Abstract: A lead-free piezoelectric material that does not undergo depolarization in a wide operating temperature range and has a good piezoelectric constant is provided. A piezoelectric material include a perovskite-type metal oxide represented by (Ba1-xCax)a(Ti1-yZry)O3 (where 1.00?a?1.01, 0.125?x?0.175, and 0.055?y?0.090) as a main component, and manganese incorporated in the perovskite-type metal oxide. The manganese content relative to 100 parts by weight of the perovskite-type metal oxide is 0.02 parts by weight or more and 0.10 parts by weight or less on a metal basis.

Abstract: An offset printing apparatus includes a frame; guide rails that are provided on the frame; a plurality of guide blocks that are provided on the guide rails; a plate table that travels via one portion of the guide blocks among the plurality of guide blocks; a print target table that travels via another portion of the guide blocks among the plurality of guide blocks; and a blanket roll that is provided on the frame; wherein transfer from the plate to the blanket roll, and retransfer from the blanket roll to the print target are performed by causing the blanket roll to successively make contact from above with a plate that is held on the plate table, and a print target that is held on the print target table; a step portion for positioning that consists of a vertical surface that is formed by a machining process so that the linearity increases and a horizontal surface is provided at mounting locations of the guide rails on the upper surface portion of the frame; and one side surface and the bottom surface of the

Abstract: A lead-free piezoelectric material that has stable, excellent piezoelectric constant and mechanical quality factor in a wide operating temperature range is provided. A piezoelectric material include a perovskite-type metal oxide represented by (Ba1-xCax)a(Ti1-yZry)O3 (where 1.00?a?1.01, 0.155?x?0.300, 0.041?y?0.069) as a main component, and manganese incorporated in the perovskite-type metal oxide. The manganese content relative to 100 parts by weight of the perovskite-type metal oxide is 0.12 parts by weight or more and 0.40 parts by weight or less on a metal basis.

Abstract: Provided is an oriented piezoelectric material with satisfactory sintering property free of Pb that is a hazardous substance, and a water-soluble alkaline ion, and a production method therefor. To this end, provided is a compound, including a tungsten bronze structure metal oxide, in which: the tungsten bronze structure metal oxide contains at least metal elements of Ba, Bi, Ca, and Nb, the metal elements satisfying the following conditions in terms of molar ratio; and has a C-axis orientation. The compound shows Ba/Nb=a: 0.363<a<0.399, Bi/Nb=b: 0.0110<b<0.0650, and Ca/Nb=c: 0.005<c<0.105. The tungsten bronze structure metal oxide preferably includes (1-x)·Ca1.4Ba3.6Nb10O30-x·Ba4Bi0.67Nb10O30 (0.30?x?0.95).

Abstract: A piezoelectric element that can decrease the output voltage for detection relative to the input voltage for driving without requiring a step-down circuit between a detection phase electrode and a phase comparator and an oscillatory wave motor including the piezoelectric element are provided. A piezoelectric element includes a piezoelectric material having a first surface and a second surface, a common electrode disposed on the first surface, and a drive phase electrode and a detection phase electrode disposed on the second surface. An absolute value d(1) of a piezoelectric constant of the piezoelectric material in a portion (1) sandwiched between the drive phase electrode and the common electrode and an absolute value d(2) of a piezoelectric constant of the piezoelectric material in a portion (2) sandwiched between the detection phase electrode and the common electrode satisfy d(2)<d(1). An oscillatory wave motor includes this piezoelectric element.

Abstract: The present invention is to provide an electro hydrostatic actuator excellent in a snubbing characteristic including a cylinder type actuator main body 1, a piston 2 having a piston rod, the piston slidingly moving in a cylinder of the actuator main body, a motor 18, a pump 19 for supplying fluid according to the rotation of the motor, a mechanism for adjusting a running amount of the fluid into and from the cylinder according to the motion of the piston, and a reservoir 8 for adjusting the supply of the fluid corresponding to a volume difference generated according to the motion of the piston, and a controller 17 which controls the number of revolutions of the motor according to the calculated load torque, and a snubbing control method used for this. An electro hydrostatic actuator of realizing a snubbing mechanism capable of increasing energy efficiency, when used for a landing gear retraction/extension device of an airplane, can be provided.

