polymers processible by conventional techniques.
Several articles have appeared in the literature describing ways to overcome the processibility problem. These include attempts to synthesize soluble conductive polymers or precursors and/or polymerization of conductive polymers in situ thereby forming conductive polymer composites. Much of the known work on conductive composites using intrinsically conductive polymers such as polyaniline and polypyrrole has generally included electrochemical or chemical coating of the conductive polymer onto a polymeric substrate or electrochemical polymerization onto a swollen polymer using an appropriate solvent.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,228 describes a process for making an electrically conductive composite by treating a porous substance such as fiberglass, with the monomer solution, and later treating with an oxidizing agent to produce a conductive composite containing an intrinsically conductive polymer. Similar techniques using a non-porous substrate and/or via solution of the monomer have been illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,427 and Japanese Pat. No. JP 61,127,737. These composites have failed to yield highly conductive processible blends, and their preparation has proven to be cumbersome.
Blends of intrinsically conductive polymers with conventional, processible thermoplastics have been suggested to overcome processibility problems, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,164 (polymer blends), U.S. Pat. No. 4,929,388 (conductive pathways), International Patent Application WO 89/02155 and British Patent No. 2,214,511. These describe post polymerization processes in which the intrinsically conductive polymers are present in a dispersed phase in a thermoplastic matrix, yielding good processibility and high conductivity above a certain critical volume concentration of the dispersed conductive polymer phase. These processes present a generally useful procedure to process conductive polymers into various forms.
As used in the art and as employed herein, the term "polymer blend" is generally understood to mean macroscopically homogeneous mixtures of partly compatible or incompatible organic polymers. They always consist of two or more phases.
Nevertheless there is still a disadvantage resulting from the chemical nature of most of the conductive polymers which include protonic acids as "dopants". They react directly or indirectly with various functional groups present in the polymer matrices which are susceptible to reactions with acids or bases. More specifically, for instance, the basic nature of various homopolymers and copolymers of polyamides (nylons) provides a basic environment which leads to partial dedoping (compensation) of the conductive polymer and/or degradation of the polymer matrix. The same result appears to occur with several aromatic or aliphatic esters present in the various polyester homopolymers or copolymers (regardless of whether they are aromatic or aliphatic) which are used according to the above-mentioned procedures.
For several applications, such as engineering or fiber forming resins, the reactivity of ICP's with the resins during processing encountered additional problems. It was found that the processing temperature was higher than the thermal stability of the ICP used, so that the resulting products still showed some disadvantages preventing their practical use. It was therefore, proposed in European Patent No. 0168620 to use the neutral (compensated) form of the respective ICP, to disperse these in the matrix polymer and dope the resulting blend after formation of the finished or semi-finished article.
However, when practicing this procedure with several matrix polymers such as nylons, polyesters and other fiber forming resins, some specific problems occurred. It was found that these problems cannot be solved by merely following the teaching of the above referenced patents. Further problems were also encountered such as lack of specific procedures for providing dispersible neutral ICPs, because ICPs were found to be not dispersible, and lack of specific doping technique for the finished articles.

Electrically conductive blends of intrinsically conductive polymers and thermoplastic polymers and a process for their preparation


A method of bleaching secondary fibers. A secondary fiber pulp is first slushed and then transferred at a consistency of 20-40% to a disperser. In the disperser, the secondary fiber pulp is mechanically treated and mixed so that ink particles in the secondary fiber pulp are dispersed throughout the secondary fiber pulp. While the secondary fiber pulp is being treated and mixed in the disperser, oxygen is delivered to the disperser so as to distribute the oxygen within the secondary fiber pulp.

The present invention relates to a method of pre-treating secondary fibers prior to bleaching.
It is known when bleaching secondary fibers to allow the pulp to pass through a disperser in order to disperse any ink particles or like particles that may remain. After having passed through the dispersion stage, the pulp is transported to a bleaching stage, in which the bleaching chemicals peroxide, alkali and silicate are added. This known process consumes a large amount of the relatively expensive peroxide. It is also known to bleach secondary fibers by supplying oxygen to the system.
The known bleaching processes in which oxygen is used are relatively complicated. The oxygen treatment process is effected in a separate bleaching stage, in a pressurized reactor with a reactor residence time as long as at least ten minutes. The oxygen treatment process is also effected under alkaline conditions and at high pressure. One kilogram of peroxide is about ten times the price of oxygen. It is therefore desirable to keep the consumption of peroxide down to the lowest possible level and to replace peroxide with, for instance, oxygen to the greatest possible extent. Normally, it is not difficult to achieve desired pulp brightness when bleaching. When problems concerning brightness occur, it may be because the secondary paper contained a large percentage of mechanical pulp, large quantities of printing ink or not readily bleached ink or colors. Consequently, it is not only important to maintain a low peroxide consumption level, but also to increase brightness of the pulp in the bleaching process. EP-A-557 651 discloses a process for treatment of secondary fibre pulp. This known process is adapted to clean and treat secondary fibers of various qualities in one single process. This document discloses a screw digester, i.e. a digester which comprises a feeding screw and in which the pulp is subjected to chemical pulping. During the chemical pulping, usual chemical additives, i.e. NaOH, H.sub.2 O.sub.2 and O.sub.2, are added. The pulping takes place under high pressure, 70-135 psi (490-950 kPa) and at a temperature of 70-110.degree. C. The residence time in the pulper is at least 30 min. The purpose of the feeding screw of the screw digester disclosed is to transport the pulp from the inlet and to the outlet end and not to mechanically process or mix the pulp. Furthermore, it is not mentioned in EP-A-557 651 that the treatment in the screw digester would result in a uniform distribution of the ink particles or the added oxygen in the secondary fibre pulp.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,900 discloses the treatment of a fibre pulp mixture, which may include secondary fibers, by means of a disperser. Example 1 refers to reductive bleaching by sodium dithionite and example 2 to oxidative bleaching by hydrogen peroxide. It is not mentioned that oxygen may be used together with the bleaching technique disclosed in this document. In example 2 it is more closely disclosed that a solution comprising one percent of hydrogen peroxide is delivered to the pulp by means of a nozzle in a feeding conduit from which the pulp is introduced to a feeding screw transporting the pulp to the disperser. Thus, the hydrogen peroxide is added to the pulp at a position upstream the disperser in which the mechanical treatment of the pulp takes place.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,234,544 discloses the inking and bleaching of secondary fibre pulp by means of oxygen and particularly that the pulp is brought into contact with alkali, oxygen and a surfactant in a pressurized reaction zone. The residence time in the reaction zone is relatively long. In Example 1 it is disclosed that the pulp is supplied to the reactor at a relatively low consistency of 10% and that the pulp is retained in the reactor and periodically mixed therein by means of a high shear mixer.

