Abstract: A trouble diagnosis apparatus which supports reproduction of trouble according to a trouble code provided from an electronic control unit of the vehicle. The apparatus comprises means for extracting, for at least one of the trouble codes, characteristics unique to the trouble code with respect to respective driving parameters, means for extracting, from said driving data associated with a plurality of trouble codes, global characteristics associated with a plurality of said trouble codes with respect to each one of said driving parameters, and for said at least one of the trouble codes, means, based on similarity between the characteristics unique to the trouble code and said global characteristics, for setting the portion of the characteristics unique to the trouble code that have low similarity as the driving data for reproducing the trouble corresponding to the trouble code.

Abstract: Data during normal driving is generated using travel data during the occurrence of a failure or the like, the travel data being accumulated into ordinary vehicles traveling in a city or other places on a daily basis. A failure diagnosis of a vehicle is performed by comparing a reference value with the time sequence electronic control unit (ECU) data of a plurality of driving parameters during the occurrence of a failure, the data being stored into a storage device in the ECU of the vehicle when a failure of the vehicle has occurred. The time sequence ECU data obtained from a large number of vehicles are sequentially accumulated and stored and the numerical vectors of the accumulated time sequence ECU data are generated. The numerical vectors are clustered and classified into a plurality of clusters according to the characteristics. In each of the plurality of clusters, a range of high occurrence rate values is obtained for the values of the respective driving parameters.

Abstract: An electrochemical reduction device is provided with an electrolyte membrane, an electrode unit, a power control unit, hydrogen gas generation amount measuring unit, and a control unit. The electrolyte membrane has ion conductivity. The electrode unit includes both a reduction electrode that is provided on one side of the electrolyte membrane and contains a reduction catalyst for hydrogenating at least one benzene ring of an aromatic hydrocarbon compound or a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic aromatic compound, and an oxygen evolving electrode. The control unit releases, when the hydrogen gas generation amount F1 is larger than an acceptable upper limit F0 of a hydrogen gas generation amount in the electrode unit, the application of a voltage by the power control unit.

Abstract: An electrochemical reduction device comprises an electrode unit including an electrolyte membrane, a reduction electrode, and an oxygen evolving electrode; a power control unit that applies a voltage Va between the reduction electrode and the oxygen evolving electrode; a hydrogen gas generation rate measurement unit that measures a hydrogen gas generation rate F1; and a control unit that controls the power control unit so as to gradually increase the Va within a range that satisfies a relationship of F1?F0 and VCA>VHER?acceptable potential difference (APD), when the potential at a reversible hydrogen electrode is VHER, the potential of the reduction electrode is VCA, the acceptable upper limit of the hydrogen gas generation rate is F0, and the APD is a potential difference that defines an upper limit of a potential difference between VCA and VHER.

Abstract: A fuel cell module of an aspect of the present invention includes: a fuel cell; a dehydrogenation reaction part that performs a dehydrogenation reaction of a hydride of an aromatic compound; a hydrogen separator that separates the hydrogen produced in the dehydrogenation reaction part from a dehydrogenated product of the hydride; a hydrogen supplier that supplies the hydrogen separated in the hydrogen separator to the fuel cell; and a single housing that houses the fuel cell, the dehydrogenation reaction part, the hydrogen separator, and the hydrogen supplier. The dehydrogenation reaction part is heated by at least one of the heat generated in the fuel cell and that generated by combustion of offgas from the fuel cell.

Abstract: There are provided a hydrogen production apparatus and a hydrogen producing method that can easily bring the temperature of a gas to be supplied to a preferential oxidation catalyst bed to a proper range without the necessity of flow rate control of a cooling medium, and a fuel cell system which is relatively inexpensive and can easily realize stable operation.

