Abstract: A display panel driving device has a signal line driver. The signal line driver applies a pixel driving voltage based on an input image signal to each signal line of a display panel at a timing corresponding to a clock signal. The signal line driver is divided into a plurality of driver chips connected in cascade by the clock line. The display panel driving device supplies a clock signal through the driver chips. The duty ratio of the clock signal is stabilized when the clock signal passes through the driver chips, without leading to an increase in power consumption and in manufacturing costs.

Abstract: An inverter of a delay circuit in a semiconductor integrated device that has a high resistance to an electrostatic discharge. The delay circuit includes at least one inverter. Each inverter has high and low potential parts. The low potential part includes a pair of FETs. A source terminal of one FET is connected to a drain terminal of the other FET at a first common node. The high potential part includes another pair of FETs, with a source terminal of one FET being connected to a drain terminal of the other FET at a second common node. A power supply potential is applied to the first common node when the inverter output becomes a high potential. A ground potential is applied to the second common node when the inverter output becomes a low potential.

Abstract: In a heterojunction solar cell, a semiconductor A is bonded to a different conductivity type semiconductor B having an electron affinity a2 which is larger than an electron affinity a1 of the semiconductor A. The semiconductor A and the semiconductor B are lattice-matched to each other with a mismatch ratio of less than 1%, respectively. In a method for fabricating the heterojunction solar cell, the semiconductor A and the semiconductor B are lattice-matched to each other with a mismatch ratio of less than 1% respectively, and the semiconductor A is made of p-type silicon with a p-type germanium layer formed on the surface thereof, and n-type GaP is formed after removing an oxide film by removing the germanium layer.

Abstract: Approaches for a hard-disk drive (HDD) baseplate comprising a recessed region that provides additional clearance for a disk. The protective enclosure of the HDD comprises a baseplate. The surface of the baseplate, which opposes a magnetic-recording disk, comprises a recessed region near the outer diameter (OD) of the magnetic-recording disk. The recessed region prevents the disk from being damaged through inadvertent physical contact with the baseplate, which may arise when the HDD receives a mechanical shock. The recessed region may be designed to minimize the damage to the disk if physical contact between the disk and the baseplate does occur. The recessed region may have a variety of shapes, such as a circular indentation or one or more non-contiguous regions in the baseplate where physical contact between the disk and the baseplate is deemed likely to occur.

Abstract: A muscle-activity diagnosis apparatus includes: an acquiring section acquiring a myoelectric signal from a test subject; using the myoelectric signal as an original signal, a transformed-signal generating section generating a transformed signal by performing Hilbert transformation and inverse Fourier transformation on the original signal; a phase-velocity calculation section calculating a phase velocity of the myoelectric signal on the basis of phases of the original signal and the transformed signal; and on the basis of a plurality of feature quantities of a waveform of the myoelectric signal in a unit time and the plurality of feature quantities including at least a size of amplitude of the myoelectric signal and the calculated phase velocity, a state-identifying section identifying an activity state of a muscle of a predetermined part of a body of the test subject for each of the unit time.

Abstract: A biological signal processing apparatus includes an obtaining unit that obtains a spectrum of a biological signal that has been obtained, a generation unit that generates a three-dimensional waveform by plotting elements of the spectrum obtained by the obtaining unit in a space defined by a time axis, a frequency axis, and an intensity axis, and a detection unit that detects a specified waveform component using a position along the intensity axis at which a cross-section of the three-dimensional waveform in a time-frequency domain generated by the generation unit is to be observed and a state of the cross-section at the position as criteria for recognition.

Abstract: A fuel cell which utilizes the biogenic metabolism to produce a high current density is provided. The fuel cell generates electric power in such a way that the fuel is decomposed stepwise by a plurality of enzymes and those electrons formed by oxidation are transferred to the electrode. The enzymes work such that the enzyme activity of the enzyme involved in decomposition in the early stage is smaller than the sum of the enzyme activities of the enzymes involved in decomposition in the later stage. In the case where a coenzyme is involved, the enzyme activity of the oxidase that oxidizes the coenzyme is greater than the sum of the enzyme activities of the enzymes involved in the formation of the reduced form of the coenzyme, out of the enzymes involved in the stepwise decomposition of the fuel.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of manufacturing silicon and a manufacturing system for manufacturing and extracting silicon by grinding silicon carbide and silica, mixing each at predetermined ratio after cleaning them, housing them in a crucible, heating this by a heating unit to make them react, oxidizing the silicon carbide with the silica and further, reducing the silica with the silicon carbide. The present invention further provides a method of simultaneously manufacturing silicon and silicon carbide and a manufacturing system for producing silicon carbide by forming a silicon carbide film by vapor phase epitaxy using active gas generated in heating for reaction for material and recovering the silicon carbide film.

Abstract: Certain embodiments for reducing instruction storage space for a processor integrated in a network adapter chip may include generating MIPS instructions from corresponding new instructions. The new instructions may be in patch code instruction (PCI) format. The new instructions may be decoded and the MIPS instructions may be generated by a MIPS processor within a network adapter chip. Decoding the new instructions may also be referred to as interpreting the new instructions. The new instructions may comprise fewer bits than the generated MIPS instructions. The generated MIPS instructions may be executed by the MIPS processor within the network adapter chip.

