Abstract: A device and method for treating a foot and ankle with a splint and an adjustable bladder. The method includes providing a device including a rigid splint that maintains a heel of the foot and at least one adjustable bladder provided underneath only a front of the foot; adjusting an inflation of the at least one bladder to a treatment inflation state; and maintaining a foot and ankle within the device for an extended period of time such that the foot and ankle are substantially immobilized in a dorsiflexion position or the foot and ankle are substantially immobilized in a position whereby plantarflexion is provided to the ankle.

Abstract: A device and method for treating a foot and ankle with a splint and an adjustable bladder. The method includes providing a device including a rigid splint that maintains a heel of the foot and at least one adjustable bladder provided underneath only a front of the foot; adjusting an inflation of the at least one bladder to a treatment inflation state; and maintaining a foot and ankle within the device for an extended period of time such that the foot and ankle are substantially immobilized in a dorsiflexion position or the foot and ankle are substantially immobilized in a position whereby plantarflexion is provided to the ankle.

Abstract: Optical elements utilize multimode interference in a piece of an optical fiber of multimode type having a core in the shape of a ring or a tubular structure. Such a fiber can be compared to a planar waveguide, the core of which has been bent about a longitudinal axis located at some distance from the core. Such an optical fiber can be optically excited having an excitation centre in a point on or at the annular core by coupling from a single-mode fiber. Then different optical propagation modes are excited having approximately regular relations between their phase velocities so that, for example, for a suitable length of the fiber piece a light intensity is obtained in the other end of the fiber piece which is an approximate reflected image of the light intensity supplied at the input end of the fiber piece.

Abstract: In the determination of deviation from a concentric position for a protective polyimide coating disposed on an optical fiber, the absorption of light in the coating is used. A light source such as a laser provides a light ray which is split by a beamsplitter in two light rays. By suitably placed mirrors, the light rays are guided to hit two opposite sides of the fiber at oblique and equal incidence angles to the longitudinal direction of the fiber. The light rays hit the fibers at positions which are a little displaced in the longitudinal direction of the fiber in order to prevent wrong light rays from hitting the detectors which receive the reflected light. The detectors provide signals representing the intensity of the reflected light to a subtraction circuit which forms the difference of the signals from the detectors. The different signal is then a measure of the concentricity error of the coating.

Abstract: An optical fiber (7) exhibits varying transmission characteristics in different strain states and can have an S-shaped microbend. For producing such a fiber it is heated locally in a small region, as viewed in the longitudinal direction of the fiber, and then the portions of the fiber (1) located at the two sides of the heated region are displaced in relation to each other in a transverse direction in relation to the longitudinal direction of the fiber. It can be performed in a conventional fusion-splicing apparatus for optical fibers. Alternatively, a laser can be used as a heating source, what is particularly suitable for processing optical fibers having longitudinal cavities in order to infer to it similar transmission characteristics. The optical fibers produced by this method are suited for use as sensors, e.g. strain gauges.