In a communications system, a controller communicates to multiple client devices, each subject to a different latency, in an application in which the multiple client devices need to react substantially simultaneously to a command from a server. A controller front-end in a server provides an abstract environment for the acceptance, initiation, and processing of messages. The framework provides a scaffold which handles reception of messages and makes them available to the specific application business logic as events to be processed. A back-end enables synchronized command execution, abstracted database table definition, creation of generalized table access, selective message transmission, and the like. By providing the back-end and front-end foundation framework, the present subject matter provides the foundational components in the system so that development of mobile applications is simplified.

1. Field of the Invention
The present subject matter relates to a method and system incorporating front-end and back-end functions which facilitate the interaction of third-party apps with a synchronized messaging system communicating with multiple clients for providing an enhanced concert experience.
2. Background
One form of a live event is a concert in a venue. The venue may accommodate on the order of thousands or tens of thousands of audience members. The prior art has taken initial steps in providing an enhanced concert experience. Initially, concerts were accompanied by light shows and the like. New, limited forms of interaction are provided which include communication from a central concert transmitter to portable user devices such as smartphones in an audience.
An important part of maintaining the continuing popularity and economic viability of an operating system or an operating environment is providing the ability for interaction with third-party applications, or apps. One such system communicates with multiple portable devices in a concert audience. Prior systems would not have been conducive to the use of apps providing a shared experience to audience members in a venue. Providing a shared experience requires that audience members receive communications in a synchronized manner. Had the prior art contemplated the provision of shared experiences, implementation would have been difficult since portable user devices are inherently subject to clock variations. Additionally, latency varies between devices on different cell phone carrier networks and even within the same cell phone carrier network. The internal time of day clock value can differ between adjacent devices by as much as several minutes. Additionally, the clock drift experienced by an individual device can be noticeable over timeframes as short as tens-of-minutes. This inherent difficulty does not affect the limited interactions previously provided. Typical mobile device transmissions have included email, Facebook data, or web-browsing. Such transmissions are not subject to ineffectiveness due to non-synchronization between various user devices.
Since an app writer working apart from the system could not account for time differences between devices, there can be no assurance that signals will be received at multiple user devices substantially concurrently to provide an experience that is in fact shared. Apps essentially could not be provided which could perform a function in which the portable interactive devices need to react "simultaneously," i.e., within a time window of preselected width.
In past systems, messages have not been constructed in a form within a framework to remove impediments to synchronization. For example, prior systems, to the extent that they have provided synchronization, have had features which do not lend themselves to allowing a new portable interactive device to join a network by performing a minimal number of operations.
Interaction of a sort has been provided between a concert server and portable interactive devices held by audience members. U.S. Pat. No. 8,090,878 discloses a more complicated method and system for synchronizing many clients to one central server. In this arrangement, the central server must download client software to each electronic device to be synchronized. The client software allows the electronic device to perform data synchronization with the server. After the synchronization is complete, the client software may be removed from the electronic device. Downloading the client software to each client device is a cumbersome process. After the client software is removed from each electronic device, synchronization is no longer provided.
United States Published Patent Application Number 20100074278 discloses a network element which synchronizes a number of clocks within a system and supports multiple independent timing domains. The network element must act as a master clock to which other clocks are slaved. The network cannot account for initial time differences among the clocks.
These systems do not provide for interaction beyond sending or receiving information.
United States Published Patent Application Number 20100129065 discloses a content request, storage, and configuration system provided for attendees of live events or performances which associates pieces of content with one or more keywords, and configures the content for the benefit of a user. Content owners load content into the system or link content elsewhere to the system, and optionally designate a set of actions to be taken. This system is directed toward the gathering of information by the content owner rather than to providing shared content to users.

Concert server incorporating front-end and back-end functions to cooperate with an app to provide synchronized messaging to multiple clients


A bill handling apparatus according to one embodiment of the invention has a bill insertion slot into which a bill is inserted, a bill feeding mechanism for feeding the bill inserted from the bill insertion slot, a sensor for reading the fed bill, and a bill identifying section for identifying authentication of the bill read by the sensor, a sensor board on which the sensor is installed, and a control board for controlling each operation of the bill feeding mechanism, the sensor and the bill identifying section. The bill handling apparatus further has a first connector installed on the sensor board, and a second connector installed on the control board, and the first connector and the second connector are fitted with each other for electrical continuity.

The present invention relates to a bill handling apparatus for feeding a bill inserted from a bill insertion slot, while reading the fed bill to identify the validity.
Generally, a bill handling apparatus identifies the validity of a bill inserted from a bill insertion slot by a user, and is incorporated into service apparatuses that provides various kinds of products and service corresponding to the bill value judged as being valid, such as, for example, a game media lending machine installed in a game hole, or an automatic dispenser, ticket-vending machine and the like installed in public areas.
The bill handling apparatus is usually provided with operation devices such as a bill feeding mechanism that feeds a bill inserted into a bill insertion slot, bill reading means for executing readout of the fed bill, bill identifying means for identifying the validity (also referred to as authentication judgment) from the read bill information and the like, and control means for driving and controlling the operation devices.
The above-mentioned bill reading means is provided with a photosensor which applies light to the fed bill and detects the reflected light and/or transmitted light, and the bill identifying means compares a detection signal from the photosensor with beforehand stored authorized bill data to identify the validity. For the above-mentioned photosensor, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. H10-31774, it is known that the sensor unit is configured as a unit, and that the sensor unit is electrically connected to a connector on a control board side via a relay harness. In other words, by such a configuration, it is possible to perform maintenance operation with ease in the event of failure and like, and to cope with bogus bills simply by exchanging only the sensor unit and a microchip computer on the control board side.
As described above, since the conventional bill handling apparatus uses the relay harness and connector in connection between the sensor unit and control board, a problem easily occurs that the relay harness comes into contact with the control board or another component and causes a short and the like.
Therefore, to avoid such a problem, the necessity arises for providing footprints of the sensor unit and control board with margins, but as a result, another problem occurs that the entire bill handling apparatus is increased in size.
Accordingly, a bill handling apparatus is required that enables miniaturization of the entire apparatus.


A server receives a message from a sender and transmits the message to a recipient. The server normally transmits the message in a first path to the recipient. When the sender indicates at a particular position in the message that the message is registered, the server transmits the message in a second path to the recipient. The sender can also provide additional indications in the message to have the server handle the message in other special ways not normally provided by the server. After learning from the recipient or the recipient's agent that the message was successfully received, the server creates, and forwards to the sender, an electronic receipt. The receipt includes at least one, and preferably all, of the message and any attachments, a delivery success/failure table listing the receipts, and the receipt times, of the message by the recipient's specific agents, and the failure of other agents of the recipient to receive the message and a an encrypted hash of the message and attachments subsequently. By verifying that the digital signature on the sender's receipt matches the digital receipt at the server, the server can verify, without retaining the message, that the receipt is genuine and that the message is accurate.

I. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to a system and method for verifying delivery and content of an electronic message and, more particularly, to a system and method of later providing proof regarding the delivery and content of an e-mail message. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for sending registered mail through the internet while verifying delivery and content of an electronic message and later providing proof regarding the delivery and content of the registered e-mail message.
II. Description of the Related Art
In recent years e-mail has become an indispensable business tool. E-mail has replaced "snail mail" for many business practices because it is faster, cheaper and generally more reliable. But there remain some mail applications where hard copy is still dominant, such as registered and certified mail. For example, when a letter is sent by certified mail the sender is provided with a receipt to prove that the letter was mailed. A returned registered mail receipt adds the Postal Service's confirmation that the letter was successfully delivered to the addressee or the addressee's authorized agent. Additionally, private couriers such as Federal Express® and United Parcel Service® (UPS) provide some type of delivery confirmation. Since every piece of courier mail is, in effect, registered it is natural for consumers to turn to these services when they want proof of delivery.
Many existing e-mail systems and e-mail programs already provide for some form of proof of delivery. For instance, some e-mail systems today allow a sender to mark a message with "request for notifications" tags. Such tags allow a sender to request notification that the message was delivered and/or when the message was opened. When a sender requests delivery notification, the internet e-mail system may provide the sender with an e-mail receipt that the message was delivered to the mail server or electronic in-box of the recipient. The receipt message may include the title of the message, the destination address, and the time of delivery. It may also include (depending on the types of "flags" that are provided and activated in the mailing software) a list of all the internet "stations" that the message passed through en route to its destination. This form of reporting is built into some of the rules and protocols which implement e-mail. Furthermore, when a message is sent with a "read notification" request, the recipient's e-mail program may send to the sender an e-mail notification that the recipient opened that message for reading. Many electronic mail clients can and do support this kind of reporting; however, Internet protocols do not make this mandatory.
However, this does not mean that an e-mail sent with a notification request is as effective in all respects as registered mail. People certify and register letters because they want proof of delivery, e.g., proof that can be used in a civil or criminal proceeding, or proof that will satisfy a supervisor or a client or a government agency that a message has been sent, a job has been done, an order placed, or a contract requirement satisfied.
A registration receipt from the United States Postal Service (USPS) constitutes proof of delivery because the USPS stands behind it. The receipt represents the Post Office's confirmation that the letter or package in question was actually delivered to the addressee or his authorized representative. On the other hand, with the e-mail receipt various hurdles exist to an e-mail receipt being admitted and relied upon as persuasive evidence in a court of law as a proof that the message was delivered. After all, the receipt may be just another e-mail message that could have been altered or created by anyone, at any time.
There exists a need for an e-mail system and/or method that can provide reliable proof of the content and delivery of an e-mail message in order to take fuller advantage of the convenience and low cost of communicating via e-mail.
To meet this need some systems have been established whereby senders may receive third party proof of delivery by enrolling in services whereby:                a) The sender transmits an electronic message to a third party together with a list of the document's intended recipients.        b) The third party sends a notification to each of the message's intended recipients inviting them to visit the third party's web site where the message can be viewed.        c) If the intended recipient visits the third party's web site to view the message, the third party records this visit so that the sender may know that his message has been read by the recipient.
The drawbacks of such systems are manifold. In the first place, they rely essentially on the co-operation of the recipient of the e-mail to collect his messages from the third party's service. But the circumstances in which a sender may want proof of delivery of a message are often ones in which it cannot be assumed that the intended recipient will co-operate in receiving the message. In such cases, e.g. where acknowledging receipt of the message would place a financial or legal burden on the recipient, the recipient can simply ignore the notification that mail is available for him to receive. Note that there is nothing in such a system to guarantee that the intended recipient has received notification of waiting mail. In the second place, such systems are cumbersome and slow to use as compared to regular e-mail insofar as it can require the sender and/or the recipient to connect to a World Wide Web site to send, collect and verify the delivery of each message. Moreover, transmission of documents by such methods may require both sender and receiver to upload and download files to a web site. Finally, because these methods require the third party to retain a copy of the whole of each message until such time as they are collected or expired, the methods can require its provider to devote substantial computational resources to data storage and data tracking over an extended period of time. As an alternative method of providing proof of delivery, some systems provide proprietary e-mail clients or web-browser plug-ins that will notify senders when a message has been received provided that a recipient uses the same e-mail client. The obvious disadvantage of such systems is that they require both sender and recipient to use the same e-mail client.
Therefore, there exists a need for an e-mail system/method that can provide reliable proof of the content and delivery of electronic messages which does not require the compliance or cooperation of the recipient, which requires no special e-mail software on the part of sender or recipient, which operates with the same or nearly the same convenience and speed of use as conventional e-mail, and which can be operated economically by a service provider.
A general object of the invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/626,577, filed by Terrance A. Tomkow on Jul. 27, 2000 and assigned of record to the assignee of record in this application, is to provide a system and method for reliably verifying via secure and tamper-proof documentation the content and delivery of an electronic message such as an e-mail. Ideally, the invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/626,577 will give e-mail and other electronic messages a legal status on a par with, if not superior to, that of registered United States mail. However, it is not necessary to the invention that any particular legal status is accorded to messages sent according to the methods taught herein, as the invention provides useful information and verification regardless.
The invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/626,577 includes an electronic message system that creates and records a digital signature of each electronic message sent through the system. An originator may send a copy of the electronic message to the system or generate the electronic message within the system itself. The system then forwards and delivers the electronic message to all recipients (or to the designated message handlers associated with the recipients), including "to" addressees and "cc" addressees. Thereafter, the system returns a receipt of delivery to the originator of the electronic message. The receipt includes, among other things: the original message, the digital signature of the message, and a handshaking and delivery history including times of delivery to the recipients. To later verify and authenticate information contained in the receipt, the originator or user sends a copy of the receipt to the system. The system then verifies that the digital signature matches the original message and the rest of the receipt. If the two match, then the system sends a letter or provides other confirmation of authenticity verifying that the electronic message has not been altered.
The system disclosed and claimed in co-pending non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/626,577 may include a form of e-mail server connected to the Internet, which can be utilized in many ways. For instance, individual users can register their electronic messages, such as e-mails, by sending a "carbon copy" (cc:) to the system or composing the message within the system itself. For corporate or e-commerce users, these users can change their server to a server incorporating the present invention and have all of their external electronic messages registered, with the option of having the system retain and archive the receipts. The system can accept and verify encrypted electronic messages and manage the electronic messages within and/or outside a "fire wall." For web-based users, i.e., individuals or corporations using web-based e-mails, such as MSN Hotmail® or Yahoo Mail®, such users could check a box or otherwise set a flag within their e-mail programs to select on a case-by-case basis whether to make the e-mails of record and/or to archive the messages using the system disclosed and claimed in co-pending non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/629,577.
The digital signature can be created using known digital signature techniques, such as by performing a hash function on the message to produce a message digest and then encrypting the message digest. Separate digital signatures can be created for the body of the message, any attachments, and for the overall message including the body, the attachments, and the individual message digests. The encrypted message digest provides one type of message authentication or validation code, or secure documentation. Other message authentication and/or validation codes may also be generated and used.
In one aspect, the invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/626,577 is a method of providing proof regarding the delivery and content of an electronic message, comprising: receiving from a sender across a computer network an electronic message, the message having a delivery address associated therewith; computing a message digest according to the message; encrypting the message digest; sending the message electronically to a destination corresponding to the delivery address; recording the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) or Extended SMTP (ESMTP) dialog which effects the delivery of the message; receiving Delivery Status Notification information associated with the message and the delivery address; providing to the sender an electronic receipt, the receipt comprising: a copy of the message, the encrypted message digest, the (E)SMTP transcripts, and at least a subset of the Delivery Status notification information, and, at a future date, receiving electronically the electronic receipt from the sender, verifying that the encrypted message digest corresponds to the message, and verifying that the message was received by an electronic message handler associated with the delivery address.
In another aspect, the invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/626,577 includes a method of verifying delivery of an electronic message, comprising: in a wide area network computer system, receiving an electronic message from a message sender for routing to a destination address; establishing communication with an electronic message server associated with the destination address, the server defining a destination server; querying the destination server to determine whether the destination server supports Delivery Status Notification (DSN) functionality; receiving a response to the query, the query and response together defining an SMTP dialog; requesting Delivery Status notification information from the destination server according to results of the SMTP dialog; transmitting the electronic message to the destination address; receiving DSN information from the destination server with respect to delivery of the electronic message; and providing to the message sender at least a portion of the SMTP dialog, and at least a portion of the DSN information.
In yet another aspect, the invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/626,577 includes a method of verifying content of a received electronic message, comprising: receiving the electronic message; generating a digital signature corresponding to the content of the received message; providing the message and the digital signature to a designated addressee; and, at a later time, verifying that the digital signature corresponds to the message.
In accordance with still another aspect of the invention disclosed and claimed in copending application Ser. No. 09/626,577, the method includes establishing whether a message was electronically received by a recipient, comprising: providing a message to be dispatched electronically along with a recipient's address from a sender; creating a signature associated with the message; dispatching the message electronically to the recipient's address; tracking the message to determine a final Delivery Status of the message dispatched to the recipient's address; upon receiving final Delivery Status of the message, generating a receipt, the receipt including a copy of the message, the signature, and the final Delivery Status for the message; and providing the receipt to the sender for later establishing that the message was electronically received by the recipient.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the invention disclosed and claimed in copending application Ser. No. 09/626,577, a method is provided for proving that an electronic message sent to a recipient was read, comprising: providing an electronic message along with a recipient's address; calculating a digital signature corresponding to the electronic message; dispatching the electronic message electronically to the recipient's address; requesting a Mail User Agent (email client "reading") notification from the recipient; upon receiving the reading notification, generating a reading receipt, the reading receipt including a copy of the message, the digital signature for the corresponding electronic message, and a second digital signature for the reading receipt from the recipient; and providing the reading receipt for later verification that said message was received by the recipient.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/626,577, a method is provided for validating the integrity of a purported copy of an electronic message, comprising: receiving the purported electronic message copy, said purported copy including an encrypted message digest associated therewith; decrypting the message digest; generating a second message digest based on content of the purported copy; and validating the purported copy by comparing the decrypted message digest and the second message digest to determine whether the two message digests match.
In accordance with a still further aspect of the invention disclosed and claimed in copending application Ser. No. 09/626,577, a method is provided for validating a received registered e-mail, comprising: receiving an electronic receipt, said receipt including a base message and an encrypted message digest; decrypting the encrypted message digest; generating a second message digest from the base message; and validating the e-mail if the decrypted message digest matches the second message digest.
In yet another aspect, the invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/626,577 includes a website at which users can go to send and receive secure messages, with the website host acting as an independent third party which will send and receive the messages and provide secure documentation regarding the content and delivery of the messages.
The above-described objects of the invention disclosed and claimed in co-pending application Ser. No. 09/626,577 and other features and benefits of the present invention will become clear to those skilled in the art when read in conjunction with the following detailed description of a preferred illustrative embodiment and viewed in conjunction with the attached drawings in which like numbers refer to like parts, and the appended claims.

