Abstract: A precious metal alloy for dental restorations which develops a light oxide upon firing, on a percentage weight basis at makeup, consists of 60-95 precious metal(s) selected from the group consisting of 60-855 palladium, 0-10 gold, 0-10 platinum, 0-12 silver, and mixtures thereof; 1-15 tin; 2-7 zinc; 0.005-0.2 boron; 0-2 gallium; 0-2 cobalt; 0-15 indium; 0-0.2 of a deoxidant selected from the group consisting of silicon, germanium, magnesium, aluminum, lithium, tantalum and mixtures thereof; and 0-1.0 of a grain refiner selected from the group consisting of ruthenium, iridium, rhenium, and mixtures thereof. The alloy has a liquidus temperature of not more than 1400.degree. C., and the alloy has a tensile yield strength of at least 250 Mpa and an elongation of at least 2 percent. Restorations having a porcelain coating fired on castings of the alloy evidence a light oxide color.

Abstract: An actuator for a thrust reverser is disclosed which will prevent retraction of the thrust reverser door from its open, reverse thrust position should there be a malfunction in the locking system which locks the thrust reverser door in its closed forward thrust position. Upon deployment of the thrust reverser during a normal aircraft landing, should there be a malfunction in the thrust reverser door locking system, the actuator holds the thrust reverser doors in their opened positions so as to provide a positive, visual indication of such a system malfunction. The actuator has an internal device in the actuator head which, in cooperation with the control rod of the secondary mechanical locking system prevents hydraulic fluid from retracting the actuating piston and rod assembly from their extended positions and thereby prevents retraction of the thrust reverser door from the reverse thrust positions.

Abstract: Impedance measurements from an array of cells containing microorganisms whose growth or multiplication are to be measured in terms of the impedance, utilizes electrodes which can be introduced into the cells and have contact pieces engageable by one or more probes of a measuring head displaceable by an x, y carriage system into alignment with the successive contact pieces. The system avoids the need for voluminous conductor arrangements and multiplexing systems.

Abstract: A car for transporting a track switch comprises a beam-shaped frame, undercarriages supporting the beam-shaped frame on track rails, the undercarriages having axles extending perpendicularly to the longitudinal direction and the beam-shaped frame being centered with respect to the axles. At least two track switch loading platforms are mounted on the beam-shaped frame for pivoting about an axis extending in the longitudinal direction, the loading platforms being spaced from each other in the longitudinal direction. At least two drives link each loading platform to the beam-shaped frame for pivoting the loading platform, and fastening elements are provided for detachably connecting a track switch to the loading platforms for transporting the track switch.

Abstract: Ski, in particular downhill ski, comprising a binding mounting plate provided above the ski body and fixed thereto at least in part at a distance therefrom, wherein at least one guide means 5, 7, 8, 10 is provided which guides the binding mounting plate 2 in a plane normal to the surface of the ski body 1 and parallel to the longitudinal ski axis, and prevents twisting of the plate 2 or of regions thereof about an axis parallel to the longitudinal ski axis.

Abstract: A removable inspection hole plug for sealing a plurality of inspection holes formed in a double-walled enclosure is disclosed in which individual sealing units are disposed in each of the inspection holes, with the individual sealing units linked together by a link rod pivotally attached to each of the sealing units. A seal is provided on each of the sealing units which slideably engages a wall defining the inspection hole and the link rod may be attached to the sealing units by a ball and socket swivel joint. One of the sealing units is attached to a housing which is, in turn, removably attached to the enclosure such that the sealing unit may undergo limited axial movement relative to the housing. This accommodates differential thermal expansion between the walls of the enclosures and also facilitates removal of the inspection hole plug by merely unfastening the housing from the enclosure and removing the housing along with the sealing units.

Abstract: Exhaust noise emitted by a pneumatically operated tool, such as a nailer, is damped by an external damping ring which surrounds the exhaust openings. Preferably, the damping ring is inserted into an outwardly open circumferential groove into which the exhaust openings of the tool housing merge. The ring is sufficiently elastic to permit the escape of the exhaust air, thereby damping the noise. The ring may be an elastic rubber or synthetic material ring (12) or it may be a tightly woven ring spring (12A).

Abstract: A control system for a fishing line for use during casting and during reeling in a fish. A line-gripper member can either pinch the line to terminate casting or can apply a drag to assist in landing a fish. The control system is intended to be mounted on a fishing rod and is particularly useful in combination with a spinning reel but also is useful with a drum or rotating, spool-type reel. An operating member is mounted adjacent a handle of a fishing rod to be actuated, usually, by a user's thumb for pulling a control line for actuating a pivoted line-gripper member and provide contact with a fishing line to provide a brake action or drag thereto.

Abstract: A circuit for regenerating a clock signal from an NRZ encoded signal. The NRZ signal is filtered, differentiated, and applied to a nested phase-locked loop. The main loop of the phase-locked loop includes a voltage controlled crystal oscillator. The inner loop of the nested phase-locked loop includes a voltage controlled oscillator which multiplies the frequency of the signal provided by the crystal oscillator to obtain the regenerated clock signal. Tunable low pass filters are used in the differentiating circuit as delay elements. The voltage controlled oscillator includes a tunable low pass filter and an integrator. The control voltage for the inner loop voltage controlled oscillator is used to control the low pass filters of the differentiating circuit in a frequency locked loop.