Abstract: Provided are methods of manufacturing an oriented ceramics containing sodium niobate and a raw material thereof. Specifically, provided is a sodium niobate powder, including cuboidal sodium niobate particles having an average side length of 0.1 ?m or more to 100 ?m or less, at least one face of the cuboid including a (100) plane in pseudo-cubic notation, in which the sodium niobate powder has a perovskite single-phase structure.

Abstract: A video recording apparatus provides a slow motion effect or a quick motion effect by digitally converting the frame-rate instead of by changing the playback speed of the film, and using few recording media without requiring any special device at playing. A picture encoding part encodes only valid frames by changing a rate-controlling method so that a predetermined playing frame-rate is obtained at a standard data-rate at playing. And a TS multiplexing part multiplexes by converting a frequency of a standard STC clock by only a ratio of valid frame-rate and playing frame-rate, and generating values for PCR, PTS, and DTS.

Abstract: The present invention provides vinyl chloride-based resin aggregate particles capable of providing a plastisol with excellent non-infiltrating property and favorable sagging property, a method for producing the same, and a glove using the same. The vinyl chloride-based resin aggregate particles of the present invention have a mean volume particle diameter of 10 to 60 ?m, and the percentage of particles having a particle diameter of 10 to 60 ?m is at least 50 vol %. The moisture absorption coefficient is 1.5 wt % or less when being retained for 24 hours under conditions of 30° C. and a relative humidity of 97.0±0.4%. A plastisol comprising 100 weight parts of the vinyl chloride-based resin aggregate particles and 160 weight parts of di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate satisfies a relationship of 3??70/?40?1000. Further, in the vinyl chloride-based resin aggregate particles of the present invention, the number of voids having a void size of 1.0 ?m or more per one aggregate particle is less than 5.

Abstract: Provided is an oriented piezoelectric material with satisfactory sintering property free of Pb that is a hazardous substance, and a water-soluble alkaline ion, and a production method therefor. To this end, provided is a compound, including a tungsten bronze structure metal oxide, in which: the tungsten bronze structure metal oxide contains at least metal elements of Ba, Bi, Ca, and Nb, the metal elements satisfying the following conditions in terms of molar ratio; and has a C-axis orientation. The compound shows Ba/Nb=a: 0.363<a<0.399, Bi/Nb=b: 0.0110<b<0.0650, and Ca/Nb=c: 0.005<c<0.105. The tungsten bronze structure metal oxide preferably includes (1?x).Ca1.4Ba3.6Nb10O30?x.Ba4Bi0.67Nb10O30 (0.30?x?0.95).

Abstract: A DC-DC converter includes a high-side circuit supplied with a power supply voltage and a first internal reference voltage generated by a first regulator. The high-side circuit provides a current to an inductor, which is used for generating an output voltage. The first and second regulators each generate respective internal reference voltages. The second internal reference voltage is provided to a signal processing module, which controls the high side circuit so that the output voltage of the DC-DC converter corresponds to regulated target voltage level. The first and second regulators include a differential circuit comparing voltages and generating a corresponding comparison signal, a transistor for generating the internal reference voltage according to a gate voltage applied to its gate, and a circuit to change the gate voltage to reduce a signal amplitude of the comparison signal.

Abstract: An editing device for connecting first and second streams containing variable length coded parameters, includes a decision unit operable to compare an encoded first parameter contained in the first stream with an encoded second parameter contained in the second stream, and decide whether at least one of the first parameter and the second parameter is to be changed, and a replacing unit operable to replace at least one of the first and second parameters with the other code word of the same length as the code words assigned to the first and second parameters, when the decision unit decides that at least one of the parameters is to be changed.

Abstract: A barium titanate piezoelectric ceramic having good piezoelectric properties and mechanical strength and a piezoelectric element that includes the ceramic are provided. A method for making a piezoelectric ceramic includes forming a compact composed of an oxide powder containing barium titanate particles, sintering the compact, and decreasing the temperature of the compact after the sintering. The sintering includes (A) increasing the temperature of the compact to a first temperature within a temperature range of a shrinking process of the compact; (B) increasing the temperature of the compact to a second temperature within a temperature range of a liquid phase sintering process of the compact after (A); (C) decreasing the temperature of the compact to a third temperature within the temperature range of the shrinking process of the compact after (B); and (D) retaining the third temperature after (C).

