The present invention provides a personal authentication method using each individual's characteristics exhibited when entering data from an input device of an electronic computer in a network system, and a program for the personal authentication method, and further a recording medium for the program.

There has heretofore been a password authentication method wherein personal authentication is performed on the basis of a predetermined password entered by each individual to access an electronic computer or the like (this method will hereinafter be referred to as "method 1"). In many cases, a password is entered from a device, e.g. a keyboard, which is connected to an electronic computer. In such a case, a password is entered by depressing a key button corresponding to each symbol (a letter, a numeral, or a mark) constituting the password. If there is an error in entering the password, it can be rewritten by using a function key such as "Back-Space".
There is also known a password authentication method using each individual's characteristics exhibited when entering data from a keyboard, wherein information concerning the time when the user types keys of a keyboard is used as one of authentication elements (this method will hereinafter be referred to as "method 2"). The method 2 uses, for example, a time (time 1) at which the user begins to depress a key of the keyboard and a time (time 2) at which the user finishes depressing the key. The length of time from when one key is depressed until another key is subsequently depressed is previously registered for each user and used as one of authentication elements. There has also been proposed a password authentication method in which the length of time (time 3) that the user continues to depress one key and the length of time (time 4) from when a user's finger is removed from one key until his/her finger is removed from another key depressed subsequently are added to the authentication elements.
The above-described password authentication is performed by a special-purpose program prepared therefor. The special-purpose program runs in the user mode (see the description given later) to obtain a time at which the user makes access from the keyboard. To be precise, information concerning data entry time such as the above-described time 1 and time 2 is obtained from a device driver for controlling the input device from which the user has accessed the electronic computer. Next, the device drivers of the conventional electronic computer, the operating modes thereof, etc. will be described.
The electronic computer comprises many hardware resources such as a central processing unit (CPU), storage devices (a memory, a hard disk, etc.), input devices (a keyboard, a mouse, etc.), output devices (a display, etc.), and peripheral devices (a printer, a scanner, etc.) that are connected through card slots. These hardware devices operate under the control of an OS (Operating System) stored in the storage device.
Various application programs used in the electronic computer run under the OS. The OS controls all the operations of the electronic computer and absorbs differences in specifications of different hardware to provide an environment common to the application programs. In other words, the OS is software that provides basic functions used mutually by many application programs, e.g. input/output functions such as keyboard entry and screen output, and management of the disk and the memory, and controls the whole system of the electronic computer. The OS is also known as "basic software".
The hardware devices of the electronic computer are produced by a plurality of manufacturers, and the specifications thereof may differ among manufacturers. It is desirable for developers of programs using the electronic computer to develop application programs without noticing the differences in specifications of the hardware. The OS absorbs the differences in specifications of the hardware to provide an environment common to the application programs.
The developers of the application programs can save the time and labor for development and unify the operability of the application programs by making use of the function provided by the OS. An application program developed for a certain OS can basically be used in any electronic computer in which the OS can run.
There are a large number of different kinds of OS, represented by MS-DOS (registered trademark), UNIX (registered trademark), Linux, FreeBSD (registered trademark), etc. Among them, the Windows series available from Microsoft is the most popular OS for use by corporations and general home users. Mac OS (registered trademark) available from apple is widely used in the DTP industry and the multimedia industry. Servers of corporations and scientific institutions often use UNIX-based OS's developed by various companies and UNIX-based OS's such as Linux and FreeBSD, which are distributed without charge. In recent years, Windows NT/2000 (registered trademark) available from Microsoft has been increasing the share of the market as an OS for servers.
[Conventional Architecture]
FIG. 13 outlines the architecture of the Windows NT/2000 (registered trademark) as a typical OS. As will be understood from FIG. 13, Windows NT/2000 has generally a hierarchical structure comprising hardware 2, an OS 3, and an application program 4 that implements a function requested by the actual user. A microkernel 51 is a program for performing general management of the OS 3. Various software programs (kernel mode software) that run in layers above the layer of the microkernel 51 and the microkernel 51 for the core constitute a kernel mode 8 (see the description given later). The application program 4 in the topmost layer runs in the user mode 9 (see the description given later).
The OS 3 has a hierarchical structure that, roughly speaking, comprises an executive 50, a microkernel 51, and a hardware abstraction layer (HAL) 52. The HAL 52 is located in a layer immediately above the hardware 2. The HAL 52 is a program designed to attach importance to the control of hardware. The program absorbs differences in specifications of various hardware devices such as processors to provide the same environment (independent of models) for services in higher-order layers (the microkernel 51, the executive 50, etc.).
The microkernel 51 provides overall basic functions of the system. The executive 50 is an integrated whole of programs for implementing the provision of main services from the OS 3 by utilizing service functions provided by the microkernel 51 and the HAL 52. The executive 50 includes typical executive programs such as a cache manager 53, an object manager 54, a process manager 55, a memory manager 56, and an I/O manager 57.
The object manager 54 is a program for supervising a running object (a program for implementing a function to be performed) and executing control and adjustment therefor. The process manager 55 is a program for supervising a process in progress (a program for performing only a certain function) and making adjustment therefor. The cache manager 53 and the memory manager 56 are programs for controlling and adjusting memory and virtual memory. The I/O manager 57 is a program for supervising and controlling the input/output function of the OS 3. The mode in which the electronic computer operates under the executive 50 is called "kernel mode 8".
In the kernel mode 8, any instruction for running the OS 3 is executable. If an erroneous instruction is executed, there may be an adverse effect on the whole system. Further, the functions of the OS 3 include a user mode 9 that is completely open to the user to run an application program, etc. In the user mode 9, instructions for running the OS 3 are limited so that an adverse effect is not exerted on the system. Because the system automatically intercepts instructions that may have an adverse effect on the system, an environment easy for the user to use is provided.
However, the provision of such a limitation is the same as limiting the functions of the OS 3. Therefore, the application program 4 that runs in the user mode 9 cannot directly access any part relating to the hardware 2 and has to pass through the kernel mode 8 to access the hardware 2. The kernel mode 8 enables full use of the functions of the OS 3 and also allows complete access to each input/output device. In addition, a program that runs in the kernel mode 8 is processed with priority to a program that runs in the user mode 9. Thus, high performance can be obtained.
Device drivers 5 belong to the OS 3. The device drivers 5 are software programs for managing external hardware devices of the electronic computer. The device drivers 5 run in the kernel mode 8. Usually, there is only one device for each device driver 5 that has the same attributes as those of the device driver 5. The application program 4 that runs in the user mode 9 has to pass through the device drivers 5 to access the respective devices.
For example, in a case where, as shown in FIG. 14, data is transferred from a device A to a device B, the flow of the data is as follows: "device A"→"device driver A"→(switching the operating mode from the kernel mode 8 to the user mode 9) "application program 4" (switching the operating mode from the user mode 9 to the kernel mode 8)→"device driver B"→"device B". Thus, the system carries out processing while switching the operating mode from the kernel mode 8 to the user mode 9 or from the user mode 9 to the kernel mode 8.
The switching between the user mode 9 and the kernel mode 8 is time-consuming processing. When a large amount of data such as image data is transferred, the transfer speed becomes slow, and hence an increased length of time is required to transfer the data. Accordingly, it is difficult to make the transfer speed at the application level. The reason for this is that it is necessary to switch between the user mode 9 and the kernel mode 8 for each processing of the application program 4.
Here, let us explain the conventional operating procedure executed to transfer data between devices. FIG. 14 outlines the relationship between the application program 4 and the device drivers 5 on the one hand and the operating modes 8 and 9 on the other. As will be understood from the figure, the application program 4 runs in the user mode 9.
The device drivers 5 are incorporated in the OS 3 to run in the kernel mode 8. Devices 6 constituting the hardware 2 of the electronic computer comprise various internal devices and external devices connected to the electronic computer. Each device 6 is controlled from a device driver 5 specific thereto. In other words, all access to the devices 6 is made through the respective device drivers 5. The device drivers 5 run in response to instructions from the application program 4 through the OS 3.
Next, the flow of data transmission will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 15. Let us explain the flow of data as transferred from the device A to the device B by the application program 4, which runs in the user mode 9, while comparing the operating modes 8 and 9 of the system. First, the application program 4 sends a data transfer request (instruction) (S50).
At this time, a data transmission request is sent to the device A (S51), and a data reception request is sent to the device B (S52). The operating mode of the system is switched from the user mode 9 to the kernel mode 8. The device driver A receives the data transmission request (S53) and transmits it to the device A (S54). The device A receives the data transmission request (S55) and transmits data (S56). The device driver A receives the transmitted data (S57) and internally processes the data (S58) and then transmits the processed data to the application program 4 (S59).
The operating mode of the system is switched from the kernel mode 8 to the user mode 9. The application program 4 receives and processes the data (S60 and S61) and transmits the processing result to the device driver B (S62). The operating mode of the system is switched from the user mode 9 to the kernel mode 8 again. The device driver B receives the data (S63) and internally processes the received data (S64) and then transmits the processing result to the device B (S65).
The device B receives the data (S66) and sends information indicating the receipt of the data to the device driver B (S67). The device driver B receives the data receipt information (S68) and informs the application program 4 of the completion of the data transfer (S69). The system is switched to the user mode 9. The application program 4 receives the data transfer completion information (S70) and starts the next processing. Thus, the series of data transfer processing operations ends (S71).
Thus, data is transferred as follows: "device A"→"device driver A"→(switching between the operating modes) "application program 4" (switching between the operating modes)→"device driver B"→"device B". During the data transfer, the system operates while repeatedly switching the operating mode between the kernel mode 8 and the user mode 9. As the amount of data to be handled increases, the number of operating mode switching operations increases.
Further, when another application program is simultaneously running on the system, the system switches between the operating modes for this application program. Consequently, the number of times of switching between the operating modes performed in the system becomes large as a whole, causing a delay in the execution processing of the application programs. The increase in the number of times of switching between the operating modes is likely to cause a reduction in the speed of data transmission/reception processing. In particular, when there is a strong demand for real-time execution capability for image processing or the like, the increase in the number of times of switching between the operating modes may disorder the image displayed on the screen.
To ensure the required system performance in the above-described system, it is important to advance the technology for developing and designing hardware devices and the technology for developing the device drivers 5 for controlling the pieces of hardware 2. To transfer a large amount of data such as image data, in particular, it is desirable to minimize the number of times of switching between the user mode 9 and the kernel mode 8 to thereby increase the speed of data transfer. When there is a strong demand for ensuring the integrity of data, it is desirable that data should be transferred in the kernel mode 8, in which no data can be touched by the user. Particularly, when user authentication is performed by using a password, the integrity of password data, which is confidential data, is very important.
WO98/47074 discloses a data transfer technique wherein in the kernel mode, control is shown between drivers in a hierarchical structure. However, this document discloses nothing about the personal authentication technique of the present invention.
Next, the procedure for personal authentication will be described.
Next, let us consider a case where a user enters a password (assumed to be "PIANO", for example) from a keyboard connected to an electronic computer, and a special-purpose application program for password authentication performs authentication. In this case, the keyboard corresponds to the device 6, and the special-purpose application program for password authentication corresponds to the application program 4. The keyboard driver for the keyboard corresponds to the device driver 5.
The procedure in which the application program 4 obtains information concerning the key actuation for entering from the keyboard will be described below by using the flowchart of FIG. 16. Information concerning the key actuation includes information as to which key has been depressed or released.
First, the application program 4 is started (user mode; S80). The application program 4 instructs the keyboard driver to transmit data entered from the keyboard (user mode; S81). The keyboard driver receives the instruction (mode switched to kernel mode; S82) and transmits the transmission request of key actuation data to the keyboard (kernel mode; S83).
The keyboard receives the key actuation data transmission request (S84) and transmits key actuation data (S85). The keyboard driver receives the data (kernel mode; S86) and internally processes the received data (S87) and then transmits the processed data to the application program 4 (kernel mode; S88). The application program 4 receives the key actuation data from the keyboard driver (mode switched to user mode; S89) and also receives system clock data to grasp the time of the key actuation (S90).
Then, the application program shifts to the next processing (S91). Thus, the series of processing operations ends (S92). When it is necessary to obtain key actuation data again, the procedure from S80 to S92 is repeated. Thus, a series of operations for entering one letter with a key is performed while switching between the user mode and the kernel mode. For the subsequent key actuation, similar operations are repeated. After all the letters of the password have been received with the user and kernel modes switched from one to another as stated above, the received data is encrypted to perform authentication.
The above-mentioned method 1 has the disadvantage that because the password readily becomes known to others, it is easy for another person to make unauthorized access. This problem is overcome by the above-mentioned method 2, which uses each individual's characteristics exhibited when entering data from an input device, for example, each individual's peculiar way of operating a keyboard. However, once the user has logged in to the electronic computer, anyone can use it. For example, when the user leaves the electronic computer for a while after logging in, it is possible for another person to access the computer or to tamper with it by impersonating the user.
When another application program is running on the electronic computer, the special-purpose application program for password authentication receives information concerning the entry of data from the device driver. The application program performs the operation receiving information while switching between the user mode and the kernel mode. Therefore, it is impossible to obtain accurate data entry time, and hence the data entry time error becomes large. This may cause a reduction in the rate of authentication of the authorized user. To increase the rate of authentication of the authorized user, the authentication accuracy has to be undesirably lowered.
FIG. 9 is a graph in which the time that the user depresses a key to enter a letter from a keyboard is plotted along the abscissa axis, and the length of time that the user continues to depress the key is plotted along the ordinate axis. The graph (a) in FIG. 9 is assumed to be a true graph showing the time when the user enters data. If time errors of an individual that may arise when a certain user having entry characteristics enters data are taken into consideration, the time that the user depresses one key can be substantially graphed in the form of a quadrangle 60.
When the application program is used to obtain the time that the user depresses keys, as shown in the graph (b) of FIG. 9, the error range of time when the user enters data undesirably enlarges as shown by ellipses 61. When the system is executing processing being imposed a heavy load on the central processing unit and the like of the electronic computer, for example, when the system is executing another application program, the time lag increases as shown by lines 62 and 63. If the time lag becomes large, the user's original data of entry characteristics may fail to appear.
Further, an application program that implements authentication as stated above is one that runs in the user mode. With such an application program, a time difference undesirably occurs in the extraction of timing at which an individual types a key. It will be clear from the foregoing description that there is a difference between timing extraction performed when almost no application program is running in the user mode and timing extraction performed when an application program executing processing of a large amount of data is running in the user mode. Therefore, it is necessary to preset the error range larger than is actually needed for user authentication. This may lead to authentication accuracy degradation.
Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication (KOKAI) No. 2000-305654 proposes a system in which personal authentication is performed by using each individual's characteristics exhibited when entering data from a keyboard. With this system, however, it is difficult to perform accurate timing extraction because of a large number of times of switching the kernel mode as stated above.
With the above-mentioned technical background, the present invention was made to attain the next objects.
An object of the present invention is to provide a personal authentication method using each individual's characteristics exhibited when entering data from an input device of an electronic computer in a network system, wherein personal authentication of a user of the electronic computer can be performed in a kernel mode that is an operating mode of an OS used in the electronic computer. The present invention also provides a program for the personal authentication method and a recording medium for the program.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a personal authentication method using each individual's characteristics exhibited when entering data from an input device of an electronic computer in a network system, wherein the time that a user of the electronic computer actuates the input device, e.g. a keyboard of an electronic computer, can be extracted accurately. The present invention also provides a program for the personal authentication method and a recording medium for the program.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a personal authentication method using each individual's characteristics exhibited when entering data from an input device of an electronic computer in a network system, wherein the confidentiality of data can be protected and safe transfer of data can be achieved by using an interface common to an application program and device drivers. The present invention also provides a program for the personal authentication method and a recording medium for the program.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a personal authentication method using each individual 's characteristics exhibited when entering data from an input device of an electronic computer in network system, wherein an unauthorized access can be prevented by supervising on-line a user of the electronic computer via a network system. The present invention also provides a program for the personal authentication method and a recording medium for the program.
The personal authentication method using each individual's characteristics exhibited when entering data from an input device of an electronic computer in network system and the program for the personal authentication method and further the recording medium for the program according to the present invention have the following advantages.
In the present invention, collection of data about the time of actuation of a keyboard or the like for personal authentication of a user of the electronic computer is performed in a kernel mode that is an operating mode of an OS used in the electronic computer via a network system. Therefore, accurate timing can be extracted, and hence the reliability of the personal authentication is enhanced.
In the present invention, personal authentication is performed by using an interface common to an application program and device drivers, and utilizing the program of the interface driver via a network system. Therefore, the confidentiality of data is protected, and safe transfer of data can be achieved.
In the present invention, a user of the electronic computer can be authorized personally and supervised on-line via a network system. Therefore, an unauthorized access can be prevented.