Method of pre-treating secondary fibers with oxygen in a disperser


The disclosure comprises methods, devices and computer programs to provide interoperability between incompatible security architectures, protocols, or domains. Policy rules of an authorization protocol are applied to an access request made in an enforcement protocol, and a result of the application are produced. A decision may be made as to whether to issue/reissue an authorization of the access request based on the result of applying the policy rules to the access request. Other embodiments are also provided.

1. Field
One or more embodiments relate to methods, devices and computer programs to provide interoperability between traditionally incompatible security domains, architectures or access control protocols.
2. Description of the Related Art
When security architectures or access control protocols are incompatible, the authentication of users and authorization to access information between them presents a challenge. For example, one system may be utilizing a different security standard or protocol from that of another system and may not be readily interoperable or able to enforce access control policies. This creates systematic challenges when an access request to data needs to be authorized and enforced by different security architectures, or across different security systems using different access control protocols.
Further, organizations largely rely on the thoroughness of security administrators to give users access to information. More recent technology allows these decisions to be made with electronic policy rules but the enforcement of this methodology requires significant change to existing products. It is not currently possible to make automated or semi-automated (mechanized) authorization decisions that are enforced through the existing product Mechanisms—either Access Control Lists or Access Tokens. When two separate security domains exist, the problem of implementing access control policies over HTTP/REST/OAuth communication requires the ability to consume requests to access resources and enforce policies compliant with the trust framework.
These and other problems lead to a need for a solution which automates access control decisions to provide interoperability between incompatible security architectures or access control protocols, and integrates the enforcement of access control policies across incompatible security architectures or protocols. A solution is also needed to support cross-domain security interoperability, for example one that is used by both SAML/XACML and REST/OAuth protocols, among others.

Interoperability between authorization protocol and enforcement protocol


The electric machine comprises at least one winding (30) having at least one conductor (20) and electrical insulation for insulating one or more of the windings (30) and/or conductors (20), wherein the insulation is formed by a metal oxide. The method for producing such an electric machine having at least one winding (30) having at least one conductor (20) comprises the steps of metallizing the at least one winding (30) and/or conductor (20) with metal and oxidizing the metal. The aircraft is in particular an electric or hybrid-electric aircraft and has such an electric machine (10).

The present embodiments relate to an electric machine, a method for producing an electric machine, and a hybrid-electric aircraft.
The development of electric motors is aimed at optimizing the efficiency, power to weight ratio, reliability and service life. However, these variables are mutually dependent: a low motor weight generally results in a lower efficiency. On the other hand, a long service life in most cases requires a correspondingly dimensioned cooling system, which has a disadvantageous effect on the heat dissipation.
However, good heat dissipation is essential for an adequate service life. Particularly important is the heat dissipation in motors/generators that run at a high voltage with simultaneously elevated clock frequencies and/or are operated by converters, since additional heat is produced by the polarization effects that increase with the frequency. This is because, in the case of electric engines, "ohmic losses", skin losses, and proximity losses occur with the increase in frequency. Therefore, the prior art includes using stranded conductors that, in contrast to solid conductors, consist of individual mutually insulated wires and therefore partially limit the losses.
At the same time, efficient cooling and insulation is necessary for a compact construction and a low power to weight ratio.

Electric machine, method for producing an electric machine, and hybrid-electric aircraft


Commercially feasible methods for lyophobic precipitation of liquid-dispersed or dissolved material (e.g., medicaments) are provided wherein a plurality of individual, open containers (22) each containing a quantity (84) of a solution or dispersion are treated within a common pressurizable chamber (12). In this process, desired near-supercritical or supercritical temperature and pressure conditions are established for a selected antisolvent gas such as carbon dioxide, and an ultrasonic device (14) is actuated to generate high energy ultrasonic waves in the chamber (12). This leads to intense mixing of the antisolvent with the liquid solution or dispersion within the containers (22), with consequent solvent removal and material precipitation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is broadly concerned with improved, commercially feasible methods for the simultaneous precipitation of material (particularly medicaments) within a plurality of containers using near-supercritical or supercritical antisolvent gas such as carbon dioxide.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,891 describes greatly improved methods for the precipitation of particles such as medicaments using near-supercritical or supercritical antisolvents. These methods generally involve spray techniques wherein the interphase mass transfer rate is maximized between small droplets of the dispersion and antisolvent gas so as to generate very small precipitated particles. This patent also teaches that medicaments can be prepared and administered to a patient without the necessity of transferring the medicament between containers. That is, a dispersion/antisolvent precipitation is carried out in a final use container which is consequently sealed to permit later withdraw of medicament doses from the use container. This technique generally involves lyophobic precipitation of medicaments on a batch or semi-batch basis. However, the methods taught for this process involve use of long glass tubes sealed at one end with glass frits. Such fritted tubes are not at all suitable for commercial production of medicaments, and thus the specific single vial techniques described in the '891 patent are of limited commercial potential.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,351 is also concerned with formation of nanoparticles using supercritical fluid antisolvents. In this case, a dispersion containing a desired material to be precipitated is applied on or very close to an ultrasonic vibrating surface to generate small droplets. An antisolvent at near-supercritical or supercritical conditions is also applied adjacent the vibrating surface in order to precipitate the desired particles. Here again, the requirement for direct or near contact between the ultrasonic vibrating surface and the material-containing dispersion means that the process cannot be effectively used on a commercial scale. This is because containers would need to be individually treated, or an individual vibratory surface would need to be provided for each container. In either case, the cost and complexity of such a system would materially detract from the usefulness of the process.

