1. A solid comprising inorganic substance and moiety R10 located on at least one surface of said inorganic substance, wherein said inorganic substance is inorganic oxide, and said R10 group selected from the group consisting of CH2OH, CH(OH)2, CH(OH)CH3, CH2CH2OH, C(OH)2CH3 CH2CH(OH)2 and CH(OH)CH2(OH).
2. The solid of claim 1, wherein R10 is attached to at least one surface of said inorganic substance via a bivalent moiety or atom.
3. The solid of claim 1, wherein R10 is an entity selected from the group consisting of CH2OH, CH(OH)CH3 and CH2CH2OH.
4. The solid of claim 1, wherein R10 is CH2OH.
5. The solid of claim 1, wherein said inorganic substance is inorganic metal oxide, silicate or aluminosilicate.
6. The solid of claim 1, wherein the inorganic substance is magnetically responsive.
7. The solid of claim 5, wherein the inorganic metal oxide is silica, alumina, silica-alumina, zirconia, zirconate, titania, controlled pore glass or mixtures thereof.
8. The solid of claim 5, wherein the inorganic metal oxide is chromatographic grade silica.
9. The solid of claim 5, wherein the inorganic metal oxide is a silica gel.
10. A solid comprising (i) inorganic substance, (ii) moiety R10 located on at least one surface of said inorganic substance, and (iii) at least one binding moiety capable of binding analyte, wherein said R10 is selected from CH2OH, CH(OH)2, CH(OH)CH3, CH2CH2OH, C(OH)2CH3, CH2CH(OH)2 and CH(OH)CH2(OH).
11. The solid of claim 10, wherein the at least one binding moiety is selected from the group consisting of ligand, protein, peptide, antigen and nucleic acid.
12. The solid of claim 10, wherein said at least one binding moiety is attached to the organic substance via at least one linker.
13. The solid of claim 10, wherein the at least one binding moiety is attached via at least one linker to said inorganic substance, wherein said at least one binding moiety is a receptor, antibody, antigen, DNA or RNA.
14. The solid of claim 10, wherein said at least one linker is an optionally substituted bivalent chemical group.
15. The solid of claim 10, comprising about 1 to about 10 R10 moieties per nm2 of solid.
16. The solid of claim 15, comprising 0.04 to about 4 binding moieties per n 2 solid.
17. The solid of claim 16, wherein said inorganic substance is silica and R10 is CH2OH.
18. The solid of claim 17, wherein said inorganic substance is silica gel.
19. The solid of claim 17, wherein said inorganic substance is chromatographic grade silica.
20. The solid of claim 14, wherein the optionally substituted chemical group is a hydrocarbyl comprising n R groups, with n being the number of R groups and n is an integer of at least 2, with n-1 R groups optionally replaced with O, S, carbonyl, thiocarbonyl, OC(O), C(O)O, SC(O), C(O)S, OC(S), C(S)O, C(S)S, SC(S), N(R4), N(R4)C(O), C(O)N(R4), C(R5)N, NC(R5), C(R5)NO, ONC(R5), P, P(OH)O, arylene, substituted arylene, cycloalkylene, substituted cycloalkylene, cycloalkenylene, substituted cycloalkenylene, bivalent heterocyclyl or substituted heterocyclyl, where R4 and R5 independently being H, alkyl, substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, substituted cycloalkyl, alkenyl, substituted alkenyl, cycloalkenyl, substituted cycloalkenyl, alkynyl, substituted alkynyl, cycloalkynyl, substituted cycloalkynyl, aryl, substituted aryl, aralkyl or substituted aralkyl
21. The solid of claim 12, wherein said at least one linker is bivalent optionally substituted chemical group of about 1 to about 30 atoms in length measured from the binding moiety to the inorganic substance, wherein the chemical group comprises at least one R group, with said R group being a member selected from the group consisting of CH2, C(R1)H, C(R2)C(R3) and CC, where R1, R2 and R3 independently being H, alkyl, substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, substituted cycloalkyl, alkenyl, substituted alkenyl, cycloalkenyl, substituted cycloalkenyl, alkynyl, substituted alkynyl, cycloalkynyl, substituted cycloalkynyl, aryl, substituted aryl, aralkyl or substituted aralkyl, said R group optionally replaced with O, S, carbonyl, thiocarbonyl, OC(O), C(O)O, SC(O), C(O)S, OC(S), C(S)O, C(S)S, SC(S), N(R4), N(R4)C(O), C(O)N(R4), C(R5)N, NC(R5), C(R5)NO, ONC(R5), P, P(OH)O, arylene, substituted arylene, cycloalkylene, substituted cycloalkylene, cycloalkenylene, substituted cycloalkenylene, bivalent heterocyclyl or substituted heterocyclyl, where R4 and R5 independently being H, alkyl, substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, substituted cycloalkyl, alkenyl, substituted alkenyl, cycloalkenyl, substituted cycloalkenyl, alkynyl, substituted alkynyl, cycloalkynyl, substituted cycloalkynyl, aryl, substituted aryl, aralkyl or substituted aralkyl.
