Abstract: A system for cooling comestibles is provided in multiple tiers of relatively shallow trays or receptacles vertically spaced apart at close intervals and mounted in a rack, in combination with one or more hollow wands containing refrigerant. Each wand is configured to have a longitudinally grooved immersible section which is insertible through narrow spaces between trays into material to be chilled. A reservoir for refrigerant extends from one end of the wand to the other. The wand can be periodically or continuously manipulated in twirling, revolving and translating motions which simultaneously mix the food and agitate the refrigerant so that the refrigerant circulates within the interior of the wand and quickly cools the food.

Abstract: Chromium dioxide is deposited as a ferromagnetic layer onto selected portions of a substrate or over the entire substrate. Chromium hexacarbonyl vapor is introduced into a vacuum deposition chamber at e.g. 10 milliTorr and oxygen is introduced at e.g. 15 to 100 milliTorr. A UV laser beam is focused onto the substrate to form the CrO.sub.2 layer photolytically. The CrO.sub.2 layer can also be deposited by RF plasma deposition. This technique can also be employed for depositing MoC.sub.2, WC.sub.2, Mo.sub.2 .phi..sub.3, MoO.sub.2 or WO.sub.2. Magnetic recording or memory devices are produced without the high failure rate typical of the prior art sputtering technique.

Abstract: A thin platinum film which is both conductive and transparent is produced by laser chemical vapor deposition of a suitable organometallic compound, such as allyl cyclopentadienyl platinum. After deposition, the film is annealed to increase the relative abundance of platinum with respect to carbon. The film can be further conditioned by electrically cycling the same in a bath of sulfuric acid.

Abstract: A three-dimensional multiple-circuit layer semiconductor device has multiple circuit layers vertically stacked on a single crystal wafer. Thick single-crystal InSb film serves as conductors and contacts, thin single-crystal InSb film serves as semiconductor channels, and CdTe serves as insulator layers. The good lattice match between the two materials permits epitaxial growth of fifty or more layers.

Abstract: Increasing the surface acidity of active carbons can lead to an increase in capacity for hydrogen adsorption. Increasing the surface basicity can facilitate methane adsorption. The treatment of carbons is most effective when the carbon source material is selected to have a low ash content i.e., below about 3%, and where the ash consists predominantly of alkali metals alkali earth, with only minimal amounts of transition metals and silicon. The carbon is washed in water or acid and then oxidized, e.g. in a stream of oxygen and an inert gas at an elevated temperature.

Abstract: Depopsition of a boron nitride film is carried out by introducing decaborane and dry nitrogen or ammonia into a plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition chamber. The nitrogen or ammonia partial pressure should provide an excess over the decarborane pressures for example 200 milliTorr of N.sub.2 or NH.sub.3 and 50 MilliTorr of B.sub.10 H.sub.14. Other film layers can also be produced starting from decaborane.

Abstract: A two step procedure converts an epoxide residue from a Sharpless kinetic resolution of secondary allyl alcohols into an allyl alcohol of the desired chirality. The Sharpless system selectively epoxidizes one enantiomer of the allyl alcohol and leaves the other substantially unreacted. Then the epoxy alcohol is treated with methanesulfonyl anhydride and converted to epoxy mesylate. This product is contacted with a telluride salt in aqueous solution to convert it to the desired allyl alcohol with the chiral center inverted. This technique effects nearly complete conversion of racemic starting material to a single desired enantiomer.

Abstract: A multi-parameter control circuit supplies a number of control signals to a multiple-input system, and these regulate process parameters. A cost function, which depends on all of the parameters, is measured, and a time derivative signal is produced which represents the time differential of the cost function. There are a number of control signal circuits responsive to the cost function derivative which each include a multiplier that receives the time derivative signal, and a second input. An integrator integrates the output of the multiplier and provides a time integral to one input of an adder, a second input of which is provided with a rapidly varying incoherent signal, which can be white noise. The adder produces a parameter control output signal which is used to control the process parameter. A differentiator has an input connected to the adder output and an output that provides a time derivative of the parameter control signal to the second input of the multiplier.

Abstract: A tracking multielectrode electroglottograph has a number of electrodes that are located about each other in opposed arrays placed on either side of a subject's neck during vocalized speech or singing. Each pair of opposed electrodes within the arrays is coupled to a separate channel of the electroglottograph electronics, which, in turn, provides an output signal which reflects, in large measure, the variation with time of the area of contact between the vibrating vocal folds within the subject's larynx. Each channel has a send circuit containing a signal generator that is isolated from the other channels and which produces a high frequency carrier that is synchronized with the carriers from the other channels so as not to produce beats. Each channel also has a receive circuit with input connected to the output of the respective send circuit and to the respective pair of opposed electrodes. The electrodes and the send and receive circuits can be connected either in parallel or in series with each other.

Abstract: A technique for extracting voice parameters from oral or combined oral and nasal air flow involves having a test subject or patient pronounce a vowel sound that has a high first formant into a pneumotachographic device which produces an output voiced speech waveform that includes the mean air flow. This output signal is appropriately filtered to remove the formant frequencies and produce a smoothed glottal waveform approximation. From the pneumotachograph output waveform and smoothed glottal waveform are derived a peak value P, a minimum value L, glottal wave period T.sub.O and average value M for the glottal waveform. The amplitude and wave center value can readily be calculated, and from these the open quotient Q.sub.O can be derived which represents the ratio of the duration of the open portion B of the glottal wave cycle to the entire period T.sub.O thereof.

