Abstract: An electrophotographic member including an electro-conductive substrate, an elastic layer, and a surface layer, the surface layer containing a fine particle and a binder resin, and having a thickness of less than 1.0 ?m, the fine particles having an average particle diameter of from 0.1 ?m to 0.9 ?m, the fine particles having a volume occupancy of 60 vol % to 99 vol % with respect to 100 vol % of the binder resin in the surface layer, the elastic modulus E1 of the fine particle being 1,000 MPa or more, and the elastic modulus E2 of the binder resin being 2 MPa to 200 MPa, and MD-1 hardness H1 of the surface layer being 50° to 100°, and a difference (H1?H2) between the H1 and MD-1 hardness H2 of the elastic layer being 5° or more.

Abstract: An electrophotographic member including an electro-conductive substrate, an elastic layer, and a surface layer, the surface layer containing a fine particle and a binder resin, and having a thickness of less than 1.0 ?m, the fine particles having an average particle diameter of from 0.1 ?m to 0.9 ?m, the fine particles having a volume occupancy of 60 vol % to 99 vol % with respect to 100 vol % of the binder resin in the surface layer, the elastic modulus E1 of the fine particle being 1,000 MPa or more, and the elastic modulus E2 of the binder resin being 2 MPa to 200 MPa, and MD-1 hardness H1 of the surface layer being 50° to 100°, and a difference (H1-H2) between the H1 and MD-1 hardness H2 of the elastic layer being 5° or more.

Abstract: A developing device including: a developer; and a developing member configured to carry the developer on a surface thereof, the developing roller including an electro-conductive substrate and a single-layer elastic layer serving as a surface layer on the substrate, the surface layer comprising a binder resin, and the binder resin contains a crosslinked urethane resin and a crosslinked acrylic resin, the crosslinked urethane resin and the crosslinked acrylic resin form an interpenetrating polymer network structure in a first region from an outer surface of the surface layer to a position at a depth of 0.1 ?m from the outer surface, wherein the developer contains developer particles each containing at least a binder resin and a magnetic substance.

Abstract: A pulse discrimination device is configured to receive electrical signals from a plurality of positions of a living body to which a pacing device for outputting a pacing pulse to cause a heart to beat is attached, and is configured to discriminate the pacing pulse included in the electrical signals. The pulse discrimination device includes: a differential processor configured to calculate a difference of the electrical signals received from the plurality of positions, a sum processor configured to calculate a sum of the electrical signals received from the plurality of positions, and a pulse discrimination unit configured to discriminate the pacing pulse included in the electrical signals based on the difference obtained by the differential processor and the sum obtained by the sum processor.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus at least includes: an image bearing member; a developer container; a developer carrying member; and a controller that controls a power source that applies a voltage to the developer carrying member, wherein the developer carrying member has at least a base and a surface layer, the surface layer has an electron donating portion that mainly donates charge to the developer when the developer and the surface layer makes frictional contact to exchange charge and an electron accepting portion that mainly accepts charge from the developer, and the controller applies an AC voltage to the developer carrying member during a period in which an image forming operation is not performed and the developer carrying member is driven, the AC voltage being different from that applied during an image forming period.

Abstract: A pulse discrimination device is configured to receive electrical signals from a plurality of positions of a living body to which a pacing device for outputting a pacing pulse to cause a heart to beat is attached, and is configured to discriminate the pacing pulse included in the electrical signals. The pulse discrimination device includes: a differential processor configured to calculate a difference of the electrical signals received from the plurality of positions; a sum processor configured to calculate a sum of the electrical signals received from the plurality of positions; and a pulse discrimination unit configured to discriminate the pacing pulse included in the electrical signals based on the difference obtained by the differential processor and the sum obtained by the sum processor.

Abstract: The developing member includes a substrate having an electroconductive outer surface; an insulating resin layer on the outer surface of the substrate; and electrically insulating domains on an outer surface of insulating resin layer, and has an outer surface including a surface of the insulating resin layer and surfaces of the domains, wherein a potential decay time constant of each of the surfaces of the domains is ?60.0 seconds, and a potential decay time constant of the surface of the electrically insulating resin layer is <6.0 seconds, and assuming that the electrically insulating domains are orthographically projected onto the outer surface of the substrate, to obtain projection images of the respective domains, each of areas of the projection images is defined as S, and each of areas of convex envelopes of the projection images is defined as H, at least one of the domains satisfies 0.05?S/H?0.80.

Abstract: Provided is a developer carrying member that enables stable formation of images of high quality even on recording paper having a high talc content. The developer carrying member includes a conductive base member and a surface layer, wherein the surface layer includes a urethane resin, and the urethane resin has a carbonate bond and a tertiary amine structure.

Abstract: Provided is a developer carrying member that enables stable formation of images of high quality even on recording paper having a high talc content. The developer carrying member includes a conductive base member and a surface layer, wherein the surface layer includes a urethane resin, and the urethane resin has a carbonate bond and a tertiary amine structure.

Abstract: The developing member includes a substrate having an electroconductive outer surface; an insulating layer on the outer surface of the substrate; and electrically insulating domains on an outer surface of insulating layer, and has an outer surface including a surface of the insulating resin layer and surfaces of the domains, wherein a potential decay time constant of each of the surfaces of the domains is ?60.0 seconds, and a potential decay time constant of the surface of the electrically insulating layer is <6.0 seconds, and assuming that the electrically insulating domains are orthographically projected onto the outer surface of the substrate, to obtain projection images of the respective domains, each of areas of the projection images is defined as S, and each of areas of convex envelopes of the projection images is defined as H, at least one of the domains satisfies 0.05?S/H?0.80.

