Flexible visibility enhancing material is provided which combines the advantages of a light reflective component and a luminescent component. The material includes a first layer of prismatic light reflective plastic material having an underlying surface formed with a plurality of minute prism-like formations projecting therefrom at regular spaced intervals and an overlying substantially smooth light transmissive surface. Bonded as by heat sealing to the first layer is a second layer of plastic l...

A braided suture exhibits one or more improved properties, e.g., reduced chatter, greater flexibility and/or better hand, than that of a braided suture of known, or standard, construction and of substantially equivalent size.

A dental scaler comprises an elongated housing having a forward end at which a dental scaling tool is removably connectable, and a rearward end for connection to a source of pressure working fluid. A substantially rigid elongated tubular member is resiliently supported in the housing. A vibration imparting device is coupled to an intermediate portion of the elongated tubular member, and is driven by the pressure working fluid to vibrate the elongated tubular member. A dental scaling tool is conn...

A unitary sanitary disposable absorbent incontinence pad has an elongated absorbent member between a pervious cover topsheet and an impervious backsheet. The absorbent member includes an absorbent batt which contains a combination of cellulose fibers and thermally-bondable fibers. A melt-blown web is superimposed on the batt. A portion of each lateral side of the batt is slit and turned inwardly toward the center of the batt to form a pair of fluid-barriers or dams, creating a fluid channel ther...

A system to acquire a first image of a radiation field, the radiation field produced by a radiation beam, and to determine a second image based on the first image and based on a reference image of a reference radiation field having substantially homogeneous intensity, the second image representing characteristics of the radiation beam. Some embodiments provide acquisition of a first profile associated with a radiation beam using a radiation detection device, acquisition of a first image of a fir...

A first illuminating optical system illuminates an eye with a wide beam. A first light receiving unit receives reflection light fluxes from the eye that have been converted into at least 17 beams by a first conversion member. A first compensation optical unit, disposed in the first illuminating optical system, compensates an illuminating light flux to the eye for aberration. A second compensation optical unit, disposed in a first light receiving optical system, compensates a reflection light flu...

An apparatus for measuring characteristics of a substance is provided. The apparatus includes a light source to generate light to form an image. A splitter transmits the light from the light source to a first lens, which collimates the light. A second lens receives the collimated light and is adapted to oscillate with respect to the substance and adapted to transmit and focus the light to a focal region within the substance, such that the oscillation will cause the focal region to pass back and ...

A smoothed and durable industrial process fabric and method for producing such a fabric. The fabric may be used as a papermaker's fabric, other industrial process fabric and/or engineered fabric. In any case, the fabric is processed using a device comprising at least two smooth rolls which form a pressure nip, such as a calender, such that at least some of the fabric components are permanently deformed. Preferably, at least one of the rolls is heated to a pre-selected temperature.

In calculating motion between two images, a single channel image may be generated for each image based on measurement of a desired characteristic of those images. Given a desired characteristic (such as edge strength or edge magnitude) in an image, a function measures the strength of the desired characteristic in a region around a pixel in an image. A range of values can represent the likelihood, or measure of confidence, of the occurrence of the desired characteristic in the region around the p...

Some embodiments of a system for determining combustion characteristics may be capable of automatically determining and displaying a plurality of combustion characteristics on a multiple-axis plot. In such embodiments, a single combustion test in the system's controlled combustion chamber may provide a user with automatic analysis and display of three, four, five, six, or more combustion characteristics.