Abstract: This invention provides a novel gene that can impart salt stress tolerance to plants for a long period of time and salt stress tolerant transgenic plants to which such gene has been introduced. Such novel gene encodes the following protein (a), (b), or (c), and such salt stress tolerant transgenic plant has such gene introduced therein: (a) a protein consisting of the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2 in the Sequence Listing; (b) a protein consisting of an amino acid sequence derived from the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2 in the Sequence Listing by deletion, substitution, or addition of one or several amino acid residues and having activity of imparting salt stress tolerance to plants; or (c) a protein consisting of an amino acid sequence derived from the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2 in the Sequence Listing by deletion, substitution, or addition of one or several amino acid residues and having UDP-glucose 4-epimerase activity.

Abstract: An optical gas sensing apparatus for sensing gas includes a tubular housing member, a column light source member, a column light sensing element member and an adhesive. The tubular housing member has a light-reflecting inner surface. The column light source member is provided to a first end portion of the housing member, wherein the light source member has a light source, which emits light. The column light sensing element member is provided to a second end portion of the housing member, wherein the light sensing element member has a light sensing element, which senses the light emitted by the light source. The adhesive connects the housing member to at least one of the light source member and the light sensing element member.

Abstract: Interlayer-coordinated communication-line switching in a network including two layers, each having a switching function. In the present invention, a communication apparatus which (1) is connected with a network including (i) lower layer apparatuses which are connected with communication lines of a lower layer and communication lines of an upper layer and conducts line switching in the lower layer and (ii) upper layer apparatuses which are connected with the communication lines of the upper layer and have means for line switching in the upper layer and (2) detects line failure and coordinates line switching using failure information on the lower and upper layer communication lines.

Abstract: This invention provides a network management equipment and a packet switching equipment which eliminate a connection setup delay time, reduce a delay and a delay variation involved in data transfer, and effectively perform connectionless data flow processing in a large data network. The network is divided into a connection-oriented core network and a plurality of connectionless access networks connected to the core network where a plurality of connections (called permanent virtual route (PVR)) are set up among a plurality of edge nodes. The network management equipment selects one route from a plurality of PVRs for connectionless data flow received from one of the access networks and transfers data along the PVR.

Abstract: A packet switch identifies a communication flow carried across an IP network, observes the communication flow, and acquires statistics data thereof, such as the number of packets that passed through the switch, the number of discarded packets, time at which the packets arrived at the switch, and time at which the packets were sent out from the switch. The packet switch continues to acquire the statistics data on the communication flow while the communication flow continues. If the packet switch performs a relay function, it sends the locally obtained statistics data to the adjoining packet switch placed downstream. If the packet switch is a node placed on either end edge of the network, it gathers the statistics data obtained by and delivered from other switches in the network and sends the gathered statistics data to the network management system.

Abstract: A semiconductor sensing device has a semiconductor substrate with a pressure sensing bridge circuit including piezo-resistance elements formed on the substrate. Further, the semiconductor sensing device has a temperature sensing bridge circuit including resistance elements formed on the semiconductor substrate. A pair of the resistance elements is connected with a power supply terminal, and the other pair of the resistance elements is connected with a grounding terminal. The resistance elements in either or both of these pairs are formed of different resistance types from each other and of the same conductivity type.

Abstract: In an IP packet communication apparatus, an operation and maintenance function capable of monitoring a transmission path is provided to a layer used to process a packet, which corresponds to an upper layer of an optical network. As one method for applying the operation and maintenance function to the packet layer, in the case of IP over PPP over WDM, an operation/maintenance frame is defined to a PPP frame so as to realize the operation/maintenance function of a PPP connection. In the case that a plurality of connections are multiplexed on the same transmission path, a maintenance frame is conducted in order to operate/manage these connections by being grouped, so that a fault occurring in the optical network is monitored. As another method for applying the operation and maintenance function to the packet layer, an operation/maintenance frame is defined to an IP packet so as to realize an operation and maintenance function of an IP flow.

Abstract: Interlayer-coordinated communication-line switching in a network including two layers, each having a switching function. In the present invention, a communication apparatus which (1) is connected with a network including (i) lower layer apparatus which are connected with communication lines of a lower layer and communication lines of an upper layer and conducts line switching in the lower layer and (ii) upper layer apparatuses which are connected with the communication lines of the upper layer and have means for line switching in the upper layer and (2) detects line failure and coordinates line switching using failure information on the lower and upper layer communication lines.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a sensor apparatus capable of outputting an accurate sensor signal irrespective of a variation of power supply voltage. In the sensor apparatus, when an A/D conversion circuit produces and outputs digital data, a switch circuit is placed into a first switching condition so that a constant voltage is applied from a constant-voltage circuit to an oscillation circuit, and a stabilized oscillation frequency is outputted from the oscillation circuit to the A/D conversion circuit. Thus, even if a power supply voltage varies, the A/D conversion circuit carries out sampling processing on analog data on the basis of the stabilized oscillation frequency from the oscillation circuit to produce and output the digital data.

Abstract: In an IP packet communication apparatus, an operation and maintenance function capable of monitoring a transmission path is provided to a layer used to process a packet, which corresponds to an upper layer of an optical network. As one method for applying the operation and maintenance function to the packet layer, in the case of IP over PPP over WDM, an operation/maintenance frame is defined to a PPP frame so as to realize the operation/maintenance function of a PPP connection. In the case that a plurality of connections are multiplexed on the same transmission path, a maintenance frame is conducted in order to operate/manage these connections by being grouped, so that a fault occurring in the optical network is monitored. As another method for applying the operation and maintenance function to the packet layer, an operation/maintenance frame is defined to an IP packet so as to realize an operation and maintenance function of an IP flow.

