1. A method for coupling an elastomer and a filler comprising employing at least one silane coupling agent wherein said silane comprises at least one hydrolysable group that, upon compounding said silane with said elastomer and filler, is released to yield a compound that improves downstream processability of the compounded composition or the properties of the final rubber product or both, wherein said silane coupling agent is selected from the group consisting of silanes whose individual structures are represented by at least one of the following general formulae:
J-S-G1-(SiX2X3)\u2014Y2\u2014(X2Si-G1-S-J)m\u2014X1;\u2003\u2003Formula 1:
X1X2X3Si-G2-Sx-G3-Si(X2X3)\u2014Y2\u2014(X2Si)-G2-Sx-G3-(SiX1X2X3)m\u2014X1;\u2003\u2003Formula 2:
X1X2X3Si-G2-Sx-G3-Si(X2X3)\u2014Y2\u2014(X2X3Si)-G2-Sx-G3-(SiX2X3)n\u2014X1; and\u2003\u2003Formula 3:
(\u2014Y2\u2014)y2(X23-hSi)-G-S-Jm(\u2014Y2\u2014)j2(X23-jSi)-G-Sx-G3-(SiX23-k)(\u2014Y2\u2014)k2n\u2003\u2003Formula 4:
wherein, in formulae 1 through 4:
each occurrence of the subscript, h, is independently an integer from 1 to 3;
each separate occurrence of the subscripts, j and k, is independently an integer from 0 to 3, with the proviso that j+k>0;
each occurrence of the subscript, m, is independently an integer from 1 to 1000;
each occurrence of the subscript, n, is independently an integer from 1 to 1000;
each occurrence of the subscript, x, is independently an integer from 2 to 20;
each occurrence of X1 is independently selected from the group of hydrolysable moieties consisting of \u2014Y1, \u2014OH, \u2014OR1, and R1C(\u2550O)O\u2014, wherein each occurrence of R1 is independently any hydrocarbon fragment obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom from a hydrocarbon having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, and R1 includes aryl groups and any branched or straight chain alkyl, alkenyl, arenyl, or aralkyl groups;
each occurrence of X2 and X3 is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, R1, and X1;
each occurrence of G1, G2, and G3 is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbon fragments obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom of any of the groups listed above for R1;
each occurrence of J is independently selected from the group consisting of R1C(\u2550O)\u2014, R1C(\u2550S)\u2014, R12P(\u2550O)\u2014, R12P(\u2550S)\u2014, R1S(\u2550O)\u2014, and R1S(\u2550O)2\u2014, wherein each separate occurrence of R1 is as defined above;
each occurrence of Y1 is independently \u2014O-G-(O-G-)pOR or \u2014O-G-(O-G-)pOH and each occurrence of Y2 is independently \u2014O-G-(O-G-)qO\u2014,
each occurrence of the subscript, p, is independently an integer from 1 to 100;
each occurrence of the subscript, q, is independently an integer from 1 to 100;
each occurrence of G is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbon fragments obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom of any of the groups listed above for R1; and
each occurrence of R is independently selected from the group consisting of the members listed above for R1.
2. A method for preparing a silane coupling agent for coupling an elastomer and a filler wherein said silane comprises at least one hydrolysable group that, upon compounding said silane with said elastomer and filler, is released to yield a compound that improves downstream processability of the compounded composition or the properties of the final rubber product or both, wherein said method comprises transesterifying JSG1-(SiX1X2X3) or X1X2X3Si-G2-Sx-G3-SiX1X2X3 or mixtures thereof with an etheralcohol of the general formula (8) given below
HO-G-(O-G-)qOH,\u2003\u2003Formula 8:
wherein each occurrence of G is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbon fragments obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom from any of the groups including aryl groups and any branched or straight chain alkyl, alkenyl, arenyl, or aralkyl groups, and
each occurrence of the subscript, q, is independently an integer from 1 to 100: and, wherein:
each occurrence of the subscript, x, is independently an integer from 2 to 20;
each occurrence of X1 is independently selected from the group of hydrolysable moieties consisting of \u2014Y1, \u2014OH, \u2014OR1, and R1C(\u2550O)O\u2014, wherein each occurrence of R1 is independently any hydrocarbon fragment obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom from a hydrocarbon having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, R1 includes aryl groups and any branched or straight chain alkyl, alkenyl, arenyl, or aralkyl groups, and each occurrence of \u2014Y1 is independently \u2014O-G-(O-G-)pOR or \u2014O-G-(O-G-)pOH, where each occurrence of R is independently selected from the group consisting of the members listed above for R1, and each occurrence of the subscript, p, is independently an integer from 1 to 100;
each occurrence of X2 and X3 is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, R1, and X1;
each occurrence of G1, G2, and G3 is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrocarbon fragments obtained by removal of one hydrogen atom of any of the groups listed above for R1;
each occurrence of J is independently selected from the group consisting of R1C(\u2550O)\u2014, R1C(\u2550S)\u2014, R12P(\u2550O)\u2014, R12P(\u2550S)\u2014, R1S(\u2550O)\u2014, and R1S(\u2550O)2\u2014, wherein each separate occurrence of R1 is as defined above.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the etheralcohol is diethylene glycol.
4. The method of claim 2 further comprising carrying out the transesterification reaction in the presence of a catalyst.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein the catalyst is para-toluenesulfonic acid.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. Method for merging semantic beliefs comprising:
receiving information related to a single phenomenon and originating from different sources;
storing the received information in a knowledge database, in the form of instances of a given ontology,
depending on the initial information sources or depending on the processing of the information, associating degrees of belief with instances describing the phenomenon, thus defining candidate instances for the description of the phenomenon,
wherein,
semantic inclusions between all candidate instances of a single phenomenon are determined,
semantic similarities between all candidate instances of a single phenomenon are calculated,
a threshold on the semantic similarities is calculated beyond which it is considered that the semantic similarities represent semantic intersections,
depending on the semantic inclusions and intersections, all candidate instances of the phenomenon are transposed into a discernment framework of the evidence theory,
the degrees of belief are reassigned in the discernment framework such that the degree of belief assigned to a candidate instance is equal to the degree of belief of the union of its elements transposed in the discernment framework,
if several information sources have assigned degrees of belief, the sources are combined at the level of the discernment framework, and,
decision-making criteria of the evidence theory are applied in order to determine which group of elements in the discernment framework correspond to the best hypothesis, among the groups of elements transposed from a candidate instance,
the initial candidate instances are returned with their associated combined degree of belief and decision-making aid indicating the best candidate instance.
2. System capable of implementing the method for merging semantic beliefs according to claim 1.