A filament of a thermoplastic synthetic polymer having a plurality of adjacent, separate discontinuous cavities is made by a process wherein a silicone oil and an inert gas or gas-forming substance are dispersed in a polymer melt, and the melt is extruded into a filament. The melt contains up to and including 1% by weight of the silicone oil, based on the weight of the melt, at the time it is extruded and up to and including 10% by weight of an inert gas.

A device for reducing drag and store separation difficulties caused by shallow cavities on aircraft in supersonic flight consisting of a slab of porous material cut to fit precisely inside the cavity. This slab is mounted inside the cavity such that a plenum chamber is formed between the slab and the floor of the cavity. This device allows air to flow through the chamber opposite to the direction of flow outside the chamber. This results in reduced drag and improved store separation characterist...

Systems and methods for providing cardiac support provide a cannula body having an inlet and an outlet. The cannula includes a preformed bend sized and configured to extend within the heart chamber between the inlet and the outlet. The cannula is inserted through a first valve into a heart chamber and through a second valve out of the heart chamber. Blood is drawn into the cannula through the inlet and discharged from the cannula through the outlet, thereby bypassing the heart chamber.

A measuring instrument comprising a pair of probe elements moveable relative to one another to vary the spacing between sensing areas of each probe, means for producing a signal representing the spacing of said sensing areas, means for monitoring the rate of change of said signal, and means for recording and/or displaying a value representative of said signal upon the rate of change of said signal reaching a predetermined value. Preferably there is a probe including a probe element and a sheath,...

Modifications are provided in the structure of firearms such as breech-loading revolver handguns. Traditionally, these firearms are constructed with mating surfaces in face to face contact, which surfaces must be separated for loading. Where foreign particles are trapped between the flat mating surfaces on closing, jamming results. In one aspect of the invention, these flat mating surfaces are provided with cavities, so that any such foreign matter will fall into the cavities and not prevent the...

An improved welded joint is provided for use with overlapping strap portions. Parts of the thickness of each strap portion are merged together to define a continuous joint region. The joint region further includes a plurality of encapsulated cavities distributed at least in the end portions of the joint region.

A torque-proportioning differential of the helical pinion type includes a housing having a body section to one end of which is removably connected a cover section, the one body section end being machined to define a central longitudinal bore and a plurality of circumferentially spaced longitudinal pinion cavities each having a pair of cavity portions in longitudinal communication with each other and with the central bore, respectively. The pinion cavity portions are of equal depth, thereby to re...

A method for carrying out biochemical reaction is disclosed. The method includes placing a suitable substrate in a cavity formed in a subterranean formation, inoculating the substrate with a culture of microorganisms, maintaining conditions suitable for the growth of the microorganisms, allowing the microorganisms to grow in the substrate in the cavity, and recovering a biochemical product formed thereby. The method is especially suitable for the conversion of alkali-oxidized or hydrolyzed coal,...

Multi-stage, all-pass optical filters used to make low-loss, multi-channel dispersion compensation modules are disclosed. The all-pass optical filters can be ring resonators in waveguides, Gires-Tournois Interferometers (GTIs) in free space form, and the like. The coupling constants and circulating path lengths may also be distinctively varied in each of the series of GTIs, tuning the net dispersion spectrum of the GTI set, such that the sum of the dispersions from the series of GTI's can provid...

Multiple hygienic effects are concurrently applied to structures of body cavities. This is established by two or more light sources each capable of delivering a light beam to the structures using optical pathways whereby each light beam provides a unique hygienic effect to the structures. The device could be a handheld device with detachable components. The device could include a massaging mechanism and/or a vibrating mechanism. An agent could be used to the body cavity to assist in the hygienic...