Individual authentication method using input characteristic of input apparatus by network, program thereof, and recording medium containing the program

Abstract: To perform personal authentication of a user using an electronic computer by using device actuation characteristics of the user when the user actuates the keyboard, is obtained in a kernel mode that is an operating mode in which all instructions of an operating system are executable, and the actuation time is transmitted to a personal authorizing server by a network system, in the personal authorizing server analyzed to grasp the device actuation characteristics of the user exhibited when actuating the keyboard, and compared the device actuation characteristics with a personal information stored in a database of the personal authorizing server.


A vectored DSL system reduces or eliminates correlated alien interference in active DSL lines in the vectored system by collecting pseudo signals from inactive lines that do not carry upstream DSL transmissions and/or from common-mode voltage signals from active lines. The collected pseudo signals contain in-domain interference, such as FEXT interference from the active DSL lines in the vectored system, and correlated alien interference. After removing the in-domain interference from the pseudo signals, the remaining alien interference data can be used to generate FEXT cancellation coefficients or the like that are used in DSL vectoring to remove the correlated alien interference from upstream DSL user signals from the active DSL lines. The generated FEXT cancellation coefficients are used in a manner analogous to in-domain FEXT data collected from the active lines during training, tracking, etc.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) communications suffer from various forms of interference, including crosstalk and various types of noise, such as radio frequency interference (RFI), electrical noise, etc. Various techniques have been developed to combat crosstalk interference and its deleterious effects on data transmission. Vectored DSL has been one such measure in development for some time. Vectored DSL systems remove crosstalk from "in-domain" sources, that is crosstalk caused by DSL signals transmitted on DSL lines that are part of the vectored DSL system. Alien-source interference (that is, interference from sources outside a vectored DSL system) include alien DSL line crosstalk, RFI, electrical motor operation, etc. Systems, apparatus and methods that provide improved vectored DSL performance and operation by removing some or all of any existing alien interference in the vectoring of each DSL line would represent a significant advancement in the art.

