Abstract: In a distance measuring device that measures a distance to an object using a round-trip time of light, a solid-state image sensor includes a plurality of pixel groups capable of being exposed independently, and causes each of the plurality of pixel groups to receive, at a different exposure time, reflected light from the object that is originally pulsed radiation light from a light emitter. A light emission and exposure controller cyclically and intermittently exposes each of the plurality of pixel groups of the solid-state image sensor at the different exposure time to obtain pixel signals of types corresponding to a time difference between the reflected light and the radiation light, and a signal processor obtains information about the distance to the object according to pixel signals of adjacent pixels exposed at different exposure times for each of the plurality of pixel groups.

Abstract: A component mounting device includes a controller that controls an imaging unit to image a predetermined region during a period from a time point at which a head finishes mounting a component at a mounting position to a time point at which the head completes upward movement from the mounting position, and acquires information about a height of the mounting position based on an imaging result of the predetermined region imaged by the imaging unit. The controller further determines whether or not the component has been successfully mounted at the mounting position based on the acquired information about the height of the mounting position.

Abstract: Provided is a press forming apparatus for a semi-solid metal material, including: a slide caused to make a reciprocating linear motion; a sub-slide mounted so as to be movable relatively to the slide; a fluid pressure mechanism interposed between the slide and the sub-slide, which is capable of moving the sub-slide relatively to the slide by fluid pressure; an upper die mounted to the sub-slide; and a lower die. The press forming apparatus is configured to press-form the material while applying predetermined pressure to the material for a predetermined period by bringing, along with descent action of the slide, the upper die into contact with the material fed into the lower die, then stopping the slide at a predetermined position, and moving the upper die mounted to the sub-slide relatively to the slide by the fluid pressure mechanism under a state in which the slide is stopped.

Abstract: A distance measuring apparatus includes a light source, a light source controller, a light receiver including pixels arranged two-dimensionally, an exposure controller, and a signal processor. The light receiver outputs, to the signal processor, a signal corresponding to the amount of electric charge accumulated in the accumulator. The signal processor determines that the interference is present when at least one of (i) a ratio between signal levels of the same pixel included in the pixels, the signal levels representing respective amounts of electric charge in respective exposure periods and (ii) a ratio between signal levels of the first and second pixels exceeds a predetermined threshold with respect to a determination criterion that is based on a difference between a period in which a read gate of the first pixel is open and a period in which a read gate of the second pixel is open.

Abstract: Provided is a press forming method for a semi-solid metal material, including: manufacturing a semi-solid metal material in a container having an upward opening by injecting molten metal into the container, and cooling the molten metal while stirring the molten metal; inverting the container and storing the semi-solid metal material in a temporary storage space; discharging a liquid phase part from the semi-solid metal material through the inverting; and pressing the semi-solid metal material by feeding the semi-solid metal material, from which the liquid phase part is discharged, into dies of a pressing machine.

Abstract: Provided is a press forming method for a semi-solid material, including: a semi-solid material carrying step of carrying a semi-solid material into a lower die; a first press forming step of regulating, under a Z-direction regulation state in which a change in the Z direction's dimension corresponding to a pressing direction is regulated by an upper die, a change in one of the dimensions in X and Y directions by compressing the material with a transverse punch so that the one becomes equal to a dimension of the product, and then stopping the punch at a position of the compression; and a second press forming step of moving, under a state in which the change in the one is regulated in the above step, the upper die in the pressing direction to compress the material so that the Z direction's dimension becomes equal to the product's dimension.

Abstract: The present invention provides a producing method of concrete capable of appropriately controlling setting and hardening, and having excellent flexibility of production and handling of concrete. The producing method of concrete includes a cement paste mixing step and a concrete mixing step. In the cement paste mixing step, cement, mixing water and retarder are mixed together to obtain cement paste. According to this, setting and hardening of the cement paste are suppressed, and it is possible to store the cement paste for predetermined time. In the concrete mixing step, aggregate is input into the cement paste, and they are mixed together to obtain concrete. By the mixing operation, a setting-delaying effect is canceled.

Abstract: A laser therapeutic device for a laser endoscope capable of relatively reducing the diameter of the endoscope while being capable of emitting a laser beam of a uniform intensity over a wide area is provided. An optical guide element (a square-shaped rod lens 15, a guide tube 2b) having a quadrangular cross section and guiding a therapeutic laser beam emitted from the tip of an optical fiber toward the tip side of a probe is used. On the tip side of a probe tube 2 being a barrel, using clearances C1 to C4 formed between the optical guide element and the inner circumferential surface of the probe tube, a camera unit 11 as imaging means and white-color LED units 12 and an ultraviolet LED unit 13 as illumination means are arranged.

Abstract: Provided is an apparatus for producing a semi-solid metal material by charging molten metal of a metal material into a slurry container, the apparatus including: an electromagnetic stirring device configured to apply a transverse circular flow to the molten metal in the slurry container by electromagnetic stirring; and a flow suppressing unit configured to suppress a flow of the molten metal by applying turbulence to the transverse circular flow of the molten metal under a state in which the flow suppressing unit is inserted into the molten metal from above the slurry container so as to cross the transverse circular flow of the molten metal.

Abstract: Provided is a press forming apparatus for a semi-solid metal material, including: a slide caused to make a reciprocating linear motion; a sub-slide mounted so as to be movable relatively to the slide; a fluid pressure mechanism interposed between the slide and the sub-slide, which is capable of moving the sub-slide relatively to the slide by fluid pressure; an upper die mounted to the sub-slide; and a lower die. The press forming apparatus is configured to press-form the material while applying predetermined pressure to the material for a predetermined period by bringing, along with descent action of the slide, the upper die into contact with the material fed into the lower die, then stopping the slide at a predetermined position, and moving the upper die mounted to the sub-slide relatively to the slide by the fluid pressure mechanism under a state in which the slide is stopped.