System and method for verifying delivery and integrity of electronic messages


A method of monitoring a torque transmission system with a manually switchable gearbox in the power train of a motor vehicle involves the utilization of at least one sensor unit at the input side of the torque transmission system to ascertain relevant positions of the shift lever of the gearbox and the driving torque of the engine of the motor vehicle. The thus obtained shift lever signals are memorized, together with comparison signals which are obtained as a result of filtering of the shift lever signals, and various characteristics of such signals are recognized and identified to indicate the intention of the operator of the vehicle regarding the switching of the gearbox. The thus obtained switching intention signals are transmitted to a controlled clutch operating system.

The invention relates to a method of controlling a torque transmission system, to a torque transmission system for carrying out the method of controlling, and to a method of monitoring torque transmission systems.
It is known from the vehicle industry that, when changing the transmission ratio of a gear between a driving machine and a gearbox unit, the required clutching processes can be assisted or automated by a control or regulating algorithm. This facilitates the servicing of the engine unit or gearbox, and the clutching operation can be carried out in an energy saving manner with careful treatment of the materials. Furthermore, the control of a torque transmission system which is mounted at the output side of an automatic gearbox can be helpful, for example, in undertaking or guaranteeing adjustment processes and protective functions in the case of, for example, cone pulley belt contact gearboxes.
WO 94/04852 discloses a method of controlling torque transmission systems in conjunction with an automatic gearbox. The torque transmission system comprises a load branching out with a torque converter which is mounted in parallel with a friction clutch. In accordance with this method, a driving torque transmitted by an engine unit is broken up into a hydraulic part which is to be transmitted by the converter and a mechanical part which is to be transmitted by the friction clutch, such as a lockup clutch. A central computer unit determines or calculates, in dependency upon the relevant operating condition of the system, the torque which is to be transmitted each time by the friction clutch. The remaining torque to be transmitted by the hydraulic torque converter constitutes the difference between the applied torque and the torque transmitted by the friction clutch and corresponds directly to a slip between the input and output parts of the torque transmission system.
Such method of controlling can be resorted to only in conjunction with an automatic gearbox and a lockup clutch. However, the acceptability of automatic gearboxes is only minimal in many fields of use. Furthermore, a lockup clutch of such kind is cost-intensive and bulky.

Method of and apparatus for regulating the transmission of torque in power trains


A multi-stage planetary reduction drive apparatus for a vehicle including a first-stage planetary reduction unit and a second-stage planetary reduction unit. A first primary housing and a first secondary housing of the first-stage planetary reduction unit are joined to enclose inner components of the first-stage planetary reduction unit, and may be directly mounted to a vehicle frame. A mounting arrangement with mounting openings on both sides of the vehicle frame, a mounting flange, and a fastening member. A power transmission system including the drive apparatus, a vehicle frame, a mounting arrangement, and a power source. The drive apparatus is aligned with and directly connected to the power source in an axial direction.

Currently, the drive apparatus adopted in mining vehicles is similar to the traditional axle assembly. Specifically, such a drive apparatus has an axle housing and wheel end assemblies on both sides. The axle housing accommodates conventional power train components, such as bevel gear or a differential. The wheel end assemblies are connected to left and right wheels, respectively.
A power source is generally disposed separately from the drive apparatus in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle frame, and then connected to the power train components, such as the spiral bevel gear or the differential, by of an output shaft of the power source. The power is transmitted from the power source to the left and right wheels through the power train components in the axle housing, the left-side wheel end assembly and the right-side wheel end assembly.
Corresponding pad mounting structures are disposed on the vehicle frame and the axle housing. The whole drive apparatus including the axle housing is mounted below the vehicle frame by the pad mounting structures.
However, the conventional combination of the drive apparatus and the vehicle frame has the following defects. Firstly, the axle housing is very cumbersome and occupies a relatively large space below the vehicle frame. Secondly, the pad mounting structure is also cumbersome and occupies a relatively large space at the sides of the vehicle frame. In other words, such a conventional combination of the drive apparatus and the vehicle frame cannot realize lightweight and may bring a relatively high material cost, and the structure thereof is not sufficiently compact. In addition, the cumbersome axle housing and pad mounting structure may bring inconvenience in mounting. Further, the application of such a drive apparatus is also limited, and the reduction ratio of the drive apparatus cannot be adjusted conveniently.

Multi-stage planetary reduction drive apparatus for vehicle and mounting arrangement thereof


This invention is a method for manufacturing a polymer alloy, by making at least two resins used as components miscible, and inducing the spinodal decomposition for causing phase separation, for forming a co-continuous structure with a wavelength of concentration fluctuation of 0.001 to 1 μm or a dispersed structure with a distance between particles of 0.001 to 1 μm. This invention is also a polymer alloy manufactured by the method. The polymer alloy of this invention can provide a molded article, film, fibers and the like respectively with excellent mechanical properties at high productivity.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a polymer alloy having a phase-separated structure consisting of at least two components, polymer alloy pellets, a polymer alloy film or sheet, a molded polymer alloy article, a polymer alloy containing polybutylene terephthalate resin and a polycarbonate resin, and a polymer alloy containing polyphenylene sulfide resin and a polyester resin with polyethylene terephthalate as a main component.
2. Background Art
JP5-156141A describes a molded article having a inter penetrating network structure obtained by melt blending polybutylene terephthalate resin, a polycarbonate resin, and acrylic graft (co)polymer particles. It is disclosed that this structure improves chemicals resistance, strength and toughness to some extent compared with a simple polymer alloy. However, according to the method described in the document, satisfactory effects could not be achieved in improving the strength, toughness and heat resistance of the molded article.
JP59-58052A discloses a composition consisting of PPS resin and a thermoplastic polyester resin, and further teaches a method of mixing an epoxy resin for further enhancing miscibility. However, according to the method described in the document, it was difficult to control the dispersion size for making it small. In order to obtain a molded article having excellent strength, toughness and heat resistance, a structure with a smaller dispersion size is desired. Furthermore, if the dispersion size in a polymer alloy is large, there arise such problems that in the case where the polymer alloy is used as fibers, the spinning stability during spinning is poor, and that voids are formed during stretching, to make the fibers fragile. Therefore, a method capable of controlling the structure for making it finer is desired.
JP8-113829A describes polymer blend fibers having a dispersed structure with a dispersion size of 0.001 to 0.4 μm formed in the cross section of each fiber, by melt-spinning a blend of polymers miscible with each other on the molecular level in a specific temperature range, in its miscible state, into fibers, and, for example, heat-treating the fibers for causing spinodal decomposition or nucleation and growth, to thereby cause phase decomposition. However, according to the method described in the document, because of the mechanism, in which the fibers obtained by spinning a polymer blend in its miscible state are heat-treated for causing phase separation, there was a limit in controlling the structure for making it finely dispersed. Furthermore, there was a limit in applicable combinations of polymers, and the form of the polymer blend was also limited to fibers.
To allow production of a molded article with excellent strength, toughness and heat resistance, a polymer alloy having excellent regularity and a homogeneously dispersed fine structure is demanded. A method for manufacturing it is also demanded. Furthermore, a manufacturing method applicable to combinations of immiscible polymers, hence for more general purposes is also demanded.
The problem to be solved by this invention is to provide a polymer alloy having excellent regularity and excellent mechanical properties, useful as a structural material or a functional material and capable of being controlled to have a structure on the order of nanometers or on the order of micrometers. It is also intended to provide a method for manufacturing the polymer alloy.

Polymer alloy and method for manufacturing polymer alloy


A pneumatic tire including a circumferential tread, two spaced apart beads, and sidewalls connecting said beads and tread, wherein said tire sidewall contains at least one internal annular sidewall insert including at least two annular segments, the at least two annular segments including first and second adjacent annular segments;                wherein said first and second annular segments are disposed with an interface therebetween;        wherein each of the at least two annular segments includes a rubber composition comprising at least one diene based rubber and at least one vulcanization modifier selected from the group consisting of α,ω-bis(N,N′-dihydrocarbylthiocarbamamoyldithio)alkanes, bismaleimides, and biscitraconimides; and        wherein the concentration of vulcanization modifier in the first annular segment is less than the concentration of vulcanization modifier in the second annular segment.

Tire constructions generally include a sidewall insert variously for support of the tire sidewall. In the case of conventional tires, an apex may be included to provide support in the sidewall near the bead. In the case of runflat tires, one or more runflat inserts may be included in the sidewall to provide support in the event of a tire deflation.
These sidewall inserts, both apexes and runflat inserts, are typically of nonuniform cross-section with a relatively thick section and one or more relatively thin sections. Cure of the inserts is problematic owing to the uneven heat transfer in the thick and thin sections. It would then be advantageous to have a more evenly cured sidewall insert.