Abstract: A low voltage vacuum field emission device and method for manufacturing is provided. The devices are fabricated by anodizing a heavily doped silicon wafer substrate (12) in concentrated HF solution, forming extremely sharp silicon tips (18) at the silicon to porous silicon interface. The resulting porous silicon layer is then oxidized, and a metal film (22) is deposited by evaporation on the porous silicon. Silicon substrate (12) is the cathode, and metal film dots (22) are the anodes. The I-V characteristics for the field emission devices follow Fowler-Nordheim curves over three decades of current. The I-V characteristics are also utterly independent of temperature up to 250.degree. C. When the oxidized porous silicon layer (OPSL) is about 5000 .ANG., substantial current is obtained with less than 10 volts. Recent experiments leave no doubt that the charge transport is in the vacuum of the pores.

Abstract: A lumbosacral support system having a belt and an orthopedic pad carried by the belt. The pad has a contoured template surface with a transversely extending central trough portion for accommodating the protruding spinal processes of the wearer when the pad is pressed against the lumbar region, and a pair of raised plateau regions flanking the central trough portion for contacting the erector spinae muscles of the wearer to provide support. The template surface of the pad has a vertical surface contour through the central region approximating the average lordotic curve of a wearer. The belt is longitudinally tapered so the pad is arranged at an angle to vertical to optimally engage the lumbar region of the wearer.

Abstract: A method for the graphic representation of statistical data derived from quality control of testing carried out by analysis laboratories has a laser printer instructed by a personal computer produces the graphic representation on a sheet of A4 format paper. The graphic representation printed for each of the analysis laboratories in the quality control program has a Youden graph, a statistical table and a Shewhart diagram.

Abstract: A pusher mechanism of an IS transfers a plurality of glass bottles onto a conveyor belt by rotating the bottles through an arc to align the bottles with the conveyor belt while simultaneously linearly moving the bottles at a converging acute angle toward the conveyor belt. The combined rotational and linear movements effectively lengthen the radius of curvature of the path of the bottles and increases the speed of the bottles onto the conveyor belt. The centrifugal force applied to the bottles is limited or reduced to allow the bottles to be more quickly moved onto the conveyor belt without introducing instabilities in the bottles. Other horizontal and vertical movements may be applied. A nozzle may be positioned to deliver a flow of air against the bottles to counteract instabilities. A take-out mechanism used with the pusher mechanism rotates the bottles at an acute angle to the conveyor belt.

Abstract: A cellular radio system, having a mobile services switching center (MSC) coupled to a base station by means of a pulse code modulation (PCM) link, has an apparatus comprising, in the MSC, a transcoder and rate adaptor (TRA) that generates a PCM frame from a plurality of user data blocks, each user data block corresponding to one of a plurality of users and each user data block comprising an integer number of bytes of data. In the PCM frame, each of the plurality of user data blocks occupies an integer number of consecutive bytes of the generated PCM frame, which is then output to the PCM link. The base station includes a channel encoder that generates an air interface frame from a plurality of user data blocks contained in a received PCM frame. The base station may also generate a timing control signal which is received by the MSC.

Abstract: Apparatus for reducing the risk of undesirable drifting of the parameters, so-called bursting, of an adaptive echo filter which is coupled between a receiving branch and a transmitting branch included in a four-wire loop. A difference signal (E) which contains no echo from the receiving branch is generated in the transmitting branch in a known manner. The apparatus includes an adaptive predictor filter which is coupled between the transmitting branch and the receiving branch and which functions to generate a compensation signal from the difference signal (E) when transmitting narrowband signals from a near-end. The compensating signal is subtracted from a signal which appears in the receiving branch and the predictor filter is updated in a manner to minimize the correlation between the difference signal (E) and the input signal (X') of the echo filter.

Abstract: A vehicle control system (12) is provided which comprises a range measurement system (14) which transmits a signal (20) to a target (22) and receives an echo signal (24) returned from the target (22). The range measurement system (14) comprises a transmitter system (26) and a receiver system (28). The receiver system (28) generates an analog signal representative of the range. The target (22) transmits the range signal to a processor (30). Processor (30) may be used to provide warning signals and to control a conventional speed control system (16) coupled to the throttle (18) of a vehicle (10).

Abstract: A method and apparatus for separating solid and/or liquid particles and/or polluting gas from a gas stream includes two component nozzles by which a washing liquid is finely distributed in a gaseous phase and introduced in the gas stream within a gas washer. The two-component nozzles are distributed over the whole cross section of the washer, preferably on a plane that extends perpendicularly to the gas flow direction.

Abstract: The press brake comprises a pressure ram member which is driven by two operating cylinders engaging the pressure ram member in the region of its two lateral ends. The pressure ram member has an upper and a lower portion which abut against each other in a central contact area and which are separated from each other by two gaps each running from the central contact area to the lateral ends, whereby the gap width continuously increases. Under load, the lower portion of the pressure ram member and the stationary ram member are deflected in the same sense. The degree of free deflection of the lower portion of the pressure ram member is limited by an adjustably mounted wedge member located in the gaps between the upper and lower portions of the pressure ram member. With this measure, the parallelism of the deflection lines is always maintained, even under extreme load situations.