Abstract: An alpha voltaic battery includes at least one layer of a semiconductor material comprising at least one p/n junction, at least one absorption and conversion layer on the at least one layer of semiconductor layer, and at least one alpha particle emitter. The absorption and conversion layer prevents at least a portion of alpha particles from the alpha particle emitter from damaging the p/n junction in the layer of semiconductor material. The absorption and conversion layer also converts at least a portion of energy from the alpha particles into electron-hole pairs for collection by the one p/n junction in the layer of semiconductor material.

Abstract: The invention is a dispenser for plastic bags on a roll. The invention consists of a rectangular base for mounting beneath a cabinet through a plurality of mounting holes and a tubular body attached to the bottom of the base. The tubular body has an opening on one end for inserting the roll of bags and a dispensing opening on one side, directly below the base.

Abstract: Provided is a method for assigning navigation shortcuts to computing elements in a manner that is not browser, platform or computing device specific and may, if desired, take into consideration an application, document landmark, document type, or genre. A user agent or application reserves a predefined set of access keys to represent typical navigation landmarks. Using these predefined access keys, an author and/or portal designer maps the predefined access keys to browser key equivalents, thus providing consistent navigation across an application or portal. Documents may also include predefined “genres.” An author designates a genre to the document, requests device access keys from the platform, assigns functions corresponding to the designated genre to each access key and then displays the assignments and descriptions to the user of the browser or application. Thus navigation across particular documents, document sections, and web sites within a genre is standardized.

Abstract: Provided is a method for navigation shortcuts to computing elements or functions on a computing device in a manner that is browser, platform and hardware independent. A computing device reserves a set of device dependent mechanisms, or access keys that may be assigned to functionality associated with a document or web page. A browser or application associated with the document or web page dynamically assigns the designated functionality to one of the reserved set access keys. The application or browser that assigns the designated functionality provides a list of the assigned access keys and a corresponding description. Certain access keys may be designated as allowing duplicate assignments. Duplicate assignments of a particular access key may be toggled, or cycled, through the respective functionalities. If the same access key is assigned to different functionalities within different application, then the meaning of the access key is determined by its context.

Abstract: An alpha voltaic battery includes at least one layer of a semiconductor material comprising at least one p/n junction, at least one absorption and conversion layer on the at least one layer of semiconductor layer, and at least one alpha particle emitter. The absorption and conversion layer prevents at least a portion of alpha particles from the alpha particle emitter from damaging the p/n junction in the layer of semiconductor material. The absorption and conversion layer also converts at least a portion of energy from the alpha particles into electron-hole pairs for collection by the one p/n junction in the layer of semiconductor material.

Abstract: A rare earth optical temperature sensor is disclosed for measuring high temperatures. Optical temperature sensors exist that channel emissions from a sensor to a detector using a light pipe. The invention uses a rare earth emitter to transform the sensed thermal energy into a narrow band width optical signal that travels to a detector using a light pipe. An optical bandpass filter at the detector removes any noise signal outside of the band width of the signal from the emitter.

Abstract: A method of reducing bandwidth used on a telecommunications link comprising, at an input to the link, the steps of: receiving a plurality of data packets, each packet comprising data and a packet identifier; determining packets which contain redundant data; transmitting, across the link, packets which do not contain redundant data; and further comprising, at an output of the telecommunications link, the steps of: receiving the transmitted packets; determining missing packets according to the identifiers of received packets; and generating data for the missing packets, which generated data corresponds to redundant data not transmitted across the link. This ensures bit count integrity between the input and the output of the link. Redundant data may be data following a predictable pattern, such as identical data. Where the packet identifiers are a recurring sequence of N symbols, the input transmits at least one packet in every N packets.

Abstract: A deflection drive circuit (15) for an inductive yoke (11) used with a raster scanned cathode ray tube rapidly interrupts current then reverses voltage applied to the yoke (11) during flyback. MOSFETs (Q32, Q47) are used to control current flow to the yoke. The current is interrupted by one MOSFET (Q32) being gated "OFF", after which current is permitted to flow to a capacitor (C51). At a preselected time, a second MOSFET (Q47) is gated on to admit reverse flow of current from the capacitor (C51) to the yoke (11). The second MOSFET (Q47) is gated "ON" by a circuit which includes a third MOSFET (Q57) and a pulse transformer (T59).Advantages include an ability to rapidly effect flyback without interfering with the forward scanning ability of the deflection drive circuit 15.