Method for precipitation of small medicament particles into use containers


Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for presenting status data received from multiple computing devices in a single central interface. A computing device can be configured to gather and transmit status data. Status data can include any type of data known or discoverable by a computing device. The computing device can also be configured to receive status data from other computing devices and display the status data in a central interface. This functionality can be implemented as part of the operating system running on the computing device. The computing device can also utilize the received status data to select performance options regarding the performance of the computing device. For example, a computing device can select to disable functionality that requires the availability of a target computing device upon a determination that the target computing device is unavailable.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to presenting data and, more specifically, to presenting status data received from multiple devices.
2. Introduction
Modern technology has made gathering data easier than ever. For example, computing devices can monitor a variety of things such as location, lighting level, temperature, remaining battery levels, speed, network connection type, etc. Further, wireless data connections make connecting any computing device possible. While modern computing devices and wireless connections make gathering and transmitting data easier than ever, remotely viewing all of this data still faces numerous obstacles.
For one, the variety of device types and the volume of data make viewing data from multiple devices unpractical. Even if an application or interface is provided, viewing the variety of data requires accessing multiple applications to view the data regarding each application. This is both time consuming and resource intensive and provides the user a disjointed view of the data. Secondly, the technical requirements of creating an interface such as an application to allow data from a device to be viewed remotely can be costly and outside of the expertise of many types of product manufacturers. This is especially true for devices such as appliances like an oven or microwave. While being able to remotely view data regarding these devices would be useful, creating an application to view this data remotely may not be financially worthwhile for an appliance manufacturer, especially since writing software is not an appliance maker's expertise, and thus may not be available to a user.
These obstacles result in an underutilization of the current capabilities that computers and networking provide us to share data and thus be better informed to make better decisions. As a result, time and effort are often wasted by uninformed decisions. For example, being able to quickly determine whether the oven was left on can avoid a wasted trip home or higher utility bill resulting from not returning to turn off the oven. Even smaller tasks such as calling a friend can result in wasted time if his or her cellular phone is turned off. Knowing what forms of communication are currently available to contact the friend would result in an informed decision and avoid the wasted time. Accordingly, there is a need for a way to easily share and view data from a plurality of devices so that a user can make informed decisions.

Presenting status data received from multiple devices


The present invention provides a plasma display panel (10), which includes a panel unit (100) containing a large number of discharge cells (103), a heat sink unit (300) bonded along a back substrate (105) of the panel unit for dissipating heat generated by the panel unit, and a thermal interface (200) interposed between the panel unit and the heat sink unit for connecting the panel unit and the heat sink unit. The thermal interface is made of a thermal interface material including carbon nanotubes. The heat sink unit includes a substrate (302) and a plurality of fins (304), wherein the substrate is formed from an anisotropic material for transferring the heat from the panel unit to the fins of the heat sink unit. The plasma display panel thus has high heat conductive performance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display panel having high heat conductive performance.
2. The Related Art
Plasma display panels are widely used in applications such as gasoline dispensers. The plasma display panel comprises a panel unit containing a plurality of discharge cells. The panel unit emits light beams to display an image when a voltage is applied across electrodes of each of a selected group of discharge cells. The panel unit, which is the main part of the plasma display panel, is fabricated by bonding two glass base plates together in such a manner as to sandwich the discharge cells therebetween.
The discharge cells in the plasma display panel generate heat when they emit light for image formation, which causes the temperature of the panel unit to rise. As a brightness of the discharge cells increases, the amount of heat generated in the discharge cells also increases. And the discharge cells tend to exacerbate the breakage problem of the panel unit of the plasma display panel.
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a plasma display panel 150 disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,618. The plasma display panel 150 comprises a panel unit 12 and a heat sink unit 2 bonded to the panel unit 12 with an adhesive layer 50. The heat sink unit 2 is made of aluminum or its alloy and the adhesive layer 50 is made of thermosetting silicone adhesive. The heat sink unit 2 comprises a plurality of fins 212 and a fin anchoring portion 211. The heat generated inside the panel unit 12 during the operation of the plasma display panel 150 is conducted to the heat sink unit 2 through the adhesive layer 50 and is dissipated into the outside air from the surfaces of the heat sink unit 2, especially from the surfaces of the fins 212.
However, the heat conductivity of the adhesive layer 50 is poor, so that heat generated by the panel unit 12 cannot be conducted to the heat sink unit 2 quickly. Further, the heat sink unit 2 is made of isotropic materials, resulting that the heat cannot be transferred directly to the fins 212 quickly and wholly because the heat is transferred in all directions in the fin anchoring portion 211 before being transferred to the fins 212. As a result, it is difficult to fully utilize the heat conduction performance of the fins 212, which has an adverse affect on the heat conductive performance of the heat sink unit 2.

Plasma display panel with panel unit thermal interface having carbon nanotubes


Embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method and apparatus for outputting information. A specific embodiment of the method includes: acquiring a driving video of a driving process of a vehicle shot within a preset time period, the driving video including at least one frame of driving image; selecting, from the driving video, a driving image including a face image area of a driver; extracting a facial feature of the driver from the driving image including the face image area of the driver; determining identity information of the driver based on the facial feature of the driver; and outputting the identity information of the driver. This embodiment can quickly determine the identity information of the driver.

With the rapid development of the economy, automobiles have become a basic transportation means for families. The popularity of automobiles has brought great convenience to people's travel, but at the same time led to the increasingly outstanding phenomenon of vehicle illegal driving. For example, traffic violations such as traffic light violation, converse driving, overspeed driving, cross-line driving, and illegal parking of vehicles frequently occur. Therefore, how to determine the identity of the driver driving the vehicle when a traffic violation occurs becomes critical.

Method and apparatus for outputting information

Baidu Online Network Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd.


A multilayer substrate is constituted by laminating a plurality of sheet substrates, the respective sheet substrates are constituted by forming conductive layers of a refractory metal such as W on ceramic green sheets composed mainly of an alumina ceramic, and the ceramic green sheets are laminated and sintered to constitute the multilayer substrate. Porous conductive material layers are formed on the surface of the multilayer substrate so as to be selectively connected to the conductive layers, and copper-plated layers are formed on the porous conductive material layers. Thick film conductor layers are formed on the copper-plated layers to constitute terminal conductors, and, a thick film resistor layer for example is connected to the terminal conductors.

