Process for preparing tapes from thermoplastic polymers and carbon fibers

The instant invention involves a process for use in preparing tapes or rovings, which are formed from a thermoplastic material used to impregnate longitudinally extended bundles of carbon fibers. The process involves the steps of (a) gas spreading a tow of carbon fibers; (b) feeding the spread tow into a crosshead die; (c) impregnating the tow in the die with a thermoplastic polymer; (d) withdrawing the impregnated tow from the die; and (e) gas cooling the impregnated tow with a jet of air. The crosshead die useful in the instant invention includes a horizontally extended, carbon fiber bundle inlet channel, means for providing melted polymer under pressure to the die, means for dividing the polymeric material flowing into the die into an upper flow channel and a lower flow channel disposed above and below the moving carbon fiber bundle, means for applying the thermoplastic material from both the upper and lower channels to the fiber bundle, and means for withdrawing the resulting tape from the die

BOOMERanG: balloon observations of millimetric extragalactic radiation and geophysics

The BOOMERanG experiment is an international effort to measure the Cosmic Microwave Background(CMB) anisotropy at an angular resolution of 12÷20 arcmin, with unprecedented sensitivity, sky and spectral coverage. The telescope will be flown from Antarctica by NASA-NSBF with a long duration stratospheric balloon (7 - 14 days), and is presently scheduled for a test flight in 1996 and an Antarctic flight in 1997. The experiment is designed to measure the power spectrum of the CMB anisotropies up to l ≡ 700 and to produce an image of the CMB sky with high sensitivity and angular resolution. It will be an important precursor of future space-borne missions, producing crucial cosmological data and testing new technologies which are essential to the design of a CMB mapping satellite experiment

Clinical Policy: Critical Issues in the Prescribing of Opioids for Adult Patients in the Emergency Department

This clinical policy deals with critical issues in prescribing of opioids for adult patients treated in the emergency department (ED). This guideline is the result of the efforts of the American College of Emergency Physicians, in consultation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration. The critical questions addressed in this clinical policy are: (1) In the adult ED patient with noncancer pain for whom opioid prescriptions are considered, what is the utility of state prescription drug monitoring programs in identifying patients who are at high risk for opioid abuse? (2) In the adult ED patient with acute low back pain, are prescriptions for opioids more effective during the acute phase than other medications? (3) In the adult ED patient for whom opioid prescription is considered appropriate for treatment of new-onset acute pain, are short-acting schedule II opioids more effective than short-acting schedule III opioids? (4) In the adult ED patient with an acute exacerbation of noncancer chronic pain, do the benefits of prescribing opioids on discharge from the ED outweigh the potential harms