22. The solid of claim 12, wherein said at least one linker is attached to said at least one binding moiety and the inorganic substance independently via an ether, thioether, ester, thioester, carbonate, carbamate, phosphate, phosphonate, phosphoester, phosphoramidate, amine, amide, imide, urea, thiourea, sulfonamide, sulfoxide, sulfone, disulfide, oxime, O-acyl oxime, O-carbamoyl oxime, O-acyloxyalkyl oxime, O-acyloxyalkyloxy oxime, O-oximinophosphate, O-oximinophosphonate, O-oximinophosphoramidate or CC linkage.
23. The solid of claim 12, wherein said at least one linker is formed from cyanogen bromide, a N-hydroxy succinimide ester, carbonyl diimidazole, reductive amination, 2-fluoro-1-methyl- pyridinium toluene-4-sulfonate activation, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylpropyl)carbodiimide mediated amide bond formation, tosyl chloride, tresyl chloride, divinylsulfone, azlactone, cyanuric chloride, iodoacetyl or bromoacetyl activation, maleimide, pyridyl disulfide, an epoxy compound, 2-iminothiolane 5,5-dithio-bis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid), hydrazide, diazonium or Mannich condensation.
24. A method of isolating an analyte mixed with at least one other component in a mixture, said method comprising:
(1) contacting the solid of claim 10 with said mixture, wherein said at least one binding moiety has a specific affinity for said analyte;
(2) allowing said analyte to bind to said at least one binding moiety;
(3) removing said at least one other component from the solid having said analyte bound thereto;
(4) recovering said solid; and
(5) isolating the analyte from the solid.
25. The method of claim 24, wherein said at least one other component is removed in step (3) by washing the solid with a fluid to obtain a washate and discarding the washate; wherein said analyte is isolated in step (5) by placing an eluant on the solid and collecting the eluant.
26. The method of claim 24, wherein said solid comprises about 1 to about 10 R10 moieties per nm2.
27. The method of claim 26 wherein said solid comprises about 0.04 to about 4 binding moieties per nm2 solid.
28. The method of claim 24, wherein said inorganic substance is inorganic metal oxide, metal silicate or aluminosilicate.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein the inorganic substance is magnetically responsive.
30. The method of claim 28, wherein the inorganic metal oxide is silica, alumina, silica-alumina, zirconia, zirconate, titania, controlled pore glass or mixtures thereof.
31. The method of claim 28, wherein the inorganic metal oxide is chromatographic grade silica.
32. The method of claim 28, wherein the inorganic metal oxide is a silica gel.
33. The method of claim 24, wherein said inorganic metal substance is silica and R10 is CH2OH.
34. The method of claim 33, wherein said silica is silica gel.
35. The method of claim 33, wherein said silica is chromatographic grade silica.
36. The method of claim 24, wherein said binding moiety is biotin and said analyte is avidin, streptavidin, a substance attached to avidin or a substance attached to streptavidin.
37. The method of claim 24, wherein said binding moiety is avidin or streptavidin and said analyte is biotin or biotinylated.
38. A method of reducing nonspecific binding of impurity to a solid comprising inorganic substance, wherein the inorganic substance comprises at least one functional group to which non-specific binding occurs or which causes non-specific binding to occur, further wherein said inorganic substance is inorganic oxide, and said method comprises:
(1) providing said solid;
(2) reacting the at least one functional group of the inorganic substance with reactant to create moiety R10 on at least one surface of the inorganic substance wherein R10 is selected from the group consisting of CH2OH, CH(OH)2, CH(OH)CH3, CH2CH2OH, C(OH)2CH3, CH2CH(OH)2 and CH(OH)CH2(OH), and R10 is present on the surface of said inorganic substance in sufficient amounts such that when the inorganic substance is contacted with a mixture comprising impurity, nonspecific binding of said impurity to said solid is reduced.
39. The method of claim 38, wherein R10 is attached to said inorganic substance via a moiety or atom which is not present in the composition of inorganic substance prior to step (2).
