The present invention provides:

a copolymer (A) which is a copolymer obtained by copolymerizing one or plural cycloolefin monomers and one or plural acyclic olefin monomers, or a copolymer obtained by copolymerizing two or more cycloolefin monomers, wherein the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the copolymer is 100 C. or higher, the refractive index of the copolymer is 1.545 or higher, and the Abbe's number of the copolymer is 50 or larger, and at least one of the cycloolefin monomers is a deltacyclene.

The present invention is based, in part, on the discovery that the polymeric materials described herein produce polyurethane copolymers with advantageous optical properties. In particular embodiments, polyurethane copolymers comprise repeating units of isosorbide and a difunctional linker where the difunctional linkers can be diisocyanate, dithiocyanate, dicarboxylic acid, and other monomers. Some of the advantageous optical properties of these polymeric materials include a refractive index of about 1.5 and an Abbe value of at least about 50. Also described are methods for producing these polyurethane copolymers.

A polymeric piezoelectric film, including a helical chiral polymer (A) having a weight average molecular weight of from 50,000 to 1,000,000 and optical activity, in which, in the film: a crystallinity given by a DSC method is from 20% to 80%; a standardized molecular orientation MORc is from 3.5 to 15.0 when a reference thickness measured by a microwave transmission-type molecular orientation meter is 50 m; and when a direction parallel to a phase difference streak is a direction X, a direction perpendicular to the direction X and parallel to a main plane of a film is a direction Y, and the phase difference streak is evaluated by an evaluation method A, per a length of 1,000 mm in the direction Y, a number of phase difference streaks with an evaluation value of 60 or more is 0, and a sum of the evaluation values of phase difference streaks with an evaluation value of 20 or more is 1000 or less.

A method for preparing blends of at least two polymer components is described herein. The disclosed method generally involves controlling relative molecular weights and ratios of the two or more polymer components by selecting a first initiator, a second initiator, and a monomer, and subjecting the reactants to conditions suitable to polymerize the monomer based at least in part on the first and second initiators in connection with obtaining the polymeric blend. The second initiator is advantageously selected based on one or more characteristics associated therewith, based on a characteristic of the first initiator. A polymeric blend produced according to such a method is also provided herein.

A method determining a degree of similarity between a first sample and a second sample, comprising using a processor to compare a first thermogram and a second thermogram, each obtained by performing scanning calorimetry on a first and second sample respectively, by: determining a smoothed first thermogram and a smoothed second thermogram by respectively performing a smoothing operation on the first thermogram and the second thermogram; determining a processed first thermogram and a processed second thermogram by respectively finding a derivative of the smoothed first thermogram and the smoothed second thermogram; determining the degree of similarity from a correlation operation comparing the processed first thermogram with the processed second thermogram.

The present invention is directed to a pneumatic tire comprising a tread, the tread comprising a rubber composition comprising from 30 to 80 phr of a styrene-butadiene rubber having a Tg ranging from 70 C to 40 C, from 10 to 50 phr of a high vinyl polybutadiene having a Tg ranging from 40 C to 5 C and has an isomeric vinyl 1,2 content in a range of from 50 to 90 percent by weight, and from 10 to 30 phr of a natural rubber or synthetic polyisoprene, silica, a blocked mercaptosilane, a traction resin, and liquid plasticizer selected from the group consisting of a low molecular weight polybutadiene functionalized with a hydroxyl functional group and sunflower oil.

The present invention provides: a copolymer (A) which is a copolymer obtained by copolymerizing one or plural cycloolefin monomers and one or plural acyclic olefin monomers, or by copolymerizing two or more cycloolefin monomers, wherein a glass transition temperature (Tg) is 100 C. or higher, a refractive index is 1.545 or higher, and an Abbe's number is 50 or larger; a polymer (B) selected from: a ring-opening homopolymer obtained by ring-opening polymerization of only a monomer represented by formula (I), a ring-opening copolymer obtained by ring-opening copolymerization of the monomer represented by formula (I) and a monomer capable of ring-opening copolymerization with the monomer represented by formula (I), a hydrogenated product of the ring-opening homopolymer and a hydrogenated product of the ring-opening copolymer; a forming material containing the copolymer (A) or the polymer (B); and a resin formed article obtained by forming the forming material. ##STR00001##

Described are shape-memory polymers that have a composite prepolymer crosslinked with a stoichiometric amount of a multifunctional crosslinker, the composite prepolymer having a branched or telechelic prepolymer having a low polydispersity reacted with a non-crystalline chain extender. Also described are methods of making shape-memory polymers by reacting a branched or telechelic prepolymer having a low polydispersity with a non-crystalline chain extender to form a composite prepolymer, and crosslinking a stoichiometric amount of a multifunctional crosslinker with the composite prepolymer, thereby forming the shape-memory polymer.

A curable matrix resin composition containing a thermoset resin component and metastable thermoplastic particles, wherein the metastable thermoplastic particles are particles of semi-crystalline thermoplastic material with an amorphous polymer fraction that will undergo crystallization upon heating to a crystallization temperature T.sub.c. A fiber-reinforced polymeric composite material containing metastable thermoplastic particles is also disclosed.

The invention features an electrochemical cell having an anode and a cathode; wherein at least one of the anode and cathode includes a solid ionically conducting polymer material that can ionically conduct hydroxyl ions.