Abstract: The present invention provides a magnetic disk inspection method and its system suitable to supply magnetic disks stored in a cassette to a plurality of inspection devices and collects inspected magnetic disks from the inspection devices. The cassette in which uninspected magnetic disks are stored is taken out from a cassette housing unit and transferred to any one of a plurality of optical inspection units. The optical disk inspection unit to which the cassette with the uninspected magnetic disks stored therein is transferred, takes out an uninspected magnetic disk and inspects both surfaces thereof. The magnetic disk whose both surfaces are inspected and which is determined as a non-defective product is stored in a cassette for collecting non-defective magnetic disks. The cassette is transferred from the optical inspection unit to the cassette housing unit. The transferred cassette is housed in the cassette housing unit.

Abstract: The invention provides an optical surface defect inspection apparatus and an optical surface defect inspection method that reduces an influence from a dead zone of a sensor array and that reduces the influence from reduction of a detected light amount in a case of extending over light receiving elements, thereby enabling a defect inspection with high sensitivity. According to the invention, a subject is irradiated with an inspection light, an image is formed on the sensor array including the light receiving elements separated by the dead zone insensitive to light scattered by a surface of the subject and arranged in a plurality of lines, outputs from two adjacent light receiving elements are added, and a defect on the surface of the subject is inspected for based on the result of the addition.

Abstract: In order to feed back information on the detected defect to a production process in a short period of time, there is provided a method for inspecting the surface of a sample by illuminating illumination light to the sample, detecting scattered light generated from the sample by the illumination light and processing a detection signal representing the detected scattered light in order to detect a defect on the sample. In the step of processing the detected scattered signal includes the sub-steps of making use of detection signals representing the scattered light scattered in the first elevation-angle direction and the scattered light scattered in the third elevation-angle direction in order to detect a defect on the sample, identifying the type of the detected defect, generating spectroscopic data by dispersing the scattered light scattered in the second elevation-angle direction and summing up the spectroscopic data for every defect type.

Abstract: The present invention provides a magnetic disk inspection method and its system suitable to supply magnetic disks stored in a cassette to a plurality of inspection devices and collects inspected magnetic disks from the inspection devices. The cassette in which uninspected magnetic disks are stored is taken out from a cassette housing unit and transferred to any one of a plurality of optical inspection units. The optical disk inspection unit to which the cassette with the uninspected magnetic disks stored therein is transferred, takes out an uninspected magnetic disk and inspects both surfaces thereof. The magnetic disk whose both surfaces are inspected and which is determined as a non-defective product is stored in a cassette for collecting non-defective magnetic disks. The cassette is transferred from the optical inspection unit to the cassette housing unit. The transferred cassette is housed in the cassette housing unit.

Abstract: In magnetic disk inspection, it is made possible to perform the total operation in which magnetic disks taken out from a cassette are inspected on both surfaces thereof, classified by the grades according to the inspection results and returned again to corresponding cassettes, while maintaining high throughput. To achieve such inspection, a plurality of uninspected boards are put on a plurality of corresponding rotation-drive portions at a plurality of corresponding board taking-out and supply positions in a magnetic disk inspection apparatus and are transferred to a plurality of corresponding inspection positions. The boards are optically inspected while rotating. The optically inspected boards are transferred to the plurality of corresponding board taking-out and supply positions and the plurality of transferred boards are taken out. The taken-out boards are sorted according to the optical inspection results and stored in the corresponding cassettes into which inspected boards are stored.

Abstract: The present invention specifies a stamper that causes a defect at an early stage by inspecting a surface of a patterned medium and failure in molding of a pattern shape of a stamper at high speed or extracting a defect resulting from the stamper based upon a defect of a pattern on a disk so as to prevent the occurrence of a large quantity of failure beforehand. In the present invention, in order to inspect a pattern shape, wide-band light including a deep ultraviolet ray is radiated onto an inspected object, reflected light generated from the inspected object irradiated by an radiating optical system is detected, and it is judged whether the channel spectral data having fixed wavelength width of the detected reflected light exists within set limit or not.

Abstract: Light beams of predetermined different wavelengths are projected into an eye fundus and light scattered therefrom is detected to distinguish blood vessels from surrounding tissue in the eye fundus. The method and apparatus of the invention makes full use of differences in light absorbing/reflecting characteristics in the fundus blood vessels and surrounding tissue and is therefore able to reliably distinguish whether light projected at the eye fundus is scattered by a blood vessel or by surrounding tissue.

Abstract: A method for manufacturing expandable styrene type polymer particles is disclosed, which comprises the steps of adding a styrene type monomer to styrene type polymer seed particles suspended in an aqueous dispersing medium, continuously or intermittently to be polymerized while being absorbed thereby, and impregnating the resulting polymer particles with an easily volatile blowing agent to obtain expandable styrene type polymer particles, the improvement wherein styrene type polymer particles whose weight-average molecular weight (Mw.sub.1) is not more than 2/3 of the weight-average molecular weight (Mw.sub.2) of the resulting polymer particles are used as said styrene type polymer particles. The present invention provides expandable styrene type polymer particles excellent in moldability and foamed articles high in strength and fine in external appearance.

