Abstract: There is described a control device of a machine, an engineering system and a method for operating said control device. Said control device is used to control and/or regulate the machine and is used to carry out at least one user program which is used to at least perform one function, and said control device comprises a debug function. The functionality of the debug function is limited in large user programs due to the high complexity and the unclearness thereof. According to the invention, in order to improve said function, the user program comprises stop points for the debug function and said stop points can be activated and/or deactivated.

Abstract: An at least partially implantable hearing system comprising at least one electromechanical output transducer; a micromanipulator for positioning the transducer and for fixing the transducer in a position set by the micromanipulator, the micromanipulator being adapted to be fixedly attached by fixing means to a skull cap; and a releasable coupling unit disposed between the transducer and the micromanipulator, said coupling unit, in an assembled state, fixing the transducer with respect to the micromanipulator, and, in a released state, permitting removal of the transducer from the micromanipulator.

Abstract: A fixation element for an implantable microphone is disclosed. In a preferred embodiment the fixation element comprises an essentially cylindrical portion adapted to be inserted into a bore which crosses a wall of the auditory canal of a user, said cylindrical portion, at least in an implanted state of the fixation element, surrounding an outer circumferential portion of a housing part of the microphone, which housing part is provided with a sound receiving member. The cylindrical portion includes at least one elastic region of increased diameter, said elastic region contacting, in the implanted state of the fixation element, a wall of said bore and providing, by elastic restoring forces, for a friction which is sufficiently high to fix said cylindrical portion in at least one of the two axial directions of said bore.

Abstract: The invention relates to a tri-color lamp for generating white light comprising a phosphor composition comprising a phosphor of general formula (Ba1-x-y-z-SrxCay)2SiO4:Euz, wherein 0?x?1, 0?y?1 and 0<z<1. The phosphor composition may also comprise a red phosphor. The two phosphors can absorb radiation emitted by a light emitting diode, particularly a blue LED. This arrangement provides a mixing of three light sources—light emitted from the two phosphors and unabsorbed light from the LED. The invention also relates to an alternative to a green LED comprising a single green phosphor of general formula (Ba1-x-y-z-SrxCay)2SiO4:Euz, wherein 0?x?1, 0?y?1 and 0<z<1, that absorbs radiation from a blue LED. A resulting device provides green light of high absorption efficiency and high luminous equivalent values.

Abstract: The invention relates to 17-methylene steroids, process for their production and pharmaceutical compositions that contain these compounds. The compounds according to the invention have a hybrid-type profile of action in the sense that they act as inhibitors of 5?-reductase and simultaneously as gestagens. They are therefore suitable for treating diseases that are the result of elevated androgen levels in certain organs and tissues in men and women. Together with other hormonal substances, such as an estrogen, testosterone or a strong androgen, the compounds according to the invention are suitable as contraceptive agents for women and for men.

Abstract: This invention describes the use of estrogen receptor (ER)&bgr;-selective agonists for the production of a pharmaceutical agent for triggering somatotropic and/or organotropic effects in the CNS, the circulatory system, the skeletal system and/or the immune system in the aging male and female organism (anticatabolic therapy).

Abstract: This invention relates to new 19-nor-17&agr;-pregna-1,3,5(10)-trien-17&bgr;-ols with a 21,16&agr;-lactone ring of formula II, 1

Abstract: The invention relates to 17-methylene steroids, process for their production and pharmaceutical compositions that contain these compounds.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a novel process for the production of sequences of interference layers composed of layers i of prescribed thicknesses d(i) and refractive indices n(i). In this process a stack of at least two layers i of glasses having refractive indices n(i) and thicknesses d0(i), which are each larger than the predetermined thicknesses d(i) by the same multiplying factor, is provided. The stack is heated to a temperature above the transformation temperature of the glasses and during or after heating, the stack is drawn in such a manner that the individual layers obtain the prescribed thicknesses d(i). After this the drawn stack is cooled.

Abstract: Wheel, in particular, for a motor vehicle with a rim and a spider, where a bolted connection is provided in the area of transition from the rim to the spider, in which a bolt head or a nut on the outside acts in conjunction with a contact surface on the spider, where the bolted connection includes a spacer sleeve which, with one of its sides, acts in conjunction with the bolt head or the nut and, with its other side, with the contact surface in such a way that the bolt head or the nut projects above the outer surface of the spider.

Abstract: A protective device for a repeatedly rechargeable electrochemical battery (10) with a battery housing (12), the protective device having at least one switching element (86) which can be activated by a detector element (62) and which is designed or adjusted to prevent recharging and/or discharging of the battery (10) in an impermissible operating state thereof. The protective device has a hermetically sealed protective housing (54) which holds the battery housing (12). An impermissible operating state of the battery (10) causes a change in shape (deflection) to be impressed on the detector element (62). Preferably, the at least one switching element (86) is made as a make contact which electrically short circuits a recharging circuit supplied by a charging device when a predetermined expansion in the volume of the battery housing (12) and/or gas escape therefrom occurs. The protective device is part of an implantable device, such as a hearing aid.