Radiolabeled fluorinated compounds useful for imaging in the diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease are disclosed. Methods and kits for their synthesis are also disclosed.

The present invention generally relates to a nucleophilic approach for preparing radiolabeled imaging agents. The present invention particularly relates to a nucleophilic approach for preparing radiofluorinated imaging agents which are utilzed in Positron Emission Tomography.
It is estimated there are currently 2–4 million victims of Parkinson's disease (PD) in the United States today. Parkinson's is a progressive irreversible neurodegenerative disease characterized by a loss of the pigmented, dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra pars compacta, with the appearance of intracellular inclusions known as Lewy bodies. The disease usually strikes during the later years of life, but a significant portion of PD victims develop debilitating symptoms in their highly productive forties or even thirties.
Victims of Parkinson's can present with bradykinesia (slowness and poverty of movement), muscular rigidity, resting tremor (which usually abates during voluntary movement), and an impairment of postural balance leading to disturbances of gait and falling. Without treatment, PD progresses over 5 to 10 years to a rigid, akinetic state in which patients are incapable of caring for themselves. Death frequently results from complications of immobility, including aspiration pneumonia or pulmonary embolism.
Because of its long duration of morbidity (patients usually live 20 years or more under care following onset of symptoms) PD is a disease with major economic and public health impacts in the developed world. The seriousness of this problem is projected to grow over the next 30 years with the approaching demographic bulge of elderly baby-boomers and increase in average age in the populations of North America, Western Europe, and Japan. However, the availability of effective pharmacological treatment has altered radically the prognosis of PD; and in most cases, good functional mobility can be maintained for many years, and the life expectancy of adequately treated patients is substantially increased.
However, in order to optimize the aforementioned pharmacological treatment an early detection and diagnosis of PD must be made. This is particularly evident in light of the fact that current clinical diagnosis, based on PD symptomatology, can only be made after approximately 90% of neurological function in the brain's nigrostriatal dopamine pathway has been lost.
With respect to the early detection and diagnosis of PD, two fluorine-18 labeled tyrosine derivatives, 6-fluoro-dopa (FDOPA) and 6-fluoro-meta-tyrosine (6-FMT), have been demonstrated to be useful PET (positron emission tomography) radiopharmaceuticals for the early diagnosis and study Of PD and related movement disorders in humans. However, there are drawbacks to utilizing the aforementioned fluorine-18 tracers. For example, the fluorine-18 radioisotope only has a two hour halflife and therefore these tracers are typically produced in special cyclotron-PET facilities, and used on-site or within a fairly local distribution radius. In addition, the existing synthetic methods for producing these fluorine-18 tracers are non-routine and commercially unfeasible. As a result of these drawbacks, only a handful of research facilities in the world possess the special equipment or expertise that is currently required to manufacture FDOPA and 6-FMT. Therefore, the clinical use of FDOPA and/or 6-FMT has been limited to perhaps only seven sites in the world at present, i.e. University of Wisconsin, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Los Angeles, University of British Columbia (Canada), McMaster University (Canada), Universite Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), and Gunma University (Japan). The limited number of facilities which can clinically utilize FDOPA and/or 6-FMT tracers severely constrains the access PD victims have to these diagnostic tools.
Therefore, in light of the above discussion, it is apparent that what is needed is an approach for preparing radiolabeled imaging agents and associated compounds that addresses one or more of the above discussed drawbacks.

Nucleophilic approach for preparing radiolabeled imaging agents and associated compounds

Indiana University Research & Technology Corp.


The present invention provides a formulation containing the compound represented by formula (I) or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, or their crystals, with a light-stabilizing substance and a polymer, particularly with one or more of titanium oxide and talc used as the light-stabilizing substance, and hypromellose used as the polymer, which hardly increase the amount of the related substances, and the formulation is hardly colored under light irradiation.

Tyrosine kinase is an enzyme which phosphorylates tyrosine residues in substrate proteins, and is known to play an important role in an intracellular signal transduction system concerning cellular differentiation and proliferation. Especially, it is known that a growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase (hereinafter receptor tyrosine kinase) such as HER2 (also called as ErbB2 or Neu) and EGF receptor etc. are considerably involved in cancer development, and their activities increase in a variety of human cancers (Non-Patent Document 1, Non-Patent Document 2 and Non Patent Document 3).
Also, it is known that co-expression of EGF receptor and HER2 further promotes canceration by EGF receptor alone (Non-Patent Document 4) and a dual inhibitor that inhibits tyrosine kinase of both EGF receptor and HER2 is advantageous in having superior therapeutic effect in wider range of disease by synergistic effect of dual inhibition when compared with a EGF receptor or a HER2 selective inhibitor.
According to Patent Document 1, a quinazoline derivative represented by the following Formula:
has dual inhibitory activity for EGF receptor and HER2, and is useful as a therapeutic and/or prophylactic agent for cancer. The following compound (VIII-102):
in a free base term is disclosed in an Example thereof, but neither an acid addition salt nor a solvate thereof is specifically disclosed. Also, crystals thereof are not specifically disclosed.
A method for producing a quinazoline derivative represented by Formula (VI′):
is described in Patent Document 2. Also, the following compound (VI-15):
in a free base form is disclosed in an Example thereof.
Patent Documents 3 and 4 disclose hydrate crystals and anhydride crystals of Lapatinib ditosylate that has a dual inhibitory activity for EGF receptor and HER2. Also, Patent Document 5 discloses anhydride crystals of a free base of Lapatinib.
Patent Documents 6 to 8 disclose pharmaceutical formulations having excellent light stability. However, Patent Documents 6 to 8 neither disclose nor suggest that the amount of the related substances in the solid dosage form containing the compound represented by formula (I) (compound (VIII-102) is described in Patent Document 1, compound (VI-15) is described in Patent Document 2), or its pharmaceutically acceptable salt increase, and the formulation is colored under light irradiation.

