Abstract: A wall-mounted electronic potentiometer system is provided for controlling fluorescent lamps by way of ceiling mounted controllers. This enables control of the control information by way of a 2-wire communication bus to selected ceiling mounted controller using a serial data format.

Abstract: A semiconductor device of improved ruggedness is provided which comprises a semiconductor substrate having a region of a first conductivity type on a major surface thereof; a first base region of opposite conductivity type formed selectively within said regions of first conductivity type; a second base region of opposite conductivity type formed selectively within said first base region and having a higher impurity concentration than that of said first base region; a source region of one conductivity type formed within said first and second base regions and overlying said second base region; and a polysilicon gate electrode opposed to a channel region with a gate insulating layer interposed therebetween; wherein the second base region and the source region are formed substantially entirely within the first base region; the second base region is smaller in depth than the first base region and is formed at a distance sufficiently close to the channel region to effectively reduce parasitic resistance in the firs

Abstract: A clamp circuit including a clamping capacitor and a differential amplifier charge and discharge the clamping capacitor in accordance with the magnitude of difference signals applied to the differential amplifier's inverting and non-inverting inputs. The inverting input receives the voltage produced by the clamping capacitor. This voltage is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and is set to a reference voltage range by a voltage divider network. The ADC output signal is compared to a given reference level corresponding to a selected voltage in the reference voltage range to produce a difference output signal. This difference output signal is summed with the selected voltage in the reference voltage range and applied to the non-inverting input of the differential amplifier to produce a clamp voltage with substantially minimum offsets due to the amplifier, ADC and DAC.

Abstract: A driving scheme for a high intensity discharge lamp. The driving scheme eliminates the need for a level shifter by requiring only one reference level in determining the level of current to be produced by the down converter. The down converter has a substantially constant D.C. voltage input and consumes a relatively low amount of fixed power relative to the load attached across the output of the down converter.

Abstract: Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) method and apparatus for determining an angiogram, in the form of a two-dimensional array of pixel intensities, from time-of-flight or phase contrast MRA volumetric image data utilizes a weighted sum, pixel by pixel, of integration projection (IP) and maximum intensity projection (MIP) 2D pixel arrays formed in the same viewing direction. The forming of the integration projection pixel array is preceded by optional background suppression and optional application of a depth cueing intensity weighting function varying along the viewing direction. The background suppression procedure contains a non-linear unsharp filtering portion followed by an intensity thresholding step.

Abstract: An electrical connecting device having a receptacle and a two part plug inserted into the receptacle. The two part plug includes an inner part for holding a plurality of zero gap insulation displacement connectors and an outer part for receiving a corresponding plurality of insulated wires. The inner part of the plug can be inserted partially or fully within the outer part of the plug. When the inner plug part is in its partially assembled position, the insulated wires can be easily inserted into the outer part of the plug. When in its fully assembled position, the plurality of connectors within the inner part of the plug are in electrical contact with the insulated wires.

Abstract: A method of aiding detection of breast cancer by computer analysis of a mammogram image includes computing filtered second spatial derivative of intensity values at the pixels of the image, in the form of a Laplacian. The filtering is iterative adaptive smoothing of the first spatial derivative, which smoothing is applied to achieve relatively great smoothing effect where there is relatively little local variation in derivative value and a relatively small or no smoothing effect where there is relatively great local variation in derivative value. This has the effect of preserving locations of zero crossings in the Laplacian which correspond to edges or boundaries in the image. Regions of negative Laplacian value are labelled and connected. These labelled regions are locally bright spots in the image. From the preserved boundary locations of these locally bright spots, a plurality of feature measures are computed, indicative of their respective brightnesses, shapes and edge contrasts.

Abstract: A blue-green II/VI semiconductor injection laser utilizing a Zn.sub.1-u Cd.sub.u Se active layer (quantum well) having Zn.sub.1-x Mg.sub.x S.sub.y Se.sub.1-y cladding layers and ZnS.sub.z Se.sub.1-z guiding layers on a GaAs substrate. These devices are operable in a pulse mode at room temperature.

Abstract: A circuit for controlling a reproduced volume level of an audio signal to a desired level includes a peak detector for detecting a peak amplitude level in the audio signal, a user operable control for generating a signal indicative of a desired amplitude level, a comparator for comparing the detected peak amplitude level in the audio signal with the desired amplitude level and for generating a comparison signal as a result of the comparison, and a voltage controlled amplifier coupled to the comparator for adjusting the peak amplitude level in the audio signal in dependence on the comparison signal. The output from the voltage controlled amplifier then has the desired level.

Abstract: A starting capacitor disconnect scheme for a fluorescent lamp system in which each starting capacitor shunts one or more series connected fluorescent lamps until all of the fluorescent lamps are ignited. Following ignition of all fluorescent lamps, each starting capacitor is effectively removed from the ballast. Preconditioning of the fluorescent lamp filaments can be limited to the period of time that one or more lamp loads are shunted by the starting capacitor.

