Technological advances

Since tire early days of tliis field, tire scientific and technological advances have been chasing each otlier. Advances in teclmology enabled implementation of new ideas, which in turn suggested new applications. In tire last 50 years tills process has resulted in a series of unprecedented advances tliat have transfonned our society. There is, as of yet, no sign of a slowdown. 

Technological advances continue to be made, several recent patents describe advanced phenol—formaldehyde—furfuryl alcohohol biader systems (68—70). These systems are free of nitrogen compounds that can be detrimental to metal iategrity. Systems with extended bench life have also been developed (71). 

Instmmentation advances have increased the power and quahty of the fundamental analytical techniques used in conjunction with LIMS. Unfortunately, these advances come at a price of increasing complexity and volume of information. Despite ah. of the architectural and technological advances of computer hardware and software, the demands of the information requirements still exceed the computing capabhities, so as to put continuing pressure on computer manufacturers to iacrease storage and processiag capabhities evea further. 

Some factors to consider when evaluating patent and trade secret protection include (/) the form and content of the technological advance, idea, development, or appHcation (2) the desired term of protection (J) the potential for the technological advance, idea, development, or appHcation to be the subject of a commercial product (4) work done previously (5) events which have pubHcized or pubHcly disclosed the technological advance, idea, development, or appHcation and (6) factors that may be critical to keeping the technological advance, idea, development, or appHcation confidential, and what events may necessitate disclosure. 

The legally trained member of the interdisciplinary committee should provide insight as to the significance of the technological advance and as to whether any commercial product ultimately derived from the invention could be protected by an issued patent. Another important function of this person is to determine the scope of the invention based on preceding events, pubHcations, or activities which may have otherwise limited the breadth of the invention. To this end, U.S. law requires that an invention satisfy a number of prerequisites or requirements before issuing a patent novelty, nonobviousness, utiHty, and disclosure. 

Perhaps the biggest contribution that technological advancement in petroleum production will make is bringing large volumes of unconventional petroleum resources, eg, heavy oil and tar sands, into a viable economic realm by lowering the unit cost of production. Compared to the inventory of conventional petroleum reserves and undiscovered resources, the physical inventories of such unconventional petroleum resources are extremely large for example, the Athabasca tar sands in Alberta, Canada, are estimated to contain 360 x 10 m (2250 x 10 bbl) of in-place petroleum (19). This volume is equivalent to the total inventory, ie, the combined cumulative production, reserves, and undiscovered resources, of world conventional cmde petroleum. In... 

G. D. Cooper, J. G. Bennett, Jr., and A. Eactor, Polymerisation Kinetics and Technology, Advances in Chemistry Series, No. 128, American Chemical... 

Improvements ia profitabiUty of mills result from continuing technological advances providing higher yields, conservation of water, optimization of chemical processes, and more efficient use of energy. 

The relevance of photonics technology is best measured by its omnipresence. Semiconductor lasers, for example, are found in compact disk players, CD-ROM drives, and bar code scaimers, as well as in data communication systems such as telephone systems. Compound semiconductor-based LEDs utilized in multicolor displays, automobile indicators, and most recendy in traffic lights represent an even bigger market, with approximately 1 biUion in aimual sales. The trend to faster and smaller systems with lower power requirements and lower loss has led toward the development of optical communication and computing systems and thus rapid technological advancement in photonics systems is expected for the future. In this section, compound semiconductor photonics technology is reviewed with a focus on three primary photonic devices LEDs, laser diodes, and detectors. Overviews of other important compound semiconductor-based photonic devices can be found in References 75—78. 

The main contaminant and its concentration ia commercial caprolactam usually is water at <0.1 wt%. Anhydrous caprolactam is produced ia small quantity for use ia anionic polymerisa tion processes. Commercial product of very high purity is required by the users, ie, the fibers and plastics producers, most of whom utilise technologically advanced processes that are sensitive to monomer quality. 

Anode Applications. Graphite has been used as the primary material for electrolysis of brine (aqueous) and fused-salt electrolytes, both as anode and cathode. Technological advances, however, have resulted in a dimensionally stable anode (DSA) consisting of precious metal oxides deposited on a titanium substrate that has replaced graphite as the primary anode (38—41) (see Alkali and chlorine products). 

The alloy niobium titanium (NbTi) and the intermetaUic compound of niobium and tin (Nb.3 Sn) are the most technologically advanced LTS materials presently available. Even though NbTi has a lower critical field and critical current density, it is often selected because its metallurgical properties favor convenient wire fabrication. In contrast, Nb.3Sn is a veiy brittle material and requires wire fabrication under very well-defined temperature conditions. 

The indirect liquefaction basehne design is for a plant of similar size. Unhke the direct hquefaction basehne, the design focuses on producing refined transportation fuels by use of Sheh gasification technology. Table 27-17 shows that the crude oil equivalent price is approximately 216/m ( 34/bbl). Additional technological advances in the production of synthesis gas, the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and product refining have the potential to reduce the cost to 171/m ( 27/bbl) (1993 US dollars), as shown in the second column of Table 27-17. 

A286 Alloy. A286 is an austenitic iron base alloy that has been used for years in aircraft engine applications. Its use for industrial gas turbines started about 1965, when technological advances made the production of sound ingots sufficient in size to produce these wheels possible. 

Knowledge of a protein s tertiary structure is a prerequisite for the proper understanding and engineering of its function. Unfortunately, in spite of recent significant technological advances, the experimental determination... 

Recent technological advances have greatly influenced protein crystallography... 

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