Abstract: The developer carrying member, includes: an electroconductive substrate; and a surface layer containing a resin, on the substrate, in which a thickness of the surface layer is 1.0 ?m or more and 100.0 ?m or less, a Martens hardness at an indentation depth of 0.1 ?m that is measured by infiltrating a Vickers indenter in a thickness direction of the surface layer from an outer surface of the surface layer is 50.0 N/mm2 or more and 100.0 N/mm2 or less, an Asker C hardness that is measured from the outer surface of the surface layer is 75° or more and 90° or less, and a value of a work function of the outer surface of the surface layer is 5.6 eV or more and 6.0 eV or less.

Abstract: Provided is a developer carrying member that enables stable formation of images of high quality even on recording paper having a high talc content. The developer carrying member includes a conductive base member and a surface layer, wherein the surface layer includes a urethane resin, and the urethane resin has a carbonate bond and a tertiary amine structure.

Abstract: The developer carrying member, includes: an electroconductive substrate; and a surface layer containing a resin, on the substrate, in which a thickness of the surface layer is 1.0 ?m or more and 100.0 ?m or less, a Martens hardness at an indentation depth of 0.1 ?m that is measured by infiltrating a Vickers indenter in a thickness direction of the surface layer from an outer surface of the surface layer is 50.0 N/mm2 or more and 100.0 N/mm2 or less, an Asker C hardness that is measured from the outer surface of the surface layer is 75° or more and 90° or less, and a value of a work function of the outer surface of the surface layer is 5.6 eV or more and 6.0 eV or less.

Abstract: A pulse discrimination device is configured to receive an electrical signal from a living body in which a functional pulse propagates at a predetermined time interval, and is configured to discriminate between the functional pulse and a noise pulse which are included in the electrical signal. The pulse discrimination device includes: a pulse detector configured to sequentially detect an electrical pulse included in the electrical signal based on variation in an intensity of the electrical signal received from the living body; and a pulse discrimination unit configured to determine whether the electrical pulse detected by the pulse detector is the functional pulse or the noise pulse based on a detection interval of the electrical pulse detected by the pulse detector and a pulse time predetermined based on the predetermined time interval.

Abstract: A pulse discrimination device is configured to receive electrical signals from a plurality of positions of a living body to which a pacing device for outputting a pacing pulse to cause a heart to beat is attached, and is configured to discriminate the pacing pulse included in the electrical signals. The pulse discrimination device includes: a differential processor configured to calculate a difference of the electrical signals received from the plurality of positions; a sum processor configured to calculate a sum of the electrical signals received from the plurality of positions; and a pulse discrimination unit configured to discriminate the pacing pulse included in the electrical signals based on the difference obtained by the differential processor and the sum obtained by the sum processor.

Abstract: The present invention provides an electrophotographic member which has a high ability to impart charge to toners while the charge imparting ability is unlikely to be reduced even under an environment at high temperature and high humidity. The electrophotographic member comprises a substrate, an elastic layer formed on the substrate, an intermediate layer covering the surface of the elastic layer, and a surface layer covering the surface of the intermediate layer, wherein the intermediate layer contains a binder resin and a polymer having a specific structure, the surface layer contains silicon oxide, and the surface layer has a thickness of 10 nm or more and 300 nm or less.

Abstract: Provided is an electrophotographic member which hardly undergoes deformation even when subjected to a load over a long period of time under a high-temperature and high-humidity environment and thus can stably form a high-quality electrophotographic image. The electrophotographic member includes: an electroconductive substrate; and an electroconductive resin layer on the substrate, in which the resin layer contains a cation having a specific structure and a specific anion.

Abstract: An air-conditioning control system includes a grouping target apparatus storage unit that stores information about a plurality of air-conditioning apparatuses which are rotation group setting targets; an attribute storage unit that stores an attribute of each of the air-conditioning apparatuses; a group setting rule storage unit that stores a group setting rule for reducing, between the rotation groups, a difference in total power consumption of air-conditioning apparatuses having an identical attribute; a power consumption obtaining unit that obtains information about power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses; a group determination unit that determines rotation groups to which the air-conditioning apparatuses belong in accordance with the power consumption values of the air-conditioning apparatuses and the group setting rule; and a group storage unit that stores grouping information indicating the rotation groups to which the air-conditioning apparatuses belong.

Abstract: A die rolling and identification apparatus having a die container with a die shaker, an opening connector and a die slide and containing a least one die, the opening connector is between the die shaker and the die slide to enable the die to move between the die shaker and the die slide through the opening connector; a motor and a plurality of gears connected to the motor. The plurality of gears turn the die container, the die slide has a slide lower surface and slide upper surface, the slide lower surface and the slide upper surface are substantially parallel such that the die slides in the die slide without rolling, the die shaken in the die shaker are stopped in a prescribed position in the die slide and the die are read by light sensors disposed on a surface of the die slide.

Abstract: Provided is an electrophotographic member that is excellent in charge-imparting performance for a toner, and that hardly causes tackiness on its surface even when placed under a high-temperature and high-humidity environment over a long time period. The electrophotographic member includes a substrate and a surface layer, in which the surface layer satisfies the following requirements (A) and (B): (A) the surface layer contains, in a region from its surface to a depth of up to 0.1 ?m, a copolymer containing a constituent unit represented by the following structural formula (1), and at least one selected from the group consisting of a constituent unit represented by the following structural formula (2) and a constituent unit represented by the following structural formula (3); and (B) the concentration of a nitrogen atom derived from a nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocyclic amine structure in the copolymer is from 6.0 mass % to 30.0 mass %.