Alien interference removal in vectored DSL


A printing cylinder comprising a hollow polyurethane cylinder having a plurality of ribs extending radially inwardly from its internal surface. A modified printing cylinder wherein the radially extending ribs are embedded in metal rings at opposite ends thereof. A printing cylinder mounting construction including a shaft, a pair of spaced hubs on the shaft, a hollow printing cylinder having a plurality of inwardly radially extending ribs, enlarged slots in one of the hubs which permits the ribs to pass over that hub, facing tapered surfaces on the hubs, mating tapered surfaces at the ends of the ribs, a rotary adjustment on the hub having the enlarged slots therein for permitting that hub to be rotated to place the inclined surfaces on the ribs and the inclined surfaces on that hub into contiguous relationship, and a screw adjustment for axially moving that hub to wedge the ribs onto the inclined surfaces of the spaced hubs. A printing cylinder mounting construction including a shaft with spaced hubs, a hollow printing cylinder having a plurality of inwardly radially extending ribs mounting in metal rings on their inner ends, slots in both of the rings, keys in one of the hubs to permit the sleeve to slide over that hub when the slots in the keys are in alignment, and the other hub being rotatable and having gibs thereon spaced from a shoulder for clamping the metal ring on that hub after the hub has been rotated out of alignment with the slots in the metal ring which is located thereon.

The present invention relates to improved printing cylinder constructions and mounting structures therefor.
By way of background, in the past printing cylinders for the wallpaper industry generally comprised an 1/8 inch aluminum sleeve on which an outer elastomeric sleeve was mounted. Cylinders of this type carried hub structure which required locking structure on an associated shaft to be removed when the printing cylinder was to be mounted on the shaft. This was burdensome in that changing of a printing cylinder usually took approximately 15 minutes because of the necessity for removing certain of the locking structure from the shaft, removing the printing cylinder, placing a new printing cylinder on the shaft, remounting the mounting structure and thereafter circumferentially adjusting the printing cylinder and tightening the mounting structure. When a number of printing cylinders were to be changed, this involved a down time of approximately three to four hours of the printing machinery for replacement of up to twelve cylinders and properly adjusting them.

Mounting construction for a printing cylinder


A metadata driven resource management method can include processing individual metadata documents to identify respective resource names and corresponding resource attributes specified within the individual metadata documents. New resource instances can be created to be managed based upon the respective resource names and the corresponding resource attributes identified within the individual metadata documents. Moreover, the new resource instances can be persisted in a resource non-specific database. Finally, individual ones of the new resource instances can be located and managed based upon the individual metadata documents. Advantageously, individual UI screens for managing selected resource instances can be generated based upon corresponding resource attributes specified within individual metadata documents used to create the selected resource instances.

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of resource management, and more particularly to resource management in a collaborative computing environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Collaborative computing includes computing systems configured to facilitate collaboration between end users in regard to a project, document, business process, educational process and the like. Though individual computing applications have permitted collaboration at some level for many decades now, truly collaborative suites have only become commercially popular in the past decade. The most functional of collaborative applications facilitate the completion of a task or set of tasks, whether virtually through a computing system, or actually through in-person collaboration. The conventional learning management system thus represents a common collaborative application.
To facilitate the completion of a task or set of tasks, the typical collaborative application can schedule resources for consumption in the course of completing the task. Additionally, calendared events also can implicate the consumption of resources. In this regard, a resource can include any tangible object prerequisite to the completion of a task or a portion of a task. Generally, resources can range from immutable, permanent and fixed resources such as computing resources, meeting rooms, audiovisual equipment and meeting participants, to consumable resources which require replenishment, such as pencils, paper, ink and toner, to name a few.
In the conventional collaborative application, resource management can be embedded and hard coded to specific elements of the application to manage particular resources utilized in the course of completing a task or a portion of a task. In this regard, resource management refers to the organization, scheduling and tracking of resources which are required by or prerequisite to some collaborative activity facilitated by the collaborative application. For example, where a collaborative activity includes the scheduling and management of a meeting, whether virtual or actual, the resource management logic first must schedule a physical meeting room or computing resources sufficient to host a virtual meeting. Additionally, audiovisual equipment can be requisitioned and, of course, the meeting participants must be scheduled. Considering additional consumable resources such as brochures, presentations, pens and paper, the resource management task can become a daunting task indeed.
Computer systems that manage resources in this way typically do so by specifically implementing system features that are tightly coupled to the types of resources being managed. In the example of a collaborative system configured to arrange meetings, the capabilities to manage the meeting rooms are typically implemented in a "hard coded" fashion that is specific to rooms alone. To add a new resource necessary to complete the meeting task—for instance the reservation and delivery of a projector or white board—the new resource first must defined programmatically within the collaborative system.
Programmatically defining a manageable resource within a collaborative system can be a tolerable task where the manageable resources are simple constructs and few in number. In this regard, to programmatically define the new resource, first a software developer must hard code a description of the new resource within the resource management logic and a specialized database record format must be defined for the new resource. Subsequently the developer must augment the resource management logic to handle the newly added resource, to address individually unique characteristics of the newly added resource and to access the specialized database record format. Thus, as it will be apparent to the skilled artisan, programmatically defining a manageable resource within a collaborative system can become intolerable where the manageable resources become complex in nature and many in number.
It will be recognized by one skilled in the art that resource management is a general computing problem that can be applied to many situations within the collaborative context. In the case of many general computing problems, generic solutions have been implemented to accommodate the particular nuances of specific problem spaces. Still, at present the problem of resource management includes only a selection of solutions each having a specific implementation. Like other computing problems of a general nature, however, there too should be a generic implementation of a solution for managing resources in a collaborative environment. In the generic implementation, one must be able to add resource management capabilities that are specific to a particular problem domain in a convenient and standardized way.

International Business Machines Corporation


A building extension including a preformed shell/module in the shape of the desired extension and which is connectable to an external wall having an external surface which harmonizes or aesthetically contrasts with the existing design of the building. The external wall may be in the shape of a bay window and the shell/module may be located at least partially within the bay of the bay window.

Conventional methods of building extensions involve relatively time consuming, expensive, and disruptive tradework. Also, to avoid expense, the extension is often simply "tacked on" to an existing wall of the building and this can tend to spoil the overall appearance of the original building design.
The present invention aims to alleviate at least one of the above disadvantages and provide a building extension which is relatively inexpensive, simple to install and/or which will be a useful alternative to known extensions.


