Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes, a main body of the image forming apparatus configured to form an image on a sheet, and provided with a stacking portion on which a sheet with an image formed thereon is stacked, a sheet conveyance device detachably attached to the stacking portion. of the main body of the image forming apparatus, and provided with a conveyance path for conveying a sheet, a guide portion disposed in the sheet conveyance device, and configured to guide the conveyed sheet, a vertically extending wall portion disposed in the main body of the image forming apparatus, facing the stacking portion, and a restriction portion protruded from the wall portion, and configured to restrict a movement of the guide portion in a direction for opening the conveyance path.

Abstract: Stator coils each consist of a plurality of rectangular conductor coil pieces, the adjacent connection ends of which are connected to each other on the outer diameter side of a stator. The coil pieces each have: a folded portion folded in a rotation axis direction on the inner diameter side of the stator; inner diameter-side open leg portions opened from both sides of the folded portion toward the circumferential directions of the rotation axis; linear portions each bent from each of the inner diameter-side open leg portions and disposed so as to pass through the stator from the inner diameter side to the outer diameter side; and an outer diameter-side open leg portions opened from the linear portions toward the circumferential directions of the rotation axis and extending to the connection ends.

Abstract: A developing device includes a shutter moving portion and a receiving-port shutter that are combined together, with a recessed portion and a projecting portion thereof being in engagement with each other, so that a developer receiving port is opened or shut. A gap is provided between the recessed portion and the projecting portion, and the shutter moving portion is swingable with respect to the receiving-port shutter. Even if the shutter moving portion vibrates by following the displacement of a toner conveying portion, the vibration is not transmitted to the receiving-port shutter because the shutter moving portion absorbs the vibration, preventing the receiving-port shutter from flapping. Thus, the leakage of developer that may occur particularly in a case of package shipment of the developing device and an image forming apparatus is suppressed.

Abstract: A cell monitoring device includes an outline detecting section that detects edge pixels from a cell image in a captured image of cells arranged in a single layer and generates an edge image including the detected edge pixels; a pigmented region detecting section that detects pixels of a pigmented region of the cell image in the captured image, and generates a pigmented region image including the detected pixels of the pigmented region; and an image merging section that, in a merged image obtained by overlaying the edge image and the pigmented region image together, detects a cell image region and a background image region in the captured image based on the pixel intensity variance and thus detects the cell image region in the captured image.

Abstract: To measure a surface state, reflective CARS is suitable in terms of the signal intensity. However, with the reflective CARS, it has been difficult to identify the surface position because the shape information is not acquired. Thus, a reflective CARS microscope is combined with a high-resolution phase sensor. The surface position is identified with the phase sensor, and reflected CARS generated from the surface is detected, so that composition analysis is performed.

Abstract: A developing device includes a rotatable developer carrying member configured to carry a developer, and a regulating unit, formed of a resin material, configured to regulate an amount of the developer carried on the developer carrying member. The regulating unit includes a regulating portion configured to regulate the amount of the developer carried on the developer carrying member and a guiding portion, connected with an upstream end of the regulating portion with respect to a rotational direction of the developer carrying member, configured to guide the developer toward the regulating portion.

Abstract: A sputtering target contains high purity Nb of which Ta content is 3000 ppm or less and oxygen content is 200 ppm or less. Dispersion of the Ta content in all the sputtering target is within ±30% as a whole target. Dispersion of the oxygen content is within ±80% as a whole target. According to such sputtering target, an interconnection film of low resistivity can be realized. In addition, each grain of Nb in the sputtering target has a grain diameter in the range of 0.1 to 10 times an average grain diameter and ratios of grain sizes of adjacent grains are in the range of 0.1 to 10. According to such sputtering target, giant dust can be largely suppressed from occurring. The sputtering target is suitable for forming a Nb film as liner material of an Al interconnection.

Abstract: In a control system and a control method, an electronic control unit is configured to crank an engine by setting a clutch to a half engaged state in a state where operation of the engine is stopped during traveling. The half engaged state is a state where the clutch is engaged with a slip. The electronic control unit is configured to, after a rotation speed of the engine has reached an ignition permission rotation speed or higher, increase a transmitted torque capacity of the clutch to a transmitted torque capacity that satisfies the following conditions i) and ii): i) the transmitted torque capacity is larger than a transmitted torque capacity before the rotation speed of the engine has reached the ignition permission rotation speed; and ii) the transmitted torque capacity allows the clutch to be kept in the half engaged state.

Abstract: A motion picture is captured while a focal position is changed in a predetermined reproduction layer of a recording medium, the resolutions of a plurality of still images acquired by the capturing of the motion picture are checked using check patterns, which are recorded at a predetermined frequency, of the medium, it is determined whether the still images are usable for the reproduction of data, and a plurality of the still images determined to be usable are composed.

Abstract: A developing device includes a developer sleeve, a regulating portion including an edge portion at a closest position to a surface of the sleeve or a flat portion tilted, at the closest position, by an angle of 2 degrees or less relative to a contact flat plane contacting the surface of the sleeve, and a rectifying portion connected with the edge or flat portion. The rectifying portion has a concavely curved surface such that a rate of a decrease in a gap between the rectifying portion and the contact flat plane increases toward a downstream side of the developer feeding direction and is formed by smoothly connecting rectilinear or curved lines each of 0.2 mm or less except for the edge portion so that the gap between the rectifying portion and the contact flat plane monotonically decreases toward the downstream side of the developer feeding direction.

