Abstract: A surgical working instrument (3) is disclosed that is inserted in a working channel (7) of an endoscope (2) and is slidably located therein. A device (27) for determination of the relative position of the working instrument (3) to the endoscope (2) is configured to determine in an optical manner that the distal end (8) of the working instrument (3) has reached a distal end (8) of the working channel (7). The position determination device (27) comprises a light conductor (28) that is attached to the working instrument (3) and configured to receive light surrounding the working instrument (3) in the vicinity of its distal end (14), wherein based on the light received by the light conductor (28) the relative position of the light conductor (28) and thus the working instrument (3) in relation to the endoscope (2) can be determined.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for monitoring and/or controlling a chemical plant (12) with multiple assets via a distributed computing system (10) with more than two deployment layers (14, 16, 30, 32, 34), wherein the deployment layers (14, 16, 30, 32, 34) comprise at least two of a first processing layer (14), a second processing layer (16, 32, 34) and an external processing layer (30), the method comprising the steps of: providing (60) a containerized application (48, 50) including an asset or plant template specifying input data, output data and an asset or plant model, deploying (62) the containerized application (48, 50) to execute on at least one of the deployment layers (14, 16, 30, 32, 34), wherein the deployment layer (14, 16, 30, 32, 34) is assigned based on the input data, a load indicator, or a system layer tag, and executing the containerized application (46, 52, 54) on the assigned deployment layer(s) (14, 16, 30, 32, 34) to generate output data for controlling and/or monitoring the chemical plant (12),

Abstract: Disclosed is an antenna device comprising at least two antennas, designed for transmitting and/or receiving electromagnetic waves, and a circuit board device, wherein the antennas are arranged on the same circuit board device, the circuit board device comprises at least one decoupling layer through which a parasitic coupling of the antennas is reduced. The circuit board device comprises at least one upper substrate layer on which at least one metal strip with predetermined dimensions is arranged, wherein the metal strip is separated from the at least one decoupling layer by at least one upper substrate layer.

Abstract: A process for monitoring and/or controlling a nitrating process, having the following steps: measuring inline infrared spectra of nitric acid content in a reaction mixture stream downstream of the nitration reaction, preferably near-infrared spectra, evaluating the measured spectra by means of a computer-assisted, matrix-specific calibration model for the purpose of determining the content of nitric acid, transmitting the results of spectrometric examination to a process control system, inputting the results of spectrometric examination for the purpose of specifying the content of nitric acid in the acid phase into a regulator (224) for control of the metering (207,217) of nitric acid into a nitrating reactor.

Abstract: An apparatus for dot-matrix printing with proportional character spacing utilizes a conventional character generator for generating characters with fixed spacing in which a matrix storage area of equal size is assigned to each character, regardless of the actual width of the character, and has an advance control for a printer carriage drive for advancing the drive in increments corresponding to each single column of the storage area, the apparatus having a control unit operable in a state for generating proportional character spacing as well as in a state for generating characters with fixed spacing, and a printing control unit for operation in a state for generating proportional character spacing which executes advance increments for occupied columns in the storage areas and assigns a space advance of a predetermined width to the total of the number of empty columns between two adjacent characters in the storage areas.