Abstract: A method of detecting whether the ram of a punch press machine follows the upper die assembly of the machine after the pressing of a work piece involving the monitoring of current flow through an electrical circuit. The electrical circuit consists of an electrical conductor, located on the side of the ram, held in the electrically conductive state. The electrical conductor and an earthing path function as a watching switch for watching the position of the ram controlled by a controlling device to determine whether the upper die assembly follows the ram or not by electrically detecting whether the ram comes in contact with the upper die assembly. A first allowable detection time and a second allowable detection time are preliminarily set in order to electrically detect that the ram comes in contact with the upper die assembly within particular thresholds.

Abstract: A plant-growing system includes a covering material filled with a substrate for growing plants. The covering material has a bag form or a tubular form and is made of a water-impermeable resin sheet of woven or nonwoven fabric having a basis weight of 20 to 100 g/m.sup.2, a visible-ray reflectance of more than 60%, and an air-permeability of 10 to 200 sec/100 cc. Thus, the substrate does not suffer oxygen shortage, thereby promoting healthy growth of plant roots. Excellent air-permeability prevents an excessive rise in moisture and temperature within the plant-growing system. Further, since excess water is drained from the substrate to maintain a constant water level within the substrate, watering is easy to perform, and excess watering does not cause root rot. In a plant-growing method, the plant-growing system is placed on a ground surface while the covering material is held by a metallic part at its bottom as well as at its both side walls or single side wall.

Abstract: Method of providing a semiconductor device with an inorganic electrically insulative layer, the device having exposed semiconductor surfaces and electrically conductive metal end terminations, in which the device is reacted with phosphoric acid to form a phosphate on the exposed surfaces of the semiconductor but not on the metal end terminations, and in which the device is thereafter barrel plated in a conventional electrical barrel plating process and the plating is provided only on the end terminations because the phosphate is not electrically conductive.

Abstract: A system and method for adjusting the dynamic range of a receiver in a communication system in which an input signal is attenuated by a calculated amount before the input signal is provided to a mixer in the receiver. The attenuation amount is set so that reciprocal mixing noise caused by mixing the input signal with the local oscillator phase noise in the mixer is reduced until the total noise is the receiver noise floor (the sum of thermal noise and receiver noise figure), without degrading the signal-to-noise ratio of the input signal.

Abstract: A digital down converter with a programmable mixing down frequency and a programmable extraction bandwidth uses a ROM based sin/cos generator plus a programmable high decimation filter followed by a gain compensating scaling multiplier and a fixed FIR filter. Output format options are also programmable, and programming commands are serially loaded into registers. Various components may be isolated for efficient testing and also subsystem operation.

Abstract: A device and method for detecting a fault in a cable while the cable is in use. A low frequency analog test signal is added to the signal normally sent across the cable under test. Under normal operating conditions the test signal does not reflect from the load which terminates the cable. Under fault conditions, the test signal is reflected and is detected by an analog test signal detector.

Abstract: A method of synchronizing the frequency and time of commencement of high frequency (HF) radio communication between an initiating station and a receiving station in which transmissions from the receiving station are not required. The initiating station determines an optimal frequency from among predetermined HF frequencies for communicating with the receiving station and a time when communication between the initiating and receiving stations is to start. The initiating station transmits an initiation message on each of the predetermined frequencies, where the initiation message provides the optimal frequency and the time until the start of communication. The receiving station scans all of the predetermined frequencies to attempt to receive the initiation message, and upon receipt continuously monitors the optimal frequency and commences a time count-down to the start of communication.

Abstract: Every word or bit received in a stream of bits may be checked to determine whether the end of a packet of bits has been located. The receiving system calculates a remainder polynomial r.sup.k (x)--a cyclic redundancy check, or CRC--for each word or bit and then evaluates whether r.sup.k (x) is equal to zero. If r.sup.k (x) is equal to zero, the end of a packet has been found. The remainder polynomial r.sup.k (x) is the remainder of a division of (i) a polynomial a.sup.k (x) defining the stream of bits ending in the bit or word for which r.sup.k (x) is calculated, by (ii) a defined generating polynomial g(x). The remainder polynomial r.sup.k (x) may be calculated without performing the polynomial division for each calculation by adding partial remainders that are functions of the r.sup.k (x) for the previous bit or word, or are available in a table. A shortened code may be used for the encoded data.

Abstract: A printed wiring board (PWB) is attached to a PWB holder with mounting hardware which includes a washer having a first annular surface with a first external diameter for insertion into a mounting hole in the PWB and a second annular surface with a larger second external diameter. The two external diameters form an annular shoulder on an exterior side of the washer that extends between the first and second external diameters for soldering the washer to the PWB. The washer includes a resilient flange interior to its opening. A screw for mounting the PWB is inserted through the opening and has a screw head larger than a diameter of the opening and a second end with an external diameter smaller than the diameter of the opening, but larger than an internal diameter of the flange, so that the screw is held by the washer when the second end is forcibly inserted through the resiliently flanged opening.

