Abstract: A resin composition comprising an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) having an ethylene content of 20 to 60 mol % and a water-swellable phyllosilicate, said water-swellable phyllosilicate being dispersed in the EVOH with a basal spacing satisfying the following condition (I)(x-y).gtoreq.2 (I)wherein x represents the basal spacing in angstrom of the water-swellalble phyllosilicate dispersed in EVOH and y represents the basal spacing in angstrom of dry powder of the water-swellable phyllosilicate.The resin compositions of the invention are useful in the manufacture of plastic films and containers for food packaging.

Abstract: In combination with an electric apparatus emitting electromagnetic radiation, an arrangement for reducing the radiation hazards on an operator in front of the apparatus is provided, the arrangement comprising at least three magnetic devices approximately located at the apices of a triangle in front of the apparatus, each magnetic device including a closed housing made of a nonmagnetic material, a permanetn magnet located within the housing for producing a magnetic flux, and a bar of non-magnetic material located within the housing in a defined spaced-apart relationship such that the bar of non-magnetic material is placed in the effective flux area of the permanent magnet, the magnetic devices being positioned in front of the apparatus such that each permanent magnet has its north pole opposed to the south pole of the other magnets and such that each bar of non-magnetic material is situated behind the permanent magnet associated thereto.

Abstract: A technique for detecting when a full charge for a cell pack is reached based upon sensing an actual temperature of the cell pack. The initial actual temperature is the first value stored as a reference temperature. During subsequent sampling events, the actual temperature is stored as the reference temperature when the actual temperature exceeds said reference temperature. A first value for each sample event is stored in a rollover memory when said actual temperature exceeds the reference temperature, and a second value is stored in the rollover memory when the actual temperature does not exceed the reference temperature. The occurrences of the first values is summed for a series of consecutive sampling events to derive a total. The total is compared to a predetermined limit, and if the total is greater, then charging of the cell pack will be discontinued.

Abstract: An apparatus for exchanging substances, such as artificial lung, in which, for raising exchange efficiency by feeding liquid to the outer wall of hollow fiber membranes efficiently without channeling and for reducing the size of the apparatus, an exchanging part comprising a multitude of hollow fiber membrane (3) disposed cylindrically or annularly to permit liquid to flow through the hollow parts is provided, and a pump (P) is disposed on the inner periphery of said exchanging part so that liquid may continuously be fed to the hollow membrane vertically with respect to the axial direction of said hollow fiber membrane (3).

Abstract: Provided are resin compositions comprising the following (A), (B), (C), which is at least one member selected from (C.sub.1) through (C.sub.3), and (D):(A): a polyolefin,(B): a saponified product of an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer having an ethylene content of 20 to 65 mol % and a saponification degree of vinyl acetate component of at least 96%,(C):(C.sub.1): at least one inorganic substance selected from titanium oxide, talc, calcium carbonate, mica and absorptive inorganic materials,(C.sub.2): at least one compound selected from the group consisting of metal salts of higher fatty acid having 8 to 22 carbon atoms, metal salts of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and hydrotalcite, and(C.sub.3): a polyolefin modified with an unsaturated carboxylic acid or derivatives thereof;and,(D): a saponified product of an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer having an ethylene content of 68 to 98 mol % and a saponification degree of vinyl acetate-component of at least 20%.

Abstract: A carrier impregnated at spaced locations along its circumference with a dose of powdered medicament. The carrier is selectively indexed so as to present the impregnated doses of medicament seriatim between a pair of holes in an upper and lower pressure plate in an inhalator. Air is forced through the holes in the pressure plates and the encapsulated dose on the carrier to entrain a dose of the powdered medicament, which is then inhaled through a mouthpiece, by the patient-user. The powdered medicament is embedded in and across interstices in the carrier formed by intersecting and sometimes offset depressions on each surface of the carrier, providing corners and surfaces to cause the medicament entrained in the air stream to break up as it is pressed up against and passed through the carrier infrastructure to aerosol or atomize the same so that the medicament is presented in appropriate particle sizes for maximum benefit when inhaled.

