Abstract: Liposome-encapsulated quinolones and specifically liposome-encapsulated ciprofloxacin dramatically enhances macrophage functions, induces NO production and augments the production of cytokines, rendering the composition an immunoprophylactic and immunotherapeutic agent with unique clinical potential. Liposome-encapsulated ciprofloxacin and other quinolones could be extremely useful in antimicrobial, anticancer and AIDS therapies. In such cases, the immunological status of the patient is often compromised or suppressed, making them susceptible to microbial infections and to the development of tumor growth. Selective augmentation of cellular immunity by activation of the microbicidal and tumoricidal activities of macrophages, induction of NO and cytokine production could be of primary importance to such patients in terms of protecting them against microbial infections and inducing their cellular host defense to tumor cells.

Abstract: A vaccine comprising purified outer-polysaccharide (OPS) is effective for protection against brucellosis. The vaccine is derived from Brucella or a variety of cross reactive bacteria. The vaccine can be administered by different routes (intramuscularly, subcutaneously, intraperitoneally, orally). The vaccine is effective in protecting against other infectious bacteria, aside from Brucella. It is likely that the vaccine can be given after infection to reduce illness.

Abstract: A system for exerting a force, for instance a vertical upward lifting force of a predetermined tension vs. time waveform on a suspended object is useful in training the operators of shoulder-supported rocket launchers. The system includes an actuator for generating a required tensile force, a non-stretchable line or cable for connecting the object to the actuator and an overhead guide supported on an overhead support structure. The cable passes over the guide means defining a portion of the cable directly supporting the object. The position of the guide is controlled, in a response to a deviation from verticality of the portion of the cable with suspended object, before the activation of the actuator so that the verticality of the object lifting force is maintained. In operation, a predetermined force is exerted on the object regardless of whether the object moves as a result of the force.

Abstract: An underwater acoustic projector comprising a pair of spaced apart end plates with an acoustic driver positioned between the end plates, the driver having smaller cross-sectional dimensions than the end plates. The end plate's edges are secured to an outer one-piece thin walled shell that provides a waterproof enclosure for the driver. That thin walled shell has a concavely inwardly bent surface between the end plates and a plurality of axially extending corrugations to provide a predetermined axial compliance and radial-to-axial transformation ratio.

Abstract: A process for making a superconducting, Pb-doped, 2:2:2:3 BiSrCaCuO thin film includes heating deposited thin film material at between 1083K and 1103K for no more than 20 minutes in oxygen with a flow rate of 500 sccm, followed by quenching the material in air to room temperature, heating the material in air between 1103K and 1143K for no more than 40 minutes and finally quenching the material in air to room temperature.

Abstract: A Raman cell for Raman shifting of a laser pump beam, to an output beam of a different wavelength, the cell containing a gaseous Raman medium at a pressure of 100-1000 PSIG. An input window for a pump beam is located at one end of the cell and an output window for a Raman shifted wavelength output beam is located at the cells opposite end. The output window is formed as a plane mirror having an inner face coated with dielectric thin films which provide a high reflectivity for the wavelength of the pump beam and a partial reflectivity at the cell's Raman shifted wavelength. The input window includes at least one lens that forms a converging lens for the pump beam which has a focal length in the Raman medium of about 3/2 of the cell's inner length to substantially focus the pump beam at the center of the cell after it is reflected back by the inner face of the plane mirror.

Abstract: An adaptive control system for mechanical and dynamic systems being transferred from an initial to a desired final state by control devices. The control system comprises an adaptive controller (e.g. in the form of an artificial neural network) for providing scaling parameters p, from inputs to the controller of coordinates for desired final and initial states, to a function generator which provides prototypical time functions scaled by the above parameters, those signals being provided directly via connections to the control devices which generate the required control signals. The adaptive control system may be used for a robotic manipulator having a number of rigid links interconnected by joints, the links being moveable by actuators.