The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a hybrid integrated circuit in which circuit elements such as a thick film resistor are formed on a substrate constituted by sintering, e.g., an alumina green sheet and, more particularly, to a method for manufacturing a hybrid integrated circuit in which a terminal conductor is formed on a substrate surface so as to connect, e.g. a thick film resistor.
A substrate constituting a hybrid integrated circuit is constituted by printing a refractory conductor material such as tungsten (W) and molybdenum (Mo) to form a wiring conductor and baking the resultant substrate on which the conductor material if printed in a reducing atmosphere at a temperature of about 1,600.degree. C. Thereafter, circuit elements such as a thick film resistor and a flip chip are formed on the baked alumina substrate.
Conventionally, in order to form, e.g., the thick film resistor on the alumina substrate, a silver-based conductor such as an Ag, Ag--Pt, or Ag--Pd conductor is formed as the terminal conductor on a printed conductor material constituting the wiring conductor, and then a thick film resistor layer is formed such that it is electrically connected to the terminal conductor.
The above substrate is sometimes constituted by a multilayer substrate obtained by laminating a plurality of substrates, and forming wiring layers made of the above-mentioned refractory conductor material therebetween. In such a multilayer substrate, conductor materials serving as conductor wiring formed inside the substrate are electrically connected to flip chips and the like in a manner as shown in FIG. 1,
In FIG. 1, multilayer substrate 11 is constituted by laminating a plurality of substrates 111, 112, . . . , and wiring conductor layer 12 is formed therebetween, as required. In order to electrically connect layer 12 to the surface of substrate 11, through-hole 13 is formed in uppermost substrate 111, and conductor 14 is filled with nickel, gold, or the like, in hole 13 so that the surface of conductor 14 is substantially flattened to obtain the same surface level as that of substrate 11. For example, thick film conductor 15 is formed on the surface of substrate 11 by printing, and layer 12 and conductor 15 are electrically connected to each other by conductor 14. Conductor 15 serves as a terminal conductor, and, a flip chip for example is mounted thereon by soldering (Pb--Sn), and the flip chip and layer 12 are electrically connected to each other. In addition, a thick film resistor (not shown) is formed on substrate 11 as required so as to partially overlap the above thick film conductor.
In order to form the thick film resistor on substrate 11, conductor 15, serving as a terminal conductor and a resistor material layer for forming the thick film resistor, are baked in air at about 850.degree. C. To prevent conductor 15 form being oxidized during the baking, precautions must be taken. For example, an Au film is formed on the surface of the conductor 15. The use of Au film results in high cost.
Furthermore, in the case of mounting a flip chip and the like on substrate 11, hole 13, formed in uppermost substrate 111 of substrate 11 is filled with a conductor. The surface of this conductor is smoothered so that conductor 15 which is formed on substrate 111, is continuous and has uniform thickness. In the case of forming the flip chip of soldering material on the surface of the conductor material constituting conductor 15, Ni- and Au-plated layers are formed between the solder and the conductor material. However, since Ni has a relatively strong tendency to become ionized, the surface of the conductor material must be activated by a catalyst when it is plated.

Method of producing a hybrid integrated circuit


An automobile structural member being a hollow automobile structural member having: a top wall part; a bottom wall part facing the top wall part; and a first heightwise wall part and a second heightwise wall part being a pair of heightwise wall parts that connect to the top wall part and the bottom wall part, the automobile structural member including: a first reinforcing part having one end portion joined to the top wall part and the other end portion joined to the bottom wall part; and a second reinforcing part having one end portion joined to either the first heightwise wall part or the second heightwise wall part, and the other end portion joined to the first reinforcing part, in which a plurality of the second reinforcing parts are provided along a height direction of the heightwise wall part.

In recent years, a reduction in weight of an automobile vehicle body has been promoted, in response to severity of CO2 emission control of automobile. On the other hand, with respect to a structural member such as a side sill or a bumper beam, it has been demanded to improve an energy absorption performance when a collision occurs. However, in accordance with the reduction in weight of the structural member, bending rigidity of the structural member is reduced, so that a measure has been taken such that a reinforcing member is arranged inside the structural member.
Patent Document 1 discloses a side sill structure in which an insert member is provided inside a side sill in a hollow state. The insert member in Patent Document 1 is configured by two parts with different shapes of members in a vehicle width direction. Specifically, the insert member has a part provided with cross members positioned on a vehicle-exterior side in the vehicle width direction, and a hollow part which is positioned on a vehicle-interior side in the vehicle width direction and which is not provided with the cross members. In the side sill structure of Patent Document 1, when a side collision occurs, the part provided with the cross members is made to crush to absorb energy, and on the other hand, the hollow part is prevented from being crushed to protect a component such as a battery. Note that a pair of heightwise wall parts in the vehicle width direction of the insert member are not joined to a pair of heightwise wall parts of the side sill.
Patent Document 2 discloses a joining structure having a plate-shaped reinforcing member which is arranged so as to be sandwiched between a hat-shaped side sill inner panel and a hat-shaped side sill outer panel. In the joining structure of Patent Document 2, in a state where the reinforcing member is sandwiched between flange parts of the side sill inner panel and flange parts of the side sill outer panel, the respective flange parts are spot-welded, and thus the respective members are joined to one another.
Patent Document 3 discloses a bumper beam structure provided with a gusset that forms a closed cross section on a front surface side of a bumper beam main body.
Patent Document 4 discloses a bumper reinforcement having ribs that connect a front wall and a rear wall, and other ribs that connect between the rib and an upper wall and between the rib and a lower wall. Patent Document 5 discloses a structural member having main stays that connect a pair of facing walls, and reinforcing stays that connect the main stays and short-side walls. Patent Document 6 discloses a front structure of a vehicle having horizontal ribs laid between a pair of right and left peripheral walls, and vertical ribs that intersect the horizontal ribs and connect between the horizontal rib and an upper peripheral wall and between the horizontal rib and a lower peripheral wall. Patent Document 7 discloses a vehicle bumper structure having transverse rib parts that connect a front wall part and a rear wall part, and longitudinal rib parts that connect between the transverse rib part and an upper wall part and between the transverse rib part and a lower wall part. Patent Document 8 discloses a vehicle bumper structure having ribs that connect a bumper cover and a bumper reinforcement, and heightwise wall parts that connect between the rib and an upper wall part of the bumper cover and between the rib and a lower wall part of the bumper cover. Patent Document 9 discloses a structural member in which a space in a hollow part having a rectangular cross section is divided in an X-shape.


A polythiourethane is produced by polymerizing a compound represented by formula (I) in the presence of a compound represented by formula (II)

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a polythiourethane and a method of producing a graft polymer.
2. Discussion of the Background
Polythiourethanes have a high refractive index, and may be applicable to optical devices. However, a general method for the synthesis of polythiourethanes, polyaddition of dithiols with diisocyanates is not adequate to synthesize polythiourehanes with highly organized macro-molecular architectures (i.e., controlled molecular weight, head-to-tail structure).

Method of producing a polythiourethane and method of producing a graft polymer

Abstract: in which R1 represents a methyl group;


Disclosed is a process for the treatment of wood strands suitable for the manufacture of OSB boards, in which the wood strands are treated with steam without drying after extraction, the steam being passed over the wood strands at a temperature between 80° C. and 120° C. and a pressure between 0.5 bar and 2 bar. Also disclosed is a process for the production of OSB wood-based boards including the steps of a) producing wood strands from suitable wood logs; b) treating at least part of the wood strands with steam; c) drying the steam-treated wood strands; d) gluing the steam-treated and dried wood strands and gluing the non-steam-treated wood strands with at least one binder; e) scattering the glued wood strands onto a conveyor belt; and f) pressing the glued wood strands into an OSB wood-based board.