Abstract: A dry powder inhalator for delivering a precise dose of a medicament contains a mesh disc impregnated with a series of spaced, medicament doses about the disc periphery. The inhalator is armed by manually retracting a finger pull extending downwardly from the bottom of the inhalator housing or rotating the bottom of the housing. The user inserts a mouthpiece on the housing into the mouth and inhales. This causes a chamber in the housing under a diaphragm to evacuate, thereby pulling the diaphragm down onto a knock out lever. The pivoting of the lever enables release of a piston into a cylinder which first compresses, and then dispenses a reduced volume of air at high pressure in a burst up through the medicament disc. When the burst of air hits the impregnated disc, the dose is forced out of the mesh's interstices, producing a cloud of the drug in its powdered form, which is inhaled by the user.

Abstract: A photographic lighting system for use with a camera provides fill light from the direction of the camera to alleviate shadows in a photographic image obtained by the camera. The photographic lighting system includes an incident light sensor for sensing the incident light intensity on a subject to be photographed, an electric light for directing fill light toward the subject, and a control circuit for controlling the intensity of the fill light provided by the electric light in response to the sensed incident light intensity. The fill light is increased in intensity as the incident light intensity increases. The control circuit can also receive a distance input representative of the distance between the electric light and the subject and controls the fill light in response to the distance input such that the fill light intensity at the subject is substantially independent of the distance.

Abstract: A device includes a transmitter for transmitting a first optical signal towards a target, which incorporates an optical parametric oscillator. A receiver is capable of receiving a second optical signal from said target. The second optical signal is the reflected signal from the first signal. The receiver means comprises an optical parametric amplifier. A wavelength matching device matches the wavelengths produced by the optical parametric oscillator with that received from the optical parametric amplifier. The optical parametric amplifier is typically joined with a laser to form an optical parametric amplifier laser, while the optical parametric oscillator is joined with a laser to form an optical parametric oscillator laser.

Abstract: Flexible assembly designed for coupling flexible tubes comprising a sleeve (1) designed to receive the ends of two tubes to be coupled and provided with assembly means designed to cooperate with complementary assembly means carried by the ends of said tubes, characterized in that the assembly means of sleeve (1) have an annular chamber arranged in the inner wall of the sleeve, and whose edges form shoulders with reflex angles (3, 3') giving to it, in axial section, a dovetailed profile, and in that the complementary assembly means carried by tubes (7, 8) to be coupled are made up of tubular stops (5) permanently attached onto the ends of tubes (7, 8), the stops having an outer diameter corresponding to the inner diameter of the annular chamber arranged in sleeve (1) and at least their edge designed to cooperate with the corresponding shoulder with reflex angle of the chamber having a complementary inclined profile (6) of that of shoulder (3) with reflex angle, and in that the length of the annular chamber is

Abstract: The apparatus consists of a machine for refunding glass bottle deposits, crushing the bottle and sorting the crushed glass as to color, either clear, brown or green. The bottle has a label provided with an optically read bar code which identifies the bottle's 1) color, 2) whether it must be returned to the manufacturer in one piece, and 3) whether a refund is, in fact, due for the particular bottle. The bottle is inserted in the apparatus and the bar code on the bottle passes beneath an optical scanner. If the bottle is refundable and of a particular color (i.e., clear, green, brown), a microprocessor electrically connected to the scanner activates a door and a deflector causing the bottle to fall into a glass crusher including a bin provided with a rotating plate which smashes the bottle. A chute beneath the glass crusher is positioned by the microprocessor so that the crushed glass is conveyed to one of three collection bins depending on the sensed color.

Abstract: This invention provides an ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer composition having specific flow characteristics in the relationship between the heating time and the extrusion rate measured with a capillary rheometer (Koka Flow Tester), and a multilayered structure utilizing the same.From the EVOH composition according to the present invention, can be obtained a molded article, particularly a multilayered structure, having an excellent appearance; more particularly, in a continuous melt molding operation over a long period, a molded article, particularly a multilayered structure, having an excellent appearance can always be obtained without worsening the appearance with running time.