The present invention relates to a thermoplastic resin composition comprising

The present invention relates to a master batch of an organic peroxide, a thermoplastic resin composition obtained by using the master batch, and methods of manufacturing the master batch and the composition.
A conventional master batch containing a crosslinking agent causes a problem of forming lumps in molding procedures. Here, xe2x80x9clumpsxe2x80x9d are gels caused by local excess crosslinking due to an unevenly dispersed crosslinking agent or crosslinking aid, and polymerized crosslinking aid itself. In injection molding, even if lumps are formed, they appear rarely on the surfaces of molded articles, so that the articles can be placed on the market. However, in extrusion molding, the lumps appear on the surfaces of molded articles to damage appearance of the articles.
It is known that a crosslinking agent and a crosslinking aid are added simultaneously and kneaded in producing a resin composition. Since it is difficult to uniformly disperse the crosslinking agent and the crosslinking aid in the composition, there occur such problems as formation of gels and bad dispersion.
Generally, the crosslinking agent and the crosslinking aid are used in such a manner that they are absorbed in a resin or an inorganic substance. In that case, an absorption process is required, which makes the process more complex and costly. Particularly where they are absorbed in an inorganic substance, a problem arises that a specific gravity of a resin composition ultimately obtained is greater than where they are absorbed in a resin.
In addition, there is a problem in storing a resin composition comprising a crosslinking agent because an organic peroxide as the crosslinking agent decomposes. Thus, a manner of storing the composition is restricted.
The present invention provides a master batch of an organic peroxide in which the organic peroxide is so uniformly dispersed in a thermoplastic resin that crosslinking and/or decomposition occur uniformly, a method of preparing the same, a thermoplastic resin composition obtained using the master batch and a method of preparing the same.
Thus, the present invention is
(1) a thermoplastic resin composition comprising
(a) 100 parts by weight of a block copolymer comprising at least two polymeric blocks A composed mainly of a vinyl aromatic compound and at least one polymeric block B composed mainly of a conjugated diene compound, or a hydrogenated block copolymer thereof,
(d) 5 to 50 parts by weight of an organic peroxide, and
(e) 10 to 80 parts by weight of one or more substances selected from the group consisting of multifunctional vinyl compounds and multifunctional (meth)acrylate compounds.
Further, the present invention is
(2) the thermoplastic resin composition according to (1) above, wherein the composition further comprises
(b) 15 to 45 parts by weight of a liquid polybutadiene, or
(c) 15 to 45 parts by weight of a branched saturated hydrocarbon having 4 to 155 carbon atoms, or both (b) and (c), and
(f) 0 to 5 parts by weight of a lubricant.
In the above resin compositions, i.e., master batches of organic peroxide, component (d) is uniformly dispersed because of the presence of component (e), preferably both component (e) and component (c). When melt-kneading the master batch with the thermoplastic resin composition which comprises component (j), or components (a), (g), (h) and (i) as will be described below crosslinking and/or decomposition reaction occurs uniformly in the thermoplastic resin.
Uniform dispersion of component (d) in the master batch can be attained by kneading at a temperature of 100xc2x0 C. or lower, so that a crosslinking reaction is prohibited in kneading procedure.
In melt-kneading procedure for the thermoplastic resin composition using the master batch, component (c) slows down crosslinking and/or decomposition reaction to allow component (d) to be dispersed uniformly and to cause crosslinking or decomposition reaction uniformly in a controlled speed. For this reason, it is believed that the lumps are not formed in a molded article. The amount of component (c) may depend on its ability to slow down the reaction.
Because an organic peroxide is not made absorbed in a resin or inorganic substance, the present master batch is easy to handle and can be stored in stable state.
Another aspect of the present invention is
(3) a method of preparing a thermoplastic resin composition comprising a first step for preparing thermoplastic resin composition (I) by kneading
(a) 100 parts by weight of a block copolymer comprising at least two polymeric blocks A composed mainly of a vinyl aromatic compound and at least one polymeric block B composed mainly of a conjugated diene compound, or a hydrogenated block copolymer thereof,
(b) 15 to 45 parts by weight of a liquid polybutadiene,
(c) 15 to 45 parts by weight of a branched saturated hydrocarbon having 4 to 155 carbon atoms,
(d) 5 to 50 parts by weight of an organic peroxide, and
(e) 10 to 80 parts by weight of one or more substances selected from the group consisting of multifunctional vinyl compounds and multifunctional (meth)acrylate compounds, and
(f) 0 to 5 parts by weight of a lubricant at a temperature of 100xc2x0 C. or lower, and a second step of melt-kneading 3 to 50 parts by weight of said thermoplastic resin composition (I) with
(j) 100 parts by weight of one or more thermoplastic resins selected from the group consisting of styrene-butadiene-styrene copolymers, styrene-isoprene-styrene copolymers, styrene-(ethylene/butene)-styrene copolymers, styrene-(ethylene/propylene)-styrene copolymers, styrene-(ethylene/ethylene/propylene)-styrene copolymers, styrene-butadiene rubbers, butadiene rubbers, polybutadienes, isoprene rubbers, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubbers, chloroprene rubbers, ethylene-propylene rubbers, ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymers, butyl rubbers, acrylic rubbers, polyolefin resins, thermoplastic polyester elastomers, thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers and thermoplastic amide elastomers.
Also the present invention is a method of preparing a thermoplastic resin composition comprising a first step for preparing thermoplastic resin composition (I) by kneading
(a) 100 parts by weight of a block copolymer comprising at least two polymeric blocks A composed mainly of a vinyl aromatic compound and at least one polymeric block B composed mainly of a conjugated diene compound, or a hydrogenated block copolymer thereof,
(b) 15 to 45 parts by weight of a liquid polybutadiene,
(c) 15 to 45 parts by weight of a branched saturated hydrocarbon having 4 to 155 carbon atoms,
(d) 5 to 50 parts by weight of an organic peroxide, and
(e) 10 to 80 parts by weight of one or more substances selected from the group consisting of multifunctional vinyl compounds and multifunctional (meth)acrylate compounds, and
(f) 0 to 5 parts by weight of a lubricant at a temperature of 100xc2x0 C. or lower, and a second step of melt-kneading 3 to 50 parts by weight of said thermoplastic resin composition (I) with
(a) 100 parts by weight of a block copolymer comprising at least two polymeric blocks A composed mainly of a vinyl aromatic compound and at least one polymeric block B composed mainly of a conjugated diene compound, or a hydrogenated block copolymer thereof,
(g) 10 to 1,000 parts by weight of a non-aromatic softening agent for rubbers,
(h) 0 to 150 parts by weight of a peroxide-decomposing olefinic resin, or a peroxide-decomposing olefinic copolymer rubber, and
(i) 0 to 150 parts by weight of a peroxide-crosslinking olefinic resin, or a peroxide-crosslinking olefinic copolymer rubber.
The preferred embodiments of the invention are as follows:
(5) a thermoplastic resin composition comprising 3 to 50 parts by weight of the thermoplastic resin composition according to (1) or (2) above, and
(j) 100 parts by weight of one or more thermoplastic resins selected from the group consisting of styrene-butadiene-styrene copolymers, styrene-isoprene-styrene copolymers, styrene-(ethylene/butene)-styrene copolymers, styrene-(ethylene/propylene)-styrene copolymers, styrene-(ethylene/ethylene/propylene)-styrene copolymers, styrene-butadiene rubbers, butadiene rubbers, polybutadienes, isoprene rubbers, acrylonitrile-butadiene rubbers, chloroprene rubbers, ethylene-propylene rubbers, ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymers, butyl rubbers, acrylic rubbers, polyolefin resins, thermoplastic polyester elastomers, thermoplastic polyurethane elastomers and thermoplastic amide elastomers, and
(6) a thermoplastic resin composition comprising 3 to 50 parts by weight of the thermoplastic resin composition according to according to (1) or (2) above, and
(a) 100 parts by weight of a block copolymer comprising at least two polymeric blocks A composed mainly of a vinyl aromatic compound and at least one polymeric block B composed mainly of a conjugated diene compound, or a hydrogenated block copolymer thereof,
(g) 10 to 1,000 parts by weight of a non-aromatic softening agent for rubbers,
(h) 0 to 150 parts by weight of a peroxide-decomposing olefin resin, or a peroxide-decomposing olefinic copolymer rubber, and
(i) 0 to 150 parts by weight of a peroxide-crosslinking olefin resin, or a peroxide-crosslinking olefinic copolymer rubber.

Thermoplastic resin composition and production processes thereof

Abstract: (e) 10 to 80 parts by weight of one or more substances selected from the group consisting of multifunctional vinyl compounds and multifunctional (meth)acrylate compounds. The present invention provides a master batch of an organic peroxide in which the organic peroxide is so uniformly dispersed in a thermoplastic resin that crosslinking and/or decomposition occur uniformly, a method of preparing the same, a thermoplastic resin composition obtained using the master batch and a method of preparing the same.


A dispenser for dispensing a metered amount of a liquid comprises a body having sidewalls defining a hollow interior and an opening at a forward end of the body, a cartridge having a reservoir adapted to contain a liquid and an outlet at the forward end of the cartridge, the cartridge being sized and shaped to be positioned in the hollow interior of the body so that the outlet is aligned with the opening in the body. A plunger is positionable in the reservoir and slidable within the reservoir, and a metering unit comprises a plunger advancement mechanism that can cause the plunger to slide within the reservoir, the metering unit causing the plunger advancement mechanism to advance the plunger a predetermined amount. The metering unit is configured to cause advancement the plunger in the reservoir to apply pressure on the liquid in the reservoir and cause a droplet of the liquid to be dispensed through the outlet. The dispenser produces a droplet of from about 0.5 μl to about 10.0 μl. In one version, a droplet to droplet consistency of ±0.2 μl. In one version, the metering unit provides feedback to a user when the plunger has been advanced the predetermined distance.

Liquid dispensers are used for a variety of purposes. Of particular interest are liquid droplet dispensers. Liquid droplet dispensers can generate a small amount of a liquid substance for administration to a user or for addition to another substance.
For example, droplets containing an active ingredient, such as a pharmaceutical agent, a vitamin, an essential oil, or the like can be administered to a user directly or by addition to a formulation that is later administered to the user. The droplet and/or formulation can be administered orally, topically, inhaled as a vapor, and/or in numerous other manners. The droplet often contains one or more ingredients that are expensive and/or that need to be precisely metered for effectiveness and safety. Thus, it is important to be able to reproducibly generate a consistent sized droplet.
An increasingly popular way to administer a liquid in aerosolized form to a user is through a vaporizer or a vaping tool. A droplet of liquid, often an oil, is vaporized and delivered to the user during the user's inhalation. However, current liquid dispensers for vaporizers and vaping tools suffer from several drawbacks. For example, dispensers lack convenience, consistency, precision, and/or feedback.
There is therefore a need for an improved liquid dispenser. There is further a need for a liquid dispenser that can produce a metered droplet. There is still a further need for a dispenser that is convenient, consistent, precise, and that provides feedback to the user.


A ball strainer for foam rubber cleaning balls in a cleaning system for process piping includes a ball collecting and discharge chamber at the downstream end of the screen which is disposed wholly outside the wall of the pipe in which the screen is mounted. The chamber is dimensioned and oriented to completely eliminate the pinch point between the screen and the pipe wall. Mounting the collecting chamber on the outside of the pipe wall allows the use of a planar screen with a smooth elliptical edge which is of substantially simpler construction and offers a minimum resistance to cooling water flow.