Abstract: The 17.alpha.-cyanomethylestra-4,9-diene derivative compounds are of formula I: ##STR1## wherein R.sub.1 is an alkyl group having from 1 to 2 carbon atoms; R.sub.2 is an alkyl group with 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an acyl group with 1 to 10 carbon atoms or a trialkylsilyl group; and R.sub.3 is an oxygen atom or a R--O--N group, wherein R is a hydrogen atom, an acyl group with 1 to 10 carbon atoms, an alkyl group with 1 to 10 carbon atoms, a sulfamoyl group, an alkylsilyl group or a trialkylsilyl group. These compounds, particularly in combination with at least one suitable estrogen, are suitable for treatment of endometrioses or gestagen-dependent tumors and for hormonal contraception and climacteric hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Processes for making the new steroids are described as well as methods of making the pharmaceutical compositions containing them.

Abstract: Implantable microphone for implantable hearing aids, which is used for excitation of hearing, such as cochlear implants or hearing aids with mechanical stimulation of the middle or inner ear, with a microphone capsule which is accommodated in a hermetically sealed housing, and with an electrical lead-in wire connector for connecting an implant line to the microphone module. The housing has at least two legs which are oriented at an angle relative to one another, one leg holding the microphone capsule and being provided with a sound inlet membrane, and the other leg containing the electrical lead-in wire connector.

Abstract: A permanently implantable, fixable positioning system (1) for stationary attachment to a human body, without play, preferably to the human skull. It has ball-and-socket joint (3), linear axle (4) fixed stationary to it, and a carriage (5) which is guided on the linear axle for accommodating an implantable actuator or sensor device (6). The combination of the axial degree of freedom of the linear axle (4) with three degrees of rotational freedom of the ball-and-socket joint (3) allows a surgeon four-axis, in-situ positioning of the implantable means especially in the middle ear and mastoid cavities. By using the positioning system, precise positioning of a free active end (16) of the implantable device (6) relative to sensitive anatomical structures of the human body is enabled while avoiding risky relative movements between the implantable device and the body of the patient. The positioning system is thus used more or less as a "tremor-free artificial hand" of the surgeon.

Abstract: The polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene in aqueous suspension can be carried out with high conversion if the medium is thoroughly mixed using an axially conveying stirrer element in such a manner that a cone forms at least as far as the vicinity of the stirrer element. In the region of this stirrer element there are expediently arranged baffles which extend only over a part of the filling height of the reactor.

Abstract: The unsaturated 17.alpha.-cyanomethyl-17.beta.-hydroxy steroids of the formula I, ##STR1## in which R.sub.1 =Me, Eth; R.sub.2 =H, Me; R.sub.3 =H, OH, an acetoxy or alkoxy group; R.sub.4 =H, R.sub.5 =OH, an acetoxy, alkoxy group of R.sub.4 and R.sub.5 together represent a keto- or ketal group and double bonds are contained in the basic structure of the steroid, particularly between the 15 and 16 position in the steroid ring, from unsaturated 17-ketosteroids of the general formula II as described herein with the aforementioned meanings of R.sub.1 to R.sub.5 by reacting the unsaturated 17-ketosteroids with LiCH.sub.2 CN and subsequently hydrolyzing.The compounds of formula I are pharmacologically interesting steroid compounds or also intermediate products for the synthesis of highly-effective steroid products which can be used in human and veterinary medicine for the treatment of endocrine disorders and for reproductive control based on their specific hormonal/anti-hormonal actions.

Abstract: In the illustrative embodiments described, a double tube shock absorber is provided with a continuously open throttling fluid passage device both on the piston valve unit and the bottom valve unit. The continuously open fluid passage device comprises a fluid passage chamber defined by a first wall member and a second wall member. The fluid passage chamber is connected to a first fluid chamber of the shock absorber by a first axially directed opening and to a second fluid chamber of the shock absorber by a second radially directed opening. The second radially directed opening is located radially outward of said first opening. The axial height of the fluid passage chamber continuously decreases in radial direction between said first opening and said second opening.

Abstract: Glass compositions useful for passivating silicon semiconductor elements or bodies and to semiconductor elements or bodies coated by such glass compositions. The glass compositions are applied onto the surface of the semiconductor in the form of a finely ground powder and thereafter fused on at least a portion of the semiconductor element. The compositions comprise: (A) glass and (B) powdered cordierite in an amount effective to provide a coefficient of thermal expansion of up to 40 .times. 10.sup.-7 /.degree. C for said composition within the temperature range of 20.degree.-300.degree. C. The compositions are compatible with the thermal expansion of the silicon semiconductor and capable of adhering to the silicon in layers greater than 10 .mu.m without the formation of cracks.

Abstract: The production of copper phthalocyanine in accordance with German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,432,564 is improved by the process which is characterized in that the reaction product formed at 130.degree.-300.degree. C from optionally substituted phthalic anhydride, reaction products of optionally substituted phthalic anhydride with ammonia, or the dehydration products thereof, urea and, optionally, a catalyst is reacted with a copper salt and, optionally, a catalyst at temperatures of 150.degree.-350.degree. C and preferably 170.degree.-300.degree. C with the proviso that the catalyst is added either during the preparation of the starting material or during the reaction with the copper salt.