Solid dosage form containing quinazoline derivative


A method of forming a polycrystalline silicon layer. An amorphous silicon layer on a substrate is completely melted using a laser beam passed through a mask so as to form a polycrystalline silicon layer. The upper portion of the polycrystalline silicon layer is then re-melted and re-crystallized using a laser beam passed through a mask. The mask includes a high transmittance region for completely melting the amorphous silicon layer and a low transmittance region for re-melting the upper portion of the polycrystalline silicon layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of forming a polycrystalline silicon layer for a switching element, for example, a thin film transistor (TFT).
2. Description of Related Art
A thin film transistor (TFT) includes an insulating layer, a passivation film, electrode layers and a semiconductor layer. The insulating layer is beneficially comprised of SiNx, SiO2, Al2O3 or TaOx. The passivation film is beneficially comprised of a transparent organic insulating material or of a transparent inorganic insulating material. The electrode layers include a gate electrode, a source electrode, and a drain electrode, and are beneficially comprised of a conductive metal such as Al, Cr or Mo. The semiconductor layer acts as a channel region along which charges flow. The semiconductor layer is usually comprised of amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon.
A process of forming the semiconductor layer using amorphous silicon can be performed at a low temperature of about 350° C. and is relatively simple. However, since a field effect mobility of an amorphous silicon layer can be as low as 2 cm2/V·sec, the switching characteristics of the TFT are not particularly good.
A polycrystalline silicon layer has a much better speed of response than an amorphous silicon layer. A polycrystalline silicon layer can have a field effect mobility between 20 cm2/V·sec to about 550 cm2/V·sec. As the switching speed of a TFT depends on the field effect mobility, the switching speed of a TFT having a polycrystalline silicon layer is about 100 times as fast as that of a similar TFT having an amorphous silicon layer. The higher field effect mobility is a result of the better grains in a polycrystalline silicon layer as compared to those of an amorphous silicon layer.
Methods of forming polycrystalline silicon layers include an excimer laser annealing technique, a solid phase crystallization (SPC) technique, and a metal-induced crystallization (MIC) technique.
Excimer laser annealing is usually performed at a low temperature and, thus a low-cost glass substrate can be used. A TFT manufactured using the excimer laser annealing technique usually has a field effect mobility of more than 100 cm2/V·sec, and thus has excellent operating characteristics.
The solid phase crystallization technique is one in which amorphous silicon is crystallized at a high temperature, usually over 600° C. Since crystallization is performed at a solid phase, a grain can have defects such as a micro-twin, a dislocation, and the like. Grains obtained using solid phase crystallization are usually of a low grade. In order to compensate for this, a thermal oxidation film formed at about 1000° C. is usually used as a gate insulating layer. Therefore, a high-cost material, such as quartz, is required for the substrate. This presents a problem in that production costs are high.
In the metal-induced crystallization technique, crystallization is performed by depositing a metal layer on an amorphous silicon layer which is then heat treated. The metal layer lowers the enthalpy of the amorphous silicon layer. As a result, crystallization is possible at a low temperature of about 500° C. However, the resulting surface state and electrical characteristics are not particularly good, and the resulting grains can have many defects.
A polycrystalline silicon layer manufactured using the techniques described above can obtain grains from silicon seeds formed while the silicon, in a liquid state, cools. If a silicon grain grows laterally, large-sized grains can be obtained. If the distance between adjacent silicon seeds is greater than the maximum silicon growth distance, a silicon grain grows laterally with the silicon seed at the center of the grain. After the silicon grain grows to its maximum length, nuclei generated by super-cooling create many small-sized grains. However, if the distance between adjacent silicon seeds is less than the maximum silicon growth distance, large sized grains that meet at grain boundaries are formed. To obtain a high-quality TFT, large-sized grains should be uniformly arranged while forming grain boundaries.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are plan views illustrating a crystallization process of a polycrystalline silicon layer. The distance between adjacent silicon seeds 11 is less than the maximum grain growth distance. It is desirable that the silicon seeds 11 are uniformly distributed. The silicon grains 13 grow laterally, centering on the silicon seed 11, and complete their growth after forming grain boundaries 15.
Hereinafter, a crystallization process using the excimer laser annealing technique according to a conventional art is explained in more detail.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of polycrystalline silicon crystallization equipment using the excimer laser annealing technique. The equipment includes a laser beam device (not shown), a mask 33, and a projection lens 35. The projection lens 35 is arranged over a substrate 31, and the mask 33 is aligned with the projection lens 35. When a laser beam 37 is projected from the laser beam device toward the mask 33, the laser beam 37 becomes incident on the mask. The laser beam incident to the mask 33 passes through the projection lens 35 and is concentrated on the substrate 31, which has an amorphous silicon layer. Polycrystallization of the amorphous silicon layer is performed according to the mask pattern.
At this point, a growth of the polycrystalline grain is controlled by the shape and energy density of the laser beam, and by the temperature and cooling rate of the substrate. During crystallization, a silicon grain has three regions: a low energy density region; an intermediate energy density region; and a high energy density region. The low energy density region is a partially melted region. That is, the lower energy density region is one in which the lower portion of the silicon layer is not melted, and thus the silicon melting depth is less than the thickness of the silicon layer. The resulting grain diameter is less than the thickness of the silicon layer because seeds on the lower portion of the silicon layer tend to grow vertically.
The intermediate energy density region is an almost completely melted region. That is, the intermediate energy density is one which only some of seeds on the lower portion of the silicon layer are not completely melted. Except for those seeds, almost all of the silicon layer is completely melted. This region is a region in which lateral growth, centered on the seeds, is possible.
The high energy density region is one in which even the lowest portion of the silicon layer is completely melted.
A crystallization method using the polycrystalline silicon crystallization equipment of FIG. 2 is as follows. The laser beam 37 is uniformed by predetermined means. Thereafter, the laser beam that will be formed on the substrate 31 is determined by the mask 33. A laser beam having a width of tens of μm is formed through the projection lens 35. The substrate 31 is arranged on a stage that moves slowly, usually at a speed of less than 1 μm/pulse, so that crystallization is performed by the laser beam. The mask 33 has divided stripe shape regions "A", "B", and "C".
FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating a mechanism for laser crystallization of amorphous silicon. In a first crystallization step, shown in element 45, lateral growth occurs by moving the substrate 31. In the second crystallization step, also shown in element 45, a grain boundary 41 formed in the first step moves and forms a new grain boundary 41a. Preferably, a high energy density that completely melts the silicon is used, and the width of the laser beam is less than twice the maximum lateral growth distance.
The step and melt process continues. After an n-th crystallization step, grains 43 of the polycrystalline silicon that were crystallized by the lateral growth are large, and the grain boundary 41n is finally determined.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged view illustrating a portion D of FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 4, the polycrystalline silicon layer has a protruding portion 45 that protrudes upwardly. The protruding portion is formed on the grain boundary due to growth of adjacent grains. This result comes about because solid silicon is greater in volume than liquid silicon, and the silicon layer melted last is cooled at the grain boundary region, increasing its volume. The protruding portion 45 has a height of about 300 Å.
Further, when the silicon layer is crystallized using the conventional crystallization described above, as shown in FIG. 5, defects 51, each referred to as a low angle defect, may exist on the surface of the layer. This result comes about because the heat energy contained in the silicon layer is suddenly exhausted via the substrate below the silicon layer when the laser beam is blocked.
The defects on the surface of the silicon layer result from sudden cooling, leading to abnormal grain growth.
A polycrystalline silicon layer manufactured by the above-described method is usually patterned to form a channel in subsequent processes. Then, an insulating layer is formed on the polycrystalline silicon layer. In other words, since the insulating layer is formed on a non-flat surface due to grain defects and the grain boundary protruding upwardly, a trap level may occur due to a mismatch between the polycrystalline silicon layer and the insulating layer. The result is that the field effect mobility of charges that flow along a surface of the polycrystalline silicon layer is significantly lowered, leading to low reliability.

Method of forming a polycrystalline silicon layer


A system and method for dynamically mixing audio signals may calculate a signal amplitude for each of two or more audio signals. The signal amplitude may be the absolute value of the audio signal. A signal sum may be calculated using each of the two or more signal amplitudes. Each of the two or more signal amplitudes may be smoothed. The signal sum may be smoothed. The smoothing may be a filter or a leaky integrator. A respective mixing gain may be calculated for each of the two or more audio signals using a respective ratio of each of the two or more smoothed signal amplitudes and the smoothed signal sum. Each of the two or more audio signals may be gain adjusted responsive to the respective mixing gain. Each of the two or more gain adjusted audio signals may be mixed to create an output signal.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to the field of processing audio signals. In particular, to a system and method for dynamically mixing audio signals.
2. Related Art
When mixing two or more independent audio signals together, for example, multiple parties on a conference bridge or separate microphones, there is a known issue related to dynamic range and noise. The more audio signals that are added, or mixed, together the more the noise grows while the desired audio content remains at the same level. The mixed output signal may have a reduced signal to noise ratio when compared to any one of the independent audio signals. The overall noise level may be kept lower by averaging the audio signals, but the averaging process reduces the overall gain of each audio signal.
A voice activity detector (VAD) may be applied prior to mixing where all non-voice content bearing signals may be suppressed so that the noise does not add, but this type of suppression results in an unnatural gating sound and may not be suitable for audio signals that are not voice content bearing, such as music. Each audio signal may be subject to a noise-normalization scheme, but again noise-normalization introduces gating for some sources that may be perceived as unnatural.

System and method for dynamically mixing audio signals


A secret sharing device of (k, n) threshold scheme creates a generator matrix G, first divided secret data, and random number data, calculates shared partial data based on the product of matrices with the random number data, the divided secret data, and the generator matrix G, and delivers the shared information formed by the shared partial data and the header information individually to the storage units. The secret sharing device calculates a recovery matrix and multiplies the shared information by the recovery matrix, hence to recover the secret information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a secret sharing device, method, and program using a (k, n) threshold scheme, for example, a secret sharing device, method, and program capable of realizing the (k, n) threshold scheme at high speed without using polynomial interpolation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in case secret information such as cryptographic key is lost, a measure of previously making a copy of the secret information is taken. However, making a copy of the secret information causes such a problem that increases a risk of theft. As the measure against this problem, in 1979, Shamir proposed a secret sharing method called a (k, n) threshold scheme (see, for example, A. Shamir; "How to Share a secret", Communications of the ACM, 22, 11, pp. 612-613[1979]).
In the (k, n) threshold scheme, when the secret information is divided into n items of shared information, the original secret information can be recovered from k out of the n items of shared information but cannot be recovered at all from the k−1 items of shared information. Namely, the (k, n) threshold scheme has a secret information recovery characteristic with a threshold of k as a boundary (where 2≦k≦n).
According to the (k, n) threshold scheme, even when k−1 or less items of shared information are revealed, the original secret information is still safe and even when n−k or less items of shared information are lost, the original secret information can be recovered.
The Shamir (k, n) threshold scheme performs the processing of secret information sharing and recovery through polynomial interpolation that requires a lot of calculations, which is disadvantageous because it requires a high speed computer in order to share the secret information of large amount.
On the other hand, in order to resolve the above problem, there are known a method by Fujii and a method by Kurihara, as the (k, n) threshold scheme capable of reducing the calculation amount greatly (see, for example, Yoshihiro Fujii, Minako Tada, Norikazu Hosaka, Koya Tochikubo, and Takehisa Kato: "A Fast (2,n)-Threshold Scheme and Its Application", SCC2005 collection of preliminary papers, (2005), and Jun Kurihara, Shinsaku Kiyomoto, Kazuhide Fukushima, and Toshiaki Tanaka: "A (3,n)-Threshold Secret Sharing Scheme using XOR Operations", SCIS2007 collection of preliminary papers, (2007)). The Fujii method and the Kurihara method can perform the secret information sharing and recovering processing at high speed because they use only the exclusive OR operation.
The Fujii method and the Kurihara method, however, have a disadvantage that the threshold k is restricted to 2 or 3.
As set forth hereinabove, the Shamir (k, n) threshold scheme has such a disadvantage that it requires a high speed computer because of using the polynomial interpolation. On the other hand, the Fujii method and the Kurihara method have such a disadvantage that the threshold k is restricted to 2 or 3.