Abstract: A fuel cell which can directly extract electric power from a polysaccharide, such as starch, is provided. A fuel electrode is formed by immobilizing with an immobilizer, on an electrode comprised of, e.g., carbon, an enzyme responsible for decomposing a polysaccharide into monosaccharides, an enzyme responsible for decomposing the monosaccharide formed, a coenzyme (e.g., NAD? or NADP+) which forms a reductant due to the oxidation reaction in the monosaccharide decomposition process, a coenzyme oxidase (e.g., diaphorase) for oxidizing the reductant of the coenzyme (e.g., NADH or NADPH), and an electron mediator (e.g., ACNQ or vitamin K3) for receiving electrons generated due to the oxidation of the coenzyme from the coenzyme oxidase and delivering the electrons to the electrode. The fuel cell comprises the fuel electrode and the air electrode that sandwich an electrolyte layer.

Abstract: A fuel cell which can directly extract electric power from a polysaccharide, such as starch, is provided. A fuel electrode is formed by immobilizing with an immobilizer, on an electrode comprised of, e.g., carbon, an enzyme responsible for decomposing a polysaccharide into monosaccharides, an enzyme responsible for decomposing the monosaccharide formed, a coenzyme (e.g., NAD+ or NADP+) which forms a reductant due to the oxidation reaction in the monosaccharide decomposition process, a coenzyme oxidase (e.g., diaphorase) for oxidizing the reductant of the coenzyme (e.g., NADH or NADPH), and an electron mediator (e.g., ACNQ or vitamin K3) for receiving electrons generated due to the oxidation of the coenzyme from the coenzyme oxidase and delivering the electrons to the electrode. The fuel cell comprises the fuel electrode and the air electrode that sandwich an electrolyte layer.

Abstract: The present invention provides a fuel cell system that has a fuel cell portion including one or more unit cells, a fuel tank for storing fuel used in the unit cells, and a control portion for controlling the fuel cell portion. The number of unit cells is optimized so that a total amount of energy, which is outputted from the fuel cell system as a function of the number of unit cells or of an electrode area, shows a maximum value or a nearly maximum value. Thus, the amount of energy may be maximized or made to be equal to or more than a predetermined value. Accordingly, target devices to be supplied with power from the fuel cell system may be used for a longer time.

Abstract: A fuel cell and an electronic device equipped therewith are disclosed. The fuel cell is of the type having a cathode and an anode facing each other with a proton conductor interposed therebetween, with at least either of the cathode or anode having an enzyme as a catalyst immobilized thereon, wherein at least a first cathode, a first proton conductor, an anode, a second proton conductor, and a second cathode are sequentially placed thereon, and in fuel is held in contact with at least part of the anode.

Abstract: A power supply system is provided that includes a fuel cell as its energy source and has not only high energy density but also high power density and can respond to sharp change in the power consumption with simple means. In a power supply system, a fuel cell is connected to the input terminal of a DC/DC converter, and a lithium-ion secondary battery and a load are connected to the output terminal in parallel. A voltage measurement device that measures the terminal voltage of the secondary battery and a control microcomputer that sets the target output voltage of the converter are provided, and the target output voltage is set slightly higher than the terminal voltage. The fuel cell is operated within a power generation condition offering the highest fuel conversion efficiency.

Abstract: An electrochemical energy generation device (50) includes an electrochemical device (10) such as a fuel cell having an electrolyte film (1) arranged between an anode (6) and a cathode (7) and a reference electrode (9) maintained at an oxidation-reduction potential between an metal and a metal ion and arranged in contact with the electrolyte film (1). The electrochemical energy generation device (50) is operated by measuring a potential of the anode (6) and the cathode (7) based on the reference electrode (9), deciding the operation condition such as a fuel supply amount to the electrochemical device (10) according to the result of the potential measurement of the anode (6) and the cathode (7), and selling the operation condition such as the fuel supply amount according to the decision, by an operation condition setting unit (20).

Abstract: It is an object to obtain a photovoltaic power generation system. A photovoltaic power generation system includes multiple solar cell modules each having a different band gap and step-up voltage transformers (boosters) that receive outputs from load resistors, the load resistors being controlled to maximize outputs of the respective solar cell modules. An output voltage of each step-up voltage transformer (booster) is controlled to be a predetermined output voltage (or output current), and the step-up voltage transformers (boosters) are connected in parallel (or in series) to obtain predetermined electric power.

Abstract: A mutant protein having diaphorase activity is provided. A mutant protein includes an amino acid sequence obtained by deletion, replacement, addition, or insertion of at least one amino acid residue of a native-form amino acid sequence of SEQ. ID. No. 1, wherein the mutant protein has diaphorase activity with an enzyme activity of 245 or more.

Abstract: The dispersant of the present invention comprises at least one component unit derived from kraft lignin and/or its salt and at least one component unit derived from at least one water-soluble monomer. The novel lignin derivative of the present invention comprises at least one component unit derived from kraft lignin and/or its salt, at least one polyoxyalkylene chain, and at least one anionic functional group.

Abstract: Certain embodiments for a self-booting Ethernet controller chip (NAC) may comprise a processor within the NAC that determines whether legacy boot code is present in memory external to the NAC. If legacy boot code is present in the external memory, the NAC may boot from the legacy boot code. If the legacy boot code is not present in the external memory, the processor may boot the NAC from the self-boot code in the ROM within the NAC. The processor may also read network configuration data from the external memory. The network configuration data may be stored, for example, in a NVRAM. The processor may copy the network configuration data from the NVRAM to a RAM within the NAC while booting.

Abstract: A mutant protein having diaphorase activity is provided. A mutant protein includes an amino acid sequence obtained by deletion, replacement, addition, or insertion of at least one amino acid residue of a native-form amino acid sequence of SEQ. ID. No. 1, wherein the mutant protein has diaphorase activity with an enzyme activity of 245 or more.