Abstract: A shaft for a vehicle including a first member having an internal spline and defining an inner cavity, a second member having an external spline, and a boot mounted over the vent and adapted to substantially prevent contaminants from entering the inner cavity through the vent. The external spline of the first member and the internal spline of the second member cooperatively allow an axial sliding movement of the second member into the inner cavity of the first member and substantially prevents rotational movement between the first and second members. One of the first and second members defines a vent communicating with the inner cavity. The first and second members and the boot cooperatively form a substantially airtight enclosure.

Abstract: A shaft for a vehicle including a first member having an internal spline and defining an inner cavity, a second member having an external spline, and a boot mounted over the vent and adapted to substantially prevent contaminants from entering the inner cavity through the vent. The external spline of the first member and the internal spline of the second member cooperatively allow an axial sliding movement of the second member into the inner cavity of the first member and substantially prevents rotational movement between the first and second members. One of the first and second members defines a vent communicating with the inner cavity. The first and second members and the boot cooperatively form a substantially airtight enclosure.

Abstract: A fastener for receiving a sink unit in a worktop has a plastics clip for attaching to a tab or rail and a hinged clamping member (11) which is tightened up against the underside of the worktop by a screw. The screw can be pressed through a bore in the hinge pin and self-tap into a non-threaded passage in the clip when the clamping member is hinged to engage under the worktop. The bore through the hinge pin has small flexible tags projecting into it past which the screw thread can snap, but which retain the screw when that is not engaged with the clip. The hinge pin and the clip have mutually engageable detents which locate the pin, and thus the clamping member, in either the operative position, for engaging the worktop, or the non-operative position with the clamping member swung back free of the worktop.

Abstract: A musical instrument stand holds at least one and preferably a number of musical instruments by a supporting structure that partly includes the structure of a case having top and bottom halves that are hinged together. The top and bottom halves are pivoted open to place the top half in a substantially vertical position where the top half holds a supporting yoke for holding an instrument, such as the neck of a guitar resting against a pad in the bottom half. A frame mounted to the case has two vertical legs mounted on the top half and a laterally extending support between the legs. Each leg is pivotally fastened in spaced relation to the other and is pivoted down for storage in the case or up to hold the lateral support and the instrument(s). In the pivoted-up position the legs snap resiliently into cutouts in a front edge of the top half, which provides part of the structural support for the instrument. The lateral support is coupled to and extends between the two legs at a selectable height.

Abstract: A modular, multi-compartment container includes four pre-stamped blanks of material, such as paperboard that may be folded into a preferred orientation and placed into a cooperative arrangement. The blanks of material form a contiguous ring of outwardly-facing compartments and a selectively covered internal chamber. Vertically-aligned pairs of apertures accommodate included hollow tubes. The tubes increase the structural integrity of the container and may be used for storage and display purposes as well. A corrugated base is also included.

Abstract: A multi-layered printed circuit board having an integrated twisted pair conductor. In a preferred embodiment, the printed circuit board comprises two segmented conductor traces on a first and a second layer of the printed circuit board crisscrossing each other and a plurality of vias. The two segmented conductor traces on the first layer are connected to the two segmented conductor traces on the second layer through the vias. The twisted pair conductor may be shielded by adding a ground trace on either side of the conductor traces and a ground plane both above and below the conductor traces. The conductor traces may also be tuned to specific electrical characteristics by properly spacing the plurality of vias such that a specific number of turns per unit length are achieved. The continuous conductor traces may be further tuned by using a specific dielectric thickness as well as by designing the conductor traces to be of a specific dimension.

Abstract: A high speed counter employs a number of functional blocks, flexibly interconnected on a bus structure, to provide efficient and high speed implementation of arbitrary range measuring tasks. A set of independent counters blocks are connected by the bus structure to programmable comparator blocks which establish count thresholds. The output of the comparators are paired by switchable AND/OR blocks to create ranges. The division of functions by block and the interconnecting bus structure allows the structure of each counter to be effectively programmed to fit the application at hand.