Abstract: A locking device which has a strong locking force and is difficult to be broken. Leaf springs bending in a direction toward or away from the rear end of a function expansion card are provided in a housing, and locking sections for locking the function expansion card are connected to the leaf springs. Guide sections are provided in the housing, for guiding the outer ends of the leaf springs in the direction of bending of the leaf springs.

Abstract: A recording medium has a first area storing an audio title set. The audio title set contains a plurality of audio objects including a first audio object and a second audio object. The first audio object consists of first packs having audio data. The second audio object includes second packs having audio data and a third pack having real-time information related to the audio data in the second packs. The recording medium has a second area storing a still-picture set. The still-picture set includes a fourth pack having still-picture data related to the audio data in the first packs and the audio data in the second packs.

Abstract: A triplate planar slot antenna formed by laying a ground plate, a lower layer side dielectric layer, a lower layer side copper-clad film substrate, an upper layer side dielectric layer, a slot plate and an upper layer side copper-clad film substrate sequentially from the bottom side, wherein a lower layer side copper foil piece is secured to the surface of a lower layer side insulating film by a joining technique not using adhesive, and an upper layer side copper foil piece is secured to the surface of an upper layer side insulating film by a joining technique not using adhesive. In a state where the copper foil pieces are removed, each insulating film has a dielectric constant in the range of 2.0-4.0, a tan ? in the range of 0.001-0.01, and a thickness of 25 ?m or less.

Abstract: A flow sensor readily obtains high sensitivity without errors due to tilting. The flow sensor includes a flow channel having a pair of parallel portions and temperature sensing resistors for heating a fluid to a preset temperature. The temperature sensing resistors are disposed on parts of the parallel portions of the flow channel, to detect a fluid flow rate based on a change in temperature distribution of a flow channel due to a change in flow rate of the fluid flowing through the flow channel. The temperature sensing resistors include a first upstream temperature sensing resistor and a first downstream temperature sensing resistor that are disposed in a line on upstream and downstream sides of one of the parallel portions, respectively; and a second upstream temperature sensing resistor and a second downstream temperature sensing resistor that are disposed in a line on upstream and downstream sides of the other parallel portion, respectively.

Abstract: A floor slab bridge structure is capable of enhancing the strength with which bridge girders and concrete bridge piers are rigidly joined so as to effectively suppress expansion and contraction, deflection, and distortion of the bridge girders, and to synergistically enhance the strength of connection concrete itself against the expansion and contraction, distortion, etc., to thereby be effective to prevent collapse of a bridge due to a large earthquake. Slab concrete is hammer-set between sides of respective bridge girders, which are spaced apart in a bridge width direction, along a length direction of the bridge girders. Connection concrete, in which bridge girder portions supported on bridge bottom surfaces of concrete bridge piers supporting the bridge girders are embedded, is additionally deposited on the bridge bottom surfaces to form a floor slab bridge structure constituting a rigid joining structure.

Abstract: A method forms a hydrocarbon-containing polymer film on a semiconductor substrate by a capacitively-coupled plasma CVD apparatus. The method includes the steps of: vaporizing a hydrocarbon-containing liquid monomer (C?H?X?, wherein ? and ? are natural numbers of 5 or more; ? is an integer including zero; X is O, N or F) having a boiling point of about 20° C. to about 350° C.; introducing the vaporized gas into a CVD reaction chamber inside which a substrate is placed; and forming a hydrocarbon-containing polymer film on the substrate by plasma polymerization of the gas.

Abstract: In an axial flow fan, for reducing fluid noise and further reducing the noise by suppressing solid-conveyed noise (structure-borne noise) generated by the vibration of an electric motor or the like, the axial flow fan is equipped with a propeller, a motor for driving the propeller, and a venturi portion disposed on the outer circumference side of the propeller and provided on its inner circumferential side with a bellmouth through which an air flow generated by the revolution of the propeller passes, wherein the bellmouth has an intake portion whose diameter contracts in a curved shape in the direction of the air flow, a cylindrical portion having a cylindrical shape, and a discharge portion whose diameter slantingly expands in the direction of the air flow.

Abstract: A random number sequence output apparatus (101) includes a sequence acceptance unit (102) for accepting input of a numerical sequence, an initial value setting unit (103) for accepting an initial value and causing a storage unit (104) to store this, an output unit (105) for outputting a new value stored in the storage unit (104), a calculation unit (106) for applying a predetermined rational map stored in he storage unit (104) each time the output unit (105) outputs a value and further applying a predetermined calculation unit to the value and value extracted from the numerical sequence accepted by the sequence acceptance unit (102), and an updating unit (104) to store the value of the result of calculation performed by the calculation unit (106), thereby performing updating.

Abstract: Because a focal distance of a condenser lens is changed due to a change in temperature, when irradiation of a laser beam is restarted after the irradiation has stopped, it takes a long time to restore a temperature of the cooled lens to a given temperature, and the operating efficiency is deteriorated. A first mirror 5 that can be located at a reflection position I at which an optical path is blocked and a laser beam a is reflected, and a second mirror 6 that reflects the laser beam a which is reflected by the first mirror 5 are disposed between the condenser lens 2 and the object to be irradiated 4.

Abstract: An information recording medium includes a lead-in area and a data area for storing contents information. The lead-in area includes a first lead-in information area and a second lead-in information area. The first lead-in information area corresponds to a first playback mode. The second lead-in information area corresponds to a second playback mode different from the first playback mode. The first lead-in information area has a first depth and is designed for storing lead-in information related to the contents information stored in the data area. The second lead-in information area includes pre-pits having a second depth greater than the first depth. The pre-pits represent predetermined information, such as information of copyright protection, related to the contents information stored in the data area.