Abstract: Process for producing ethylene-vinyl ester copolymers using a polymerization solvent of a dialkyl sulfoxide (process X); process for producing ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer by liquid phase saponification using a solvent of a dialkyl sulfoxide (process Y); and process for producing shaped articles which comprises contacting the ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer obtained by the process Y, or that obtained by saponifying the ethylene-vinyl ester copolymer obtained by process X, to a non-solvent for ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer.Ethylene-vinyl ester copolymers having a wide range of ethylene content and higher degree of polymerization than that with solution polymerization using methanol.The rate of saponification is higher than that with single solvent system of lower alcohol.Production cost is low, because production process of polymer is directly connected to that of shaped articles utilizing the polymer.

Abstract: An improved glass crushing apparatus for a reverse bottle vending, crushing and sorting machine having an opentop, rotatable receptacle mounted at the top of the bin for catching the bottle to be smashed in the bin. After receipt of the bottle, the receptacle is rotated by a stepping motor controlled by the microprocessor and the bottle is dropped onto and smashed by a rotating impeller which contacts and throws the bottle against a reinforced, sharp corner of the bin. The crushed glass or glass cullet is then collected in a predesignated collection bin.

Abstract: An apparatus and method is provided for disposing of infectious waste. A decontamination chamber decontaminates the waste by dry heat sterilization, and a compactor reduces the volume of the waste subsequent to decontamination in the decontamination chamber. A robot assembly is mounted between the decontamination chamber and the compactor for automatically retrieving the waste from the decontamination chamber upon being decontaminated, and for transporting the waste to the compactor for volume reduction prior to disposal.

Abstract: A trimodal method of curing dental composite restorative materials involves the use of visible light illumination for the initial curing of the composite resin and a combination of dry heat and vacuum for the complete cure of the composite restorative materials. More specifically, the method for preparing dental restorative materials includes the steps of forming a dental restoration from a composite resin of a type conventionally employed in the dental profession, in which the composite resin includes a photosensitizing system for initiating polymerization of the composite resin upon exposure to visible light, an initiator for initiating polymerization upon application of heat and at least one filler; exposing the thus prepared restoration to a source of visible light to at least partially cure said composite resin and then subjecting the thus prepared restoration to a combination of heat and vacuum to complete polymerization of said complete resin.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining the parameters (i.e., proportion, mean, and standard deviation) of constituent subpopulations within a sample population of particles which contains overlapping populations. The invention includes the use of the EM algorithm, an iterative process which estimates the probability that a particle belongs to any given overlapping subpopulation.

Abstract: A heat shrinkable film or multilayered film comprising at least one layer comprising an EVOH (A) having an average ethylene content of 20 to 60 mol % and an areal shrinkage when immersed in hot water at 90.degree. C. for 1 minute of at least 10% and having thermal characteristics satisfying the following condition (i)1.ltoreq..vertline.{T(1)-T(2)}-{t(1)-t(2)}.vertline..ltoreq.20 (i)wherein 1.ltoreq..vertline.t(1)-T(1).vertline..ltoreq.20 in the case of T(1)=T(2) and t(1)=t(2) andwherein T(1) and T(2) represent peak temperature (.degree.C.) on the highest temperature side and lowest temperature side respectively in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurement of said EVOH (A) and t(1) and t(2) peak temperatures originating from T(1) and T(2), respectively, in DSC measurement of said EVOH having been treated with an alkaline solvent.

Abstract: Provided are compositions comprising a saponified product of an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer having an ethylene content of 20 to 80 mol % and a saponification degree of vinyl acetate component of at least 95 mol %, said composition containing 20 to 200 ppm as converted to alkali metal of an alkali metal acetate, 30 to 250 ppm of acetic acid, and 5 to 500 ppm as converted to phosphate ion of phosphoric acid or an alkali metal hydrogenphosphate, and having a content ratio of acetic acid/alkali metal acetate of 0.1 to 1 and the flow characteristic that the extrusion rate does not substantially increase for at least 10 hours in the relationship between the heating time and the extrusion rate with a capillary rheometer (Koka Flow Tester) at at least one temperature 10.degree. to 80.degree. C. above the melting point.