Abstract: A floor nozzle for a vacuum cleaner of the present invention has an auxiliary agitator provided outside the lateral wall of a main body of the nozzle. The auxiliary agitator is covered by a protecting cover, so as to ensure safety during use. Moreover, a stirring member, a dust outlet and confirmation holes allow dust to be discharged out of the main body more easily and smoothly, while preventing burning or breaking of the agitator.

Abstract: A cable drag chain, for supporting and guiding energy supply cables, hydraulic hoses or the like, connected between a fixed point and a linearly movable body, comprises a series of links flexibly connected together, each link including a pair of opposed link plates fixed in parallel relation by connecting rods to form an interior space communicating with corresponding interior spaces of connecting links. Internal partitioning structure separates the interior space of each link into vertically and laterally related channels for accommodating the cables. Sleeves rotatable in the structure provide rolling contact with cables.

Abstract: A universally articulable supporting sheath comprises an interconnected series of links, each having a convex spherical surface at one end, and a concave spherical surface at its opposite end. The concave and convex surfaces mate with one another to form the sheath. Special links having branch openings may be provided. Various forms of waterproofing seals are provided, including O-rings, axially compressed rings, flexible belts, and ridges on the spherical surfaces. The links can be fitted together by thermal expansion. However, an axially split link is also described, which comprises two parts which snap together. The split parts may be molded as a unit with an integral thin wall hinge. The bending characteristics and bending radius of a sheath can be modified by insertion of spacers between the links at selected locations, or by the insertion of pins into radial holes provided in the links.

Abstract: A universally articulable supporting sheath comprises an interconnected series of links, each having a convex spherical surface at one end, and a concave spherical surface at its opposite end. The concave and convex surfaces mate with one another to form the sheath. Special links having branch openings may be provided. Various forms of waterproofing seals are provided, including O-rings, axially compressed rings, flexible belts, and ridges on the spherical surfaces. The links can be fitted together by thermal expansion. However, an axially split link is also described, which comprises two parts which snap together. The split parts may be molded as a unit with an integral thin wall hinge. The bending characteristics and bending radius of a sheath can be modified by insertion of spacers between the links at selected locations, or by the insertion of pins into radial holes provided in the links.

Abstract: A semiconductor device having a double-layer interconnection with contact portions between first and second metal films covered with at least a silicon nitride film is provided wherein an electromigration characteristic at the contact portions is improved. The improvement is achieved by defining a value obtained by multiplying a thickness of the silicon nitride film by a stress of the nitride film formed at the contact portions is not larger than 2/5 of a value obtained by multiplying a thickness of the silicon nitride film by a stress of the nitride film formed at non-contact portions. By this, the stress exerted on the second metal film is reduced to improve the electromigration life at the contact portions by about one order of magnitude. The first and second metal films are made of Al or Al-based alloys.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for compensating for nonuniformity of a static magnetic field in a MRI system wherein one of X-, Y- and Z-axes of a Cartesian coordinate system is selected as a phase encoding direction, a region of a field of view is selectively excited by applying a high frequency pulse of a predetermined angle to an object under inspection, and an NMR signal is measured by applying a phase encoding gradient magnetic field and a frequency encoding gradient magnetic field after application of the high frequency pulse for a plurality of times while changing the phase encoding gradient magnetic field.

Abstract: A dehydrator for use in washing clothes or the like includes a dehydration tub mounted in an outer cabinet, a brushless motor for rotating the dehydration tub for a dehydrating operation, and a microcomputer-based controller for controlling the rotational speed of the motor so that the motor is rotated at a plurality of different rotational speeds sequentially during the dehydrating operation. The different rotational speeds include a maximum rotational speed ranging between a rated rotational speed or above and a rotational speed corresponding to a resonant point of the outer cabinet.

Abstract: An upright vacuum cleaner which includes a floor nozzle portion having a rotary brush incorporated in it, a dust collecting portion incorporated with an electric blower tiltably provided on the floor nozzle portion, a cord winding device mounted at a rear face side of the dust collecting portion, moving rollers rotatably mounted at opposite ends of one main shaft, and a cover member for covering the cord winding device from the rear face side, with the main shaft of the rollers being held between the dust collecting portion and the cover member.

Abstract: In one aspect of correcting phase distortion in an MR imaging system at high speed and with high precision, partial regions having any shapes are established on a complex image reconstruction, linear phase distortion is estimated for every partial region and the phase distortion of the whole image is corrected by use of the estimated phase distortion. In another aspect, a plurality of phase distortion patterns are measured in advance through phantom imaging and stored. The phase distortion pattern is invariable and hence it is not necessary to perform the measurement for each impage processed. Phase distortion included in data acquired through imaging is corrected by representing it as a summation of the plurality of phase distortion patterns with weighting factors.