Abstract: An electrochemical reduction device is provided with an electrode unit, a power control unit, an organic material storage tank, a water storage tank, a gas-liquid separator, and a control unit. The electrode unit has an electrolyte membrane, a reduction electrode, and an oxygen evolving electrode. The electrolyte membrane is formed of an ionomer. A reduction catalyst used for the reduction electrode contains at least one of Pt and Pd. The oxygen evolving electrode contains catalysts of noble metal oxides such as RuO2, IrO2, and the like. The control unit controls the power control unit such that a relationship, VHER?20 mV?VCA?VTRR, can be satisfied when the potential at a reversible hydrogen electrode, the standard redox potential of an aromatic hydrocarbon compound or an N-containing heterocyclic aromatic compound, and the potential of the reduction electrode are expressed as VHER, VTRR, and VCA, respectively.

Abstract: In order to enable noises entering the ear from random directions to be muted without wearing headphones, this muting device is provided with: a super-directional microphone that detects noises in spot areas around the ear at pinpoints; and an ultrasonic speaker that modulates and outputs a carrier signal supplied by a transmitter according to noise signals detected by the super-directional microphone. Furthermore, an adaptive filter is provided, and the adaptive filter supplies noise signals with the opposite phase to noises detected by the super-direction microphone, and transmits an ultrasonic signal from the ultrasonic speaker toward the eardrum of a human.

Abstract: A cabinet to which a speaker unit is attached is configured to have an enclosed space where sound waves outputted from the rear surface of the speaker unit are transmitted, a sound guide space separated from the enclosed space, and an outlet for the sound waves transmitted in the sound guide space. A diaphragm is positioned between the enclosed space and the sound guide space of the cabinet, and an actuator is attached to the diaphragm. An audio signal shared with the speaker unit is supplied to the actuator, and diaphragm vibrations are enhanced by the actuator.

Abstract: This biological information processing device is provided with: a peak detection unit for detecting the peaks of a biological signal generated in a cardiac cycle; a waveform clipping unit for clipping out a first peak-to-peak biological signal between two peaks, which are adjacent on the time axis of the biological signal, on the basis of detection results of the peak detection unit; and a resampling unit for transforming the first peak-to-peak biological signal to a second peak-to-peak biological signal for a prescribed number of samples. The biological information processing device is further provided with: an orthogonal transformation unit for generating orthogonal transformation coefficients by performing an orthogonal transformation on the second peak-to-peak biological signal; a differential processing unit for generating a differential signal for the orthogonal transformation coefficients on the time axis; and an encoding unit for encoding the differential signal.

Abstract: In an active muffler having improved response characteristics, a speaker section includes a diaphragm adapted to generate sound, a voice coil for driving the diaphragm, and a distance sensor to detect the movement of the diaphragm. A light generated by the LED is reflected by the diaphragm, the reflected light is detected by a phototransistor to thereby measure the distance to the diaphragm, so that the movement of the diaphragm is detected. Noise is detected by a microphone, and a signal having opposite phase to that of the noise is generated by an opposite-phase generating section. The difference between the opposite-phase signal and the signal of the distance to the speaker from the distance sensor is calculated and inputted to a PID control section. Such a difference indicates the delay of the speaker movement. Feedback control is performed in a direction in which the difference is canceled out.

Abstract: An electrochemical reduction device includes: an electrolyte membrane; a reduction electrode having a catalyst metal and a porous conductive compound; and an oxygen generating electrode. The catalytic metal includes at least one of Pt and Pd. The conductive compound includes an oxide, nitride, carbide, oxynitride, carbonitride, or partial oxide of a carbonitride of: one or more metals selected from the group consisting of Ti, Zr, Nb, Mo, Hf, Ta, and W.

Abstract: An electrolysis cell has an electrolyte membrane, a reduction electrode, and an oxygen evolving electrode. The electrolyte membrane is formed of a material having protonic conductivity (ionomer). A reduction catalyst used for the reduction electrode is composed of a composition containing a first catalyst metal (noble metal) that contains at least one of Pt and Pd and containing one or more kinds of second catalyst metals selected from among Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Mo, Ru, Sn, W, Re, Pb, and Bi. The oxygen evolving electrode contains catalysts of noble metal oxides such as RuO2, IrO2, and the like.