40. The method of claim 38, wherein R10 is an entity selected from the group consisting of CH2OH, CH(OH)CH3 and CH2CH2OH.
41. The method of claim 40, wherein R10 is CH2OH.
42. The method of claim 38, wherein said inorganic substance is inorganic metal oxide.
43. The method of claim 42, wherein the inorganic metal oxide is magnetically responsive.
44. The method of claim 42, wherein the inorganic metal oxide is silica, alumina, silica-alumina, zirconia, zirconate, titania, a controlled pore glass and the functional groups thereon comprise hydroxyl.
45. The method of claim 42, wherein said inorganic metal oxide is chromatographic grade silica.
46. The method of claim 42, wherein said inorganic metal oxide is silica gel.
47. A solid comprising (i) inorganic substance, (ii) moiety R10 located on at least one surface of said inorganic substance and (iii) at least one linker, wherein said inorganic substance is inorganic oxide, and said R10 is selected from the group consisting of CH2OH, CH(OH2), CH(OH)CH3, CH2CH2OH, C(OH2)CH3, CH2CH(OH2) and CH(OH)CH2(OH).
48. The solid of claim 47, wherein said at least one linker is optionally substituted bivalent chemical group.
49. The solid of claim 48, wherein the optionally substituted chemical group is hydrocarbyl comprising n R groups, with n being the number of R groups and n is an integer of at least 2, with n-1 R groups optionally replaced with O, S, carbonyl, thiocarbonyl, OC(O), C(O)O, SC(O), C(O)S, OC(S), C(S)O, C(S)S, SC(S), N(R4), N(R4)C(O), C(O)N(R4), C(R5)N, NC(R5), C(R5)NO, ONC(R5), P, P(OH)O, arylene, substituted arylene, cycloalkylene, substituted cycloalkylene, cycloalkenylene, substituted cycloalkenylene, bivalent heterocyclyl or substituted heterocyclyl, where R4 and R5 independently being H, alkyl, substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, substituted cycloalkyl, alkenyl, substituted alkenyl, cycloalkenyl, substituted cycloalkenyl, alkynyl, substituted alkynyl, cycloalkynyl, substituted cycloalkynyl, aryl, substituted aryl, aralkyl or substituted aralkyl
50. The solid of claim 47, wherein said at least one linker is bivalent optionally substituted chemical group of about 1 to about 30 atoms in length measured from the terminus of said group to the inorganic substance, wherein the chemical group comprises at least one R group, with said R group being a member selected from the group consisting of CH2, C(R,)H, C(R2)C(R3) and CC, where R1, R2 and R3 independently being H, alkyl, substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, substituted cycloalkyl, alkenyl, substituted alkenyl, cycloalkenyl, substituted cycloalkenyl, alkynyl, substituted alkynyl, cycloalkynyl, substituted cycloalkynyl, aryl, substituted aryl, aralkyl or substituted aralkyl, said R group optionally replaced with O, S, carbonyl, thiocarbonyl, OC(O), C(O)O, SC(O), C(O)S, OC(S), C(S)O, C(S)S, SC(S), N(R4), N(R4)C(O), C(O)N(R4), C(R5)N, NC(R5), C(R5)NO, ONC(R5), P, P(OH)O, arylene, substituted arylene, cycloalkylene, substituted cycloalkylene, cycloalkenylene, substituted cycloalkenylene, bivalent heterocyclyl or substituted heterocyclyl, where R4 and R5 independently being H, alkyl, substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, substituted cycloalkyl, alkenyl, substituted alkenyl, cycloalkenyl, substituted cycloalkenyl, alkynyl, substituted alkynyl, cycloalkynyl, substituted cycloalkynyl, aryl, substituted aryl, aralkyl or substituted aralkyl.
51. The solid of claim 47, wherein said at least one linker is attached to the inorganic substance via an ether, thioether, ester, thioester, carbonate, carbamate, phosphate, phosphonate, phosphoester, phosphoramidate, amine, amide, imide, urea, thiourea, sulfonamide, sulfoxide, sulfone, disulfide, oxime, O-acyl oxime, O-carbamoyl oxime, O-acyloxyalkyl oxime, O-acyloxyalkyloxy oxime, O-oximinophosphate, O-oximinophosphonate, O-oximinophosphoramidate or CC linkage.