Abstract: An imaging device comprising a Focal Plane Array (FPA) image sensor having a grid formed of individual detector elements, arranged in an array of columns and rows, and a mask with a checkerboard pattern of opaque and transparent areas, the mask being located in front of and adjacent to the FPA onto which an image of a scene can be focused by an optical system. The imaging device displaces the mask and FPA with respect to each other in a number of micro-steps that extend in the same direction as that in which a column and a row of the grid extends. The micro-steps in any one direction are of equal lengths which are each a fraction of the length of a detector element. Opaque areas of the mask will then progressively cover equal areas of detector elements in discrete steps for each micro-step movement in one direction at the same time as transparent areas of the mask progressively uncover equal areas of other detector elements for each discrete step.

Abstract: An optical identification friend-or-foe (IFF) system for vehicles comprises a Selective Wavelength IFF (SWIFF) system with a tunable optical beacon being located on each similarly equipped vehicle. That tunable optical beacon includes a light source and wavelength encoder which can select a number of narrow-band optical wavelengths for emission from the beacon, those selected wavelengths forming an identification code for a vehicle. The optical beacon directs the selected wavelengths along an optical path to a diffuser which can irradiate a wide field-of-view around the vehicle with those selected wavelength for detection and identification by other friendly vehicles. The light source may be one that emits a broad range of wavelengths with the encoder providing a number of narrow-band optical filters which can be selectively positioned in the optical path from the light source to the diffuser.

Abstract: A radial flow fuel processor comprises a heat transfer assembly and a reactor housing encasing the heat transfer assembly. The heat transfer assembly includes a plate having a plurality of heat transfer structures extending therefrom and at least one fluid passageway extending within the heat transfer plate for containing a heat transfer fluid stream. The reactor housing comprises a an inlet and an outlet. A reactant stream introduced at the inlet flows radially outwardly through the processing chamber to the volume between the housing and the heat transfer assembly, and is then exhausted through the outlet. In reverse mode, a reactant stream introduced at the outlet flows radially inwardly through volume between the housing and the heat transfer assembly to the processing chamber, and is then exhausted through the inlet.

Abstract: A decoy flare for infrared (IR) seeking missiles comprises a tubular outer shell with a first rupturing disc sealing a rear end of the outer shell and a cover member with a second rupturing disc sealing a front end of the outer shell. These form a sealed container for a pyrophoric liquid. A nozzle cap is attached to the cover member with a nozzle being located in front of the second rupturing disc. A piston in the container adjacent the first rupturing disc separates the pyrophoric liquid from the disc. A holder for a gas generator, a disc of energetic material, is connected in sealed relationship to the container to position the gas generator adjacent the first rupturing disc and form a gas generating chamber between the holder and that disc. That holder contains an ignition mechanism for the gas generator and a seal to prevent gases from escaping via the ignition mechanism after it is activated.

Abstract: An opto-electronic device for detecting a beam of radiation and determining the angle-of-arrival of that beam with a high degree of angular resolution. The device has a linear array of radiation detectors arranged in a plane with a shadow mask located at a predetermined height h above and parallel to that plane wherein the shadow mask has a plurality of transparent apertures separated by opaque areas. Each radiation detector in the array comprises at least one pair of individual detector elements and apertures of the shadow mask, which apertures have the same width as the detector elements, are centred directly above the area between adjacent detector elements. Signals generated by corresponding detector elements in each radiation detector are supplied, in parallel, to one channel providing a number of output channels which correspond to the number of individual detector elements in each radiation detector.

Abstract: A write protect device for a computer comprising a hardware circuit with a switch connected to an internally installed circuit card which has cable connections between data storage device drives and a drive controller cable, the circuit card intercepting control lines used for drive selection and control. The switch is connected to inputs of a latch circuit which, in one position of the switch, generates *READONLY and READONLY signals at outputs of the latch circuit and, in a second position, *DISABLE and DISABLE signals at other outputs. To enter a read only mode, the circuit card includes an inverter and a NAND gate in a *WRITE GATE line to the data storage device drives with one input of the NAND gate being connected to the *READONLY line from the latch circuit which will prevent any *WRITE GATE signal from reaching the data storage device drives when the *READONLY line is activated.