This disclosure concerns a process for treating wood strands with steam, a device for performing the steam treatment, a process for producing OSB wood-based boards, a production line for producing OSB wood-based boards, and the use of steam-treated wood strands.
Coarse chipboards, also called OSB (oriented strand boards), are wood-based boards made from long chips (strands). OSB boards are increasingly used in timber and prefabricated house construction, as OSB boards are lightweight and still meet the structural requirements set for building boards. OSB boards are used as building boards and as wall or roof panelling or also in the floor area.
The OSB boards are manufactured in a multi-stage process in which the chips or strands of debarked round wood, preferably coniferous wood, are first peeled lengthwise by rotating knives. In the subsequent drying process, the natural moisture of the strands is reduced at high temperatures. The degree of humidity of the strands can vary depending on the adhesive used, whereby the humidity should be well below 10% in order to avoid splitting during subsequent pressing. Depending on the adhesive, wetting on rather damp strands or on dry strands may be more advantageous. In addition, as little moisture as possible should be present in the strands during the pressing process in order to reduce the steam pressure generated during the pressing process as far as possible, as this could otherwise cause the raw board to burst.
After drying the strands, they are introduced into a gluing device, where the glue or adhesive is applied to the chips in a finely distributed manner. PMDI (polymeric diphenylmethane diisocyanate) or MUPF (melamine-urea-phenol-formaldehyde) glues are mainly used for gluing. The glues can also be used mixed in the OSB boards. These glues are used because, as mentioned above, OSB boards are often used for structural applications. Moisture- or moisture-resistant glues must be used there.
After gluing, the glued strands are scattered in scattering devices alternating lengthwise and crosswise to the production direction, so that the strands are arranged crosswise in at least three layers (lower top layer—middle layer—upper top layer). The direction of scattering the lower and upper top layers is the same, but differs from the direction of scattering the middle layer. The strands used in the top layer and middle layer also differ from each other. For example, the strands used in the top layers are flat and the strands used in the middle layer are less flat and even chip-shaped. Usually two strands of material are used in the production of OSB boards: one with flat strands for the later top layers and one with "chips" for the middle layer. Accordingly, the strands in the middle layer can be of inferior quality, since the bending strength is essentially generated by the top layers. Therefore, fines produced during chipping can also be used in the middle layer of OSB boards. The percentage distribution between middle and top layer is at least 70% to 30%. Following the scattering the strands, a continuous pressing of the strands takes place under high pressure and high temperature, e.g. 200 to 250° C. The strands are then pressed into the ground.
OSB boards are becoming increasingly popular and versatile, not least because of their sustainability, for example as a structural element in house construction or as formwork in concrete construction. However, hygroscopic properties inherent in wood-based materials have a negative effect in some applications.
Particularly when OSB is used indoors, the escape of wood constituents is viewed critically. This is particularly problematic with OSB boards made of pine wood, as these exhibit particularly high emissions of volatile organic compounds.
In the course of the production of wood-based boards and in particular due to the manufacturing process of the wood strand, a large number of volatile organic compounds are released. Volatile organic compounds, also known as VOCs, include volatile organic substances that evaporate easily or are already present as gas at lower temperatures, such as room temperature.
The volatile organic compounds (VOC) are either already present in the wood material and are released from it during processing or, according to current knowledge, they are formed by the degradation of unsaturated fatty acids, which in turn are decomposition products of the wood. Typical conversion products that occur during processing include pentanal and hexanal, but also octanal, 2-octenal or 1-heptenal. In particular, softwoods, from which OSB boards are predominantly made, contain large amounts of resin and fats which lead to the formation of volatile organic terpene compounds and aldehydes. However, VOCs, such as the aldehydes mentioned above, can also be produced or released when certain adhesives are used in the manufacture of wood-based materials.
The emission of constituents in OSB material boards is critical above all because this material is predominantly used uncoated. This allows the ingredients to evaporate unhindered. In addition, OSB boards are frequently used for cladding/planking large areas, which usually results in a high room load (m2 OSB/m3 room air). This additionally leads to a concentration of certain substances in the room air.
Various approaches have been described in the past to solve the problem of VOC emissions.
In the past, attempts were made to at least reduce aldehyde emissions by adding reducing agents. However, many of these reducing agents contained sulphur, which led to undesirable emissions of sulphur dioxide during plate production and later use.
One approach was followed in EP 1 907 178 B1. Here, wood chips or wood fibres are treated with a bisulfite compound, e.g. sodium or ammonium bisulfite, over a period of 3-8 minutes at a pressure of 6-12 bar in a saturated steam atmosphere or in a steam-saturated air before gluing. It is assumed that the addition of bisulphite binds volatile substances in the crushed wood and suppresses the formation of new volatile substances. However, the chemicals used not only make the process more expensive, but also sometimes lead to unpleasant odours in the production process.
The addition of activated carbon has also been tested, but is not satisfactory from a technological and cost point of view.
The addition of suitable VOC scavengers almost always takes place after the drying process of the strands, since this or the temperature impact in the press was considered to be the triggering reason for the majority of the emission. The VOC scavenger were added in liquid form via the glue system, solids were added at various points in the process (e.g. dispersion). This required an additional installation of dosing stations to ensure homogeneous distribution.

Process for the production of OSB wood-based boards with reduced emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)


An adjustable cable guide for archery bow provides a housing which supports a pair of rotatable pulleys upon which the cam cables of the bow are received. A slide mounting of each pulley supporting segment is adjustable by a threaded adjustment screw. The entire adjustable cable guide assembly is supportable upon the riser directly or may be supported upon the conventional cable guide bar which extends from the riser.