Secret sharing device, method, and program


A laminated rubber bearing comprising a columnar-shaped viscoelastic body 5, a plurality of viscoelastic members 4, and an external binding body 1 disposed in the periphery of these components. The external binding body 1 is a laminated body consisting of alternating rigid plates 3 and rubber-like elastic plates 2 with rubber-like elastic plates 2 disposed between external peripheral regions of the rigid plates 3. The viscoelastic members 4 are disposed inside of those rubber-like elastic plates 2 of the external binding body 1 so that the viscoelastic members 4 fill up clearance between the rigid plates 3 inside of respective rubber-like elastic plates 2. A cylindrical cavity 6 open at both ends thereof extends through the viscoelastic members 4 and the rigid plates 3. A viscoelastic body 5, an elastic body, or viscous substance having cubage greater than that of the cylindrical cavity 6 is forcedly inserted in the cylindrical cavity 6.

The present invention relates to a laminated rubber bearing. More particularly, the invention relates to a peripheral-binding type laminated rubber bearing which is capable of supporting a variety of structures including buildings, bridges, tanks, or the like, or precision apparatuses including computers, medical-treatment apparatuses, security apparatuses, high-precision machine tools, analytical apparatuses, or the like, or artifacts, in the state of stably mounting those objects thereon in order to minimize acceleration incurred from earthquake, mechanical vibration, or traffic vibration, for example.
For instance, conventionally, there is such a laminated rubber bearing used for decreasing acceleration transmitted to those structures, precision apparatuses, or artifacts cited above by way of functioning as a vibration-proof supporter. This conventional laminated rubber bearing has a structure composed of alternately laminated rigid plates made of steel and soft rubber-like elastic plates having negligible effect of compressive permanent strain. This conventional laminated rubber structure is disposed between upper and lower structures to swingably support the upper structure in the horizontal direction in order to decrease acceleration incurred from earthquake and protect the upper structure from destructive force generated by earthquake.
As is apparent from the above description, damping performance and stability against vertical load (hereinafter referred to as "buckling-proof" performance) are extremely important factors in any of those laminated rubber bearings used for protection against destructive force generated by earthquake. Examples of damping performance and buckling-proof performance of conventional laminated rubber bearings are described below.
If a laminated rubber bearing were inappropriate in the damping performance, then, it will not be able to exert enough capability to fully absorb vibration energy in actual service. This means that it will take a long while before horizontal swing movement generated by vibration can fully be terminated, and thus, this bearing is inadequate for practical service. Therefore, in order to promote damping performance, in addition to such a laminated rubber bearing, external dampers are conjunctionally used. In addition, there is such a newly developed laminated rubber bearing using rubber-like plates made from high-damping rubber. Details of such a newly developed laminated rubber bearing incorporating practical means for promoting damping performance are described below.
A conventional laminated rubber bearing disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-47417 has such a structure containing space in the structural contour of rubber-like elastic plate layers, where the space is filled with viscoelastic substance. In consequence, vibration-damping performance is promoted by means of deforming energy of the internally accommodated viscoelastic body.
Another conventional laminated rubber bearing disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 64-58370 has such a peripheral-binding type structure capable of exerting high rigidity in the vertical direction and high potential for supporting load in the state of exerting substantial deforming capability in the horizontal direction by filling a through-hole with a columnar viscoelastic body to hold this body with a peripheral binding body. In addition, the peripheral binding body and/or the viscoelastic body are respectively capable of absorbing vibration energy mainly generated by frictional attenuation.
Another conventional laminated rubber bearing disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model No. 2-54933 has such a structure described below. An elastic supporter is formed by alternately laminating a plurality of rigid plates made of steel and a plurality of elastic plates made of soft rubber. Viscous substance is accommodated in a through-hole extending in the axial direction of the elastic supporter. The viscous substance and the elastic substance are nipped by an upper plate an d a lower plate. The viscous substance integrated with these components is interposed between an objective structure and a supporter used for supporting the objective structure. Those steel plates respectively have inner circumferential surfaces extending to the interior of the through-hole. This structure increases tangential area between those steel plates and the viscous substance, thus resulting in the intensified frictional force and promoted damping capability.
Next, buckling-proof performance is described below. If buckling-proof performance of a laminated rubber bearing were inappropriate, then, the bearing will be subject to buckling caused by vertical load after being sheared by destructive force of earthquake. Critical buckling point of this bearing is determined based on the relationship between the displacement of the sheared supporter and horizontal load when shearing occurs. When displacement caused by shearing exceeds the critical buckling point, the effect of displacement caused by shearing is quite noticeable. Therefore, such a conventional laminated rubber bearing apt to be subject to buckling may incur grave damage not only to the bearing itself but also to the structure mounted thereon, and therefore, such a conventional laminated rubber bearing cannot be offered for use in practical fields. In the case of such a conventional peripheral-binding type laminated rubber bearing comprising alternately laminated rigid plates and rubber-like elastic members and a through-hole formed in the direction of height of the laminated body, buckling-proof performance is gravely affected by secondary shape factor and inner diameter of the through-hole permeating the rigid plates. Concretely, the conventional laminated rubber bearing is subject to buckling when a negligible amount of shearing displacement takes place in such a case in presence of a small value of secondary shape factor or in such a case in presence of a large proportion of the inner diameter of the through-hole against outer diameter of the rigid plates.
Referring to the relationship between damping performance and buckling-proof performance of the peripheral-binding type conventional laminated rubber bearing having a through-hole of the rigid plates filled with a viscoelastic body and plastic substance, if inner diameter of the through-hole were expanded in order to accommodate a greater amount of viscoelastic or plastic substance merely for promoting damping performance, then, it will conversely degrade buckling-proof performance. In consequence, such a conventional laminated rubber bearing cannot be offered for practical service. On the other hand, if the inner diameter of the through-hole were contracted for promoting buckling-proof performance, then, it will result in the contracted cubage or volume of the viscoelastic body or the plastic substance. In consequence, this conventional laminated rubber bearing cannot secure the needed damping performance. In this way, magnitude of the inner diameter of the through-hole inversely affects the damping performance and the buckling performance in contradiction to each other.
For example, another conventional laminated rubber bearing disclosed in the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-163231 has such a structure described below. By effect of filling a through-hole with a viscoelastic body having cubage greater than that of the through-hole of the laminated body, the viscoelastic body having free surface being bound in the inner surface of the through-hole swells towards the rubber-like elastic plates by such an amount corresponding to surplus cubage. Expansion of the viscoelastic body between rigid plates enables viscoelastic substance to fully adhere to the inner peripheral surface of the through-hole. This in turn results in the satisfactory mechanical coupling effect between the viscoelastic substance and the laminated body, thus promoting buckling-proof performance while properly maintaining high damping performance.
The above-cited Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 64-58370 also discloses structure of another laminated rubber bearing, where a viscoelastic body filled in a through-hole comprises a laminated viscoelastic body composed of alternately laminated viscoelastic bodies and rigid plates. This structure promotes both the damping performance and the buckling-proof performance.
On the other hand, those conventional laminated rubber bearings cited above respectively have technical problems to solve, details of which are described below.
The above-cited Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-47417 discloses such a laminated rubber bearing incorporating a viscoelastic body inserted between a plurality of steel plates in order to generate damping performance. However, according to the structure disclosed therein, unlike the one disclosed in the above-cited Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-163231, this structure cannot fill the viscoelastic body between each steel plate by way of exceeding cubage, and therefore, clearance is generated in the inserted viscoelastic body. This in turn lowers capability of the laminated rubber bearing to support vertical load, buckling-proof performance, and absorption of energy generated by shearing deformation. Furthermore, the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-163231 discloses a technique to fill viscous substance between respective steel plates in order to generate damping performance. However, introduction of the viscous substance does not significantly contribute to the damping constant, and thus, this conventional laminated rubber bearing cannot generate substantial damping effect.
Referring to the conventional laminated rubber bearing disclosed in the above-cited Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 64-58370, as mentioned earlier, dimension of inner diameter of a through-hole formed in the bearing inversely affects the damping performance and the buckling-proof performance in contradiction to each other, and thus, there is a certain limit in the improvement of the damping performance while properly maintaining buckling-proof performance effective for practical service.
On the other hand, referring to the conventional laminated rubber bearing disclosed in the above-cited Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model No. 2-54933, it accommodates viscous substance in a through-hole extending in the axial direction of an elastic supporter, and in addition, both the viscous substance and the elastic supporter are merely nipped by an upper plate and a lower plate without filling a viscoelastic body by way of exceeding cubage of the through-hole formed therein. Therefore, like the one disclosed in the Japanese. Patent Publication No. 60-47417 described earlier, structure of this conventional laminated rubber bearing causes buckling-proof performance to be degraded. Furthermore, since this conventional laminated rubber bearing merely uses viscous substance, it is quite apparent that this system can hardly be offered for practical service by way of fully enhancing damping performance thereof.
Finally, referring to the conventional laminated rubber bearing disclosed in the above-cited Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-163231, in the event that such an extremely disastrous earthquake ever occurs like the "Kanto Earthquake" which occurred on Sep. 1, 1923, by directly striking Tokyo and surrounding Kanto area of Japan and generated approximately 25 through 30 cm of shearing deformation and 150% through 180% of shearing strain, due to flow of viscoelastic substance, cavity can easily be generated inside of the viscoelastic body, and therefore, the above conventional laminated rubber bearing cannot substantially improve buckling-proof performance suited for practical service. At the same time, structure of this conventional laminated rubber bearing lowers proportion in the shearing and deformation of the viscoelastic body, thus lowering both the energy-absorptive capability and the damping performance. Furthermore, while making use of the laminated type viscoelastic body disclosed in the above-cited Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 3-163231, height of all the rigid plates built in this laminated type viscoelastic body must fully be arranged to be flush with the rigid plates of the laminated body. If they were not fully flush with each other, then, the viscoelastic body cannot fully swell itself towards the rubber-like elastic plates to result in the difficulty to achieve satisfactory mechanical coupling condition to eventually lower buckling-proof performance.


