Abstract: Provided is an alkaline protease mutant with improved stability to a chelating agent. An alkaline protease mutant, in which an amino acid residue at a position corresponding to position 294 of the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2 is substituted in the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2, or an amino acid sequence having an identity of at least 95% thereto.

Abstract: Provided is an alkaline protease mutant with improved stability to a chelating agent. An alkaline protease mutant, in which an amino acid residue at a position corresponding to position 294 of the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2 is substituted in the amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO: 2, or an amino acid sequence having an identity of at least 95% thereto.

Abstract: To provide a swing arm structure capable of suppressing the required rigidity of a cross member to a low level to reduce the weight of the cross member. In a swing arm structure, a swing arm includes a pair of left and right arm bodies with a cross member spanning therebetween. Ends of the swing arm suspend rear wheels. A rear wheel-driving rear drive shaft, connected to a rear final reduction gear unit, is placed above the cross member. As viewed laterally, the cross member is contained within the profile of each arm body and is formed to be trapezoidal in section such that its bottom portion is broader than its upper portion.

Abstract: A snowmobile provided with skis and being steerable by a steering shaft, and being provided with a silencer on the front side of an engine. The steering shaft passes between the engine and the silencer and overlaps the silencer in side view. Flat step floors for a rider's feet are provided on lateral sides of a lower portion of a seat. Step bars for enabling positioning of the rider's feet are provided at front portions of the step floors. The step bars are each provided on the rear side relative to the step floor tip end and within 350 mm from a track belt drive shaft which is provided on the rear side of the engine. The resulting configuration of the snowmobile makes it possible to lay out the silencer close to the engine, affords excellent turning performance, and provides step floors for good foot holding properties.

Abstract: A snowmobile includes a seat for the rider behind an engine and an air cleaner, and an elongate fuel tank below the seat. The height of the ceiling of the fuel tank at a location corresponding to the rider seating position is lower than the height of the ceiling of the fuel tank at other portions thereof. A raised ceiling portion is provided in the fuel tank by raising upwards the front side of the fuel tank. A fuel pump is provided in the raised ceiling portion of the fuel tank. The fuel pump is attached to the ceiling of the fuel tank, and a fuel supply pipe for supplying fuel from the fuel tank resides between the fuel pump and the front side of the fuel tank. The snowmobile having such fuel tank stabilizes vehicle body during operation, enhances the seating comfort, and easily incorporates a fuel pump therein.

Abstract: A snowmobile comprises a left-right pair of skis, an engine and a track belt provided on a vehicle body. The track belt is driven by the engine, and the skis are steered by an operation on a steering handlebar. The vehicle body frame is formed by connecting intermediate frame sections, which are U-shaped in side view, to a front portion of a rear frame section, the rear frame section having a roughly U-shaped section and connecting a front frame section to front portions of the intermediate frame sections. In the vehicle body frame, detachable side frame sections are used to connect the portions between the upper ends of front suspension members for supporting the skis and a front portion of a rear cushion for supporting the track belt. The reinforcing side frame sections include portions which are protuberant to the upper side and curved downwards, respectively. The resulting snowmobile frame structure is rigid enough to accommodate an engine of increased weight.

Abstract: An improved component layout in a snowmobile includes a muffler is disposed on the front side of an engine, and a lower portion of a steering shaft extends between the muffler and the engine. The engine is disposed rearwardly of the lower portion of the steering shaft. In other words, the steering shaft lower portion is disposed on the front side of the engine, whereby the engine is easily relocated rearwards with respect to the vehicle body so as to concentrate the center of mass at a central location of the vehicle body.

Abstract: An improved snowmobile component layout structure includes an engine provided at front portion of the vehicle body, a cylinder head of the engine is inclined by an angle ? rearwards from a vertical axis, a steering shaft extends forwardly of the engine, and an air intake system, including an air cleaner, is provided at the rear side of the engine. In addition, a rider seat is provided on the rear side of the engine, and an elongated fuel tank is provided below the seat. The air cleaner has an improved disposition between the fuel tank and the engine. The inventive configuration narrows the spacing between an engine and a rider and concentrates mass to enhance turning performance.

Abstract: To provide a swing arm structure capable of suppressing the required rigidity of a cross member to a low level to reduce the weight of the cross member. In a swing arm structure, a swing arm includes a pair of left and right arm bodies with a cross member spanning therebetween. Ends of the swing arm suspend rear wheels. A rear wheel-driving rear drive shaft, connected to a rear final reduction gear unit, is placed above the cross member. As viewed laterally, the cross member is contained within the profile of each arm body and is formed to be trapezoidal in section such that its bottom portion is broader than its upper portion.

Abstract: A snowmobile provided with skis and being steerable by a steering shaft, and being provided with a silencer on the front side of an engine. The steering shaft passes between the engine and the silencer and overlaps the silencer in side view. Flat step floors for a rider's feet are provided on lateral sides of a lower portion of a seat. Step bars for enabling positioning of the rider's feet are provided at front portions of the step floors. The step bars are each provided on the rear side relative to the step floor tip end and within 350 mm from a track belt drive shaft which is provided on the rear side of the engine. The resulting configuration of the snowmobile makes it possible to lay out the silencer close to the engine, affords excellent turning performance, and provides step floors for good foot holding properties.

Abstract: A snowmobile includes a seat for the rider behind an engine and an air cleaner, and an elongate fuel tank below the seat. The height of the ceiling of the fuel tank at a location corresponding to the rider seating position is lower than the height of the ceiling of the fuel tank at other portions thereof. A raised ceiling portion is provided in the fuel tank by raising upwards the front side of the fuel tank. A fuel pump is provided in the raised ceiling portion of the fuel tank. The fuel pump is attached to the ceiling of the fuel tank, and a fuel supply pipe for supplying fuel from the fuel tank resides between the fuel pump and the front side of the fuel tank. The snowmobile having such fuel tank stabilizes vehicle body during operation, enhances the seating comfort, and easily incorporates a fuel pump therein.