Abstract: In the SOFC system, the fuel gas flow rate at the time of the start of start-up is set to the maximum fuel gas flow rate that is less than or equal to 1.3 times the maximum fuel gas flow rate FgMAX at the time of the rated power generation, the fuel gas flow rate F2 until the temperature T of the fuel cell stack reaches T1, at which the reduction of the oxidized Ni in the fuel cell stack is performed, is set to be less than or equal to F1, and thereafter, until the start of the power generation, fuel gas flow rate F3 is further reduced from F2, and the average fuel gas flow rate FAVE is set to be equal to or greater than 0.6 times the average fuel gas flow rate FgAVE at the time of the rated power generation.

Abstract: An object of the invention is to improve durability of a SOFC system and secure favorable power generation performance during the actual useful service period of the system. In the SOFC system, a fuel gas flow rate to a fuel cell stack is set at F1 at the time of start-up. At a time point when a temperature T of the fuel cell stack reaches a first temperature T1 or higher after the temperature is started to increase, when it is determined that the stack temperature T at the time of the previous system stop is lower than or equal to a predetermined value Tb, the fuel gas flow rate is decreased to F2a (which is less than F1), and when it is determined that the stack temperature T is higher than the predetermined value Tb, the fuel gas flow rate is decreased to F2b (which is less than F2a) to slow the temperature increase rate. Furthermore, when the stack temperature T reaches T2, the fuel gas flow rate is returned to F1 so as to increase the fuel gas flow rate and then the process proceeds to the next process.

Abstract: During system start-up in S11, an ATR process begins, and the hydrogen-enriched fuel gas is generated by the autothermal reaction. In S12, a cell temperature T is compared to a minimum reduction start temperature T1 of the cell support and, in the case of T?T1, the process proceeds to S13. In S13 a hydrogen concentration of the fuel gas is set to 50% or less. In S14, the cell temperature T is compared to a maximum reduction start temperature T2 of the cell support, and in the case of T>T2, the process proceeds to step S15. In S15, the temperatures of the reformer and the fuel cell stack are continuously raised, while gradually increasing the hydrogen concentration.

Abstract: A SOFC system houses a reformer and a fuel cell stack in a module case. Each cell forming the fuel cell stack is made of a porous material having a composition containing at least nickel metal, includes a cell support having a gas passage through which the fuel gas from the reformer flows from an lower end to an upper end on the inside thereof, and the excessive fuel gas is combusted at the upper end of the gas passage. Here, after the power generation stops, until the temperature of the upper end of the fuel cell stack falls below the minimum oxidation temperature of the nickel metal, the supply amount of the fuel gas to the fuel cell stack is controlled in terms of a heat flow rate within a range of 0.1 to 0.5 times that during the system rated power generation.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for performing recording and playing image data at a plurality of frame rates. The image processing apparatus includes a storage section, and a control section configured to, when performing the process of recording the image data at each of the frame rates, set information concerning a recording rate corresponding to the frame rate in a data area, in accordance with a predetermined file format, that is paired with stream data to be recorded, and store the information in the storage section.

Abstract: A reforming apparatus for reforming a raw fuel into a hydrogen-rich reformed gas includes a reformer for generating the reformed gas from the raw fuel, and a steam supply means for supplying the steam to the reformer. The steam supply means has a dry-out heat exchanger that dries out the water by conducting heat exchange with the reformed gas generated when the raw fuel is combusted. The cross-sectional area of passage in the dry-out heat exchanger is larger than that of a pipe connected upstream of the dry-out heat exchanger.

Abstract: An air electrode catalyst material according to an embodiment of the present invention is used in solid oxide fuel cells and includes a perovskite oxide represented by a general formula (1): AxByO3-6. A ratio x/y of the A to the B is 1.05?x/y?1.5, and a peak derived from a perovskite structure A1B1O3-? is shown in a chart obtained by an X-ray diffraction measurement, and in Raman spectra, an area of absorption peak existing between 560 cm?1 and 620 cm?1 (inclusive) is larger than that between 380 cm?1 and 440 cm?1 (inclusive).