The present invention pertains to a system utilizing circulating foam rubber balls as a cleaning media and, more particularly, to a ball straining mechanism for a circulating ball cleaning system used for cleaning the tubes in a heat exchanger.
It is well known in the art to provide the condenser in a heat exchanger with a large number of parallel tubes through which cooling water is directed. The condenser tubes are supplied with cooling water by a pump-operated recirculating system, typically receiving water from a cooling tower, circulating it through the heat exchanger condenser and returning it to the cooling tower.
Various methods are utilized for periodically cleaning the condenser tubes to remove deposits which accumulate therein. Typically, the condenser tubes may be about 1" in diameter and, in one known method, resilient foam rubber balls having a diameter slightly larger than the tubes are circulated therethrough with the cooling water. The balls are compressed slightly as they enter the tubes and are forced through the tubes by water pressure carrying accumulated deposits with them. The balls are injected into the cooling water flow from a parallel branch upstream from the condenser and are removed from the stream after they exit the condenser and diverted from the main cooling water flow back into the parallel branch for recirculation or collection. To separate the balls from the return flow to the cooling tower, a ball strainer comprising a large screen is disposed in the return flow piping system where the balls are screened from the flow and diverted into the collection/recirculation branch.
Ball strainers typically comprise an elongated screen section which is disposed at an angle in the main cooling water piping system. The downstream edge of the screen is elliptically shaped to closely fit the interior contour of the pipe when the screen is disposed at an acute angle to the pipe axis. Balls accumulating on the screen are funneled by the cooling water flow to the narrow downstream end where the apex of the elliptical screen meets the pipe wall. Here the balls accumulate and are diverted through a small opening in the wall of the pipe and directly into the small diameter collection/recirculation branch pipe. Thus, the primary flow of cooling water continues through the main piping system and a relatively small volume of cooling water is diverted with and carries the balls through the branch pipe, with the flow therethrough induced by a separate pump in the branch line.
Because of the shape and orientation of an elliptical ball strainer, it inherently creates a pinch point where its downstream apex meets the pipe wall. Special means are required to prevent balls from being trapped at the pinch point and accumulating such that they cannot be properly diverted and removed from the system. One prior art device comprises a collecting cup formed in the downstream end of the screen generally at the apex of the ellipse. The cup has a side wall which extends radially inwardly of the pipe to eliminate the pinch point at the ball diversion outlet. However, this construction requires the smooth planar elliptical surface of the screen to be interrupted and substantially complicates the manufacture of the screen and, therefore, the cost. Another prior art device utilizes an elliptical flange on the downstream portion of the screen, which flange is disposed generally perpendicular to the plane of the screen such that the edge of the lip engages the pipe to maintain the planar screen offset from the pipe wall. This also eliminates the sharp pinch point at the apex of the ellipse to prevent the jamming and accumulation of cleaning balls which might plug the ball diversion opening. Ball strainer screens are pivotally mounted inside the pipe such that they maybe rotated between a screening and a backwash position, the latter occurring after the balls have been completely diverted and temporarily collected in the branch line. However, the attachment of the large perpendicular lip to the downstream edge of the screen adds very substantially to the resistance to flow across the screen, making it difficult and requiring added power to rotate the screen between its backwash to its straining position. U.S. Pat. No. 4,385,660 is typical of prior art screening and diverting apparatus.

Ball strainer for circulating ball cleaning system


An antenna device includes a substrate, and a dual-band antenna disposed on a surface of the substrate. The dual-band antenna includes a feed-in section, a first radiator arm, a second radiator arm, a third radiator arm, and a ground section. The feed-in section is for signal feed-in, and has opposite first and second ends. The first radiator arm extends from the first end of the feed-in section and is parallel to the feed-in section. The second radiator arm is connected to the second end of the feed-in section and extends parallel to the feed-in section. The third radiator arm is disposed adjacent to and extends parallel to the first radiator arm in a manner that the feed-in section is disposed between the third radiator arm and the second radiator arm. The ground section is connected to the third radiator arm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna device, more particularly to an antenna device having a dual-band antenna.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, popularity of the Internet accelerated development of Wireless Wide Area Networks (WWAN) for city-to-city or even country-to-country mobile access. WWAN use several frequency bands, two of which have frequencies ranging from 824 MHz to 960 MHz and from 1710 MHz to 2170 MHz, respectively. Accordingly, most modern portable computers, such as laptop computers, notebook computers, and netbook computers are equipped with an antenna device for access to WWAN.
It is known that size, weight, and thickness of portable computers have to be carefully designed so as to avoid compromising mobility. Hence, conventional monopole antennas, spiral antennas, and loop antennas are becoming less suitable for use in modern portable computers due to their dimensions. Referring to FIG. 1, a planar inverted-F antenna 9 for portable computers has been proposed to overcome this issue. Nevertheless, the planar inverted-F antenna 9 is known to have narrow bandwidth, low efficiency, and directional antenna radiation pattern.


A contents utilization control apparatus includes an input unit for inputting a) contents with control module that consist of contents and a control module, and b) a license with control module that consists of a license prepared from contents utilization approval information and a control module. The control module in the contents with control module and the control module in the license with control module cooperate with each other to carry out a control relating to the utilization of the contents.

In recent years, along with the starting of the Internet distribution of digitized contents of pictures and music based on the readily available multimedia, there has been an increasing trend of users' showing high interest in utilizing the contents. In order to meet the users' needs, means and methods for controlling the contents utilization with high flexibility have been in high demand.
Conventionally, contents of pictures and music (copyright) have not been able to be sold or transferred for making profit without the approval from the copyright owners. The contents in this case refers to the digital contents having a structure as a collection of bit strings that can be recorded onto a single recording medium. They include sentence texts, still images, dynamic images, program software, etc.
The contents of this type are provided to users from the download sites on the Internet or by a recording medium. In providing and utilizing the contents, a control for the utilization of contents (hereinafter to be referred to as a contents utilization control) is carried out using a license (utilization approval information) aiming at the protection of the copyright. This contents utilization control is for enabling only the legally approved users to utilize the contents.
Further, a contents utilization control apparatus that controls the utilization of the contents is set with an own environment for the utilization of the license and the contents. In this environment of utilization, the contents utilization control apparatus is set with apparatus identification to identify the contents utilization control apparatus. Therefore, the contents utilization control apparatus controls the utilization of the contents by decoding the contents based on the apparatus identification information and the license. For utilizing the charged contents, the users are charged. Conventionally, the providers of the contents have managed this charging.
As explained above, the conventional contents utilization control apparatus provides contents and license that have been prepared to meet the environment of the apparatus that utilizes the contents. As the contents and license largely depend on the environment of the contents utilization control apparatus that utilizes the contents utilization control apparatus, users cannot carry out a flexible utilization of the contents. Further, as the contents and license must be prepared individually, the providers of the contents have also had to bear a heavy burden.
Furthermore, as the license cannot have charge information, the contents providers have had to manage the charging for the contents utilization. This charge management has also been a very troublesome work.

Method and apparatus for controlling contents utilization, and a computer product


The present invention is a combustion system employing a urea-to-ammonia vapor reactor system. The urea-to-ammonia reactor housing enclosed in a bypass flow duct that receives a secondary flue gas stream at a split point from a main flue gas stream containing nitrogen oxides (NOx) emanating from a boiler. The bypass flow duct allows the secondary flue gas stream to flow past the enclosed reactor housing where injected aqueous urea in atomized or non-atomized form, is gasified to ammonia vapor. The resulting gaseous mixtures of ammonia, its by-products and the secondary flue gas stream subsequently rejoin the main stream, before the main flue gases are treated through a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) reactor apparatus. A residence time of the secondary stream within the bypass flow duct, which may be increased by a recirculation loop, enables effective conversion of urea to ammonia to be used in the SCR apparatus.

Use of fossil fuels (example, fuel oil) in gas turbines, furnaces, internal combustion engines and boilers, such as for power plants, industrial production, etc., results in the generation of flue gases comprising undesirable nitrogen oxides (NOx), usually in the form of a combination of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Under certain operating conditions the NOx level in a flue gas stream can be lowered by reacting the NOx with ammonia to produce harmless water and nitrogen as products. This reaction can occur in the presence of certain catalysts, in a process known as selective catalytic reduction (SCR).
Ammonia for SCR is typically supplied by sufficiently heating aqueous urea to form gaseous ammonia. Use of the enthalpy of sufficiently hot bypass stream of flue gases, to convert a feed of urea into ammonia gas, is also known in the art. For example:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,514 titled, "Combined catalytic/non-catalytic process for nitrogen oxides reduction" to Hofmann et al., discloses a "process for reducing nitrogen oxides in a combustion effluent" that "involves introducing a nitrogenous treatment agent into the effluent under conditions effective to create a treated effluent having reduced nitrogen oxides concentration such that ammonia is present in the treated effluent; and then contacting the treated effluent under conditions effective to reduce the nitrogen oxides in the effluent with a nitrogen oxides reducing catalyst."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,754 titled, "Catalytic/non-catalytic combination process for nitrogen oxides reduction" to Luftglass et al., describes "A process for reducing nitrogen oxides in a combustion effluent" that "involves introducing a nitrogenous treatment agent into the effluent under conditions effective to create a treated effluent having reduced nitrogen oxides concentration such that ammonia is present in the treated effluent; and then contacting the treated effluent under conditions effective to reduce the nitrogen oxides in the effluent with a nitrogen oxides reducing catalyst."
U.S. Pat. No. 7,090,810 titled, "Selective catalytic reduction of NOx enabled by side stream urea decomposition" to Sun et al., discloses "A preferred process arrangement" that "utilizes the enthalpy of the flue gas, which can be supplemented if need be, to convert urea (30) into ammonia for SCR. Urea (30), which decomposes at temperatures above 140° C., is injected (32) into a flue gas stream split off (28) after a heat exchanger (22), such as a primary super heater or an economizer. Ideally, the side stream would gasify the urea without need for further heating; but, when heat is required it is far less than would be needed to heat either the entire effluent (23) or the urea (30). This side stream, typically less than 3% of the flue gas, provides the required temperature and residence time for complete decomposition of urea (30). A cyclonic separator can be used to remove particulates and completely mix the reagent and flue gas. This stream can then be directed to an injection grid (37) ahead of SCR using a blower (36). The mixing with the flue gas is facilitated due to an order of magnitude higher mass of side stream compared to that injected through the AIG in a traditional ammonia-SCR process."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,467 titled, "Highly efficient hybrid process for nitrogen oxides reduction" to Sun et al., describes "A process for reducing nitrogen oxides in a combustion effluent" that "involves introducing a nitrogenous treatment agent other than ammonia into the effluent to create a treated effluent having reduced nitrogen oxides concentration such that ammonia is present in the treated effluent; introducing a source of ammonia into the effluent: and contacting the treated effluent with a nitrogen oxides reducing catalyst."