Abstract: A monitoring system for automatically logging the accumulated operational hours of a plurality of instruments is disclosed herein. The monitoring system has the capability of monitoring a large number of instruments that may be remotely located. The monitoring system of the present invention is devised to continually monitor the on/off state of each instrument and hence measure the amount of time that each instrument is in an operational mode.

Abstract: A digital quadrature demodulator for an intermediate frequency (IF) input signal with an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter having a sampling frequency f.sub.s and an input to which the IF input signal is applied where the IF input signal has a bandwith B<f.sub.s /4 centered about a frequency of f.sub.s /4. The demodulator includes an arrangement to direct even numbered output signals from the A/D converter to an inphase channel and odd numbered output signals from the A/D converter to a quadrature channel where each channel contains a highpass filter and the demodulator includes circuits to decimate by 4 signals of the channels to generate, together with the filters, a quadrature output signal Q(nT) at an output of the quadrature channel and an inphase output signal I(nT) at an output of the inphase channel. The quadrature highpass filter in the quadrature channel has an optimized transform architecture in which the filter coefficients h.sub.

Abstract: A direction finding apparatus for detecting and locating transmitters of direct sequence spread spectrum signals has two antenna spaced apart horizontally which are connected to a tuner that is under the control of a microcomputer. The tuner bandpass filters signals in separate channels for each antenna, amplifies and converts those signals to an intermediate frequency. That intermediate frequency signal in each channel is applied to a nonlinear device to produce discrete spectral components which are applied to a bandpass filter in order to isolate a discrete spectral component in one channel and a similar component in the other channel. Each selected discrete spectral component is then digitized in A/D converters and applied to the microcomputer which determines the frequency of the spectral component and the phase difference between channels.

Abstract: A novel optical chemical sensor for direct and continuous detection of organic species in process streams is described. The sensor is based on the use of surface plasmon resonance to amplify fluorescence emission from chemically selective membranes which can be deposited as Lang-muir-Blodgett films on thin metal island films.

Abstract: A system for target detection and localization with an algorithm for performing target motion analysis (TMA) using data from a passive sonar array and which works directly with beam spectra to estimate the target track. The system determines when the coordinate trajectory of a hypothesized target aligns with the coordinate trajectory of an actual target and operates by forming long-term integrated spectral values from short-term values of frequency and angle coordinate values. The hypothesized target track that yields the maximum long-term integrated spectral value is used as the estimate of the true target track. A track generator is used to generate hypothesized target tracks for a search grid in the form of vectors that are clocked downward in a chain of latches. The latches are connected through computational elements, which are supplied with non-acoustic data, and RAMs to a summation pipeline, the RAMs being supplied with data from an array's sonar processor.

Abstract: An apparatus for detecting a beam of radiation, such as a collimated laser beam, and determining the angle-of-arrival of that beam with a high angular resolution, the apparatus comprising a linear array of radiation detectors arranged in a plane and a digital Gray code shadow mask, located at a predetermined height above and parallel to the plane. The Gray code shadow mask is provided with parallel rows containing slot(s) with each of those rows being centrally positioned directly above one of the radiation detectors and arranged so that the rows are perpendicular to the linear array. The slot(s) in each row are located at predetermined distances from the center of a row with those distances differing for each row. A well collimated radiation beam, such as from a laser, directed towards the shadow mask will project images of the slots onto the plane with the positions of the images being dependent on both the positions of the slots and the angle-of-arrival of the beam.

Abstract: A method for reducing cavitation around underwater acoustic projectors is described. The projector is cleaned with a surfactant and then encapsulated with an aqueous gel containing a polysaccharide polymer such as a chitosan derivative, a hydrophilic stabilizer and a biocide.