Abstract: A method of mechanically refining lignocellulosic material in a refiner having opposing refiner plates including: introducing the material to an inlet in one of the opposing refiner plates; rotating at least one of the plates with respect to the other plate, wherein the material moves radially outward through a gap between the plates due to centrifugal forces created by the rotation; as the material moves through the gap, passing the material over bars in a refiner zone of a first one the plates, each bar in the refiner zone having a leading face and an upper ridge, wherein the leading face includes a sidewall of the bar facing a direction of rotation of the opposing plate and the leading edge has an interior angle of between 150 degrees to 175 degrees, and discharging the material from the gap at a periphery of the refiner plates.

Abstract: An active matrix substrate includes: storage capacitor wirings (18); a Cs trunk wiring (50) connected with the storage capacitor wirings via contact holes (48) provided in a non-display region (44); scanning signal lines (16) provided in the same layer as the storage capacitor wirings (18) and crossing the Cs trunk wiring (50) in the non-display region (44); an insulating layer between the storage capacitor wirings (18) and the Cs trunk wiring (50) which includes: a through-bore portion for forming the contact hole (48); a first film thickness portion (53) adjacent to the through-bore portion; and a second film thickness portion which is thicker than the first film thickness portion (53) and situated at least in the intersections of the storage capacitor wirings (18) with the Cs trunk wiring (50).

Abstract: An image encoding apparatus is configured to encode image data comprising a sequence of unencoded blocks of pixels into a sequence of encoded blocks of pixels in a predetermined image encoding format. Each encoded block of pixels has a characteristic encoding value representative of its corresponding unencoded block of pixels, and a plurality of dependently encoded blocks of pixels each have a dependent characteristic encoding value which is defined with reference to the characteristic encoding value for a preceding encoded block of pixels.

Abstract: An outer gas for plasma welding of the present invention is used in plasma welding of a stainless steel with use of a plasma welding torch in which an insert tip (2) is provided in the periphery of a tungsten electrode (1), a shield cap (3) is provided in the periphery of this insert tip (2), a front end part of the tungsten electrode (1) is located inside from a front end part of the insert tip (2), a center gas comprising an inert gas is allowed to flow into a gap between the tungsten electrode (1) and the insert tip (2), and the outer gas is allowed to flow into a gap between the insert tip (2) and the shield cap (3), wherein the outer gas is a mixed gas containing 0.5 to 2% by volume of a carbon dioxide gas with the balance of an inert gas.

Abstract: A method, executed in a computer system, for opening an electronic market for trading of a security is described. The method includes receiving by the computer system eligible orders and quotes for the security traded in the electronic market and disseminating an order imbalance indicator indicative of predicted trading characteristics of the security at the open of trading. The method also includes determining by the computer system a price or prices at which the maximum shares would be executed and determining which price would minimize any imbalance of eligible orders and executing at least some of the eligible orders at the determined opening price.

Abstract: A lamp assembly includes a shell wall defining a receiving space that retains a light source therein, and a reflecting unit. The shell wall has a central wall unit and a pair of connecting wall segments. The central wall unit has a base wall segment and a pair of connecting wall segments extending respectively from longitudinal ends of the base wall segment. The extending wall segments extend respectively from side ends of the base wall segment, interconnect the connecting wall segments and cooperate with the connecting wall segments to define an opening in spatial communication with the receiving space. A distance between the distal ends of the connecting wall segments is larger than that between the distal ends of the extending wall segments. The reflecting unit includes convex first reflecting members protruding inwardly from the extending wall segments, and prismatic second reflecting members protruding inwardly from the central wall unit.

Abstract: A developing device includes: a developing vessel for storing a developer containing a toner and a magnetic carrier; a first conveying passage through which the developer is conveyed approximately horizontally; and a toner supply port for leading toner to the first conveying passage. The toner supply port is formed over the first conveying passage. The developing device includes a multiple number of electromagnets that intermittently attract and release the developer, over the first conveying passage. At the same time, a multiple number of downward slopes that go down toward the downstream side with respect to the developer conveying direction are formed in the bottom of the first conveying passage in areas in which the developer that has been attracted to the electromagnets and is released from the electromagnets falls.

Abstract: A toner cartridge includes a toner reservoir for storing toner and a toner conveyor portion. The toner conveyor portion includes a toner discharge port for discharging toner stored in the toner reservoir to the outside and a toner conveying member for conveying toner to the toner discharge port. The toner conveyor portion includes an airtight cover that encloses the upper part of the toner conveying member located over the toner discharge port, a communication opening arranged near the toner discharge port to connect between the toner conveyor portion and the toner reservoir and a pressure relieve valve that opens and closes the communication opening in accordance with the pressure of the toner in the space enclosed by the airtight cover.

Abstract: A video signal is coded using predictive coding. The degree of quantization that is applied is varied as a function of measures of predictive power, the idea being that a picture that is useful as a predictor for other pictures is worth coding well. These measures are formed in a pre-analysis of the pictures to obtain, for each macroblock analysed, a measure that depends on its similarity to a region for which it is a potential predictor. Preferably these measures are cumulative.

