Clamp

CLAMP is a group of shoujo manga artists who work together to make their outstanding mangas. At one point, CLAMP consisted of eleven members; Akiyama Tamayo, Kazue Nakamori, Leeza Sei, Mick Nekoi, Mokona Apapa, Nanase Ohkawa, Satsuki Igarashi, Sei Nanao, Shinya Ohmi, Soushi Hisagi, and O-Kyon, but several members left until there were only seven, then four;

Nanase Ohkawa
Birth date: May 2
Zodiac: Tuarus
Blood Type: A
Script writer, producer, director, scene artist

Satsuki Igarashi
Birth date: February 8
Zodiac: Aquarius
Blood Type: A
Production coordinator and illustrating assistant

Mick Nekoi
Birth date: January 21
Zodiac: Aquarius
Blood Type: O
Art director and assistant

Mokona Apapa
Birth date: June 16
Zodiac: Gemini
Blood type: A
Main artist, draws backgrounds, characters, zip-tone, and page layout

All four currently live in the Kansai area of Japan, also known as the Osaka, Kyoto and Shiga Prefecture. Other mangas that CLAMP created include Magic Knight Rayearth, Wish, Angelic Layer, Miyuki-Chan in Wonderland, Tokyo Babylon, Clamp Campus Detectives, and RG Veda, among others.

Taken with permission (I asked her) from my sister's site, Pink Cherry Blossoms located at http://chibichan.users4.50megs.com

In electronics, a clamp is a circuit to limit a voltage in a system by clipping it. A clamp circuit consists of a series resistor and one or more zener diodes or other devices that exhibit high resistance until their breakdown voltage is reached. Clamps are useful for protecting circuitry from an overvoltage, or limiting a higher voltage in a circuit to make it compatible with a system that uses a much lower voltage. A possible use of this would be converting the +/- 12vdc used by RS-232 serial ports to a 5 volt TTL-compatible level.

For a DC circuit,
+ o------\/\/\-+------------+
         R     |        Output
input        __|__|
            | / \   zener
             /___\  diode
               |
- o------------+-------------

For an AC circuit, where current must be allowed to pass in either direction, two zener diodes are used 'back to back'.

In either case, the clamp will limit the voltage on the circuit to the reverse breakdown voltage of the diode. If two are used back to back, the voltage will be the sum of the forward and reverse breakdown voltages. MOVs or varistors can also be used in place of zener diodes.

The resistor is sized to allow only the needed amount of current to flow through the circuit, and the zener diodes must be rated for this amount of current.

Although the clamp is very useful for low-power logic signals, it wastes too much power for practical use as a voltage regulator above a few milliamps.

A precision voltage reference is usually based around a zener diode clamp.

.....
.xoa.
.....

With the black stone "x" and the white stone "o" already in place, a black stone played at "a" would constitute a clamp.

Clamps are a strange kind of move, one that doesn't show up very often, maybe one out of three or four games at my level. They almost always require the opponent to respond by playing a nobi (stretch) on one of the two free points next to the stone being clamped, because to ignore the clamp would be to invite an atari by the opponent, which may be a bad idea. The person doing the clamping will then usually take the other of those points, since the clamp is usually only played when follow-up plays at those two points are miai for some sort of purpose (often connecting two groups). So, if White extended up in the preceding diagram, Black would usually play contact underneath, giving the following situation:

.....
..o..
.xox.
..x..
.....

Clamps are most often seen on the second or third lines, played in a situation where ignoring the clamp or stretching downwards would result in the opponent being able to capture the clamped stone; the opponent must therefore stretch up, allowing the person who played the clamp to connect under (since the tiger's mouth formation on the second or third line is connected). Here's an example (edge of the goban marked with ###):

........#
...o....#
.....o..#
.x.2....#
..xo1.x.#
...3....#
#########

(Note that this is a highly unnatural formation, and probably wouldn't occur in a real game, but it serves to illustrate the idea)

Black wants to connect his lonely stone on the right to his stronger stones on the left (which presumably have some way to live). One way (possibly the only way, I haven't read this one out) to connect it is to play the clamp at 1. If White plays at 3, Black will play at 2, and there will be no way for White to save her two stones. So White stretches upwards to 2, and Black plays at 3, forming a "bridge under" and connecting in gote. An attempt to play at 3 immediately would fail (White would play at 1), so the clamp is tesuji for connecting.

Similar uses of the clamp show up as endgame tesujis to squeeze a few extra points out of the opponent.

Clamp (?), n. [Cf. LG. & D. klamp, Dan. klampe, also D. klampen to fasten, clasp. Cf. Clamer, Cramp.]

1.

Something rigid that holds fast or binds things together; a piece of wood or metal, used to hold two or more pieces together.

2. (a)

An instrument with a screw or screws by which work is held in its place or two parts are temporarily held together.

A piece of wood placed across another, or inserted into another, to bind or strengthen.

3.

One of a pair of movable pieces of lead, or other soft material, to cover the jaws of a vise and enable it to grasp without bruising.

4. Shipbuilding

A thick plank on the inner part of a ship's side, used to sustuan the ends of beams.

5.

A mass of bricks heaped up to be burned; or of ore for roasting, or of coal coking.

6.

A mollusk. See Clam.

Clamp nails, nails used to fasten on clamps in ships.

 

© Webster 1913.

---

Clamp (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Clamped (?; 215) p. pr. & vb. n. Clamping.]

1.

To fasten with a clamp or clamps; to apply a clamp to; to place in a clamp.

2.

To cover, as vegetables, with earth.

[Eng.]

 

© Webster 1913.

---

Clamp, n. [Prob. an imitative word. Cf.Clank.]

A heavy footstep; a tramp.

 

© Webster 1913.

---

Clamp, v. i.

To tread heavily or clumsily; to clump.

The policeman with clamping feet. Thackeray.

 

© Webster 1913.