Abstract: In an information recording medium comprising at least a substrate, a recording layer, and a resin layer, the substrate is formed with at least a pit corresponding to a read only area 31 and a groove corresponding to a recording/reproducing area 32 without overlapping with each other. A reflectivity of the recording layer is specified to be more than 10%. The recording layer and the resin layer are continuously adhered over both the read only and recording/reproducing areas 31 and 32. The information recording medium is characterized in that both push-pull signal outputs T1 and T2, which are reproduced from the read only area 31 and the recording/reproducing area 32 respectively, are more than 0.1 and satisfy an inequality 1.5?T1/T2?0.5.

Abstract: The objective is to incarcerate a Lewis acid metal in a polymer and to make this catalyst recoverable while maintaining its function as a Lewis acid metal catalyst. The present invention is a polymer-incarcerated Lewis acid metal catalyst in which a Lewis acid metal is incarcerated in a crosslinked polymer and the crosslinked polymer is crosslinked using the crosslinking groups contained in a crosslinkable polymer. The polymer incarcerated Lewis acid metal catalyst is characterized by the crosslinkable polymer containing at least one type of monomer unit containing hydrophobic substituents and hydrophilic substituents containing crosslinking groups, and the hydrophobic substituents contain aromatic substituents. This crosslinkable polymer preferably comprises at least one type of monomer unit containing hydrophobic substituents and hydrophilic substituents containing crosslinking groups and a monomer unit containing hydrophobic substituents.

Abstract: A card manufacturing method for manufacturing the card and a card manufacturing apparatus for manufacturing the card are provided. The card 51 includes a card base 1, a first receptor layer 1a arranged on one side of the card base 1 to contain a sublimation-ink image 8, a protecting layer OC1 laminated on the first receptor layer 1a and an invisible-ink image 10 formed on the protecting layer OC1. Owing to the interposition of the protecting layer OC1 between the sublimation-ink image 8 and the invisible-ink image 10, the card 51 is capable of suppressing color fading of a sublimation ink in the image 8 in spite of a card structure where the sublimation ink and an invisible ink are printed so as to overlap each other, allowing the card 51 to be used for a long time.

Abstract: A method for flattening a sample surface by irradiating the sample surface with a gas cluster ion beam, generates clusters of source gas in a cluster generating chamber, ionizes the generated clusters in an ionization chamber, accelerates the ionized cluster beam in an electric field of an accelerating electrode, selects a cluster size using a magnetic field of a sorting mechanism, and irradiates the surface of a sample. An irradiation angle between the sample surface and the gas cluster ion beam is less than 30° and an average cluster size of the gas cluster ion beam is 50 or above.

Abstract: There is provided a gas diffusion electrode substrate comprising a glass nonwoven fabric obtained by adhering a binder containing an acrylic resin and/or vinyl acetate resin to glass fibers.

Abstract: A method of depositing a ruthenium(Ru) thin film on a substrate in a reaction chamber, includes: (i) supplying a gas of a ruthenium precursor into the reaction chamber so that the gas of the ruthenium precursor is adsorbed onto the substrate, wherein the ruthenium precursor a ruthenium complex contains a non-cyclic dienyl; (ii) supplying an excited reducing gas into the reaction chamber to activate the ruthenium precursor adsorbed onto the substrate; and (iii) repeating steps (i) and (ii), thereby forming a ruthenium thin film on the substrate.

Abstract: A mixture identification system for detecting foreign matter admixed in a tobacco material (T) includes a conveyor (2) for conveying the material (T), an irradiation device (6) for irradiating infrared light toward an inspection line (IL) extending across the conveyor (2), an infrared camera device (10) for receiving the infrared light reflected from the tobacco material (T) passing across the inspection line (IL) and outputting image data of the material (T) based on the received infrared light, and a discrimination circuit (96) for detecting foreign matter in the material (T) based on the output from the camera device (10). The infrared camera device (10) has infrared filters (70, 76, 82) for receiving the infrared light reflected from the tobacco material (T) and allowing only respective specific wavelengths to pass therethrough, and optical line sensors (72, 78, 84) for receiving the infrared light passed through the respective filters (70, 76, 82).

Abstract: An information recording medium in which bottoms of a guide groove and a pit array formed on a disc substrate are allocated on a same flat plane and shaped in flat. Further, in a transition area from a pit array to a guide groove or from a guide groove to a pit array, the information recording medium is provided with an intermediate area composed of a pit array of which height changes from a height between a bottom and a side of a groove to another height between the bottom and a side of the pit array.

Abstract: An information recording carrier according to one embodiment has minute pattern including plural grooves or lands formed to be substantially in parallel and adjacent each other and comprises a supporting body having the minute pattern, a recording layer formed on the minute pattern formed on the supporting layer and a light transmission layer formed on the recording layer. The minute pattern is formed under a relation of P<?/NA, where a pitch of each groove or land is P, a wavelength of a laser beam is ? and a numerical aperture of an objective lens is NA. The plural grooves or lands have at least a wobbling region and data is recorded wobblingly in the wobbling region by frequency shift modulation. A phase relation between a high frequency portion and a low frequency portion composing the frequency shift modulation is ±(?/20.5) to ±(?/0.75). The data is also recorded wobblingly in the wobbling region by bi-phase modulation.