Abstract: In an ophthalmological measurement method and apparatus, a laser beam of predetermined diameter is projected to the eye fundus and movement of a speckle pattern formed by light scattered by blood cells in blood vessel is detected by a photosensor as fluctuation in speckle light intensity to produce a speckle signal. The speckle light intensity will fluctuate more rapidly with a smaller output from the photosensor when cell velocities are high, while a low cell travel speed will decrease the lowering of the output therefrom. The speckle signal thus mirrors the travel speed of the blood cells in the eye tissues. The differences in the speckle signal are used to identify the blood vessel for automatic tracking of the blood vessel or for measurement of its diameter.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for producing expandable thermoplastic polymer particles which comprises conducting polymerization by adding a polymerizable monomer either continuously or intermittently to thermoplastic polymer particles having a uniform particle size suspended in water, the improvement wherein an amide compound is added when the added amount of the polymerizable monomer is not more than one half of the total amount to be added in the course of polymerization and resulting polymer particles are impregnated with an easily volatile blowing agent after completion of addition of the amide compound and the polymerizable monomer. According to the present invention, expandable thermoplastic particles which are capable of giving cells, fine and uniform in size, are obtainable even by expanding immediately after production without any aging period.

Abstract: In an ophthalmological measurement method and apparatus, a laser beam of predetermined diameter is projected to the eye fundus and movement of a speckle pattern formed by light scattered by blood cells in blood vessel is detected by a photosensor as fluctuation in speckle light intensity to produce a speckle signal. The speckle light intensity will fluctuate more rapidly with a smaller output from the photosensor when cell velocities are high, while a low cell travel speed will decrease the lowering of the output therefrom. The speckle signal is integrated to produce an integrated speckle signal which is evaluated in terms of a rate of change to discriminate edges of a blood vessel. The integrated speckle signal is used to identify the blood vessel for automatic tracking of the blood vessel or for measurement of its diameter.

Abstract: In an ophthalmological measurement method and apparatus, a laser beam of predetermined diameter is projected to the eye fundus and movement of a speckle pattern formed by light scattered by blood cells in blood vessel is detected by a photosensor as fluctuation in speckle light intensity to produce a speckle signal. The speckle light intensity will fluctuate more rapidly with a smaller output from the photosensor when cell velocities are high, while a low cell travel speed will decrease the lowering of the output therefrom. The speckle signal is then processed to derive therefrom its center of gravity, which is taken as a center of a blood vessel to identify the blood vessel. This enables the blood vessel parts to be identified with high accuracy and to be tracked automatically.

Abstract: Disclosed is an ophthalomological diagnosis method and apparatus in which a blood vessel in the eye fundus is illuminated with a laser beam of a predetermined beam spot whose diameter is substantially equal to or smaller than that of the blood vessel in order to produce diffraction-plane speckles which are formed at a Fourier-transform plane by light scattered from the eye fundus. Boiling motion of the diffraction-plane speckle pattern thus produced is then detected through a multiple detection aperture pattern which is disposed at the Fourier-transform plane and comprised of a plurality of small apertures to obtain a speckle signal which is evaluated to measure velocity of the blood flowing through the blood vessel concerned. This arrangement makes it possible to detect the speckle signal without any effect of averaging the signal with an increase in intensity detected, thus enabling advantageous and successful measurement of the blood flow state in the eye fundus.

Abstract: Disclosed is an ophthalomological diagnosis method and apparatus in which a blood vessel in the eye fundus is illuminated with a laser beam of a predetermined beam spot whose diameter is substantially equal to or smaller than that of the blood vessel in order to produce a speckle pattern which is produced by light scattered from the eye fundus. Boiling motion of the speckle pattern thus produced is then detected through a multiple detection aperture pattern comprised of a plurality of small apertures as fluctuation in a total amount of light passing through the small apertures to obtain a speckle signal which is evaluated to measure velocity of the blood flowing through the blood vessel concerned. This arrangement makes it possible to detect the speckle signal without any averaging process with an increase in intensity detected, thus enabling advantageous and successful measurement of the blood flow state in the eye fundus.

Abstract: An ophthalmological diagnosis apparatus is disclosed that has an optical spatial frequency filter, a double diffraction optical system whereby an eye fundus image formed at a first image plane that is conjugate with the eye fundus is again formed at a second image plane, a magnifying optical system for expanding the eye fundus image formed on the second image plane, and a detecting aperture for detecting movement of laser speckles formed at the image plane of magnifying optical system as fluctuations in the intensity of the speckle light. Advantages of the apparatus include the ease with which a single, specific blood vessel can be selected; unnecessary light components can be filtered out, improving the S/N ratio of the speckle light detection; the optical system does not need to be high-precision; good operability; and measurement results that are much more reliable and reproducible.

Abstract: A process for preparing .alpha.-methylstyrene/acrylonitrile copolymer by suspension or bulk polymerization of .alpha.-methylstyrene and acrylonitrile with at least one member selected from the group consisting of styrene, chlorostyrene, para-methylstyrene, t-butylstyrene, acrylic ester and methacrylic ester in the presence of a difunctional organic peroxide having a 10 hour half-life temperature of 60.degree. to 120.degree. C. and capable of producing a t-butyl radical, at a polymerization temperature of 80.degree. to 135.degree. C. The process produces the copolymers having excellent transparency, heat resistance and strength in a high conversion in a short time.

Abstract: A method of suspension polymerizing in an aqueous medium vinyl chloride or a mixture of 50% or more vinyl chloride and remainder other monomers copolymerizable therewith in the presence of an oil soluble initiator, a suspension stabilizer and 0.005 to 50 ppm of nitrite, and 10 to 1000 ppm of water soluble metallic salt, the parts being based on the amount of aqueous medium.