A method for the automated testing of electrical cabin loads in a cabin of an aircraft comprises activating at least one electrical cabin load in a predetermined operating mode via a test controller; recording an electric power consumption profile of the at least one electrical cabin load in the activated operating mode via a power controller of an electric power distribution system of the cabin of the aircraft, wherein the power controller regulates electric power consumption of the at least one electrical cabin load within the power distribution system; transmitting the recorded power consumption profile to the test controller; and comparing the recorded power consumption profile with a reference profile for the activated operating mode of the at least one cabin load via the test controller, in order to test the at least one electrical cabin load for operability.

Aircraft cabins, in particular passenger cabins of passenger aircraft, normally comprise a digital cabin management system (CMS) which controls the electrical equipment located in the cabin and the functions thereof, and which regulates the input and output of certain cabin parameters to the passengers and the crew. Functions which are performed may comprise, inter alia, cabin illumination, cabin communication, for example, cockpit/cabin announcements, an entertainment system, visual and/or acoustic signals, for example, emergency signals, non-smoking/fasten seat belt signs, door latch indications, etc., a cabin monitoring system or cabin sensors such as temperature sensors, smoke detectors, or cameras and various other cabin functions which may also have safety-related significance in some cases. For this purpose, a typical cabin management system comprises, inter alia, a main computer, several flight attendant panels, and a data network for data transmission in the cabin.
Here, the electrical equipment in the cabin is typically supplied with electric power by an electric power distribution system (EPDS); see, for example, the publication EP 1 973 018 B1. For this purpose, such a power distribution system may contain one or a plurality of power controllers and/or power distribution boxes (PDBs), which regulate electric power consumption of the cabin's electrical loads within the power distribution system. The EPDS may, for example, be designed to continuously monitor the power supply of the cabin electronics. For this purpose, the EPDS may be connected to the cabin management system via a data network within the cabin. The cabin management system may, in turn, comprise electronic switching units for (de)activating the individual cabin loads or groups of cabin loads.
As part of test automation of the electronic components of a cabin, i.e., the automated testing of cabin hardware, it is sometimes proposed to equip the cabin with suitable sensors and the like, which are intended to test the operability of individual cabin components. For example, the operability of an illumination system may be tested by installing a plurality of light sensors in the cabin, such as brightness and/or ambient light sensors, cameras or the like. Since additional cables, data lines, etc., are also to be laid in addition to these sensors, this approach results in a certain amount of installation effort and cost.
Against this background, an object of the present invention is to find solutions for the automated testing of electrical cabin equipment which are as simple as possible.

Method and system for the automated testing of electrical cabin loads in a cabin of an aircraft


Provided herein are one-solution type thermosetting resin compositions that may be useful to form protective films for color filters used in liquid crystal displays or image sensors. According to some embodiments, the resin compositions may include a self-curable copolymer and an epoxy compound. The protective films may exhibit desirable flatness, adhesiveness, transmittance, heat resistance and chemical resistance. Also provided are methods of forming a film on a substrate, and substrates having a film formed thereon. In addition, provided herein are color filters including a film formed from a composition according to an embodiment of the invention, and liquid crystal displays and image sensors including such color filters.

In general, protective films are formed on the surface of color filters in liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for the purpose of planarizing and protecting the color filters. Ideally, such surface-protective films should have the desirable optical transparency and also possess sufficient film strength. In addition, such surface-protective films should have sufficient heat resistance to withstand subsequent processes for forming transparent conductive films on the protective films. Further, in some LCDs, such as vertical-alignment LCDs, it is also desirable that the surface-protective films possess sufficient acid resistance to withstand etching and sufficient base resistance to withstand resist peeling.
Materials and methods for forming protective films for color filters are known in the art. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 1-134306 describes the use of glycidyl methacrylate as a main component in a protective film, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 62-163016 describes the use of a polyimide as a main component in a protective film and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Sho 63-131103 describes the use of a mixture of a melamine resin and an epoxy resin as a main component in a protective film.
Epoxy resins have been shown to have desirable properties in terms of adhesive strength and resistance to heat, chemicals and water. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 08-050289 describes a curable resin composition including a glycidyl methacrylate polymer and a phenolic curing agent. Japanese Patent Laid Open No. Hei 08-201617 describes a resin composition including an epoxy resin, a curing agent, and an organic solvent, wherein the curing agent is the reaction product of a styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer and an amine.
Epoxy resins may react rapidly with curing agents. Thus, when epoxy resins are mixed with curing agents in so-called "two solution-type" or "two-pot" compositions, they are generally mixed immediately before use. In contrast, "one solution-type" or "one pot" compositions may be applied to a substrate in substantially the same form that they are stored in. Two solution-type compositions may be difficult to handle and may be unsuitable for industrial scale use due to the need for mixing and the relatively limited time frame for application after mixing However, epoxy resins have been generally known in the art to be unsuitable for use in one solution-type compositions.
Other two solution-type compositions have been modified to improve storage stability. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-091732 describes a technique for improving storage stability by protecting a polyfunctional carboxylic compound with a vinyl ether. However, the protection of the polyfunctional carboxylic acid may require a complicated procedure. Further, the vinyl ether may be harmful to humans, and so the industrial applicability of this procedure is uncertain.
Thus, it would be desirable to prepare one solution-type compositions that provide the desirable transparency, film strength, heat resistance, acid resistance and base resistance.

One solution-type thermosetting compositions for color filter protective films and color filters using the same