Abstract: The fractional volumetric holdup .phi. of a dispersed phase in a two liquid dispersed phase system in a reactor is determined by measuring the travel time of ultrasonic pulses on a fixed path for the dispersed phase, and for the two liquids separately, and calcualted according to the relation ##EQU1## where C*, C.sub.1, and C.sub.2 are the sound velocities in the dispersed phase, the first liquid, and the second liquid. The pulses can be transmitted from a transmitter transducer straight through the contents of the reactor to a receive transducer, or can be reflected off a die or similar flat faced member back to the originating transducer. A sonic velocimeter is disposed along the reactor and draws out a quantity of the two-liquid system, and separates it into the first and second liquids. The sound velocity of each liquid is measured with ultrasonic transducers, and the dispersed phase holdup .phi. is calculated based on these measured velocities.

Abstract: An extremely long-life, highly reproducible cathode is produced by preparing a porous sintered metal matrix, impregnating the matrix with a reagent containing a transition metal to modify the surface structure of the matrix, and then impregnating the surface-modified metal matrix with a barium-containing reagent to produce a cathode structure in which barium atoms are held in a metal-metal interaction with the transition metals and the surface of the matrix. In a preferred embodiment, the transition metal oxide is TiO.sub.2. This produces a barium/transition metal oxide surface structure which permits cathode operating temperatures on the order of 650 degrees C. The barium is stable and is retained on the surface of the metal matrix, so further dispensing is not required.

Abstract: Ceramic materials in the form of powdered .gamma.-Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 are surface modified by addition of the salts or oxides of nickel or tungsten prior to contact of the ceramic with polymer binder suspensions. The sintering and densification of said ceramic materials produces ceramic bodies substantially free from carbonaceous residues.

Abstract: A multi-chronal fluorescence imaging technique for spatial differentiation and correlation of a plurality of separate sample components tagged with site specific dyes is described. The dyes have decay times that are widely separated and vary by approximately a factor of ten from one dye to the next. These are added to the sample and are excited with a short pulse of ultraviolet light. Between the sample and a detector is placed an adjustable shutter or gate which is opened and closed at predetermined intervals so that the detector can see the approximate maximum intensity output of each dye in a shown ordered sequence without significant interference from the other dyes.

Abstract: The reliability and life cycle of a thin-film conductor is predicted accurately and directly by measuring changes in its resistivity during an interval in which its temperature is dynamically increased. A semiconductor wafer containing a number of integrated circuits, each of which contains the thin-film conductor, is placed on a test platform of a semiconductor test station, where probes are positioned to supply a constant current stress to the conductor and to measure the voltage across it. A ramp current is supplied to a resistive heating element on the test platform to effect a linear rise in temperature over a span of time to the thin-film conductor. Changes in the conductor resistivity with respect to temperature provide kinetic data related to electromigration damage in the conductor, and hence to reliability over time.

Abstract: A microprogram-coupled multiple-microprocessor module receives a system command system status and associated data. The system command and the system status can be directly used as an address or mapped into a microprogram memory address to initiate micro-subroutines. The module can serve as a basic processor and its microprogrammability gives it a high degree of flexibility and modularity. A five-microprocessor module is employed in one example. Basic microprogramming techniques used in the module include a multiple-way microprogram branch technique. The organization of the module is systematic and structured and the microprogramming for the module is a comparatively simple procedure. The module achieves an improved rate of instruction execution at a relatively small cost in the number of clock cycles required.

Abstract: The fractional volumetric holdup .phi. of a dispersed phase in a two liquid dispersed phase system is determined by measuring the travel time of ultrasonic pulses on a fixed path for the dispersed phase, and for the two liquids separately, and caluclated according to the relation.phi.=t*-t.sub.1 /t.sub.2 -t.sub.1where t*, t.sub.1, and t.sub.2 are the ultrasonic pulse travel times through the dispersed phase, the first liquid, and the second liquid. The pulses can be transmitted from a transmitter transducer straight through the contents of a reactor to a receive transducer, or can be reflected off a die or similar flat faced member back to the originating transducer.

Abstract: Hydrogen is stored at cold temperatures (room temperature to liquid nitrogen temperature) by sorption in a high unit surface area activated carbon storage medium. A minor amount of a transition metal is dispersed in the carbon, and this significantly increases the hydrogen occupancy of the available storage sites on the carbon. In a favorable embodiment, the storage medium is activated so as to maintain a quantity of water, which acts as a co-catalyst to further enhance the quantity of hydrogen that can be stored.

Abstract: In the treatment of high strength wastewater containing anaerobically digestible nutrients and organic substrates, the water is passed through a sealed reactor housing and the pressure in the headspace over the water is reduced under controlled conditions to provide for optimum operating conditions.

Abstract: A technique is described that permits direct and accurate evaluation of a thin film conductor's reliability which requires only a few hours to carry out. The technique involves a temperature ramp procedure which dynamically exposes a conductor operating under constant current stress to a linear (in time) rise in temperature. Changes in resistivity of the conductor provides kinetic data that is directly related to both the electromigration process and the reliability of the device.