Abstract: In a lithium secondary battery using negative electrode active material particles containing silicon, excellent charge-discharge characteristics are achieved and swelling of the negative electrode is minimized. A lithium secondary battery has a positive electrode containing a positive electrode active material, a negative electrode containing an active material layer and a current collector made of a conductive metal foil, and a non-aqueous electrolyte. The active material layer has a binder and active material particles containing silicon, and is formed by sintering the active material layer on a current collector surface in a non-oxidizing atmosphere. The active material particles have an average particle size of from 7.5-15 ?m and a particle size distribution such that 60 volume % or more of the active material particles falls within the ±40% range of the average particle size, and the lithium secondary battery has a negative/positive electrode capacity ratio of 1.7 or greater.

Abstract: An image recording device that compresses and records image data is provided wherein noise reduction is recursively performed on the non-compressed image signals and the feedback gain or the filtering characteristic of a recursive noise reduction circuit are controlled according to the compressibility of the image data in order to reduce the compressibility of the non-compressed image signals without deterioration or to improve the compressibility efficiency thereof and to reduce the digital value of the compressed image data with the frame noises in restraint.

Abstract: A lithium secondary battery employing as its negative electrode active material a material that increases in volume by alloying with lithium during charge achieves high discharge capacity and good cycle performance. The lithium secondary battery includes a negative electrode having a negative electrode active material (2) and a negative electrode current collector, a positive electrode having a positive electrode active material (1) and a positive electrode current collector (3), and a non-aqueous electrolyte. The negative electrode active material (2) is a material that increases in volume by alloying with lithium during charge. The negative electrode active material (1) is arranged so as to be on, and in contact with, the negative electrode current collector. The negative electrode active material (2) contains, when in an end-of-discharge condition, 8% or more of lithium with respect to the total capacity of the negative electrode active material (2) as measured when it does not contain lithium.

Abstract: An image recording device that compresses and records image data is provided wherein noise reduction is recursively performed on the non-compressed image signals and the feedback gain or the filtering characteristic of a recursive noise reduction circuit are controlled according to the compressibility of the image data in order to reduce the compressibility of the non-compressed image signals without deterioration or to improve the compressibility efficiency thereof and to reduce the digital value of the compressed image data with the frame noises in restraint.