System and method to gasify aqueous urea into ammonia vapors using secondary flue gases


Methods, systems, and media for transforming fingerprints to detect unauthorized media content items are provided. The method comprises: receiving criteria relating to an application of a circumvention technique to one or more video content items, wherein the criteria includes abuse criteria that describes the circumvention technique and a transform for use with the one or more video content items in which the circumvention technique was applied; generating an abuse query that includes at least a portion of the abuse criteria that describes the circumvention technique; determining from a plurality of video content items, a subset of video content items responsive to the abuse query; applying, for each video content item in the subset of video content items, the transform to each video content item to obtain a transformed video content item; generating, for each transformed video content item, a fingerprint that represents the transformed video content item; and comparing the fingerprint of the transformed video content item to a plurality of fingerprints associated with reference video content items to determine whether the video content item corresponding to the transformed video content item matches one of the reference video content items.

Video content providers can receive uploaded video content, store the uploaded video content, and then provide the uploaded video content to many users, for example, by streaming the video content to multiple user devices. These video content providers may determine whether the uploaded video content matches video content in a reference database, for example, that includes reference files of copyrighted content. However, it is often difficult to determine whether uploaded video content matches a reference file of copyrighted content. For example, with the advent of immersive or 360-degree spherical video content, these video content providers have begun to receive uploaded video content containing three-dimensional video content. It is difficult to determine whether such three-dimensional video content matches two-dimensional video content stored in a reference file.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods, systems, and media for transforming fingerprints to detect unauthorized media content items.


The present invention relates to a method of continuously recycling thermoset plastic waste. The method includes crushing the thermoset plastic waste into pieces with a diameter size suitable for being fed into an extruder. The method also includes purifying the thermoset plastic waste by cleaning the thermoset plastic waste using a cleaning agent to remove contaminants from the thermoset plastic waste. The method also includes extruding the thermoset plastic waste by using supercritical solvent.

In recent years, problems caused by recycling municipal solid waste (MSW) still remain a significant challenge to the global environment. Plastic wastes are the major portions among different types of waste being disposed. Conventional methods of recycling plastic wastes include landfill and incineration. However, these methods lead to serious concerns on the environment and human health, and they have drawn more public attention due to the side effects.
On the other hand, there is an increasing demand for recycling/reusing plastic wastes, due to the concern of resource consumption. Thermoplastic resins can be fluidized by heating so that they can be remolded and reused as raw materials for further production. On the contrary, thermoset wastes, which contribute to nearly half of all plastic wastes, are impossible to recycle. The most challenging point of recycling thermoset wastes is that they cannot be fluidized through conventional heating methods, due to the dense structure of their three-dimensional network. The networks exist as linkages between the macromolecule chains, which may cause decomposition of thermoset wastes before melting, at a high temperature of above 600° C.
Therefore, most thermoset wastes are directly disposed to a landfill or incinerator for recycling. However, none of the existing recycling methods are cost-effective, environmentally friendly or continuous. The existing methods, such as treating the thermoset wastes by chemical reagents under high temperature and pressure in an enclosed autoclave reactor, are proven to have low efficiency and productivity, and high consumption of power and chemicals. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a more cost-efficient and safer method for recycling thermoset plastic wastes.

Method of continuously recycling thermoset plastic waste


Neuroprotective compounds for reducing neurological damage due to cellular stress in an individual are of Formula 1:

An example of a small molecule neuroprotectant that has found medical use and entered the market is the drug edaravone, which is used in the treatment of stroke and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Although this compound is considered a free radical scavenger due to its ability to donate an electron, it may have other mechanisms of biochemical action as well. Small molecules that induce acute neuroprotection are rare. For example, a glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) upregulating small molecule (named GSK812) that prevents retinal degradation has not been shown to be effective across a number of cell types. No neuroprotective Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs exist that effectively reduce neurological damage elicited by acute oxidative stress. Drugs capable of restoring synaptic function during or after oxidative stress are urgently needed.

Bridged bicyclic compounds and their derivatives as neuroprotective agents and methods of use thereof

Abstract: or an enantiomer, diastereomer, racemic mixture or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, wherein: Ar=aryl; Y=aryl substituent (ortho, meta, or para) selected from the group consisting of: alkyl, alkyloxy, alkylamino, R5R6N, and halo; X═O, N, or S; R═H, alkyl, aryl, OH, alkyloxy, aryloxy, NH2, alkylamino, R5R6N, or arylamino; R1 and R2=alkylcarbonyl, arylcarbonyl, alkyl, or H, individually; R3=arylCH═CH, alkylCH═CH, alkyl; R4═H, alkyl, or aryl; and R5 and R6=alkyl, individually. Methods of reducing neurological damage due to cellular stress in an individual include administering to the individual during or after the cellular stress a neuroprotective compound of Formula I in a therapeutically effective amount to restore synaptic function during or after the cellular stress.

Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees


An alignment layer to be used for liquid crystal displays each having at least two substrates with liquid crystals sealed therebetween is formed as follows. The substrates placed on each of several substrate trays are heated in a first load-lock chamber. At least one of the two substrates is irradiated with evaporated particles of oxide silicon (SiOx: 1.0xe2x89xa6xc3x97xe2x89xa62.0) by vacuum deposition at an angle in the range from 45xc2x0 to 60xc2x0 from a direction of the normal line on the substrate surface to form an alignment layer thereon while the substrate trays are being moved in a layer-deposition chamber intermittently or sequentially. The substrate trays are cooled in a second load-lock chamber, thus producing substrates each formed the alignment layer thereon. The deposition chamber may be set under a requirement 0xe2x89xa6xcex94xcex8xe2x89xa63xc2x0 in xcex94xcex8=tanxe2x88x921)dcos xcex8/(D+d sin xcex8)), xe2x80x9cdxe2x80x9d a distance from the substrate center to the center of a substrate edge, xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d a distance from the substrate center to the center of an evaporation source containing the oxide silicon, and xcex8 an angle formed between a direction in which the normal line extends on the substrate center and another direction in which evaporated particles of oxide silicon are deposited on the substrate center from the evaporation source. The alignment layer may be formed at an angle of layer deposition in the range from 3xc2x0 to 10xc2x0.