Modern archery is the result of extended development through many years as practitioners endeavored to produce the capability for launching arrows with greater and greater energy power range and accuracy. From earliest bows which, were in essence, simple resilient wooden members drawn into a curved position by a bowstring, archery bows have developed through the application of scientific endeavor into extremely high technology apparatus useful in sporting and hunting activities. While archery bows originally formed of resilient wood or other resilient material operated in a straight forward easily understood manner in which the resilience of the bow stored energy as the bowstring was drawn, modern archery bows operate in a much more complex and sophisticated manner. The result of this complex and sophisticated fabrication greatly increases the power and accuracy of the modern bow.
In its typical fabrication, the modern bow provides a rigid riser which supports a pair of limb sockets at its upper and lower ends together with a handle grip near the center. The riser typically supports an arrow rest structure which may be either static or movable as preferred. A pair of flexible resilient limbs are supported by each limb socket and extend rearwardly to define movable end portions. The movable ends of the flexible limbs support one or more rotatable cams. Each cam defines a profile which translates its rotational motion to the desired distance from the center of rotation to produce the camming action. In most modern archery bows, a pair of cables are strung over and between the cams to provide the "bowstring" for knocking the arrow. Because the cables typically pass between the cams several times, a cable guide apparatus is often provided which offsets the additional cable portions from the cable path of the main bowstring portion.
As the bowstring is drawn, the cables are drawn over the cams rotating the cams and flexing the limbs inwardly to store energy as the limbs are bent. The action of the cams influences the draw characteristics of the bow and the energy storage in the flexing limbs. With the arrow held against the bowstring portion of the cables and the bow drawn, the release of the cable allows the limbs to spring outwardly toward their original positions rapidly rotating the cams and drawing the cable back toward its original static position. The rapid movement of the bowstring portion of the cable transfers the energy of the stored limbs into the arrow and launches the arrow. The profiles of the cams are designed and selected to produce the force and acceleration characteristics of the bow to maximize the energy transferred to the arrow for a given draw strength.
The optimum performance of a modern archery bow requires that the cams be precisely positioned relative to each other throughout the rotational range of operation. In particular, the optimum performance of the archery bow requires that the cams be rotationally synchronized in their draw positions. The precision of rotational positions of the cams is required to ensure that the cams rotate together in synchronism when the bowstring is released. The object of cam positioning is to ensure that the bowstring when released moves forwardly without being drawn upwardly or downwardly. If the cams of the bow are not properly synchronized in their operation, the portion of the bowstring to which the arrow is knoched is moved vertically as well as forwardly. This vertical motion raises or lowers the end of the arrow as it is driven forward during launch. Vertical motion of the arrow in turn changes the angle of the arrow as it is driven forward leading to inaccurate launch and flight.
The critical need for proper synchronization of cam position and action in the modern archery bow leads to a process of fabrication and preparation typically referred to in the art as "timing". Practitioners typically place the bow in a specialized fixture which supports the bow and applies force to the limbs flexing them inwardly to a position corresponding to the full draw of the bow. With the limbs flexed by the adjustment fixture, the practitioner then adjust the length of each cable to obtain identical rotational positions for each cam. In many instances, this cable length adjustment is carried forward by twisting either or both of the cables. While this method of cam timing can be accurate and effective while practiced by a skilled practitioner, the use of fixture timing requires a specialized fixture apparatus and is subject to substantial investment of time and labor. For the most part, this process may be described as a trial and error process as the practitioners repeatedly adjust cable lengths to obtain the timed position of the cams.
There arises therefore a need in the art for a simpler less time consuming and burdensome apparatus and method for timing the modern archery bow.


Embodiments of an electronic circuit comprise a module, such as a security module, configured to perform cryptographic processing for a predetermined security protocol that includes random number checking. The security module is controlled by a descriptor that includes instructions that cause the security module to access a generated random number, compare the generated random number to a random number stored during a previous execution of the descriptor, and generate an error signal when the generated random number and the previous execution random number are equal.

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) Publication 140-2 (FIPS PUB 140-2) is a United States government computer security standard that is used to accredit cryptographic modules. The publication is entitled Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules and was initially published on May 25, 2001, with most recent updating on Dec. 3, 2002.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) issued the FIPS 140 Publication Series to coordinate requirements and standards for cryptography modules for both hardware and software components. Federal agencies and departments can validate whether a module, termed a Hardware Security Module, is covered by an existing FIPS 140-1 or FIPS 140-2 certificate which specifies module name, hardware, software, firmware, and/or applet version numbers. Cryptographic modules are produced by the private sector or open source communities for use by the U.S. government and other regulated industries, including financial and health-care institutions, that collect, store, transfer, share, and disseminate sensitive but unclassified (SBU) information.
Security programs regulated by NIST address government and industry cooperation to establish secure systems and networks by developing, managing and promoting security assessment tools, techniques, and services, and supporting programs for testing, evaluation and validation. Applicability extends to development and maintenance of security metrics; security evaluation criteria and evaluation methodologies; tests and test methods; security-specific criteria for laboratory accreditation; guidance on the use of evaluated and tested products; research to address assurance methods and system-wide security and assessment methodologies; security protocol validation activities; and appropriate coordination with assessment-related activities of voluntary industry standards bodies and other assessment regimes.    Annex C of FIPS 140-2 specifies Approved Random Number Generators.

Cryptographic processing with random number generator checking


Barrel racing rodeo pant systems are provided with pockets which retain a protector element for the protection of the barrel racer. The pant system may comprise a pair of pants having a pocket secured to at least one leg which retains a protector element. Pant systems may also comprise a pocket secured to at least one pant leg and configured to retain a protector element at a location corresponding to the anatomy of a human leg between the ankle and the knee. Further, the pocket is elastically tensionable to allow the protector element to move in response to elastic tension generated in the pocket. Elastically tensionable material is provided to form the pocket in some embodiments. The protector element may also locate to a position when the elastically tensionable material conforms to a portion of human leg. The protector element in some embodiments is removably insertable in the pocket.