Abstract: A test signal generator presents a test signal of pseudorandom data in a format which simulates the Grand Alliance Transmission Layer Signal for the 8- or 16- vestigial sideband (8/16-VSB) signal for Advanced Television (ATV) systems. An actual (non-test) Transmission Layer 8/16-VSB signal for ATV is in a particular format with properly formatted sync information and includes data which have been randomized, Reed-Solomon coded, interleaved, and trellis coded. The test signal generator provides data in the particular 8/16-VSB format which simulates the Grand Alliance transmission signal.

Abstract: A plant growing agent contains a blue pigment that contains, as a main ingredient, a compound represented by MFe?Fe(CN).sub.6 ! (M is an alkali metal or an ammonium group, and one Fe is of divalent, while the other Fe is of trivalent), and a substance for changing the cuticular of the surface layer of a plant so as to facilitate permeation of the blue pigment into the interior of the tissue of the plant. In a plant growing method, a thick stock solution is first prepared by adding a surfactant and a solvent into a mixture of the above-described blue pigment and the above-described substance for changing the cuticular of the surface layer of a plant so as to facilitate permeation of the blue pigment into the interior of the tissue of the plant. The thick stock solution is diluted 5-100 times with a solvent, and is sprayed onto a plant to be grown.

Abstract: A subscriber line circuit for a telephone network having current controlled switches and current sources. Methods of making and using the components are also disclosed.

Abstract: A method of switching from one signal path to another signal path in a digital communication system in which a digital signal is received in each of two signal paths, and the number of bits in error in the digital signal is estimated for each signal path for each of successive time periods by using a syndrome count available from a forward error correction algorithm before the digital signal is forward error corrected. If a predetermined bit error rate is exceeded in one of the signal paths in the time period, the corrected signal in other signal path is selected before the end of the time period. If the predetermined bit error rate is not exceeded by either of the first and second signal paths in the time period, the selected signal path may remain unchanged, or the signal path with the lowest number of estimated errors may be selected after the end of the time period.

Abstract: A differential attenuator and method for providing an attenuated differential output in which an AC common mode component has been reduced. The attenuator includes (a) a voltage divider with two resistive elements for providing the attenuated differential output and a common mode node between the two elements, and (b) a differential amplifier for generating a DC common mode reference which is substantially the same as the DC common mode component in the outputs of the differential amplifier. The differential amplifier has a common mode output connected to the common mode node to provide the DC common mode reference thereto so that the AC common mode component is reduced in the attenuated differential output.

Abstract: A method of estimating signal quality in a radio demodulator receiving an input stream of symbols includes the steps of sampling a phase-only portion of each of the symbols in the input stream, determining a phase error for each of the samples of the phase-only portions, and calculating a signal quality estimate from a plurality of the sample phase errors. The signal quality estimate may be an average magnitude of a predetermined number of sample phase errors. The input stream may be symbols in the preamble, or symbols in the data signal that follows.

Abstract: A method of maintaining a distributed database among independently operable sites in which database availability is not interrupted during database update. Commands are provided to each of the sites and the database is assumed to be updated unless otherwise indicated by responses from the sites. Site operation continues whether a command has been executed properly or improperly or not at all, and commands are subsequently repeated until executed properly at all sites. Commands for acting on data in the database are classified by selected characteristics, and may be executed by class to facilitate exploitation of the data in the database. The method is disclosed in an electrical power distribution system in which data in a distributed database is used at plural independently operable command centers for the operation thereof.

Abstract: Antimicrobial protection may be provided to protective gloves by mixing an antimicrobial agent in a glove material plastisol so that the antimicrobial agent migrates to the exposed surfaces of the gloves when the agent on the glove surface has been depleted. Antimicrobial gloves suitable for use in the food industry may be manufactured using a cold dip process with a plastisol that includes the following weight percentages of (a) a polymer resin, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene polyethylene (PE), or polyurethane, 43 to 53%, (b) a plasticizer, such as DINP, 43 to 53%, (c) a stabilizer, such as CaZn, 2.7 to 4.7%, and (d) triclosan (2,4,4'-trichloro-2'-hydroxydiphenyl ether), 0.3 to 1.0%.

Abstract: A method of generating a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) word during transmission and of validating a CRC word during reception in a multiplex data communication system using a single CRC register. A CRC word is generated as data are transmitted by calculating the CRC word based on reflected data, rather than on the transmitted data. The transmitted data is reflected back to the transmitting unit's CRC generation block and the CRC word is immediately generated and appended to the outgoing transmission. In an aspect of the invention and to check whether the transmission was error-free, the one's complement of a CRC word is generated and stored in a CRC register, and the reflected transmission of the CRC word is circulated through the CRC register to yield a predetermined constant value if the transmission was error free.

Abstract: A device and method of operating a diaphragm pump having at least three chambers is used in a vapor compression refrigeration system. Each chamber contains a fluid having a different set of pressure and temperature characteristics. Adjacent chambers are separated by movable barriers, such as flexible diaphragms or pistons, that are sequentially moved by pressure changes resulting from heating and cooling the fluids. The fluids are chosen so that driving fluids operate in a substantially narrower temperature range than a working fluid but have the same operating pressure range permitting use of a thermal energy source having a selected temperature to power the pump. Optimal selection of both driving fluids and the working fluid permits use of a low grade heat source for thermal energy.