Abstract: Provided in this invention are polyethylene terephthalate resins which can suppress the formation of acetaldehyde as a by-product in melt molding of the resins and can provide the molded products reduced in acetaldehyde content. A polyethylene terephthalate resin which has an intrinsic viscosity [?2] of not less than 0.70 dl/g and not more than 1.50 dl/g and an acetaldehyde content [AA0 (ppm by weight)] of not more than 10 ppm by weight, and has such properties that the acetaldehyde content [AA1 (ppm by weight)] of the molded product obtained by injection molding the resin at 280° C. with its moisture content adjusted to 30±20 ppm by weight and the acetaldehyde content [AA2 (ppm by weight)] of the molded product obtained by injection molding the resin at 280° C. with its moisture content adjusted to 120±20 ppm by weight satisfy the following formula (1): [(AA1?AA2)/AA1]×100?30??(1).

Abstract: A transfer device and an image forming apparatus capable of forming an image of smooth image quality with little uneven density, are provided. An alternating voltage is applied so that a first period in which a first peak-to-peak voltage Vpp(1) is applied and a second period in which a second peak-to-peak voltage Vpp(2), lower than the first peak-to-peak voltage, is applied are alternately repeated. In the alternating voltage to be applied, a transfer side potential to shift a toner from an intermediate transfer belt to recording paper sheet and an opposite transfer side potential to shift the toner from the recording paper sheet to the intermediate transfer belt are applied so as to alternate with each other. When f1 denotes a frequency of the first period and f2 denotes a frequency of the second period, f1=f2 is satisfied.

Abstract: A spin torque oscillator includes a first magnetic layer, a second magnetic layer and a first nonmagnetic layer. The first magnetic layer includes a magnetic film of a magnetic material with a body-centered cubic (bcc) structure and an oriented {110} plane of the body-centered cubic structure, the oriented {110} plane being oriented substantially parallel to a principal plane of the magnetic film. The first nonmagnetic layer is disposed between the first magnetic layer and the second magnetic layer. In addition, a magnetic moment in the magnetic film precesses around an axis substantially parallel to the principal plane. Furthermore, a magnetic field is applied in a direction substantially perpendicular to the principal plane, and a current is passed perpendicularly to the principal plane.

Abstract: A method of changing a display mode in a car navigation system, the method including: acquiring distance information from a current vehicle location to a guide point; and gradually changing the display mode into any one of a two-dimensional display mode and a three-dimensional display mode based on the distance information.

Abstract: A recreational or outdoor compass is comprised of a base member and a vial assembly pivotally coupled to said base member. The vial assembly comprises a vial and a magnetized indicator member pivotally journaled in the vial and pointing to magnetic north. The vial assembly is further comprised of an azimuth ring indirectly or directly frictionally coupled to the vial and a transparent disc member permanently aligned with the azimuth ring and arranged below the vial. Moreover, the vial assembly comprises a retention means permanently aligned with the azimuth ring, such that holding of the retention means allows to rotate the vial separately from the azimuth ring by exceeding the frictional force.

Abstract: The invention relates to a communications node (10) for routing an optical signal 5 comprising at least one data packet, the node (10) having an input optic fiber (12) and an output optic fiber (14) in communication with each other, the input optic fiber (12) in communication with an optical splitter (20) which is arranged to split an incoming optical signal into at least two substantially identical optical signals, the optical splitter (20) further arranged to pass one of the optical signals to an optical correlator (22) and the other of the optical signals to an input optical switch (24), the optical correlator (22) being arranged to compare an address of the packet with a reference address (40) and to generate a trigger if the reference address (40) matches the address of the packet, the input optical switch (24) being arranged to route the data packet to an optical to electrical converter (28) in response to the trigger.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for optimizing the link-state information that is to be broadcast in a routing domain of a communication network for QoS rule-based link-state routing. The routers include any device capable of implementing the routing primitives. The apparatus and method involve pruning the link-state information using local neighborhood information that has been discovered. The local link-state is pruned so that the QoS optimal paths are preserved for link-state routing. Pruning of the potential optimal paths is carried out to minimize the information broadcast to the intra domain routers in an autonomous system/routing domain. The apparatus and method also involve broadcasting the selected link-state information.

Abstract: A slave device (20) communicates with a host system (21) via a host communications bus (22). The host system (21) includes one (or more) processing units that can act as bus masters and send access requests for slave resources on the slave device (20) via the communications bus (22). The slave device platform (20) includes a memory management unit (23), a programmable central processing unit (24) and one or more slave resources (25). The memory management unit (23) acts as an address translating device, and accepts requests with virtual addresses from the master device or devices on the host system (21), translates the virtual addresses used in the access requests to the “internal” physical addresses of the slave's resources and forwards the accesses of the appropriate physical resources (25).

Abstract: According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided with a screen transmission device, including: a first receiver configured to receive usage state information indicating usage states of a plurality of screen display devices by a user from each the screen display device; a second receiver configured to receive a message of requesting start-up of a window from the screen display device out of the screen display devices; a determiner configured to determine a screen display device on which the window is to be started up out of the plurality of screen display devices based on the usage states of each the screen display device; a screen data generator configured to generate screen data of the window; and a transmitter configured to transmit the screen data of the window to the screen display device determined by the determiner.

Abstract: The invention concerns a new process for the preparation of high purity diacerein, by oxidization of the protected aloe-emodin in the presence of an oxidizing system and radical catalyst and subsequent substitution of the protector groups with acetyl groups.