Abstract: A phase modulator circuit and method for generating an output signal having individually positionable edges is described. The phase modulator includes a programmable pulse generator, such as an interval counter, or a delay for producing the output signal, and a control value source, such as a memory, for delivering a sequence of control values to the generator. The control values determine the time between successive output pulses.

Abstract: A chromatography device for separating sample fluids from carrier fluids and analyzing the sample is configured so that it is a modular unit. This modularity enables repairs to be quickly effected on the unit and also greatly simplifies the task of accessing the components of the chromatography cartridge. The modular chromatography cartridge is comprised of separation columns for separating the sample fluid from the carrier fluid. The cartridge additionally includes detectors for detecting distinguishing characteristics of fluids exiting the column. Further, the cartridge preferably includes valve assemblies for directing the flow of the carrier fluid and sample fluid throughout the cartridge and restrictors for adjusting the flow rate of the fluids as they flow through the cartridge. All of the components of the cartridge are configured upon a manifold. The manifold has a means for attaching the cartridge to fluid sources and support structure. The manifold enables the system to exhibit its modularity.

Abstract: An adapter is connected between a peripheral controller and an intelligent peripheral device. The adapter allows the peripheral device to communicate with the controller. The adapter has control logic rather than a microprocessor for transmitting and receiving data. The control logic is comprised of combinatorial logic circuitry and a command register. The command register allows the controller to configure the cominatorial logic circuitry in order to control adapter operation.

Abstract: A peripheral device controller has an EEPROM which stores microinstructions to be placed in a random access memory control store. The EEPROM also stores peripheral configuration information. This information is obtained by polling the peripheral devices connected to the controller and storing the resulting information in the EEPROM. Upon powering up, the microinstructions stored in the EEPROM are transferred to the control store via execution of instructions held in a boot PROM. The controller, therefore, provides a fast control store while maintaining permanence of the microinstructions after power is extinguished. Means are also provided to update the control store and EEPROM. The EEPROM may upon CPU command be updated with new microinstructions held in main memory or obtained from peripheral devices.

Abstract: A controller connected between a system bus and peripheral devices has at least two microprocessors. One controls the data transfers with the peripheral devices, and the other controls data transfers with the system bus. The microprocessors share a data buffer and control store. This sharing is possible because of the controller timing means which synchronizes exclusive access to the shared components of the controller. When first initialized, the microprocessors are directed to execute a test instruction which points them to the beginning of their set of microinstructions. Once pointed to their set of microinstructions, normal operation may begin.

Abstract: A controller controls data transfers between a data processing system bus and peripheral devices. In the controller, data buffers are divided into page frames. Paging circuitry provides for allocation and deallocation of pages to and from the data buffer. Included in the page circuitry is a paging RAM. The paging RAM and other paging circuitry components allow contiguously addressed pages of data to be stored in noncontiguous locations in the data buffer. There may be more than one data buffer and these data buffers may be exclusively seized by microprocessors in the controller via seizing logic.

Abstract: A surgical staple and method for its use in closing an opening in mammalian tissue are disclosed. The staple comprises a central portion of strong, ductile, non-absorbable material and lower leg portions of absorbable material positioned at opposite ends of the central portion. The staple when closed is bent in the central portion to form a crown portion, so that the lower leg portions are in positions which approximate one another. After engagement, the lower leg portions extend through the tissue on either side of a closed opening so as to hold the tissue firmly in the closed position. After sufficient tissue healing has occurred, the biodegradable lower leg portions will loosen from the central portion, thus allowing for facile removal of the central portion.

Abstract: The pitches of the several blades in a helicopter rotor assembly are controlled by individual blade control subsystems. Those blade control subsystems respond to the output signals from accelerometers mounted on the blades. The signals from the accelerometers are used to control the pitch of the blades on which the accelerometers are mounted as well as the pitch of other blades. By appropriate orientation of any accelerometer and filtering within a particular feedback subsystem, each subsystem is designed to correct particular modes of blade motion to the exclusion of other modes of motion by varying lift.

Abstract: A multi-microelectrode has a plurality of sensing elements formed in a linear array along a face of a metal foil substrate. The foil substrate is sufficiently rigid and tough to have a very small volume along a needle length yet support the array of sensing elements and their leads. The preferred substrate materials are tungsten and molybdenum. The leads are insulated from the substrate and from the surrounding environment. A multi-microelectrode is supported in a microelectrode assembly by a connector which includes a guide channel on a support plate. Electrical contacts which may be conformable to the microelectrode are located in the guide channel, and the microelectrode is clamped against those contacts.