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a manual feed portion provided on a side surface of a housing that accommodates an image forming portion and having an abutting portion against which a downstream end in a sheet feeding direction of a sheet inserted into a gap between the manual feed portion and the side surface abuts. The manual feed portion also includes a holding portion configured to hold the sheet such that a sheet surface is held along the side surface of the housing in the condition in which the downstream end of the sheet abuts against the abutting portion.

Abstract: A coding device includes a coding unit (740) for encoding an input digital signal using code words contained in one of a plurality of variable length code word groups, and a multiplexer (701) for generating a stream by generating a parameter (such as idr_pic_id) describing specific information about the stream, encoding the parameters, and adding it to the output data from the coding unit. The length of the code words contained in any single variable length code word group is the same. The multiplexer selects one variable length code word group containing three or more code words out of the plural groups, and codes the parameter using one code word selected from the code words contained in the selected group.

Abstract: A sheet conveyance device that is capable of correcting skew of a sheet like an index sheet without complicating a use setting and without increasing a cost significantly. A plurality of conveyance units are arranged in a direction intersecting a sheet conveyance direction to convey a sheet. At least three detection sensors are arranged in a direction intersecting the conveyance direction at an upstream side from the conveyance units to detect the sheet. A skew amount computation unit measures a time difference between detection timings of a front end of the sheet by two of the at least three detection sensors except the detection sensor that detects first, and computes a front-end skew amount according to the time difference. A speed change unit makes the conveyance speeds of the conveyance units be different according to the front-end skew amount so as to correct the skew of the sheet.

Abstract: A corona discharger includes a shield and a charging wire provided in the shield, for generating corona discharge by applying a voltage to the charging wire. The corona discharger further includes a winding-up portion for winding up the charging wire by rotation thereof to move the charging wire in the shield, a driving portion for rotationally driving the winding-up portion, a rotation detecting portion for detecting the rotation of the winding-up portion, and a controller for controlling the driving portion so that a cumulative rotation amount of the winding-up portion is counted on the basis of a detection result of the rotation detecting portion and then a rotation amount of the winding-up portion per unit winding-up length of the charging wire is decreased with an increase of the cumulative rotation amount.

Abstract: An operation controller has a reference voltage generator, a starter circuit, and a switch element. The reference voltage generator is connected to an enable terminal to which an enable signal is supplied. After the enable signal is supplied and a start signal is generated, the reference voltage generator generates a reference voltage up to a stable value. After the reference voltage rises to the stable value, it generates a stop signal. When the enable signal is supplied, the starter circuit generates the start signal, and supplies it to the reference voltage generator. When the enable signal is no longer supplied or the stop signal is generated, the start signal is terminated. The switch element has one end connected to the enable terminal and the other end supplied with a prescribed voltage; it turns on when the start signal is generated, and turns off when the start signal is terminated.

Abstract: Disclosed is a production management device configured to monitor the state of a production device which, by consuming a resource (electric power and so forth) produces a product with a change in a physical amount (temperature and so forth) in the production environment. The production management device includes an environment change physical amount measurement unitconfigured to acquire as environment change physical amounts the physical amount of the production environment that has been changed by the production device consuming the resource, and a state determining unit configured to determine the state of the production device in response to the acquired environment change physical amounts.

Abstract: There is provided a lead-free piezoelectric ceramic having a high and stable piezoelectric constant and a high and stable mechanical quality factor in a wide operating temperature range. A method for manufacturing the lead-free piezoelectric ceramic is also provided. the general formula (1) (Ba1-xCax)a(Ti1-y-zSnyZrz)O3 (0.08?x?0.20, 0.01?y?0.04, 0?z?0.04)??(1) A piezoelectric ceramic includes a main component containing a perovskite type metal oxide having the following general formula (1); and Mn as a first auxiliary component. The amount b (mol) of Mn per mole of the metal oxide is in the range of 0.0048?b?0.0400, and the value a of the general formula (1) or (2) is in the range of 0.9925+b?a?1.0025+b.