The present invention relates to liquid crystal displays used as a major component of projectors, projection TVs, etc. Particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus and a method of producing alignment layers to be used for liquid crystal displays and a liquid crystal display having alignment layers produced by the alignment-layer producing apparatus and method.
Active-matrix liquid crystal displays having TFTs, liquid crystal displays having a silicon wafer-to-glass plate stuck structure, etc., have been widely used for visual equipment such as projectors, projection TVs and head-mount displays, with increased production.
A known liquid crystal display 10 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. A glass substrate 2 is covered with a transparent conductive layer 1. Another glass substrate or a silicon IC substrate 4 has pixel electrodes (a displaying area) 3 thereon. A pair of alignment layers 5a and 5b are formed on the transparent conductive layer 1 and the glass substrate 4, respectively.
The glass substrates 2 and 4 are arranged as facing each other with a gap (cell gap). The cell gap is filled with a liquid crystal 6 through a fill-hole 9. The glass substrates 3 and 4 are then stuck each other via the liquid crystal 6 with a sealant adhesive 7 through the fill-hole 9 which will be sealed later. The sealant adhesive 7 is a mixture of spacers 7 and an adhesive (not shown) which define the cell gap. The glass substrate 2 is covered with an anti-reflective layer 8.
The alignment layers 5a and 5b are formed, for example, with a parallel alignment procedure in which an organic polymer such as polyimide is subjected to coating, for example, spin coating or offset printing, followed by baking and rubbing.
The parallel alignment procedure, however, has a lot of steps from polyimide printing to cleaning after rubbing. Moreover, rubbing could generate dust. It is further difficult through this procedure to attain high alignment properties (pretilt angle controllability) required for a desired displaying characteristics.
Application of the known liquid crystal display 10 to projectors and projection TVs requires high contrast ratio.
Another method of forming the alignment layers 5a and 5b for high contrast ratio is, for example, an oblique evaporation procedure with electron-beam deposition to form a metallic oxide layer of oxide silicon (SiO or SiO2) on the substrate from an oblique direction. This method requires no rubbing procedures and achieves high alignment properties and also high contrast ratio especially in vertical alignment system.
The oblique perpendicular alignment procedure is explained in detail with reference to FIG. 3.
Shown in FIG. 3 is an electron-beam deposition apparatus 20 equipped with an electron-gun unit U having a crucible 11 and an electron gun 19 with a filament 18. Oxide silicon 12 is contained in the crucible 11, as an evaporation source. The oxide silicon 12 is irradiated with electron beams 21 from the electron gun 19, as indicated by an arrow, so that it is heated and evaporated from the crucible 11. The evaporated particles of the oxide silicon 12 are dispersed upwards and obliquely deposited on the glass substrate 2 at an evaporation angle xcex8 from the direction of normal line on the substrate surface, thus forming an alignment layer of the oxide silicon 12 thereon. The crucible 11 is usually opened in a (vertical) direction 17 of the normal line on a base 16 of the apparatus 20. This direction of crucible""s opening is called the direction of the electron-gun unit U in the following disclosure.
This oblique evaporation utilizes anisotropic properties of the oxide silicon 12. Deposition (layer deposition) on the glass substrate 2 from an oblique direction provides an oblique thin layer with obliquely aligned long bar-like liquid-crystal molecules.
FIG. 4 illustrates oxide silicon 14a to 14n obliquely deposited on the glass substrate 2 and liquid-crystal molecules 15a to 15n aligned over the oxide silicon 14a to 14n. An angle xcex1 is a pretilt angle, and an angle xcex3 is an angle of layer deposition for the oxide-silicon alignment layer as disclosed later.
These methods are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 5-257146, 6-186563 and 7-159788.
The electron-beam deposition for forming an alignment layer with the oxide silicon 12 as explained above has to meet crucial requirements for an oblique evaporation angle xcex8. It is, however, difficult to meet such crucial requirements and causes problems when several liquid crystal displays 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are formed on a large-size glass substrate 2.
The location of the glass substrate 2 in the electron-beam deposition apparatus 20 shown in FIG. 3 varies as the size of the substrate 2 varies as illustrated in FIG. 5. The oblique evaporation angle xcex8 also varies such as xcex8a and xcex8b in FIG. 5 as the location of the glass substrate 2 varies. This causes variation in angle of layer deposition xcex3 for the oxide silicon 14a to 14n shown in FIG. 4, thus alignment of liquid crystals is not uniform. This results in variation in image quality for the liquid crystal display 10. In illustration of change in deposition angle xcex8 in FIG. 5, xe2x80x9cdxe2x80x9d is the distance from the center of the glass substrate 2 formed by oblique deposition to the substrate edge.
Moreover, twist angles xcex94"psgr" are generated as shown in FIG. 6 when the glass substrate 2 is formed as being large in the direction perpendicular to the direction in which thin layer-structure of the oxide silicon 14a to 14n grows, or as being large in the direction perpendicular to the planer direction of the substrate 2 for higher productivity as discussed above. The twist angles xcex94"psgr" also depend on the location of the glass substrate 2 in the electron-beam deposition apparatus 20, as shown in FIG. 3. These angles also cause variation in image quality for the liquid crystal display 10.
One solution to these problems requires a small glass substrate 2 or a big deposition chamber 13 (FIG. 3) in the electron-beam deposition apparatus 20 to have an enough distance (deposition distance) D from the evaporation source 12 to the glass substrate 2.
However, the smaller the glass substrate 2, the more it is difficult to install the substrate 2 in the deposition chamber 13 and adopt an automatic substrate-installation mechanism.
Therefore, such solution has to employ a batch system in which small glass substrates 2 are processed. This system, however, causes generation of dust from the substrates while they are being processed, which results in low yielding and also low image quality.
Moreover, such a batch system takes time for sequential procedures of heating the glass substrates 2, reaching a target vacuum, forming layers on each substrate, cooling the substrates and vacuum bending. The total production process time thus depends on these procedures.
Furthermore, the bigger the deposition chamber 13, the more expensive the price of the electron-beam deposition apparatus 20, and also the larger the volume of the chamber, thus causing longer vacuum-reaching time, heating time, etc., for low productivity.
A long deposition distance D in the deposition chamber 13 could be attained with an evaporation-angle direction component of evaporated particles of the oxide silicon 12 to the glass substrate 2 which is obtained by shifting the electron-gun unit U in the direction horizontal to the base 16 of the electron-beam deposition apparatus 20, which is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 6-186563.
This method, however, causes variation in evaporation rate for the oxide silicon 12 in the direction of evaporation, or lower evaporation rate as the electron-beam gun unit is shifted more and more, which thus results in low production.
The electron-beam deposition explained above for forming alignment layers with the oxide silicon 12 requires a precise pretilt-angle control for higher contrast ratio.
However, optimum values for such a precise pretilt-angle control must be found for several factors, such as, oblique evaporation angle xcex8, vacuum in the deposition chamber, substrate temperature, and thickness in alignment layer. These optimum values are necessary for the fact that the properties of oxide silicon layers have not known exactly, which nevertheless directly affect the pretilt-angle control. In production of liquid crystal displays, the best production requirements for alignment-layer deposition should be decided in accordance with evaluation of sample liquid crystal displays on pretilt-angles or image quality. The evaluation of sample liquid crystal displays, however, takes a lot of days.
A purpose of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method of producing alignment layers to be used for liquid crystal displays, for which large glass substrates can be adopted, for high image quality and productivity.
Another purpose of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal display having alignment layers produced by the alignment-layer producing apparatus and method.
The present invention provides a method of forming an alignment layer to be used for liquid crystal displays each having at least two substrates with liquid crystals sealed therebetween, the method comprising the steps of: heating the substrates placed on each of several substrate trays in a first load-lock chamber; irradiating at least one of the two substrates with evaporated film of oxide silicon (SiOx: 1.0xe2x89xa6xc3x97xe2x89xa62.0) by vacuum deposition at an angle in the range from 45xc2x0 to 60xc2x0 from a direction of a normal line on the substrate surface to form an alignment layer thereon while the substrate trays are being moved in a deposition chamber intermittently or sequentially; and cooling the substrate trays in a second load-lock chamber, thus producing substrates each formed the alignment layer thereon.
Moreover, the present invention provides an apparatus for forming an alignment layer to be used for liquid crystal displays each having at least two substrates with liquid crystals sealed therebetween, the apparatus comprising a deposition chamber for depositing an alignment layer of oxide silicon (SiOx: 1.0xc3x972.0) on at least one of the two substrates under a requirement 0xe2x89xa6xcex94xcex8xe2x89xa63xc2x0 in xcex94xcex8=tanxe2x88x921(d cos xcex8/(D+d sin xcex8)) in which xe2x80x9cdxe2x80x9d is a distance from the substrate center to the center of a substrate edge required for alignment-layer deposition and xe2x80x9cDxe2x80x9d is a distance from the substrate center to the center of an evaporation source containing the oxide silicon for alignment-layer deposition, and xcex8 is an angle formed between a direction in which a normal line extends on the substrate center and another direction in which evaporated particles of oxide silicon are deposited on the substrate center from the evaporation source.
Furthermore, the present invention provides a reflective liquid crystal display having liquid crystals sealed between a transparent substrate and a silicon substrate, and an alignment layer of oxide silicon (SiOx: 1.0xe2x89xa6xc3x97xe2x89xa62.0) formed on at least one of the substrates at an angle of layer deposition in the range from 3xc2x0 to 10xc2x0 for alignment of the liquid crystals.

Apparatus and method of producing alignment layer for liquid crystal display


Various techniques and solutions are described for rule-based access to removable storage devices. For example, a request can be received to perform a file system operation using a removable storage device that is formatted with a file system that does not support access controls. A rules-based check of the received request can be performed by a service by checking the request against a plurality of rules. Based on results of the rules-based check, the request can be allowed or denied.

Devices, such as mobile phones and tablets, often have limited internal memory for storing files. In order to compensate for the limited internal memory, such devices often provide for expanding the storage capacity of the device using external memory cards, such as Secure Digital (SD) memory cards. While external memory cards can significantly increase the storage capacity of the device, they can also be the source of security problems.
External memory cards can be formatted with a file system that does not support access restrictions. An example of such a file system is the File Allocation Table (FAT) file system. When using a file system that does not support access restrictions, it may be possible for an application running on a device, such as a mobile phone, to access files on the external memory card that are not intended to be accessed by the application, such as files written by a different application or files written by an operating system.
Therefore, there exists ample opportunity for improvement in technologies related to accessing external storage on computing devices.


An error concealment method and apparatus are provided. The error concealment method includes determining a reference direction of a lost frame by determining whether a scene change between frames has occurred based on the lost frame; extracting concealment reference points for a pixel of the lost frame by using at least one frame except for the lost frame according to the determined reference direction; obtaining a concealment pixel value of the pixel of the lost frame by giving weight values to the extracted concealment reference points; and restoring the lost frame by performing a concealment of the pixel using the concealment pixel value. According to the error concealment method and apparatus, when a frame loss occurs in an appliance that receives/outputs compressed moving images, error concealment in the unit of a frame can be effectively performed, and the deterioration of picture quality due to the error propagation can be minimized.