Abstract: The intensity profile of a beam of electromagnetic waves such as a laser beam is shaped by means of a diffraction grating and/or prism in the beam path. In one embodiment, beams exhibiting Gaussian energy intensity profiles undergo an energy redistribution to approximately uniform profiles. A reflective or transmissive surface relief grating is employed with phase steps generally periodic except at the pattern center where a pattern phase reversal occurs. Prisms are cut and oriented relative to the incoming beam to operate at the Brewster's angle for compressing or expanding the beam with minimum losses.

Abstract: A layer of material such as the metal base of a transistor is embedded in single crystal. A layer of the material with small, uniformly dimensioned and uniformly spaced openings is formed on a single crystal substrate, and the single crystal is grown from the exposed portions of the substrate over the layer of material. For best results, the layer of material to be embedded is deposited relative to the crystal orientation to provide a much greater rate of crystal growth laterally across the layer than away from the crystal substrate. The method is particularly useful in fabricating a permeable base transistor having slits formed in the metal base layer. An integrated circuit can be fabricated by forming a pattern of conductive material on a single crystal, that pattern having continuous regions which inhibit further crystal growth and narrow regions or regions having openings therein which permit lateral crystal growth across those regions.

Abstract: Sensitive testing transducers are mounted to an internally threaded cap. A split-ring sleeve having external threads is positioned around the cold tip of a cryogenic refrigerator. An internal flange on the sleeve abuts a shoulder on the cold tip to hold the sleeve on the cold tip while permitting rotation thereof. By positioning the cap over the cold tip and rotating the sleeve, the transducer supporting cap is moved into tight thermal contact with the end of the cold tip without disturbing the sensitive transducers.

Abstract: A pheresis process and apparatus for carrying it out. Blood from a donor is transferred to a pheresis bowl formed to have a red cell reservoir and a plasma reservoir in fluid communication through plasma ducts. The pheresis bowl is adapted for centrifuging to separate the red cells and plasma. This separation is accomplished simultaneously with the withdrawal of blood from the donor. At the end of the withdrawal the red cells are returned to the donor. The connection with the donor is thus continuously maintained during the entire procedure. The process is safe, fast and economical.

Abstract: An improved bird feeder is disclosed herein of the type having a hollow housing for holding a main supply of bird feed with a plurality of feeding apertures located at different heights thereon. This improved bird feeder has means for retaining a supply of bird feed at the vertically staggered feeding apertures which are independent of the level of main supply in the housing. Because of this, bird feed is provided at a feeding aperture even after the main supply has dropped below that feeding aperture.

Abstract: A portable loam screening apparatus includes a nearly-square sloping shaker screen supported by a box-like frame. The frame has a tall end and a short end joined by two sides. Funneling surfaces directed toward the screen are provided along the upper edges of the tall end and the sides. The short end is closed to provide a wall between separated loam and coarse material. A mixture of loam and coarse material is dumped onto the shaker screen from the shovel of an excavating vehicle. The coarse material falls from the lower end of the shaker screen outside of the frame, and the loam passes through the shaker screen to within the box-like frame. The separated loam falls down a sloping table within the frame and can then be retrieved by an excavating vehicle through the open tall end of the frame. A set of wheels mounted to one side of the frame is moveable relative to the frame from an operative position for transporting the apparatus to an inoperative position for resting the frame flush on the ground.

Abstract: A solar energy concentrator comprising a cylindrical Fresnel lens, a specially shaped and positioned reflecting mirror, and a shaped tubular receptor for conveying the collected energy to terminals is described. These concentrators are arrayed parallel and contiguous to each other and oriented generally along an East-West line to receive the sun's radiant energy, and the lenses together with the special reflectors and designed to accomodate large elevation angle variations of the sun. The large acceptance angles achieved with the image collapsing concentrator, while at the same time maintaining a high concentration ratio, improves the reception of diffused as well as direct sunlight and the small surface area of receiving tubes diminishes the thermal radiation losses. A method for determining the shape and location of the special image collapsing reflector is described and applied to solar concentrators employing both lenses and reflectors of cylindrical and three dimensional forms.