Abstract: An automatic telephone answering machine which is capable of selecting a new outgoing message or an old outgoing message. If a new OGM is unsatisfactory, the operator may retain an old OGM and discard the new OGM. Both a semiconductor memory and a magnetic tape are utilized in switching the OGM's from one to the other. The OGM stored in the semiconductor memory is automatically checked and read out at least once at an end of storage of the OGM in the semiconductor memory, and thereafter the OGM is automatically read out again and transferred to and recorded in an area of a magnetic tape.

Abstract: A universally articulable supporting sheath comprises an interconnected series of links, each having a convex spherical surface at one end, and a concave spherical surface at its opposite end. The concave and convex surfaces mate with one another to form the sheath. Special links having branch openings may be provided. Various forms of waterproofing seals are provided including O-rings, axially compressed rings, flexible belts, and ridges on the spherical surfaces. The links can be fitted together by thermal expansion. However, an axially split link is also described, which comprises two parts which snap together. The split parts may be molded as a unit with an integral thin wall hinge. The bending characteristics and bending radius of a sheath can be modified by insertion of spacers between the links at selected locations, or by the insertion of pins into radial holes provided in the links.

Abstract: A universally articulable supporting sheath comprises an interconnected series of links, each having a convex spherical surface at one end, and a concave spherical surface at its opposite end. The concave and convex surfaces mate with one another to form the sheath. Special links having branch openings may be provided. Various forms of waterproofing seals are provided, including O-rings, axially compressed rings, flexible belts, and ridges on the spherical surfaces. The links can be fitted together by thermal expansion. However, an axially split link is also described, which comprises two parts which snap together. The split parts may be molded as a unit with an integral thin wall hinge. The bending characteristics and bending radius of a sheath can be modified by insertion of spacers between the links at selected locations, or by the insertion of pins into radial holes provided in the links.

Abstract: A paper tension adjusting device in which one of the tractors with feeding pins changing feeding apertures in the paper is movable widthwise to adjust widthwise paper tension. The desired tension is determined from paper thickness which is in turn determined from the hammer flight time. Lengthwise tension is adjusted by adjusting paper clampers separated from the tractors. The tension is both widthwise and lengthwise directions is determined by optically sensing the positions of the feeding pin with respect to the aperture in which that pin is engaged.

Abstract: In a plasma processing apparatus, a gas to be activated into a plasma is introduced into a plasma formation chamber through a gas introducing pipe. Input microwave energy from a microwave source is also supplied to the plasma formation chamber, so that the introduced gas is activated into the plasma by electron cyclotron resonance. The input microwave energy in a TE mode from the microwave source is received by a tapered waveguide in which a dielectric plate is accommodated, so that at least a part of the input microwave energy is transformed into microwave energy in a TM mode or hybrid mode having an electric field component in the direction of the propagation of the input microwave. Microwave energy in both the modes is introduced into the plasma formation chamber through a microwave introducing window.

Abstract: An image reconstruction method for a magnetic resonance imaging device is disclosed, by which phase distortions of a magnetic resonance signal are stored in the form of a table prepared previously, by using a phase encode amount and an imaging region size as parameters; the phase distortions of the magnetic resonance signal are corrected on the basis of the phase distortions stored in the table for the measured magnetic resonance signal or the phase distortions varying for every line are presumed from the difference in the phase between the phase of hypothetical data including no phase distortions and the phase of measured data; and the phase distortions of the measured magnetic resonance signal are corrected by using this presumed value.

Abstract: A CT image processor for use in X-ray computerized tomographic system including an X-ray source for providing fan beams on an object being examined, a multichannel X-ray detector for detecting the fan beams transmitted through the object and a processor for reproducing a sectional image of the object including circuitry for obtaining a back projection of the signal obtained from the multichannel radioactive ray detectors, the processor circuitry also having means for rearranging the order of the fan beams into parallel beams and for effecting scaled-up interpolative operations based on the projected image signal so as to use the scaled-down interpolated data for the back projection.

Abstract: A hair treating composition having excellent resistance to washing which comprises a dimethyl silicone rubber and a quaternary ammonium salt ingredient consisting of stearyltrimethylammonium chloride and behenyltrimethylammonium chloride.

Abstract: A recording system and a recording and/or reproducing apparatus in which a first information unit signal is recorded on a recording medium; a first data unit signal relating to the first information unit signal is recorded on the recording medium at the rear side of the first information unit signal; when a succeeding second information unit signal newly appears thereafter, second information unit signal is recorded on the recording medium at the rear side of the first information unit signal; and a second data unit signal relating to the second information unit signal and the first data unit signal are recorded together on the recording medium at the rear side of the second information unit signal.