Abstract: A switch mode power supply for a ballast having a power factor controller and providing a regulated D.C. output voltage. The controller is responsive to a control input signal which includes a sensed signal added to a varying offset. The sensed signal is representative of the current flow through a switching device of the power supply. The offset is varied based on the regulated D.C. voltage output.

Abstract: A magnetic position sensor system including a magnetic medium divided into a plurality of areas of magnetization for producing a magnetic field with a variable intensity. The magnetic medium includes a first side, a second side and a longitudinal axis. A Hall cell is used for detecting the intensity of the magnetic field produced by the magnetic medium and for producing an electric signal which corresponds to the intensity detected. The magnetic medium is movable with respect to the Hall cell so that the Hall cell scans along the first side of the medium along the longitudinal axis and detects the intensity of the magnetic field at any given point along the longitudinal axis of the medium.

Abstract: An arbiter based on pairwise mutual exclusion produces an absolute priority signal (G) indicating that one of three or more requests (R.sub.1, R.sub.2, . . . R.sub.N) has gained absolute priority over all the other. At least one mutual-exclusion element (20.sub.1 or 20p) in the arbiter is designed so that its pairwise priority determination car be reversed in response to at least one externally originated test signal (T.sub.1, T.sub.2 or T.sub.M-1, T.sub.M). By doing so after the requests have been asserted in a specified order, a priority conflict can be generated among the requests in order to check the conflict-resolution capability of the arbiter.

Abstract: A hashing data storage and retrieval arrangement whose storage capacity is unaffected by collisions. A first memory serves as a hash index table, for storing pointers at each address location corresponding to a hash value generated by hashing a key data word. Each pointer is the address of a location in a second memory, which has a separate storage location for each key data word, its associated data, and a further pointer which is the address of the next key data word resulting from a collision during hashing. Preferably a pipeline register between the two memories permits hashing of a subsequent key data word while accessing of the second memory is still in progress.

Abstract: An electric lamp having a light source capsule with a generally planar press seal, having two opposing major faces and two minor faces extending therebetween, includes an improved support strap for securing the seal to a frame support rod. The support strap includes a stiffly resilient strip of metal having two spaced and opposing major leg portions each extending in contact with a respective major seal face, an elastically deformable jaw portion substantially not in contact with a seal face, and end portions fixed to each other adjacent one of the seal faces. The elastically deformable portion is arranged such that with the strap end portions fixed to each other it is elastically deformed and firmly biases other portions of the support strap against at least two of the seal faces for holding the seal therebetween.

Abstract: An electronic circuit with a logarithmic detector performs the following operations: receiving an input voltage, generating a series of subsequently amplified versions of the input voltage, rectifying the versions, thereupon rescaling and converting the versions into currents, summing the currents and applying the summed current to a resistor. With regard to the prior art the order of rectification and rescaling has been interchanged. As a result, the design is simplified, the circuit's supply voltage is lower than that of the prior art, and the circuit is more accurate and easier to compensate for temperature dependence.

Abstract: A sealed electric motor is formed by means of interfitting metallic housing members and an overmolded plastic casing. The housing includes an annular groove into which the casing extends to improve both retention and sealing.

Abstract: The contents of a digital data file, interspersed as packets of data in a bit stream containing entertainment signals and/or other data files, are quickly identified without a high system overhead for identification of each packet. The data file is divided into packets, and sequential groups of packets making up the file are identified as segments. The first packet of each segment has a prefix containing a service identification number, a block number, a segment number, and possibly segment length information, followed by data contents. The following packets of the segment have only the service identification number and block number, followed by the data contents. Where the file data are transmitted repeatedly, often without change in many segments, receiver processing time or power can be greatly reduced by including a version number or toggle bit in the segment prefix, so that a receiver can ignore the unchanged data.

Abstract: A high pressure discharge lamp having a thick film resistor comprising a plurality of resistive elements. A first resistive element is included in a starting circuit for the lamp and a second resistive element is in series with the arc tube during lamp operation for flicker elimination. The integral thick film resistor facilitates mounting and connection of the resistor elements within the lamp envelope. Favorably, the resistor substrate has a surface emissivity of greater than about 0.5, and preferably greater than about 0.9, to provide sufficient radiation cooling within an evacuated outer lamp envelope to prevent resistor failure while keeping the size of the resistor small enough for use as a component in an HID lamp. Additionally, a suitable coating of low vapor pressure thickness covers the solder connecting the metallic resistor terminals to the substrate to prevent evaporation of the solder and its deposition on the inner surface of the outer lamp envelope.

Abstract: An integrated circuit device is provided with user-programmable power-down means for disabling a particular circuit in the device under control of a user-specified state of an input signal supplied to the device. In particular, for PLDs a power-down feature of this kind is simple to implement, requiring no additional I/O pins on the device, considerably reduces power consumption and renders the device more versatile than prior art devices.