Abstract: An on-off valve for medical procedures and laboratory devices, that has particular use with endoscopic medical procedures. Also featured are endoscopic devices that comprise such valves. The valve preferably includes a valve body, a valve member, a flexible seal member, a compression mechanism and a rotating mechanism. The body includes a centrally disposed cavity and two through apertures communicating therewith. The flexible seal member includes an internal chamber and two through flow apertures. The internal chamber is configured to rotatably receive the portion of the valve member including the internal flow passage. The seal member is mounted on the valve member and the seal/valve member assemblage is disposed in the body cavity. The compression mechanism acts on a surface of the seal member after it is disposed in the seal cavity so the seal member sealingly engages opposing surfaces of the valve member and the body.

Abstract: A very fast, memory efficient, highly expandable, highly efficient CCNUMA processing system based on a hardware architecture that minimizes system bus contention, maximizes processing forward progress by maintaining strong ordering and avoiding retries, and implements a full-map directory structure cache coherency protocol. A Cache Coherent Non-Uniform Memory Access (CCNUMA) architecture is implemented in a system comprising a plurality of integrated modules each consisting of a motherboard and two daughterboards. The daughterboards, which plug into the motherboard, each contain two Job Processors (JPs), cache memory, and input/output (I/O) capabilities. Located directly on the motherboard are additional integrated I/O capabilities in the form of two Small Computer System Interfaces (SCSI) and one Local Area Network (LAN) interface. The motherboard includes main memory, a memory controller (MC) and directory DRAMs for cache coherency.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display device includes a pair of substrates having a plurality of display-use electrodes formed thereon, a seal for connecting the pair of substrates in such a manner that respective electrode forming surfaces face each other, a liquid crystal layer formed by sealing a liquid crystal in a space surrounded by the pair of substrates and the seal, and dummy electrodes for achieving a uniform thickness of the liquid crystal layer in the display area. The display-use electrodes and the dummy electrodes are interleaved on four sides of the seal, and an absolute value for variations in interleaved ratio in the four sides, indicative of a ratio of an area occupied by the display-use electrodes and the dummy electrodes on the seal is not more than a predetermined value.

Abstract: An apparatus according to the present invention includes a stepping motor (5) and a motor drive circuit (4) for first moving a lamp unit to hit the unit against a reference object opposite to an origin and then moving the unit toward the origin, a CPU (3) for measuring the distance through which the lamp unit is moved from the reference object toward the origin, and the CPU (3) for controlling the lamp unit so that the lamp unit stops at the origin according to the distance measured from the reference object.

Abstract: Featured is a plasma extrusion dynamo and methods related thereto. Also featured are fusion reactors using such dynamos and methods. In the methodology of the present invention, a steady-state stream of conductive plasma is forced by pressure or momentum to flow into a magnetic extrusion nozzle made up of converging magnetic field lines so as to form a closed, steady-state current loop within the plasma. The plasma current loop in turn forms a closed set of poloidal field lines which interact with the plasma current to compress and confine a portion of the plasma in a toroidal volume. Such pressure and confinement establish the conditions for magnetically confining controlled nuclear fusion reactions for power generation. A fusion reactor using the plasma extrusion dynamo methodology includes a source of high pressure or high velocity plasma, one or more converging magnetic extrusion nozzles, and a plasma exhaust area at low pressure.

Abstract: A liquid crystal display device of the present invention includes: a pair of substrates, at least one of which is transparent; and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the pair of substrates, the liquid crystal layer having a helical structure including: a liquid crystal material having a positive dielectric constant anisotropy; a pleochroic dye; and at least one of a cholesteric liquid crystal material and a chiral agent as an optical active material, wherein the liquid crystal layer has a helical axis in a thickness direction of the liquid crystal layer, and longitudinal axes of liquid crystal molecules in a vicinity of the pair of substrates are substantially parallel to the substrates, a ratio of a natural pitch (p.sub.0) and a thickness (d) of the liquid crystal layer of the helical structure satisfies a relationship: (2.theta.-.pi.)/4.pi.<d/p.sub.0 .ltoreq..theta./2.pi., where a twisted angle of the helical structure is .theta. rad, and the twisted angle .theta.