Abstract: A layer thickness regulating member regulates an amount of developer carried on a surface of a developer carrying member and includes a base portion and a layer thickness regulating portion. The base portion includes an upstream base portion and a downstream base portion. A reinforcing rib portion projects from a rear side of the base portion and includes a first reinforcing rib and a second reinforcing rib disposed in a direction crossing the first reinforcing rib. The base portion, the layer thickness regulating portion, and the reinforcing rib portion are integrally molded. The layer thickness regulating portion and the first reinforcing rib are provided at positions spaced from each other with respect to a tangential direction of the developer carrying member.

Abstract: When data is recorded on an optical disc, and stored for a long period of time, there is a need to periodically evaluate whether a quality of the recorded data is determined with time, or not. If the signal quality is lower than a given level as an evaluation result, a work for moving the data to a brand-new optical disc is required. However, in periodical inspection, if the number of optical discs is enormous, a large amount of time is required to evaluate all data recorded on the optical disc. In recording user data on the optical disc, a signal of a particular pattern having a lifetime shorter than a reference lifetime of the user data is recorded in a given area of the optical disc in advance, the particular pattern signal is reading at given time intervals, and processing on the user data is determined on the basis of the evaluation result of the signal quality.

Abstract: A developing device includes a developer carrying member, a developing container, a pair of first seal members provided at end portions of the developer carrying member along a circumferential direction of the developer carrying member so as to contact the developer carrying member, and a pair of second seal members configured to seal the end portions of the developer carrying member. The second seal members are provided at overlapping positions with the first seal members with respect to a circumferential surface of the developer carrying member and an axial direction of the developer carrying member. The second seal members are mountable in a direction crossing the axial direction of the developer carrying member and into a main assembly of an image forming apparatus in a state in which the developer carrying member is mounted in the image forming apparatus.

Abstract: A method for performing recording on a multilayered optical disk which has three or more recordable or rewritable information recording layers with a first recording layer and a second recording layer located nearer to a light incident surface than the first recording layer, and which respectively has a first test area configured by a plurality of segments in the first recording layer and in the second recording layer, wherein a predetermined radial distance L is defined beforehand. When an arbitrary segment in the second test area is test-recorded, a segment in the first test area, the radial distance of which from the recorded test area in the second test area is within the range of the predetermined radial distance L, is set as a segment in which test recording is not performed.

Abstract: A developing device includes a developer carrying member and a layer thickness regulating member. The layer thickness regulating member includes an opposing portion, a regulating portion, side wall portions, and a plurality of rib portions each extending from the side wall portion in one end side to the side wall portion in the other end side with respect to the rotational axis direction of the developer carrying member. A space is formed by being defined by the side wall portions and the rib portions. No substantial rib portion dividing the space with respect to a longitudinal direction of said layer thickness regulating member is provided.

Abstract: A cell monitoring device includes an outline detecting section that detects edge pixels from a cell image in a captured image of cells arranged in a single layer and generates an edge image including the detected edge pixels; a pigmented region detecting section that detects pixels of a pigmented region of the cell image in the captured image, and generates a pigmented region image including the detected pixels of the pigmented region; and an image merging section that, in a merged image obtained by overlaying the edge image and the pigmented region image together, detects a cell image region and a background image region in the captured image based on the pixel intensity variance and thus detects the cell image region in the captured image.

Abstract: When a simple magnification optical system is used in reproduction of a recording medium in which a large number of minute modified regions are three-dimensionally formed inside solid matter, contrast is insufficient and interlayer crosstalk is increased, and therefore, it is impossible to take a sufficient S/N ratio. Provided is a recording medium in which at least one layer is configured by a set of two adjacent sub-layers, and dots on a sub-layer correspond to a recording data ‘1’ and dots on the other sub-layer correspond to ‘0’. These data are played back.

Abstract: When recording is performed by focusing a short pulse laser on an inside of a transparent medium such as quartz glass, and forming a minute deformed region in which the refractive index is different from that of surroundings thereof, it is difficult to ensure a recording quality. Therefore, a recorded dot length in a depth direction is monitored and a power of the laser light is adjusted based on the monitored recorded dot length, or a difference between a focus position where a region of the recorded dots appears brighter than the surroundings and a focus position where the region of the recorded dots appears darker than the surroundings is measured and the power of the laser light is adjusted based on the difference.

Abstract: A developing device includes a shutter moving portion and a receiving-port shutter that are combined together, with a recessed portion and a projecting portion thereof being in engagement with each other, so that a developer receiving port is opened or shut. A gap is provided between the recessed portion and the projecting portion, and the shutter moving portion is swingable with respect to the receiving-port shutter. Even if the shutter moving portion vibrates by following the displacement of a toner conveying portion, the vibration is not transmitted to the receiving-port shutter because the shutter moving portion absorbs the vibration, preventing the receiving-port shutter from flapping. Thus, the leakage of developer that may occur particularly in a case of package shipment of the developing device and an image forming apparatus is suppressed.

Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide an early mastitis detection method that can detect mastitis easily and quickly when compared to the prior methods and also a biomarker to be used with the method. The object can be solved by a method of examining a mammary gland disease by using the level of cyclophilin A in a mammary gland or in milk as indicator. More specifically, the object can be a method of examining a mammary gland disease comprising steps (1) and (2) listed below; (1) a step of detecting cyclophilin A in the milk collected from an udder or an udder quarter of a subject and thereby determining the cyclophilin A level in the milk; and (2) a step of determining the onset of a mammary gland disease or the possibility of onset of a mammary gland disease in the udder or the udder quarter of the subject on the basis of the cyclophilin A level in the milk.