In barrel racing competition, contestants compete for the fastest time in running a triangular, cloverleaf pattern around three barrels. The horse and rider are allowed a running start and time begins and ends upon crossing a visible starting line. Touching a barrel is permitted, but a five-second penalty is assessed for knocking over a barrel.
The pattern can be started either from the left or right, and contestants who go off the prescribed course are disqualified. The rider can choose to start on either of the front two barrels. A pattern that starts with the right turn around the right hand barrel must be followed by two left turns. A rider who chooses to go left first must make two right hand turns for the second and third barrel. Either start produces the desired cloverleaf pattern. Racing times are measured in the hundredths of seconds. Clearly, knocking over a barrel is disastrous in a race that may take as little as 14 seconds from start to finish.
Success in barrel racing depends on the skills and training of both a rider and a horse, as well as on the quality of the communication between the rider and the horse. The rider must rein the horse to combine running speed with tight turns around each barrel to minimize the distance the horse runs between the start and the finish of the clover leaf pattern.
Because the distance the horse runs to complete the cloverleaf pattern is a significant factor in obtaining the fastest time, the rider urges the horse to come as close to each barrel as possible without knocking the barrel over. As a result, it is not uncommon for the leg of the rider or the body of the horse to contact one or more of the barrels in completing the cloverleaf pattern.
The impact of the human leg with the barrel can result in injury to the rider. The injury can be exacerbated because the rider's leg may be held against the body of the horse. As such, the total mass contacting the barrel can be the combined mass of the rider's leg and a portion of the mass of the horse. This combined mass having a velocity equal to the speed at which the horse is running at the time of contact with the barrel can generate a large amount of impact force incident upon the rider's leg.
As such, barrel racers may desire to wear leg protection devices, such as shin guards, during barrel racing practice, training, or competition to prevent or minimize injury from contact or impact with the barrels. While the use of a conventional shin guard(s) that strap to the rider's leg(s) directly or over the clothing worn during barrel racing may prevent or minimize leg injury, significant problems still remain with regard to protecting the human leg whether specifically during barrel racing, or participating in other work or recreational activities.
A significant problem with conventional protection devices can be that they are held in place directly against the wearer's leg. One aspect of this problem can be that when the protection device is worn under clothing it becomes difficult or impossible to remove the protection device without first removing the clothing. The clothing may also bunch, catch, snag, or otherwise interact excessively with the protection device as the clothing moves over the protection device in response to the movement of the wearer. A second aspect of this problem can be that when the protection device is worn over clothing, the portion of the clothing held between the protection device and the leg cannot move in response to the motion of the wearer. This may limit the range of motion of the wearer and impede the wearer's performance. A third aspect of this problem may be that the protection device has little or no movement in response to compression or impact forces. If for example, the protection device becomes caught or held, forces (which can be considerable when a horse is running) are transmitted substantially in their entirety to the wearer's leg.
Significant problems may also exist with respect to conventional protective garments in which a protector device(s) are made a part of, held by, or are inserted into the garment. One aspect of this problem may be that garments including a protection device are not configured to account for the wide range of activities or movement of a wearer. This may be particularly true of the activities that accompany the transportation, handling, mounting, or riding of a horse, and specifically, there may be no protective garment that specifically addresses the wide range of activities or movements required of barrel racers or barrel racing. Because the range of activities of a barrel racer involve movement of the leg from being held substantially straight (when standing, for example) to be being bent close to the chest area (when mounting a horse, for example) along with intermediate movements during riding (which can involve intermittent standing, sitting, crouching, or rocking movements), the garment must be allowed considerable range of movement while the protector element must (during the barrel racing event) have a position corresponding to the portion of the wearer's anatomy to be protected. Again, specifically with respect to barrel racing which is punctuated by brief periods of competition and long waiting periods, but also with respect to other types of activities that require protection for only short periods of time and have long intervals in between, conventional protective garments may not allow the protective device to move to a resting or inactive location within the garment that may be more comfortable or less cumbersome to the wearer, or affords the garment a more attractive appearance or traditional look or feel during periods of non-competition or during periods when protection is not desired.
Another significant problem with conventional protective garments may be the lack of a resilient elastically tensionable material to transfer the forces generated by movement of the wearer to the protective device retained by the garment. Once aspect of this problem can be that the garment is substantially inelastic allowing the entirety of forces generated by movement of the garment against the protective device to be transferred to the wearers anatomy. If the location of the protective device does not allow precise correspondence of configuration to the adjacent anatomy of the wearer, then the wearer can experience considerable discomfort. This problem can be exacerbated when a considerable range of garment motion, as described above, is required for an activity. Another aspect of this problem can be that the forces generated by movement of the garment are not transferred to the protective device so that the protective device can move within the garment to a location or position corresponding to the portion of the anatomy the protector device was configured to protect.
Another significant problem with conventional protective garments may be that the elastic materials used cannot be repeatedly tensioned and relaxed and still retain sufficient resiliency to allow the protector device to be repeatedly positioned properly with respect to the portion of the anatomy the protector device was configured to protect.
The instant invention addresses each of the above-mentioned problems with conventional protection devices and methods of protection and provides numerous embodiments of a garment protection system, including but not limited to, embodiments of a garment protection system specifically configured for a barrel racing rodeo pants system, that provides protection of human leg(s) or portions thereof.


Disclosed are a Piper laetispicum extract and a preparation method therefor and a use thereof. The Piper laetispicum extract includes any one or more of sesamin, (2E,6E)-N-isobutyl-7-(3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl)heptadienamide, (2E,4E)-N-isobutyldodecane-2,4-dieneamide, (2E,4E)-N-isobutyl-15-phenylpentadeca-2,4-dieneamide, (2E,4E,14Z)—N-isobutyleicosane-2,4,14-trienamide, and (2E,4E)-N-isobutyl-13-phenyltrideca-2,4-dieneamide. The Piper laetispicum extract can prevent depression.

