Abstract: A vehicle following apparatus with a distance measuring function is provided in which once the driver roughly sets a vehicle following window on a display screen, the exact position and size of the window can be automatically adjusted so as to locate the image of a target preceding vehicle as sensed in the center of the window, and in which the distance to the target preceding vehicle can be successively measured in an exact manner while following the target vehicle. A pair of image sensors sense an object from two different points to form a pair of first and second images thereof. A window forming means defines a vehicle-following window of a variable size within the first images. A memory successively stores an image in the vehicle-following window. An image processor finds, from the first images at a current time, a new image which is the most similar to the image stored in the memory at a previous time. The image processor defines a provisional window containing therein the thus found new image.

Abstract: Disclosed is a process, and the product thereof, for producing swollen foods, e.g. croutons, having a softer mouth feel than might be expected from those obtained by a conventional process, which process comprises heating and pressurizing through an extruder a powder comprising fine particles of porous structure, e.g. eggshell or bone powder, and a food material predominantly comprising a starchy material and/or a protein and thereafter releasing and causing the same to swell.

Abstract: Disclosed is a process for producing swollen foods having a softer mouth feel than might be expected from those obtained by a conventional process, which process comprises heating and pressurizing through an extruder a powder; e.g. eggshell or bone powder, comprising fine particles of porous structure and a food material predominantly comprising a starchy material and/or a protein and thereafter releasing and causing the same to swell.

Abstract: Apparatus for treating a thermoplastic resin is made up of a feed barrel supplied with the thermoplastic resin, a slit barrel for discharging a liquid component of the resin, a press-in barrel into which a polymer is admitted under pressure, and a vent barrel having a vent opening for discharging vaporized substance generated by the thermoplastic resin and the polymer. These barrels are serially interconnected to from a cylinder which contains a screw for kneading a mixture of the resin and the polymer. The kneaded mixture is extruded as a strand.

Abstract: The present invention relates to CCD area sensors. The object of the invention is to remove the problem which stems from the fact that the charge transfer function of the vertical CCD(6) restricts the performance of the CCD area sensor. According to the CCD area sensor of the present invention, the fundamental feature resides in that the clocked transfer electrode 3(Z to U) of the vertical CCD(6) are driven by dissimilar clock voltages in order to independently transfer the signal charge packets of the whole potential wells of the vertical CCD(6), that the empty potential well is injected from the output terminal of the vertical CCD(6), and that the next empty potential well is injected from said output terminal before the empty potential well that was previously injected before reaches the opposite end of the output terminal of the vertical CCD(6).

Abstract: A process for treating a radioactive liquid waste is disclosed, in which a radioactive liquid waste containing uranium and .beta.-decay nuclides, daughter nuclides of uranium, is treated by combination of a flocculation method using water glass as pretreatment and a subsequent ion exchange method. An approximately total amount of the uranium and a part of the .beta.-decay nuclides, daughter nuclides of uranium, in the liquid waste are captured by an amorphous silica precipitate formed by addition of the water glass and a remaining part of the .beta.-decay nuclides, daughter nuclides of uranium, is captured thereafter by the ion exchange treatment. The thus captured radioactive materials are respectively eluted from the filtered out precipitate, a radioactive solid waste, and the ion exchanger by acid treatment to be recovered as an acidic solution. Thus, the radioactive materials in the liquid waste are recovered approximately completely, thereby making the radioactivities of a final drain remarkably reduced.

Abstract: In a multishaft supporting device comprising a barrel and sleeve adapted to receive a plurality of shafts of a kneader, a twin shaft extruder or the like, inserts made of a metal having larger thermal expansion coefficient than the barrel and sleeve are inserted between the barrel and the sleeve to improve heat transfer therebetween.

Abstract: A process for recovering uranium and/or thorium from a liquid containing uranium and/or thorium is disclosed, which comprises capturing the uranium and/or thorium in the liquid by an amorphous silica precipitate formed by adding water glass to the liquid, making the captured uranium and/or thorium eluted from the precipitate by acid-treatment, recovering the eluted uranium and/or thorium as an acidic solution, and regenerating the precipitate to water glass by use of an alkali metal hydroxide solution. Thus, the uranium and/or thorium can be recovered in high yield and the amorphous silica precipitate, that is, a formed radioactive solid waste can be remarkably reduced.

Abstract: A process for recovering uranium and/or thorium from a liquid containing uranium and/or thorium is disclosed, which comprises making a precipitate composed mainly of amorphous silica formed by adding water glass to the liquid containing uranium and/or thorium, capturing the uranium and/or thorium in the liquid by the precipitate, treating the precipitate with acid to elute the captured uranium and/or thorium, adding ammonia or hydrogen peroxide to an acidic solution containing the eluted uranium and/or thorium to form a precipitate composed of ammonium salt or peroxide of the uranium and/or thorium, and filtering out the ammonium salt or peroxide precipitate. Thus, high purity solid uranium and/or thorium reutilizable for manufacture of nuclear fuel material can be recovered in high yield.

Abstract: In a method for injection moulding of the type wherein gas or vapor evolved from the resin being moulded is vent through a vent opening provided for a heated cylinder at an intermediate point thereof, the vent opening is maintained at a reduced pressure during metering and a small quantity of vaporizable liquid is admitted into the vent opening during injection for increasing the pressure therein.