Abstract: An exposure mask having phase shifting films of a predetermined thickness composed of a material transparent to the wavelength of exposure light and formed on a substrate transparent to such wavelength for causing a desired phase shift, wherein the phase shifting films are so patterned as to principally have arrangement of repeated patterns. Relative to the rule width L of the repeated patterns projected onto a work member to be exposed, a pattern having a rule width of 2 L/m is formed, in which m (.ltoreq.1) is a size reduction magnification in the use of a reduced-size projection exposer. The exposure mask is adapted for use in producing a diffraction grating as well. The mask is easily manufacturable without the necessity of any intricate process such as a positioned exposure, hence minimizing the number of required steps in manufacture while achieving a further fine work with an enhanced resolution higher than the known value.

Abstract: Servo track pair position and longitudinal tape position is determined for a tape using dedicated servo format. The tape includes at least one set of data tracks and dedicated servo tracks wherein adjacent servo tracks are defined by longitudinal lines through the edges of erased or non-recorded tape portions. The information about servo track pair numbers and/or servo sample numbers is recorded into portions of the tape and is decoded and read back together with signals from the servo track. The information is recorded in a digital manner by using a digital block format of data blocks requiring less bytes per block than a data block provided on the data tracks. If information about longitudinal tape position is not required, information may be recorded in an analog manner using a fixed set of predetermined frequencies.

Abstract: In a method for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio of ECG signals, A/D-converted signals from a number of cardiac cycles are time-synchronized to form a signal ensemble, and the correlation between the signals in the ensemble is determined in time intervals, comprising at least two samples, during at least a part of the cardiac cycles. A device for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio of ECG signals, includes circuitry for recording, A/D-converting and other processing of the ECG signals. A synchronization unit is arranged to time-synchronize the signals from a plurality of cardiac cycles to form a signal ensemble, and a calculator unit controlled by a window unit determines the correlation between the signals in the ensemble in time intervals, comprising at least two samples, during at least a part of the cardiac cycles.

Abstract: The invention is directed to a printed circuit board arrangement for plug-type connections composed of a blade connector and spring clip, whereby the individual contact passages are surrounded by electrically conductive shield plates that are connected to contactings carrying shield potential that are attached both at the backplane side as well as at the assembly side, and whereby both the contact blades and contact springs as well as the contactings are contacted and secured with press-in technique in the printed circuit boards fashioned as multi-layer multilayers. In order to create an adequate interconnect lead-through width between the contactings, the shield potential in the printed circuit board arrangement of the invention is conducted in a separate shield printed circuit board (3) that is electrically separated from the multilayer (1) by an insulating foil (2).

Abstract: For distributing calls in a communication network, a central network authority that forwards calls from subscribers to servers for further servicing of the calls provides an optimally successful distribution, i.e. a low load-conditioned cleardown rate by the servers, even when it cannot directly register the workload of a server. In order to achieve this, the central network authority monitors the reason for the cleardown of a call by a server and excludes a server from the call distribution procedure for a specific time span when this server clears an allocated calldown due to lack of adequate capacity.

Abstract: In automatic speech recognition, confusion easily arises between phonetically similar words (for example, the German words "zwei" and "drei") in the case of previous recognition systems. Confusion of words which differ only in a single phoneme (for example, German phonemes "dem" and "den") occurs particularly easily with these recognition systems. In order to solve this problem, a method for recognizing patterns in time-variant measurement signals is specified which permits an improved discrimination between such signals by reclassifying in pairs. This method combines the Viterbi decoding algorithm with the method of hidden Markov models, the discrimination-relevant features being examined separately in a second step after the main classification. In this case, different components of feature vectors are weighted differently, it being the case that by contrast with known approaches these weightings are performed in a theoretically based way.

Abstract: A surface-emitting laser diode with an active layer (3) between contact layers (2, 4) and reflector arrangements (9, 19) provided for a vertical resonance condition, in which the surface of the semiconductor material is provided with a spatial periodic structure, which is intended for the excitation of surface plasmon polaritons, and is covered with a thin metal film (5).

Abstract: A controller unit for controlling an electronic device such as a video game. The controller unit comprises a housing with a pair of handles diverging toward a user and gripped by the palms of the user, first and second control sections arranged on the top of the housing and each including a plurality of key elements, and third and fourth control sections arranged on the front side of the housing and each including upper and lower key elements. The first control section comprises a key body having a first semispherical recess on its bottom and a second semispherical recess on its top, a spherical fulcrum member located below the key body and engageable with the first recess, a base plate mounted in the housing and including fixed contacts, a resilient body disposed between the key body and the base plate and including movable contacts, and a key support centrally located at the key body and having a semispherical projection engageable with the second recess.

Abstract: A method for alleviating the sensation of pain, particularly pain arising from, or sensed in, bone-proximate soft tissue regions, includes the step of charging the painful region with acoustic shockwaves.

Abstract: A fastening nail for fixing a cover membrane to a bone void which surrounds the bone of the body itself and is filled with an ossiferous material has a nail head with a larger diameter which enables receiving pressure of an impact tool for inserting a nail shaft with a smaller diameter into the bone. The nail shaft has essentially a cylindrical holding part extending to a conical tapering point part adjacent one end and is provided with a transition region between the holding part and point part having an annular shoulder with an enlarged diameter which has a conical surface merging obliquely with the generated surface of the point part in a direction toward the point of the nail and an annular surface extending substantially perpendicular relative to the holding axis of the nail. To insert the nail, the setting tool is elongated and has resilient jaws for gripping the nail and is used in combination with an auxiliary tool which has a foot with downwardly extending points for holding the membrane on the bone.

Abstract: To compensate for quasi-periodic disturbances in measurement signals, the wanted signal is separated from the disturbing signal by determining from an auxiliary signal a series of trigger instants, and estimating from this measurement signal a disturbing signal template, by furthermore generating from this disturbing signal template a trigger-synchronous reference signal, and by using this trigger-synchronous reference signal for filtering the measurement signal. The process can be carried out both after the recording of a complete measurement data set and at the same time as the recording of such a measurement data set. The process is suitable in particular for compensating for cardio-interference during magneto-encephalography.

Abstract: A modification is provided to a traditional dough-forming machine for producing bagels so that the machine can produce an elongated bagel stick. The machine has a flat conveyor belt onto which incremental pieces of dough are dropped. The belt is pulled through a forming tube which curls and rolls the dough increments around an axially positioned mandrel. The mandrel has an elongated fin which extends at least to or through a wall of the forming tube and which prevents free ends of the dough from pressing against each other to form a continuous circular shape around the mandrel.