Abstract: In an image-recording device of the present invention, driving force of a motor for driving is transmitted to two idle gears, which are the same shape and are disposed at positions of linear symmetry with respect to a center line C. Driving force is transmitted by way of the idle gears to power-input gears which are fixed coaxially with a supply gear and an ejection gear, respectively. That is, a supply side driving force transmission system, ranging from the motor to the supply gear, and a discharge side driving force transmission system, ranging from the motor to the ejection gear, have the same structure. Therefore, a recording sheet will be stably conveyed at the same conveyance speed throughout an image recording region, and high quality image recording can be carried out reliably. Thus, conveyance amounts can be kept consistent in the image recording region, even without using special apparatus, and high quality images can be recorded at low cost.

Abstract: A packet switch identifies a communication flow carried across an IP network, observes the communication flow, and acquires statistics data thereof, such as the number of packets that passed through the switch, the number of discarded packets, time at which the packets arrived at the switch, and time at which the packets were sent out from the switch. The packet switch continues to acquire the statistics data on the communication flow while the communication flow continues. If the packet switch performs a relay function, it sends the locally obtained statistics data to the adjoining packet switch placed downstream. If the packet switch is a node placed on either end edge of the network, it gathers the statistics data obtained by and delivered from other switches in the network and sends the gathered statistics data to the network management system.

Abstract: An input interface segments a variable length packet into plurality of fixed length cells and generates an internal switching information based on the header information of the variable length packet. The input interface transmits the information to a switch and, after that, transmits the cells as the following cells of the information to the switch. The switch performs switching processing to the succeeding cells based on the information. Therefore, the information is not added to the cells. When an input interface starts to transmit cells generated from a packet to its destination output interface through the switch, the switch is reserved until all the cells arrive at the output interfaces.

Abstract: In an image-recording device of the present invention, driving force of a motor for driving is transmitted to two idle gears, which are the same shape and are disposed at positions of linear symmetry with respect to a center line C. Driving force is transmitted by way of the idle gears to power-input gears which are fixed coaxially with a supply gear and an ejection gear, respectively. That is, a supply side driving force transmission system, ranging from the motor to the supply gear, and a discharge side driving force transmission system, ranging from the motor to the ejection gear, have the same structure. Therefore, a recording sheet will be stably conveyed at the same conveyance speed throughout an image recording region, and high quality image recording can be carried out reliably. Thus, conveyance amounts can be kept consistent in the image recording region, even without using special apparatus, and high quality images can be recorded at low cost.

Abstract: A packet switch identifies a communication flow carried across an IP network, observes the communication flow, and acquires statistics data thereof, such as the number of packets that passed through the switch, the number of discarded packets, time at which the packets arrived at the switch, and time at which the packets were sent out from the switch. The packet switch continues to acquire the statistics data on the communication flow while the communication flow continues. If the packet switch performs a relay function, it sends the locally obtained statistics data to the adjoining packet switch placed downstream. If the packet switch is a node placed on either end edge of the network, it gathers the statistics data obtained by and delivered from other switches in the network and sends the gathered statistics data to the network management system.

Abstract: An input interface segments a variable length packet into plurality of fixed length cells and generates an internal switching information based on the header information of the variable length packet. The input interface transmits the information to a switch and, after that, transmits the cells as the following cells of the information to the switch. The switch performs switching processing to the succeeding cells based on the information. Therefore, the information is not added to the cells. When an input interface starts to transmit cells generated from a packet to its destination output interface through the switch, the switch is reserved until all the cells arrive at the output interfaces.

Abstract: A semiconductor magnetic sensor includes a semiconductor substrate, a source, a drain, a gate, and a carrier condensing means. The source and the drain are located in a surface of the substrate. One of the source and the drain includes adjoining two regions. The gate is located between the source and the drain for drawing minority carriers of the substrate to induce a channel, through which the carriers flow between the source and the drain to form a channel carrier current. The carriers flow into the two regions to form two regional carrier currents. The magnitude of a magnetic field where the sensor is placed is measured using the difference in quantity between the two regional carrier currents. The carrier condensing means locally increases carrier density in the channel carrier current in the proximity of an axis that passes between the two regions in order to increase the difference.

Abstract: A packet switch comprising a plurality of line interfaces each connected to a pair of input and output ATM lines, and a routing unit for transferring packets received from each of said line interfaces to one of the other line interfaces specified by the header information of the packets, wherein each of the line interfaces is configured to convert a group of ATM cells received from the input ATM line selectively into either a first type of packet in which ATM cell headers are excluded or a second type of packet in which ATM cell headers are remained, whereby management cells received from the input ATM line are relayed to said one of the other line interface by inserting said management cell into said second type of packet together with user cells on the same connection.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a sensor apparatus capable of outputting an accurate sensor signal irrespective of a variation of power supply voltage. In the sensor apparatus, when an A/D conversion circuit produces and outputs digital data, a switch circuit is placed into a first switching condition so that a constant voltage is applied from a constant-voltage circuit to an oscillation circuit, and a stabilized oscillation frequency is outputted from the oscillation circuit to the A/D conversion circuit. Thus, even if a power supply voltage varies, the A/D conversion circuit carries out sampling processing on analog data on the basis of the stabilized oscillation frequency from the oscillation circuit to produce and output the digital data.

Abstract: A magnetic sensor apparatus has a ring circuit constructed with an odd number of semiconductor magnetic sensors connected in a ring shape. The drain regions of each magnetic sensor are separated from each other, so that currents flowing into the drain regions vary corresponding to the magnitude of the applied magnetic field. The semiconductor magnetic sensors function as inverters and inverting operations thereof cause time delay variable with the magnetic field strength. Digital data indicating a propagation condition of a pulse signal within the ring circuit correspond to the magnetic field.