Abstract: Alkaline diamine track lubricants for use with glass, aluminum and two-piece PET containers and other articles of manufacture are prepared from an admixture of an alkyl diamine and a water-soluble hydrotrope. The diamine lubricants are prepared without the neutralization thereof and have a corrosion inhibitor which is, preferably, a reducing agent and a biocide incorporated thereinto. A source of alkalinity may be employed, as well, to maintain the pH above 8.

Abstract: A method structure for the compression of data utilizes an encoder which effects a transform with the aid of a coding neural network, and a decoder which includes a matched decoding neural network with effects almost the inverse transform of the encoder. The method puts in competition M coding neural networks (30.sub.1 to 30.sub.M) wherein M>1 positioned at the transmission end which effects a same type of transform and the encoded data of one of which are transmitted, after selection (32, 33) at a given instant, towards a matched decoding neural network which forms part of a set of several matched neural networks (60.sub.1 to 60.sub.Q) provided at the receiver end. Learning is effected on the basis of predetermined samples. The encoder may comprise, in addition to the coding neural network (30.sub.1 to 30.sub.M), a matched decoding neural network (35.sub.1 to 35.sub.M) so as to effect the selection (32, 33) of the best coding neural network in accordance with an error criterion.

Abstract: Stress cracking in poly(alkylene terephthalate) articles of manufacture is prevented by applying to the article a hydrophilic-substituted aromatic hydrocarbon having either an alkyl or aryl side chain, such as, sodium xylene sulfonate. Preferably, the stress crack inhibitor is applied to the article in the form of an aqueous fatty acid-based lubricant.

Abstract: A digital video signal encoding arrangement comprising a correlation reducing circuit receiving said digital signals which are representative of the luminance or the chrominance of a certain number of elements of a picture which has been divided into blocks, a scanning conversion circuit (30), a normalization circuit (50), a quantizing circuit (60), a circuit (70) for encoding said quantized values and a rate controlling circuit (80). This arrangement is characterized in that its normalization circuit itself comprises: (a) a weighting coefficient storage memory (51) which is addressed on the one hand by an index i indicating the position in the current block, and on the other hand by a value representative of the activity of this block; (b) a standard calculating circuit (52) on the basis of a mean standard value produced by the rate controlling circuit and also on the weighting coefficient supplied; (c) a circuit (59) for dividing by the coefficient K.sub.i the output of said standard calculating circuit.

Abstract: A water soluble lubricant concentrate adapted to be admixed with water and a lubricant composition made therefrom which exhibit enhanced levels of lubricity and hard water stability and facilitate the transportation of containers on a conveyor. The concentrate and composition include:(a) an anionic surfactant selected from the group consisting of alpha olefin sulfonates, sulfonates of ethoxylated alcohols, alkyl aryl sulfonates, napthalene sulfonates and mixtures thereof;(b) a carrier for the anionic surfactant; and(c) a water soluble salt of aluminum selected from the group consisting of aluminum sulfate, aluminum nitrate, aluminum chloride, polyhydrates of potassium aluminum sulfate/aluminum sulfate complexes and mixtures thereof.