Abstract: An improved snowmobile component layout structure includes an engine provided at front portion of the vehicle body, a cylinder head of the engine is inclined by an angle ? rearwards from a vertical axis, a steering shaft extends forwardly of the engine, and an air intake system, including an air cleaner, is provided at the rear side of the engine. In addition, a rider seat is provided on the rear side of the engine, and an elongated fuel tank is provided below the seat. The air cleaner has an improved disposition between the fuel tank and the engine. The inventive configuration narrows the spacing between an engine and a rider and concentrates mass to enhance turning performance.

Abstract: An improved component layout in a snowmobile includes a muffler is disposed on the front side of an engine, and a lower portion of a steering shaft extends between the muffler and the engine. The engine is disposed rearwardly of the lower portion of the steering shaft. In other words, the steering shaft lower portion is disposed on the front side of the engine, whereby the engine is easily relocated rearwards with respect to the vehicle body so as to concentrate the center of mass at a central location of the vehicle body.

Abstract: A snowmobile comprises a left-right pair of skis, an engine and a track belt provided on a vehicle body. The track belt is driven by the engine, and the skis are steered by an operation on a steering handlebar. The vehicle body frame is formed by connecting intermediate frame sections, which are U-shaped in side view, to a front portion of a rear frame section, the rear frame section having a roughly U-shaped section and connecting a front frame section to front portions of the intermediate frame sections. In the vehicle body frame, detachable side frame sections are used to connect the portions between the upper ends of front suspension members for supporting the skis and a front portion of a rear cushion for supporting the track belt. The reinforcing side frame sections include portions which are protuberant to the upper side and curved downwards, respectively. The resulting snowmobile frame structure is rigid enough to accommodate an engine of increased weight.

Abstract: The present invention provides a process for the preparation of a noncentrifugal sugar composition. The process comprises the following steps: cane juice is filtered; a pH of the juice is adjusted to 5.0-6.0; sucrose or liquid sucrose or both is added to adjust a purity of the mixture to a range of 87.0 to 95.1% by weight; the mixture is heated and evaporated; and then the mixture is cooled to solidify with a strong shearing force being applied to obtain granules.

Abstract: In a four-wheeled buggy which has a pair of front wheels and a pair of rear wheels and a seat arranged around the middle of the vehicle to enable the rider to operate the vehicle in a sitting posture thereon, a pair of right and left main frames are two-dimensionally bent upwardly at the forward sections thereof and adapted to support at the front ends thereof a front wheel axle so as to prevent a front wheel driving device from hitting ground. The rearward sections of the main frames extend horizontally rearwardly to define a lowermost height from ground and are adapted to support a power unit behind the seat close to the rear wheels so as to obtain mass concentration.

Abstract: A four-wheel all-terrain vehicle including an engine cooling system for cooling an engine mounted centrally on a frame. The engine cooling system is mounted to the frame and has a cooling fan positioned contiguously and forwardly of the engine and an oil cooler positioned contiguously and forwardly of the lower half section of the cooling fan. The frame has a head pipe inclined rearwardly, and an axis about which the cooling fan is rotated extends at right angles to the axis of the head pipe. The upper half section of the cooling fan is located to face a cylinder head of the engine to cool the same.

Abstract: A speech recognition apparatus is adapted to previously prepare a noise pattern in response to environmental noise prior to inputting a speech signal, evaluate a speech feature vector B.sub.i yielded by subtracting the noise pattern from a feature vector A.sub.i of the input speech upon inputting the speech signal thereafter, spectrum-normalize the speech feature vector B.sub.i, evaluate a local peaks vector by making use of binary-coding processing wherein only a component of a channel being the maximum of the spectrum-normalized vector in a direction of frequency is assumed to be "1", evaluate pattern similarity between an input pattern comprising a local peaks vector from the start point to the end point of the input speech and previously prepared reference patterns of a plurality of categories of the same format as the input pattern, and judge a category of a reference pattern being the maximum among the pattern similarities as a recognized result.

Abstract: Speech recognition method and system are adapted to previously prepare a noise pattern in response to environmental noise prior to inputting a speech signal, evaluate a speech feature vector Bi yielded by subtracting the noise pattern from a feature vector Ai of the input speech upon inputting the speech signal thereafter, spectrum-normalize the speech feature vector Bi, evaluate a local peaks vector by making use of binary-coding processing wherein only a component of a channel being the maximum of the spectrum-normalized vector in a direction of frequency is assumed to be "1", evaluate pattern similarity between an input pattern comprising a local peaks vector from the start point to the end point of the input speech and previously prepared reference patterns of a plurality of categories of the same format as the input pattern, and judge a category of a reference pattern being the maximum among the pattern similaritites as a recognized result.

Abstract: Anti-shoplifting system comprising a switching circuit, a signal generator, and a detector gate. Said switching circuit has a built-in flat-shaped miniature power pack which is attached to individual goods sold in shops and switches on and maintains the circuit of said power pack switched on under the action of external radiowaves. The signal generator consists of a built-in signal-transmitting circuit for transmitting radio signals of a specific frequency from said power supply. The detector gate is provided with a signal-generating state forming a weak radiowave area of the required frequency to energize the switching circuit of said signal generator and receives the radiowaves transmitted from said signal generator so as to drive an alarm device via said received signals.