Piper laetispicum C.DC, a plant of the pepper family, is mainly distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Hainan provinces of China. It is used by the folk to promote blood circulation, swelling and pain relief, and to treat bruises or bruises.
Depression has become one of the most important diseases that impede human health. About 12% to 25% of people in the world will face depression in their lifetime. As a common global disease, it is currently estimated that about 350 million patients are suffering from depression, and the age distribution has also moved from covering all ages to a younger age.
After years of systematic research, according animal experiments and clinical experiments the applicant has found that the extracts of Piper laetispicum have significant antidepressant activity, as well as certain anti-anxiety, analgesic, and sedative biological activities. Two related Chinese invention patents and many international patents have been filed.
At present, the main patents relate to the research on Piper laetispicum are filed as following: ZL03115911.7, Preparation of effective parts of Piper laetispicum and its application in the medical and health fields; ZL200410084791.7, A method for preparing the extract of Piper laetispicum, extracts and uses thereof; ZL201010556017.7, Preparation method of effective compounds of Piper laetispicum; ZL201010169679.9, Application of 5′-methoxy-3′,4′-hyperdimethoxycinnamic acid isobutylamide in the preparation of antidepressants; 201010296974.0, The preparation method, extract and application of Piper laetispicum extract; ZL201110123076.X, An amide compound and the preparation method and application thereof.
Skilled person in the art could know that, for the preparation process of the extract of the effective part of the natural medicine, the parts of the medicinal materials used and the preparation process parameters are different, and the material basis of the obtained extract is different. Such as:
(I) Disclosed in patent ZL201010169679.9, 5′-methoxy-3′,4′-methylenedioxycinnamic acid isobutylamide is prepared by the following preparation method:
Step 1: Take the above-ground part of the medicinal pepper plant Piper laetispicum or Piper austrosinense Tseng, crush coarsely, then place into an extraction tank, add 10˜15 times the weight of 70%˜95% ethanol, and reflux for 2 hours. Then add 10 to 15 times the weight of 70%˜95% ethanol, reflux for 2 hours, filter, combine the two filtrates and concentrate at 65° C. under reduced pressure to an extract with RD1.3-1.35;
Step 2: Dissolve the extract with 30%˜60% ethanol, load onto the column of D101 macroporous adsorption resin, and elute with 30%˜60% ethanol with the eluent abandoned. And then elute with 70%˜95% ethanol, collect the eluent, concentrate to dryness to obtain a concentrate;
Step 3: Mix the concentrate, load onto a chromatography column filled with silica gel, and elute twice with a volume ratio of 5:1 and 3:1 petroleum ether-ethyl acetate. Detect with Thin layer chromatography, combine single-point compound of the largest sample volume under the 3:1 system, recover the solvent, concentrate until no liquid left, yellow particles are precipitated. Wash the yellow particles until becoming white particles with petroleum ether, and then recrystallize with the ethanol-water system to obtain white crystals of 5′-methoxy-3′,4′-Methedioxycinnamic acid isobutylamide.
(II) Disclosed in patent ZL201110123076.X, 1-[(2E,4E,7E)-9-(3,4-Methedioxybenzene) nine carbon diallyl]tetrahydropyrrole and 1-[(2E,7E)-N-7-(3,4-Methedioxybenzene) nonacarbodienoyl]tetrahydropyrrole are prepared by the following preparation method:
Step (1) Cut the upper part of Piper laetispicum into slices, add 4 to 10 times the volume of 70%˜95% ethanol and then reflux for 1.5 to 3.5 hours, filter, and continue to decoct with 3˜8 times the amount of ethanol for 1˜3 hours, filter, combine the filtrate, recover ethanol under reduced pressure, and concentrate to obtain a extract with relative density of 1.30˜1.38 at 60° C.;
Step (2) Dissolve the extract with alcohol aqueous solution, pass through an AB-8 macroporous adsorption resin column, in which the weight ratio of the original medicinal material to the macroporous resin is 5:1˜1:1, first elute with 3˜8 times the volume of the column bed Rinse with 50% ethanol, and then elute with 2-8 times the amount of 70%-95% ethanol. The eluent is concentrated to obtain an extract, separate the extract by a silica gel column chromatography in which mobile phase is petroleum ether-ethyl acetate 6:1˜1:2, obtain the mixture;
Step (3) The mixture is separated by high-efficiency preparation liquid chromatography to obtain 1-[(2E,4E,7E)-9-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzene) nonacarbadienoyl]tetrahydropyrrole and 1-[(2E,7E)-N-7-(3,4-Methedioxybenzene) nine-carbon dienoyl]tetrahydropyrrole.
(III) Disclosed in patent ZL03115911.7, 5′-methoxy-3′,4′-methylenedioxycinnamic acid isobutylamide, 3′,4′-methylenedioxycinnamic acid isobutylamide, N-isobutyldec-trans-2-trans-4-dienamide, 1-[(2E,4E)-2,4-decadienoyl]tetrahydropyrrole, N-isobutyldec-trans-2-trans-4-dieneamide, 1-[(2E)-5-(3,4-Methylenedioxyphenyl)]tetrahydropyrrole, 5′-methoxy-3′,4′-methylenedioxycinnamic acid tetrahydropyrrole are prepared by the following preparation method: grind the dried underground part of Piper laetispicum into coarse powder, add 60% ethanol solution to impregnate, reflux twice in water bath with about 1 hour each time, filter, combine the filtrate, concentrate under reduced pressure to 14% of the original filtrate volume, and add 30% ethanol to obtain a clear, opaque, dilute solution of ethanol. Subsequently, separate the solution by macroporous adsorption resin column chromatography, elute with 40%, 55% and 80% ethanol solution successively, collect the 80% ethanol eluent, concentrate and dry to obtain the effective part extract, which was detected by HPLC. The content of amide alkaloids in the extract is 68%.
(IV) Disclosed in patent ZL200410084791.7, an extract, including N-isobutyldec-trans-2-trans-4-dienamide, 1-[(2E,4E)-2,4-decadienoyl]pyrrolidine, 3′,4′-methylenedioxycinnamic acid-isobutylamide, 5′-methoxy-3′,4′-methylenedioxycinnamic acid, piperamide C5:1(2E), 5′-methoxy-3′,4′-methylenedioxycinnamic acid-tetrahydropyrrol e, 4,5-dihydroepiperminine base, piperamide, is prepared by the following preparation method: take 1 kg of the dried roots and rhizomes of Piper laetispicum, cut into segments, add about 90% ethanol to impregnate at room temperature for about 48 hours, then add the same concentration of ethanol to 20 L, and percolate to obtain a crude extract. Add 15 L of warm water to the percolate and stir to mix, then load the diluted percolate onto the D101 macroporous adsorption resin column. After flowing through, elute with 40% and 90% ethanol successively. Collect the liquid eluted by 90% ethanol. Concentrate and dry at a temperature not exceeding 70° C. to obtain a refined extract.
(V) Disclosed in patent ZL 201010556017.7, an extract, including [(2E,4E)-N-isobutyl-9-(3,4-methylenedioxybenzene) heptadieneamide, [(2E,4E,7E)-N-isobutyl-9-(3,4-Methedioxybenzene) nonacarbadieneamide, (2E,4E)-N-isobutyl-9-phenyl nonacarbadieneamide, laetispicine, is prepared by the following preparation method: Take the aboveground part of Piper laetispicum, coarsely pulverized, add 6 times the amount of 95% ethanol solution, extract under reflux for 2 hours, filter, and extract the residue with 5 times the amount of 95% ethanol under reflux for 2 hours, filter, combine the extracts, concentrate to a concentrated extract under reduced pressure at 60° C., the total extract of Piper laetispicum is obtained. Take the total extract of Piper laetispicum and dissolve it with 50% ethanol to 1 times the volume of the total extract (dissolve ½ 95% first, dissolve the insoluble matter with ½ hot water, and combine the obtained solution). Load onto D101 macroporous resin, elute with 70% ethanol solution at a flow rate of 1 BV/h. The eluent was collected at 4 BV and discarded. Continue to elute with 95% ethanol at a flow rate of 1 BV/h, collect the eluent 4 BV, and concentrate to a concentrated extract to obtain the effective components of Piper laetispicum.
Patent 201010296974.0 discloses a preparation method: take the coarse powder of the roots and canes of Piper laetispicum, add 70% ethanol of about 10 times the amount of medicinal materials, percolate at room temperature to obtain a crude extract solution, and then concentrate the crude extract solution under vacuum conditions to about 25% of the original volume. Then the concentrated crude extract solution is stirred evenly and then separated and purified on a large non-polar adsorption resin column, eluted with 30% and 80% ethanol in sequence, and the liquid eluted by 80% ethanol is collected, concentrated and dried to obtain a refined extract. However, it does not disclose which compound are contained in the extract, nor does it separate or identify the specific active compounds in the extract, nor does it measure the content of the active compounds. In fact, what is obtained is a kind of extract with unknown activity.
However, the antidepressant effect of the extracts obtained by the prior preparation methods still need to be improved.