Abstract: A process for reducing an aldehyde or ketone in the presence of a stable, highly active catalyst which is insoluble in a solvent and which can be recovered easily from the reaction system after completion of the reaction and used repeatedly, characterized in that an aldehyde or ketone having a carbonyl group is reacted with an alcohol in the presence of hydrous zirconium oxide as the catalyst.

Abstract: An amine is reached with dimethyformamioe in the presence of a solid catalyst to produce a formamide corresponding to the amine. The solid catalyst includes an oxide of metals belonging to Groups III, IV and V of the Periodic Table.

Abstract: A stain discriminating apparatus in which light rays having at least light component having a wavelength in a predetermined range are projected to a cell sample to discriminate the staining method by which the cell sample has been stained on the basis of the light intensity of the light component transmitted through the sample and having the wavelength (530 nm) in the predetermined range. An automatic cell sample classifying apparatus in which a plurality of cell sample slides are sequentially fed to the stain discriminating apparatus is used to determine the staining method by which the cell samples have been stained, respectively. One of the examination/classification programs previously stored in a memory is read out according to the staining method as discriminated and the cell samples are processed in accordance with the program as read out.

Abstract: A carboxylic acid or its ester is reduced by formic acid in the presence of a hydrous metal oxide solid catalyst, to produce a corresponding aldehyde. Using this method, no harmful waste is by-produced, an aldehyde compound can be produced at relatively low cost, and the aldehyde produced can be easily recovered.

Abstract: A carbon monoxide oxidizing catalyst for removing carbon monoxide from an air comprises a porous carrier, and on said carrier, a palladium salt and a copper salt as main active components and a vanadium compound or a vanadium compound and a phosphorous compound as a promotor.

Abstract: A method of preparing an acetal or ketal from a corresponding aldehyde or ketone is disclosed. A hydrous oxide of an element of Group IV of the Periodic Table is used as a catalyst, and the aldehyde or ketone is caused to react with an alcohol. The hydrous oxide can be obtained by partially dehydrating a hydroxide of the corresponding element. The method does not require an acid catalyst and is applicable to a carbonyl compound which is not stable in acids.

Abstract: A method of extruding a ceramic batch supplied from a vacuum auger machine into a formed body by a plunger molding machine, included the steps of loosening and crushing a supplied ceramic batch in the vacuum auger machine, extruding the loosened and crushed ceramic batch from the vacuum auger machine into a formed columnar body which is of a size able to be inserted into a cylinder of the plunger molding machine, and extruding the formed columnar body from the plunger molding machine to form a formed body of a predetermined shape. An apparatus for extruding a ceramic batch includes a vacuum auger machine having of a vacuum kneading section for kneading a ceramic material to produce a ceramic batch, a columnar body forming section for forming the kneaded ceramic material into a columnar body, and a batch transfer section having an auger for transferring the ceramic batch to the columnar body forming section.

Abstract: A first video signal is obtained by picking up an image of a sample by a TV camera. A second video signal representing character information regarding the sample is derived from a memory connected to a computer system. The first and second signals are superposed to obtain a sum signal representing a combined single scene, and the sum signal is displayed as a visible picture on a display device. Before the step of superposition of the first and second video signals, at least one of the video signals may be multiplied by a weight.

Abstract: An automatic focusing control method for microscope includes preliminarily determining and storing respective in-focus positions of an objective lens of the microscope for a plurality of points on a stage of the microscope prior to observation and measurement of a sample by the microscope. Upon actual measurement after the sample has been mounted on the microscope stage, an approximate in-focus position of the objective lens for the sample is determined on the basis of the stored in-focus positions of the objective lens for at least one of the plurality of points in the vicinity of the sample. Then, the objective lens is moved to the determined approximate in-focus position at a high speed, and a usual automatic focusing is thereafter carried out, thereby making it possible to perform the automatic focusing operation rapidly and accurately.

Abstract: A method of reducing a nitrile into a corresponding alcohol is disclosed. The nitrile is caused to react with an alcohol by using a zirconium hydrous oxide as a catalyst. The zirconium hydrous oxide is obtained by partially dehydrating zirconium hydroxide. The nitrile can be reduced to the corresponding alcohol in a one-step reaction.

Abstract: Disclosed is a process of reduction of aldehydes or ketones by means of reaction with alcohols, in the presence of a catalyst, to produce alcohols which correspond to said respective aldehyde or ketone. A solid of partially dehydrated one or more metal hydroxides whose metal is selected from the group consists of titanium, tin, ion, aluminium, cerium, and niobium is used as the catalyst. This process can be conducted either in a gas phase or in a liquid phase.

Abstract: An automatic cell analyzing system for automatically analyzing a large number of sample slides prepared for cellular samples. The sample slides include a plurality of sample slide sets each prepared by different staining methods for each sample. Cellular images obtained by observing through a microscope the numerous sample slides picked out sequentially are analyzed by an image fetching/feature extracting circuit, the resulting morphological features of the individual cells being converted into digital information to be stored. Upon completion of the analysis for all the sample slides, the digital information obtained from the sample slide is synthetically examined for each associated sample to thereby classify the sample into one of predetermined categories.

Abstract: After a slide glass having blood smeared thereon has been mounted on a movable stage of a microscope, the stage is moved to position a view field of the microscope to the center of the slide glass. Then, the stage is moved in one direction along the length of the slide glass. The view field of the microscope moves as the stage is moved so that red blood corpuscle densities on the smear are measured sequentially along the length of the slide glass. Based on the measurement a computer determines an optimum test area on the smear for the recognition of white blood corpuscles and the stage is moved to a start position of the optimum test area by an instruction from the computer. Thereafter, a normal stage scan operation for detecting the white blood corpuscles is carried out and the detected white blood corpuscles are automatically classified.

Abstract: An apparatus for the preparation of blood smear specimens is constructed to successively discharge glass slides from a stack. A first glass slide is laid horizontally near the point of discharge and a second glass slide is discharged into a slanted position with its lower edge in contact with the leading end of horizontal glass slide. A drop of blood is applied near the leading end of the horizontal glass slide behind the position of contact of the glass slide in the slanted position and the horizontal glass slide is advanced to smear the blood onto the horizontal slide using the slanted glass slide as a coater. The slanted glass slide is then allowed to fall into the horizontal position and another glass slide is discharged from the stack into the slanted position, whereafter the process is repeated.