Abstract: Provided is a press forming method for a semi-solid material, including: a semi-solid material carrying step of carrying a semi-solid material into a lower die; a first press forming step of regulating, under a Z-direction regulation state in which a change in the Z direction's dimension corresponding to a pressing direction is regulated by an upper die, a change in one of the dimensions in X and Y directions by compressing the material with a transverse punch so that the one becomes equal to a dimension of the product, and then stopping the punch at a position of the compression; and a second press forming step of moving, under a state in which the change in the one is regulated in the above step, the upper die in the pressing direction to compress the material so that the Z direction's dimension becomes equal to the product's dimension.

Abstract: Provided is a press forming method for a semi-solid metal material, including: manufacturing a semi-solid metal material in a container having an upward opening by injecting molten metal into the container, and cooling the molten metal while stirring the molten metal; inverting the container and storing the semi-solid metal material in a temporary storage space; discharging a liquid phase part from the semi-solid metal material through the inverting; and pressing the semi-solid metal material by feeding the semi-solid metal material, from which the liquid phase part is discharged, into dies of a pressing machine.

Abstract: The present invention provides a producing method of concrete capable of appropriately controlling setting and hardening, and having excellent flexibility of production and handling of concrete. The producing method of concrete includes a cement paste mixing step and a concrete mixing step. In the cement paste mixing step, cement, mixing water and retarder are mixed together to obtain cement paste. According to this, setting and hardening of the cement paste are suppressed, and it is possible to store the cement paste for predetermined time. In the concrete mixing step, aggregate is input into the cement paste, and they are mixed together to obtain concrete. By the mixing operation, a setting-delaying effect is canceled.

Abstract: The object of the invention is to find a simple biomarker with high reproducibility with regard to a method for evaluating the activity of the condition and progression of rheumatoid arthritis disease and provide an effective evaluation method therefor. The invention is to provide a method for determining the value of a rheumatoid arthritis-linked indicator in a subject, the method being characterized by comprising a step for measuring the amount of expression of the FAM20A gene in blood collected from the subject, a step for analyzing the measured amount of expression using a gene expression profile that is prepared in advance and correlates with the indicator and a step for estimating the value of the indicator in the subject on the basis of the analysis results.

Abstract: A nonvolatile memory device (101) includes a plurality of physical blocks, each of which is provide with a nonvolatile memory (103), a logic/physical address conversion table, a temporary block and a temporary table. The nonvolatile memory (103) includes a plurality of pages which are predetermined writing units, respectively. The logical-physical address conversion table (106) stores correspondence information between logic addresses and physical addresses of data to be stored in the physical blocks. The temporary block is a physical block to store data that are smaller in size than those of the page. The temporary table (107) stores correspondence information between logic addresses and physical addresses with respect to data to be stored in the temporary block.

Abstract: Data is written in data areas (202) and information for correcting an error of the data and status information indicating that the data has been written are written in redundant areas (203) sequentially from the first page of a physical block (201). In the step of creating information to be written in the physical block (201), the redundant areas (203) of the pages are subjected to a binary search to temporarily identify a last valid page. Further, the contents of every area (the data areas and the redundant areas) of the temporarily identified last valid page and a page adjacent to the temporarily identified last valid page are checked to finally identify the last valid page and make a judgment as to whether or not an error page resulting from power-down exists.

Abstract: A heating cooking device includes a top plate, a heating unit, a touch key including a first electrode and a second electrode, an input unit for applying an alternating current (AC) voltage to the second electrode and for outputting a voltage changing according to a change of the AC voltage when the first electrode is pushed, a detector for outputting a first signal if the voltage output from the input unit changes from the reference value to the first value, an operation judging unit for outputting a second signal according to a rate of change of the voltage output from the input unit, and a controller operable to perform control of the heating unit based on the first and second signals. The controller is operable to perform control of energization of the heating unit if the controller does not receive the second signal after receiving the first signal, and not to perform the control of the energization of the heating unit if the controller receives the second signal after receiving the first signal.

Abstract: An electronic apparatus that transmits error information about setting of a block size to a host device includes an interface section that transmits and receives a command, a response and data to and from the host device. When the data is a predetermined length or more, the interface section executes multi-block transmission. Moreover, the electronic apparatus includes a data buffer, and a storage section that stores information about a block size. When the interface section receives a block size setting command transmitted from the host device and the block size is larger than a capacity of the data buffer, it transmits a response including error information about incapability of accepting the block size at the time which has a predetermined relation to the block size setting command.

Abstract: A functional module card and a host apparatus according to the present invention can constitute the digital broadcasting receiver apparatus. The functional module card includes a card controller and a tuner section. The tuner section inputs a digital broadcasting signal, generates a transport stream (referred to as a TS hereinafter) and a TS clock for transferring the TS, and directly transfers the TS and the TS clock to a decoder and descrambler of the host apparatus via a bus according to the TS clock. A data transfer method for transferring data between the card controller and the host controller of the host apparatus is a master-slave data transfer method in which the host controller operates as a master apparatus.

Abstract: Data is written in data areas (202) and information for correcting an error of the data and status information indicating that the data has been written are written in redundant areas (203) sequentially from the first page of a physical block (201). In the step of creating information to be written in the physical block (201), the redundant areas (203) of the pages are subjected to a binary search to temporarily identify a last valid page. Further, the contents of every area (the data areas and the redundant areas) of the temporarily identified last valid page and a page adjacent to the temporarily identified last valid page are checked to finally identify the last valid page and make a judgment as to whether or not an error page resulting from power-down exists.