Abstract: A knockdown cooler with a number of removable chilling panels that cool an interior cavity of the cooler without exposing the contents therein to contact with unhygienic ice or water is provided. A collapsible storage member is positioned atop one or more structural support members to suspend the storage member in the chilling cavity, providing exposure to prolonged cooling impetus, a duration that may be prolonged if desired by removing and replacing one or more of the chilling panels without disrupting the contents of the cooler. A method of cooling items such as food, beverages, or the like without exposing the same to unhygienic ice or water in a knockdown cooler that can be assembled or disassembled without tools, mechanical fasteners, or adhesives is also provided.

Abstract: A pharmaceutical anesthetic composition for topical administration for dental, emergency and general medical use is described. The composition is a eutectic composition of anesthetic agents, sugar alcohol, and menthol for the purpose of numbing oral or dermal tissue. Methods of making and of using the composition are described.

Abstract: Glycerol is used as a solvent medium for the precipitation of a complex of nickel and glycerol material. The precipitate is separated from the liquid solvent and dried and calcined in air to produce small (nanometer size) particles characterized by a nickel core encased in a nickel oxide shell. The proportions of nickel core and nickel oxide shell can be controlled by management of the time and temperature of heating in air. Prolonged heating in air can produce nickel oxide particles, or calcining of the precipitate in nitrogen produces nickel particles.

Abstract: Decomposition of methane to produce carbon monoxide-free hydrogen is accomplished using un-supported, nanometer sized, hydrogen reduced, nickel oxide particles made by a precipitation process. A nickel compound, such as NiCl2 or Ni(NO3) is dissolved in water and suitably precipitated as nickel hydroxide. The precipitate is separated, dried and calcined to form the NiO catalyst precursor particles.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method of making a noble metal catalyst, where the noble metal is distributed on the surface of special composite carrier particles. Nanometer sized oxide particles are first dry coated by an impact mixing process on the surface of larger alumina particles. In general, this dry coating process coats the nanometer sized particles on the surface of the alumina particles. A suitable solution of noble metal(s) compound is then soaked on the surface of the composite carrier particles. Ultimately, the noble metal compound is decomposed by calcining and noble metal particles dispersed with large effective surface area on the composite carrier particles. The resultant catalyst structure improves catalyst performance while making efficient and effective use of the expensive noble metal.

Abstract: A distributed memory addressing system has a plurality of separate processing elements. Each processing element has at least one CPU. A shared memory is utilized to store data to be used by the separate processing elements, as required. A high bandwidth interface interconnects processing elements and the shared memory. The high bandwidth interface is configured so as to provide non-blocking access to the shared memory for each of the processing elements.