A developing device includes a movable toner carrier having a surface which receives a toner, and a toner restricting member arranged parallel to the toner carrier. The toner restricting member comprises a retaining rod made of a rigid material and an elastic contact unit provided on the outer periphery of the retaining rod, extending in an axial direction along the retaining rod and having at least one contact area set in contact with the surface of the toner carrier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing device for an electrophotographic apparatus which utilizes a one-component toner developing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrostatic type electrophotographic apparatus for use, for example, in a copier, facsimile equipment or laser printer apparatus has a photosensitive drum with a photosensitive layer formed thereon. A charger, exposure device, developing device, transfer device and fixing device are located along and around the photosensitive drum.
As the photosensitive drum is rotated, a charge is formed by the charger on the surface (photosensitive layer) of the photosensitive drum and a toner is supplied by the developing device to the surface of the photosensitive drum to form a toner image on the drum surface.
Then a charge opposite in polarity to the charge on the toner image is applied to a recording paper sheet by the transfer device to allow the toner image on the drum surface to be transferred to the recording sheet under an electrostatic force. Finally, the toner image on the recording sheet is fixed by the fixing device.
Further, a cleaning device has to be provided so as to continuously perform a recording process. The toner remaining on the drum surface after transfer is removed by the cleaning device. The charge remaining on the drum surface is removed by the discharger, followed by a charging step in a continuous cycle.
Some developing devices to be mounted in an electrophotographic apparatus utilize a one-component toner developing method. In this type of device, a non-magnetic toner not containing any carrier is pressed by a toner restricting member against the surface of a toner carrier whereby the toner is formed as a thin layer on the carrier surface, while being triboelectrically charged.
FIG. 40 shows this type of conventional developing device.
This developing device is located parallel to a photosensitive drum 9 and has a casing 1, agitator 2, toner feed roller 3, collecting blade 5 and toner restricting member 6.
The casing 1 has substantially the same length as that of the photosensitive drum and defines an inner space where a one-component toner T is stored. The casing 1 has an opening at which the developing roller 4 is located. The casing 1 is arranged parallel to the photosensitive drum 9.
The toner feed roller 3 and developing roller 4 have substantially the same length as that of the photosensitive drum 9 and are arranged parallel to the photosensitive drum 9 such that they are rotatably supported at the casing 1 side. The developing roller 4 is placed in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the drum 9, noting that the developing roller 4 is formed of electroconductive rubber and fixed to the outer periphery of a metal shaft 4a.
The toner restricting member 6 is located above the developing roller 4 in a manner to be parallel to the photosensitive drum 9. The toner restricting member 6 comprises a leaf spring 7 made of metal and a blade contact unit 8 made of an elastic material, such as rubber. The leaf spring and blade contact unit 8 have substantially the same length as that of the developing roller 4. The blade contact unit 8 is fixed to one side edge of the leaf spring 7 along its length. The other side edge of the leaf spring 7 is fixed to the casing 1. The blade contact 8 is placed, under an elastic force of the leaf spring 7, in contact with the outer periphery of the developing roller 4.
The operation of the developing device is as follows:
A nonmagnetic one-component toner T in a toner storage area of the casing 1 is fed to the toner feed roller 3 by the rotation of the agitator 2. The toner feed roller 3 and developing roller 4 are rotated by a rotation device, not shown. The toner is fed by the toner feed roller 3 onto the outer peripheral surface of the developing roller 4. The blade contact unit 8 of the toner restricting member 6 presses the toner T which is deposited on the peripheral surface of the developing roller 4 against the outer periphery of the developing roller 4. By so doing, the blade contact unit 8 forms the toner T as a thin layer on the outer periphery of the developing roller 4 and, at the same time, the toner is triboelectrically charged. The charged toner T is deposited onto the outer periphery of the drum 9 to allow an electrostatic image which is formed on the outer periphery of the drum 9 to be developed into a visible image.
Such a conventional developing device has drawbacks as will be set forth below.
The toner restricting member 6 is of such a type that the contact unit 8 is fixed directly to the leaf spring 7. The leaf spring 7 performs a double function of holding the blade contact unit 8 in place and bringing the blade contact unit 8 in contact with the developing roller 4 by its spring force. However, the force by which the leaf spring 7 directly acts upon the blade contact unit 8 varies, thus varying the state in which the blade contact unit 8 makes contact with the developing roller 4.
That is, the leaf spring 7 has substantially the same length as that of the developing roller 4 and, because it is provided in a restricted space, is slender in configuration. For this reason, the spring constant is set to a large value so as to obtain a predetermined spring force. If, however, the spring constant of the leaf spring 7 is set to a large value, then the pressure force with which the blade contact unit 8 is pressed by the leaf spring 7 against the developing roller 4 varies greatly in accordance with the wear of the blade contact unit 8 caused by frictional contact with the developing roller 4.
Further, the leaf spring 7, being longer in its lateral direction, is liable to be deformed in its longitudinal direction, thus causing a local variation of the pressure force with which the blade contact unit 8 is pressed by the leaf spring 7 against the developing roller 4.
The force with and position in which the contact unit 8 is contacted by the developing roller 4 depend heavily upon the thickness of the toner layer on the developing roller 4 and amount of toner charged on the roller. The spring force of the leaf spring 7, being largely varied, causes a larger variation in the thickness of the toner layer on the developing roller 4 and in the amount of toner charged thereon. Therefore, an image of poor quality is formed on the recording sheet, thus failing to obtain a better-quality image.
Further, the spring 7 is manufactured by a discharge machining method and hence involves more manufacturing cost.

Developing device and method for locating a toner restricting member at a developing device


A security system for a container connected to a device includes a collar connected to a device requiring the contents of the refillable container. The collar has a top with a diameter that matches the diameter of the filling portion of a container. The system has a band with a security wire to prevent tampering, and a chip in communication with the security wire wherein the chip includes memory, and contacts. The system has one or more connections for facilitating receiving and transmitting data from the chip and a connector for communicating between the chip and a processor. The processor reads the chip via the connector and confirms that the information in the processor is identical to the information from the chip and provides a transmission to a device to accept the contents of the container.

In the storage container refilling industry, a common problem is that the correct contents are not put in the correct containers. The mixture of two different contents can create a volatile mixture and become very dangerous. Theft is another problem faced by the storage container industry. The present tanks can be used with any common valve connections, thus thieves do not have any trouble using a stolen container.
In other cases, manufacturers that require specific chemicals for their machines to work properly need to be assured that the material in the container is exactly what they require for their equipment to work properly. If the container is filled with material that does not meet the specifications, the machinery may fail and the result will not only damage the equipment, but can also place the operator or other persons in the area in danger.
In addition, situations commonly arise where one needs to know the contents of a transport container without invasive testing. Should an emergency arise, immediate knowledge of the contents would aid in rescue and life saving measures. When the containers are used to house and transport multiple items or volumes, the supplier, shipper, manufacturer, and recipient along with all government and law enforcement officials need to be able to ascertain and verify the contents of the container using speedy and non invasive methods.
Containers are designed to hold specific contents; if the wrong materials are placed in a specific container, a dangerous and hazardous condition could be created. Anyone near the container could be injured if a container failed. The contents, if exposed, could be toxic and pose a threat to the life in a larger area. A device is needed to assure that specific materials are placed in correct and approved containers. This device needs to provide information instantly as to the history, requirements and current status of the container and its contents. This device can save lives by preventing the wrong materials from being placed in wrong containers.
A need exists to prevent refilling a storage container with the wrong contents.
A need exists to prevent the theft of storage container by preventing the use of the container after the container is stolen.
A need exists to verify the contents of the container prior to and during its use.
A need exists to verify that a container that is designed to contain only one type of material actually only contains that material.
A need exists for a container that is designed so that the container can contain multiple items and can be sealed against tampering with or theft of the contents.
A need exists for a means to assure users that the seal of the container has not been tampered with.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.


A method, apparatus, system, and signal-bearing medium that, in an embodiment, determine whether an amount of usage of a resource, which is used under a temporary usage plan, exceeds a threshold. If that determination is true, a quantity of the resource is calculated and that quantity is converted from the temporary usage plan to a permanent usage plan, without further charge to the customer. In another embodiment, a different resource may be converted to the permanent usage plan than the resource that was temporarily used. In various embodiments, the calculation of the quantity is made based on an attribute of the computer that uses the resource or based on an activation code received from the provider of the resource. In various embodiments, the amount of the usage is either a time amount of use or a monetary amount charged for the resource under the temporary usage plan. In various embodiments, the quantity of the resource converted is based on a ratio of a number of permanent resources in use to a total number of resources, based on an attribute of the computer, based on the cost of the computer, based on the age of the computer, based on a speed of the resource, or based on the amount of resources in the computer.

The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely sophisticated devices that may be found in many different settings. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware (e.g., semiconductors, circuit boards, etc.) and software (e.g., computer programs). As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer hardware higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
Computer resource requirements for business and government applications often increase over a time period due to sales or employee growth. Yet, over the same time period, the resource requirements may fluctuate dramatically due to the inevitable peaks and valleys of day-to-day operations or from the increased loads for seasonal, period-end, or special promotions. Thus, the peak resource requirements within a time period may be dramatically more than the valley resource requirements. Hence, in order to be effective, the computerized resources of a business must be sufficient to meet the current fluctuating needs of the business, as well as projected needs due to growth.
When faced with these fluctuating and ever-increasing resource demands, a customer conventionally needs to purchase computing resources capable of accommodating at least peak requirements while planning for future requirements, which are almost certain to be elevated. As a result, customers face the prospect of investing in more computerized resources than are immediately needed in order to accommodate growth and operational peaks and valleys, so that at a given time, the customer may have excess computing capacity, which is a very real cost. Such costs can represent a major, if not preclusive, expenditure for the customer, who may have insufficient capital or time to react to rapid growth and fluctuating requirements.
To address this problem, computing architectures such as the "capacity on demand" design, developed by International Business Machines Corporation of Armonk, N.Y., allow customers to effectively rent or lease resources, e.g., processors, on an as-needed or on-demand basis. More particularly, customers may temporarily enable standby resources that are initially dormant or unused within their machine. Where desired, the standby resources are not included in the up-front, baseline cost of the machine. As such, for a relatively smaller initial capital investment, a customer may activate and deactivate standby or on-demand resources as needed for a fee, which provides the customer with customized access and optimized usage. Thus, customers are effectively renting resources on a temporary basis.
In response to the customer deciding to permanently activate the previously-rented resources, the resource provider may wish to vary the price the customer pays for the permanently-activated resources based on the past rental usage. Thus, e.g., the resource provider may wish to charge the customer less for permanent activation if the customer has already rented the resources for a significant period of time. Hence, a current manual technique bills customers different rates for a permanent activation of a resource based on past rental use. This manual technique has the disadvantage that both the customer and the resource provider or biller are burdened by a manual process, which is imprecise and requires human intervention and associated overhead.
Thus, without a better way to handle the conversion of temporarily-activated resources to permanently-activated resources, customers, resource providers, and resource billers will continue to be burdened by a manual process.

Permanently activating resources based on previous temporary resource usage