Abstract: A semiconductor device includes a first insulated gate field effect transistor, a second insulated gate field effect transistor, a bipolar transistor, a first element isolation structure formed on a main surface above a pn junction formed between an emitter region and a base region, a second element isolation structure formed on the main surface above a pn junction formed between the base region and a collector region, and a third element isolation structure formed on the main surface opposite to the second element isolation structure relative to the collector region, in which the semiconductor device further includes a bipolar dummy electrode formed on at least one of the first element isolation structure, the second element isolation structure and the third element isolation structure and having a floating potential.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus for performing dialogue processing. The apparatus acquires text data described in a natural language and stores a plurality of examples each including an example statement and frame information described using a frame format and corresponding to the example statement. A similarity between the text data and the example statement is calculated. An example is selected corresponding to an example statement whose similarity to the text data is the highest from among the plurality of examples in accordance with the calculated similarity. Text data is converted into the frame format in accordance with the frame information corresponding to the example selected by the example selection. Dialogue processing is performed in accordance with the text data converted into the frame format.

Abstract: An optical signal division transmission system in which an input optical signal is divided into N parts (termed as “N-part optical signals”) and transmitted at a transmission rate of 1/N, wherein an additional optical wave path is provided separately from an optical wave paths for transmitting said N-part optical signals, and even if a malfunction occurs in any one of said optical wave paths for transmitting said N-part optical signals, transmission of said N-part optical signals is continued, using said additional optical wave path.

Abstract: Provided is a injection equipment capable of alleviating the force required of a user to inject a medical liquid. A housing chamber S1 for extrusion and a housing chamber S2 for injection are mutually connected so that, when one of the chambers S1, S2 expands, the other one of the chambers contracts. As a result of switching a switching valve 9 to an open position in a state where at least a predetermined amount of the medical liquid is filled in the housing chamber S2, the housing chamber S2 for injection is contracted based on the expansion of the housing chamber S1 for extrusion according to the discharge pressure of the medical liquid pump 2 so as to deliver a predetermined amount of medical liquid.

Abstract: A speech analysis apparatus analyzing prosodic characteristics of speech information and outputting a prosodic discrimination result includes an input unit inputting speech information, an acoustic analysis unit calculating relative pitch variation and a discrimination unit performing speech discrimination processing, in which the acoustic analysis unit calculates a current template relative pitch difference, determining whether a difference absolute value between the current template relative pitch difference and a previous template relative pitch difference is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold or not, when the value is not less than the threshold, calculating an adjacent relative pitch difference, and when the adjacent relative pitch difference is equal to or less than a previously set margin value, executing correction processing of adding or subtracting an octave of the current template relative pitch difference to calculate the relative pitch variation by applying the relative pitch differe

Abstract: Disclosed are a compound represented by the general formula (I) below and a polymer compound obtained by polymerizing such a compound. R1-Gly-Lac-Pro-R2 ??(I): where -Gly-Lac-Pro- represents a structure represented by the following formula (II), R1 represents a hydrogen atom, or an amino acid, a polypeptide or a hydroxycarboxylic acid which are linked through an amide bond, R2 represents a hydroxyl group, or an amino acid or a polypeptide which are linked through an amide bond, or a hydroxycarboxylic acid which is linked through an ester bond.

Abstract: An audio signal separation apparatus for separating observation signals in the time domain of a mixture of a plurality of signals including audio signals into individual signals by means of independent component analysis to produce isolated signals adapted to produce isolated signals in the time-frequency domain from the observation signals in the time-frequency domain and a separation matrix substituted by initial values, compute the modified value of the separation matrix by using a score function using the isolated signals in the time-frequency domain and a multidimensional probability density function and the separation matrix, modify the separation matrix until the separation matrix substantially converges by using the modified value and produce isolated signals in the time-frequency domain by using the substantially converging separation matrix.

Abstract: To provide a more reliable semiconductor device including a lower-cost and more reliable capacitor and a method of manufacturing the same. This manufacturing method comprises the steps of: preparing a semiconductor substrate; and forming, over one of the major surfaces of the semiconductor substrate, a first metal electrode including an aluminum layer, a dielectric layer over the first metal electrode, and a second metal electrode over the dielectric layer. In the step of forming the first metal electrode, the aluminum layer is formed so that the surface thereof satisfies a relationship of Rmax<80 nm, Rms<10 nm, and Ra<9 nm. The step of forming the first metal electrode comprises the steps of: forming at least one first barrier layer; forming the aluminum layer over the first barrier layer; and recrystallizing a crystal constituting the aluminum layer.

Abstract: An information processing apparatus includes a plurality of information input units that inputs observation information of a real space, an event detection unit that generates event information including estimated position information and estimated identification (ID) information of a user present in the real space based on analysis of the information input from the information input unit, and an information integration processing unit that inputs the event information, and generates target information including a position and user ID information of each user based on the input event information and signal information representing a probability value for an event generating source. Here, the information integration processing unit includes an utterance source probability calculation unit having an identifier, and calculates an utterance source probability based on input information using the identifier in the utterance source probability calculation unit.