1. Field of the Invention
Methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to error concealment, and more particularly, to error concealment that can improve the picture quality of video data by concealing frame loss and reducing error propagation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In line with increasing transmission of moving images over the radio network environments, developments in the radio network technologies have also been making rapid progress. Currently, extensive research and developments have been made in technologies for compressing such moving image frames. Frame compression technologies, such as H.263, H.263+, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 have been established as international standards by the International Standards Organization. Since data produced using these compression technologies has high compression rates, it can be easily transmitted even in systems that are provided with channels having limited bandwidths.
However, in the case where the data compression rate is high, data being restored may be severely damaged due to an occurrence of error in the transmitted data. That is, packet loss frequently occurs due to a radio-wave interference caused by obstacles, and this causes a loss of video data to occur. In order to heighten the compression efficiency of the video data being transmitted, data of the previous frames are referred to. Accordingly, after the error occurrence due to the loss of video data, an error propagation phenomenon continues. In particular, the frame loss causes a serious error and error propagation phenomena in comparison to the slice or macroblock errors.
In order to overcome the above-described drawbacks, many attempts to encode moving image (hereinafter referred to as "video") data so that it has error resilience have been made in many fields. A frame error concealment technique has been proposed as one method for realizing this resilience. The frame error concealment is a method for reducing the influence of an error when video frames, in which the error exists, are received and decoded by a video decoder. This error concealment is different from error correction, which is a method of correcting incorrect data.
Among error concealment techniques, a temporal prediction error concealment conceals an error by using redundant information between successive frames according to video information, and spatial prediction error concealment conceals an error in the same frame, including lost information, by using spatial redundancy. Spatial prediction error concealment compensates for damaged macroblocks by using information of undamaged macroblocks in the present frame without using the temporal redundancy. For this, error concealment techniques which replace the lost block by a neighboring macroblock or which uses various interpolation methods have been proposed. Temporal prediction error concealment is a technique for referring to a frame existing in a temporarily different place in order to restore information of the lost macroblock in the present frame by using the temporal correlation between successive frames. Temporal prediction error concealment can be classified as a single-frame error concealment where one frame is referred to during the restoration of the video frame, and a multi-frame error concealment where two or more frames are referred to.
Several frame error concealment techniques have been proposed according to a method for obtaining a motion vector of a lost macroblock. One method uses a previously received frame, and another method uses two or more previously received frames. The method that uses a previously received frame may be further classified into three methods according to the method of using the previously received frame (hereinafter referred to as a "previous frame") as follows.
The first method uses a macroblock in the same position in a previous frame. The second method restores the lost motion vector by using an intermediate value or an average value of motion vectors neighboring the lost macroblock of the presently received frame. The third method uses a macroblock that is most similar to the present frame by estimating the neighboring pixel values of the lost macroblock from the previous frame.
The multi-frame error concealment technique restores the motion vector using the methods used for the single frame concealment technique. However, in order to find the lost macroblock, the multi-frame error concealment technique does not search for only one previous frame, but for at least two previous frames.
Prior to the explanation of the problems of a related art frame error concealment technology, the construction of a general video decoder will be briefly explained in the following. Generally, a video decoder restores the original video signal by performing a variable-length decoding and an inverse quantization of a compressed video bitstream. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a related art video decoder.
Referring to FIG. 1, a buffer stores an input bitstream, and a variable length decoding unit 12 performs a variable-length decoding of the bitstream stored in the buffer, and outputs video information generated as a result of the variable length decoding to an inverse quantization unit 13 and a motion compensation unit 15. The inverse quantization unit 13 receives quantization information output from the variable length decoding unit 12, and performs an inverse quantization of the variable-length-decoded data. An inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) unit 14 performs an IDCT of the inverse-quantized data output from the inverse quantization unit 13. A motion compensation unit 15 generates motion-compensated video data using the motion information and the video data output from the variable length decoding unit 12. An addition unit adds the video data motion-compensated by the motion compensation unit 15 and the video data inverse-DCT-transformed by the IDCT unit 14. A storage unit 17 stores the video data output from the addition unit 16.
As described above, the video decoder as illustrated in FIG. 1 performs the variable length decoding by reading the video data according to the decoding capability of the video decoder after storing the input bitstream in the buffer 11. However, if an error occurs during the transmission of the video data and lost data, which cannot be variable-length-decoded, is included in the input video data, the lost error data accumulates to affect subsequent images.
FIG. 2a is a view explaining the error propagation when a frame loss occurs in the related art video decoder. If an entire frame is lost, as depicted by numeral 21 in FIG. 2a, this affects macroblocks that refer to a forward frame causing serious picture quality deterioration. That is, the lost frame affects all the following frames 22, 23 and 24 causing the picture quality to deteriorate. In order to overcome the drawback due to the error occurrence as described above, a frame error concealment method has been proposed as one method for realizing error resilience. In the whole description of the present invention, the frame error concealment means a method for reducing the influence of an error in decoding subsequent data if the error occurs and an entire frame is not received in the decoder.
FIG. 2b is a view explaining the method of referring to macroblocks of the previous frame in a related art frame-unit error concealment method. This method brings a macroblock 30-1 of the previous frame 30 that corresponds to a macroblock 40-1 of a lost frame 40 by applying a zero-point motion vector 35 to the previous frame 30 in order to restore the macroblock 40-1 of the lost frame 40.
However, the method as illustrated in FIG. 2b refers to the data of the previous frame 30, and thus if a scene is changed or there is a great change between frames, a large prediction error occurs reducing the picture quality.
FIG. 2c is a view explaining a method of predicting pixels of a lost frame through bidirectional extrapolation in a related art frame-unit error concealment method.
The method of FIG. 2c performs a bidirectional concealment reference, i.e., a forward concealment reference and a backward concealment reference. The forward concealment reference operates as follows.
The forward concealment reference performs an extrapolation of motion vectors in the unit of a macroblock with respect to the previous frame so that the previous frame corresponds to the lost frame. In FIG. 2c, the reference numeral 55 is a motion vector of a macroblock 60-1 of a frame 60. Extrapolation is performed with respect to a frame 70 after a motion vector 55, and a motion vector 65 that corresponds to a pixel 70-0-1 is obtained. Accordingly, a pixel 60-0-1 in the frame 60 is selected as a concealment reference point of the pixel 70-0-1 in the frame 70. Through this process, the pixel 70-0-1 may have more than zero concealment reference points with respect to the previous frame 60. If no concealment reference point exists, the pixel in the same position in the previous frame 60 is determined as the concealment reference point. By contrast, if plural concealment reference points exist, an average point of the concealment reference points is determined as the forward concealment reference point.
The backward concealment reference operates as follows.
Concealment reference points 80-0-1, 80-0-2 and 80-0-3, which correspond to the pixel 70-0-1 of the lost frame, are searched for using motion vectors 75, 76 and 77 of respective macroblocks of a backward frame 80 as shown in FIG. 2c. The following process is the same as the forward concealment reference described above.
The average value of the forward and backward concealment values obtained through the above process becomes the concealment value of the pixel 70-0-1 of the lost frame 70. The lost frame 70 can be restored by performing the bidirectional reference for the respective pixels.
However, the method as illustrated in FIG. 2c has the following problems.
First, its prediction accuracy is degraded due to the bidirectional reference during a scene change. If the scene is changed in the backward frame of the lost frame, there would be no correlation between the lost frame and the backward frame, while if the scene is changed in the forward frame of the lost frame, there would be no correlation between the lost frame and the forward frame. Since the method as illustrated in FIG. 2c performs the bidirectional reference in the cases as described above, the prediction accuracy for the respective pixels of the lost frame is lowered.
Second, since the error is concealed using only one forward frame when the forward reference is performed, the probability of predicting accurate pixels is lowered when the concealment of an edge part of the image is performed or when an object in the image disappears and then appears again.
Third, since the prediction is performed by simply obtaining the average value with respect to the reference points that conceal the lost frame, inaccurate information of the reference points have the same weight value in performing the prediction which lowers the prediction accuracy.


A drying apparatus provided with a heating portion which includes two nipping members and which is configured to heat a recording medium being nipped by and between the two nipping members, wherein one of the two nipping members is disposed in opposition to the other of the two nipping members, and includes an air-permeable elastic member, and a liquid-repellant film which covers a surface of the elastic member in opposition to the above-indicated other nipping member and which has a plurality of through-holes formed therethrough.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a drying apparatus for heating and drying a recording medium, and a recording apparatus provided with the drying apparatus, and more particularly to the drying apparatus and recording apparatus which permit effective removal of a vapor generated as a result of a heating operation of the drying apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known a drying apparatus provided with two nipping members in the form of a heating roller and a pressing or nipping roller. This drying apparatus is configured to heat a recording medium while nipping the recording medium between the heating and pressing rollers, for vaporizing a liquid from the recording medium to thereby dry the recording medium. In the drying apparatus, the pressing roller has a PFA tube (liquid-repellant film) which contacts the recording medium.

Drying apparatus, recording apparatus having the drying apparatus, and method of fabricating nipping member