52. The solid of claim 47, wherein said at least one linker is formed from cyanogen bromide, a N-hydroxy succinimide ester, carbonyl diimidazole, reductive amination, 2-fluoro-1-methyl- pyridinium toluene-4-sulfonate activation, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylpropyl)carbodiimide mediated amide bond formation, tosyl chloride, tresyl chloride, divinylsulfone, azlactone, cyanuric chloride, iodoacetyl or bromoacetyl activation, maleimide, pyridyl disulfide, an epoxy compound, 2-iminothiolane 5,5-dithio-bis-(2-nitrobenzoic acid), hydrazide, diazonium or Mannich condensation.
53. The solid of claim 47, comprising about 1 to about 10 R10 moieties per nm2 solid.
54. The solid of claim 53, wherein said inorganic substance is silica and R10 is CH2OH.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A gaming machine artwork assembly which includes:
a carrier on which images to be illuminated are carried;
an electroluminescent illuminating arrangement mounted on an operatively rear surface of the carrier, the electroluminescent illuminating arrangement comprising a plurality of electroluminescent elements, at least one element being associated with each image to be illuminated; and
a driver circuit connected to the illuminating arrangement for driving the electroluminescent illuminating arrangement to illuminate selected electroluminescent elements of the arrangement on command from a controller of the gaming machine, the driver circuit including individual drivers for each electroluminescent element for independently driving the electroluminescent elements and variably controlling the intensity of the illumination of the images with which said electroluminescent elements are associated.
2. The assembly of claim 1 in which the carrier is a planar sheet of material on which the images are carried.
3. The assembly of claim 1 in which each element of the electroluminescent illuminating arrangement comprises a pair of electrodes sandwiching a dielectric layer and a phosphor layer, a first, operatively front electrode being mounted to the rear surface of the carrier.
4. The assembly of claim 3 in which the phosphor layer is carried on a rear surface of the front electrode and is at least partially encapsulated by the dielectric layer.
5. The assembly of claim 3 in which a second, operatively rear electrode is arranged on top of the dielectric layer to form a structure having a capacitive impedance.
6. The assembly claim 1 in which the driver circuit includes a control device.
7. The assembly of claim 6 in which the control device is a dedicated microprocessor executing proprietary software for individually controlling each driver.
8. The assembly of claim 7 in which the driver associated with each electroluminescent element of the artwork is mapped to a memory location of the microprocessor and is illuminated on command from the controller of the gaming machine.
9. The assembly of claim 7, in which the microprocessor employs a modulation technique for controlling the intensity of illumination of each electroluminescent element.
10. The assembly of claim 1 in which the electroluminescent elements are driven by means of an AC signal.
11. The assembly of claim 1 in which each driver includes a zero voltage detector circuit which detects a zero crossing of each cycle of the AC signal.
12. The assembly of claim 1 in which the artwork is arranged in a top box of the gaming machine.
13. The assembly of claim 1 in which the artwork is arranged on a belly board of the gaming machine.
14. The assembly of any one of the preceding claims claim 1 in which artwork is included in components on one or both sides of a monitor of the gaming machine.
15. A method of illuminating gaming machine artwork, the method including the steps of:
providing a carrier on which images to be illuminated are carried;
illuminating selected images on the carrier on command from a controller of the gaming machine by means of electroluminescent elements of an electroluminescent illuminating arrangement mounted on an operatively rear surface of the carrier; and
controlling the intensity of illumination of the electroluminescent elements to control the intensity of illumination of the images.
16. The method of claim 15 in which each electroluminescent element has a driver associated with it and in which the method includes driving each electroluminescent element independently via its driver to control the intensity of illumination of the image associated with that element independently of each other image.
17. The method of claim 16 in which the driver associated with each electroluminescent element of the artwork includes a microprocessor and the method includes mapping to a memory location of the microprocessor the driver associated with each electroluminescent element of the artwork and illuminating the electroluminescent element of each selected image on command from the controller of the gaming machine.
18. The method of claim 15 which includes using a modulation technique for controlling the intensity of illumination of each electroluminescent element.
19. The method of claim 15 which includes driving each electroluminescent element by means of an AC signal.
20. The method of claim 19 which includes detecting a zero crossing of each cycle of the AC signal.
21. The method of claim 20 which includes, for lower intensity illumination, turning off the AC signal on the zero crossing for a predetermined number of cycles to obtain the required intensity of illumination.
22. The method of claim 20 which includes detecting a zero crossing of an AC voltage signal and, from that, determining a peak voltage of the AC voltage signal to determine the zero crossing of an associated AC current signal.
23. A gaming machine which includes
a carrier carrying artwork associated with a game of the gaming machine; and
an electroluminescent illuminating arrangement arranged behind the carrier for illuminating images of the artwork on command from a controller of the gaming machine.