Abstract: A search apparatus includes a sound recognition unit which recognizes input sound, a user information estimation unit which estimates at least one of a physical condition and emotional demeanor of a speaker of the input sound based on the input sound and outputs user information representing the estimation result, a matching unit which performs matching between a search result target pronunciation symbol string and a recognition result pronunciation symbol string for each of plural search result target word strings, and a generation unit which generates a search result word string as a search result for a word string corresponding to the input sound from the plural search result target word strings based on the matching result. At least one of the matching unit and the generation unit changes processing in accordance with the user information.

Abstract: Provided is an information processing apparatus including: a voice analysis unit which performs an analysis process for a user speech; and a data processing unit which is input with analysis results of the voice analysis unit to determine a process which is to be performed by the information processing apparatus, wherein in the case where a factor of inhibiting process continuation occurs in a process based on the user speech, the data processing unit performs a process of generating and outputting feedback information corresponding to a process stage in which the factor of inhibiting occurs.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a voice processing apparatus for recognizing an input voice on the basis of a prosody characteristic of said voice, said voice processing apparatus including: voice acquisition means for acquiring said input voice; acoustic analysis means for finding a relative pitch change on the basis of a frequency-direction difference between a first frequency characteristic seen at each frame time of said input voice acquired by said voice acquisition means and a second frequency characteristic determined in advance; and prosody recognition means for carrying out a prosody recognition process on the basis of said relative pitch change found by said acoustic analysis means in order to produce a result of said prosody recognition process.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an information processing apparatus configured to generate metadata corresponding to content including, a data output, a data input section, a control section, an interaction execution section, an interaction metadata generation section, and a content control section.

Abstract: A prosody identifying apparatus for identifying input speech on the basis of prosodic features of the input speech is provided. The prosody identifying apparatus includes a sound analyzing section for acquiring an amount of change in movement of a feature distribution obtained from an autocorrelation matrix of the frequency characteristic of the input speech and an identifying section for recognizing the input speech on the basis of an output of the sound analyzing section.

Abstract: An object is to provide a medical liquid infusion apparatus suitable for a portable use and capable of suppressing an abrupt change in flow rate even when the environmental temperature rises. A medical liquid infusion apparatus 1 is provided with a driving portion 2 and configured to infuse a medical liquid inside a medical liquid container 3 to a patient by applying a pressure to the medical liquid container 3 using a driving force of the driving portion. The driving portion 2 includes a compressed gas cylinder 4 filled with a compressed gas, and it is configured in such a manner that the driving force is generated by the pressure inside the compressed gas cylinder 4.

Abstract: A needle-shaped ceramic body having as its base material a cordierite porous body having a high specific surface area and superior thermal shock resistance, and a needle-shaped catalyst-ceramic body are provided. The present invention relates to a needle-shaped ceramic body having as its base material a needle-shaped cordierite in which the tips thereof are rounded, a needle-shaped catalyst-ceramic body loaded with a catalyst, and a method of production of a ceramic body in which a portion of a raw material (fluoride) gasified by a reaction between raw materials is grown into a needle like shape on the metal catalyst (Fe), wherein the tips of needle-shaped particles are rounded, using a vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) reaction, in a raw material burning process.

Abstract: Problems of permutation can be solved with high accuracy without utilizing knowledge about original signals or information concerning positions of microphones and the like when each one of plural signals mixed in an audio signal is separated using independent component analysis. A short-time Fourier transformation section generates spectrograms of observation signals from observation signals in time domain. A signal separation section separates the spectrograms of the observation signals into spectrograms of respective signals, to generate spectrograms of separate signals. A permutation problem solution section calculates a scale corresponding to the degree of permutation, e.g., a Kullback-Leiblar information amount calculated by use of a multidimensional probability density function or multidimensional kurtosis, from substantial whole of the spectrograms of the separate signals.

Abstract: Conventional robot apparatus etc. can not perform name-learning naturally. Learning the name of an object is performed such a manner that the name of a target object is obtained through dialog with a human being, the name is stored in association with plural items of different characteristic data detected for the target object, and a new object is recognized based on the stored data and associative information, the name and characteristic data of the new person are obtained and this associative information is stored.

Abstract: The peptide production method of the present invention produces a peptide (SEQ ID NO: 1) of a protein from Plasmodium falciparum, which is effective as a malaria vaccine. The method produces the peptide of SEQ ID NO: 1 by linking the fragments (i) through (v) shown below: (v) Asn-Asn-Asp-Xaa (SEQ ID NO: 2); (iv) Asp-Phe-Lys-Thr-Pro (SEQ ID NO: 3); (iii) Asn-Lys-Thr-Tyr-Asp-Leu (SEQ ID NO: 4); (ii) Phe-Tyr-Asn-Ser-Glu (SEQ ID NO: 5); and (i) Xaa-Ala-Ser-Glu (SEQ ID NO: 6), where ‘Xaa’ in (i) and (v) represents zero or any arbitrary number of amino acid residues.

Abstract: Disclosed are a compound represented by the general formula (I) below and a polymer compound obtained by polymerizing such a compound. R1-Gly-Lac-Pro-R2 (I) (In the formula, -Gly-Lac-Pro- represents a glycine residue represented by the formula (II) below, a lactic acid residue and a tridepsipeptide linked with a proline residue; R1 represents an amino acid, polypeptide or hydroxycarboxylic acid linked by an amide bond; and R2 represents an amino acid or polypeptide linked by an amide bond, or a hydroxycarboxylic acid linked by an ester bond.