4123results about How to "Easy to compress" patented technology

A data and power transfer system comprising a first system unit which includes a first communication element operable to transfer communication signals and a first connector element operable to transfer electrical power; and a second system unit which includes a second communication element operable to transfer communication signals and a second connector element operable to transfer electrical power, wherein the first communication element and second communication element are operable to transfer data between one another and the first connector element and second connector element are operable to transfer electrical power whilst electrically insulated from one another.

A polyaxial orthopedic device for use with rod implant apparatus includes a screw having a curvate head, a two-piece interlocking coupling element which mounts about the curvate head, and a rod receiving cylindrical body member having a tapered socket into which both the screw and the interlocking coupling element are securely nested. The interlocking coupling element includes a socket portion which is slotted and tapered so that when it is radially compressed by being driven downwardly into the tapered socket in the cylindrical body it crush locks to the screw. The securing of the rod in the body member provides the necessary downward force onto the socket portion through a contact force on the top of the cap portion. Prior to the rod being inserted, therefore, the screw head remains polyaxially free with respect to the coupling element and the body. In a preferred embodiment, the cap portion and the socket portion are formed and coupled in such a way that when the cap portion is compressed toward the socket portion, there is an additional inward radial force applied by the cap portion to the socket portion, thereby enhancing the total locking force onto the head of the screw.

Various forms of surgical instruments are disclosed. In various embodiments, the instrument includes a cartridge supporting assembly for operably supporting a staple cartridge therein. The cartridge supporting assembly may be responsive to firing and retraction motions applied thereto from a firing assembly. An anvil may be operably coupled to an anvil closure assembly. The anvil closure assembly may be constructed to selectively move the anvil in a proximal direction toward the cartridge supporting assembly to enable a portion of tissue to be clamped between a cartridge supported by the cartridge supporting assembly and the anvil under a predetermined amount of compression. The device may further include a closure actuator that operably interacts with the anvil closure assembly such that as the closure actuator is moved in a first direction, the anvil closure assembly causes the anvil to move in the proximal direction to increase the compression of the tissue between the staple cartridge and the anvil. A variable load generating member may cooperate with the anvil closure assembly and the closure actuator to apply a resistive load to the closure actuator in relation to an amount of compression applied to the tissue between the anvil and the staple cartridge.

A locking screw assembly is provided which allows installation into a plate-like member using relatively little force, but which requires relatively great force for removal. The fastener has an annular locking ring provided within a groove in the head of the screw to allow the screw to sit within or flush with the anterior surface of the plate. The through-hole in the plate which receives the locking screw comprises an entrance, a collar section, an undercut, and an exit. The locking ring resides within the undercut. The locking ring has a leading surface that is chamfered or radiused and a trailing surface that is flat. The chamfer allows the locking ring to easily be inserted into the through-hole by interacting with a lead chamfer in the entrance. After installation, the flat trailing surface abuts a lip adjoining the collar section and the undercut and prevents the screw from being easily removed from the through-hole.

In accordance with the present invention, structural and other composite materials have been developed which have superior performance properties, including high compressive strength, high tensile strength, high shear strength, and high strength-to-weight ratio, and methods for preparing same. Invention materials have the added benefits of ease of manufacture, and are inexpensive to manufacture. The superior performance properties of invention materials render such materials suitable for a wide variety of end uses. For example, a variety of substances can be applied to invention materials without melting, dissolving or degrading the basic structure thereof. This facilitates bonding invention materials to virtually any surface or substrate. Moreover, the bond between invention materials and a variety of substrates is exceptionally strong, rendering the resulting bonded article suitable for use in a variety of demanding applications. Invention materials can be manufactured in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, densities, in multiple layers, and the like; and the performance properties thereof can be evaluated in a variety of ways.

This invention is a system for the treatment of body passageways; in particular, vessels with vascular disease. The system includes an endovascular graft with a low-profile delivery configuration and a deployed configuration in which it conforms to the morphology of the vessel or body passageway to be treated as well as various connector members and stents. The graft is made from an inflatable graft body section and may be bifurcated. One or more inflatable cuffs may be disposed at either end of the graft body section. At least one inflatable channel is disposed between and in fluid communication with the inflatable cuffs.

The present invention provides a temperature control unit for an electrostatic adsorption electrode that is capable of controlling the wafer temperature rapidly over a wide temperature range without affecting in-plane uniformity while high heat input etching is conducted with high wafer bias power applied. A refrigerant flow path provided in the electrostatic adsorption electrode serves as an evaporator. The refrigerant flow path is connected to a compressor, a condenser, and a first expansion valve to form a direct expansion type refrigeration cycle. A second expansion valve is installed between the electrostatic adsorption electrode and the compressor to adjust the flow rate of a refrigerant. This makes it possible to compress the refrigerant in the refrigerant flow path of the electrostatic adsorption electrode and adjust the wafer temperature to a high level by raising the refrigerant evaporation temperature. Further, a thin-walled cylindrical refrigerant flow path is employed so that the thin-walled cylinder is deformed only slightly by the refrigerant pressure.

A bone plate has an upper surface, a lower surface, and at least one first hole extending through the upper and lower surfaces. The first hole has two or three vertically separate regions, each region communicating with or abutting the adjacent region. The first hole has a first upper region, which is unthreaded and which, from the plate's upper surface to the plate's lower surface, has a curved inward taper. The first hole has a second middle region, which is threaded and which, from the plate's upper surface to the plate's lower surface, has a conical inward taper. The first hole has a third lower region, which is unthreaded and which, from the plate's upper surface to the plate's lower surface, has a conical outward taper. The bone plate is straight, curved, or both straight and curved. The bone plate may have at least one second hole, different from the first hole. The second hole is an elongated hole, which has a compression ramp or which has a threaded portion through part of its perimeter and a non-threaded portion through the other part of its perimeter.

An impeller according to an example of the present invention comprises a hub, and at least one blade supported by the hub. The impeller has a deployed configuration in which the blade extends away from the hub, and a stored configuration in which the impeller is radially compressed, for example by folding the blade towards the hub. The impeller may comprise a plurality of blades, arranged in blade rows, to facilitate radial compression of the blades. The outer edge of a blade may have a winglet, and the base of the blade may have an associated indentation to facilitate folding of the blade.

A femoral intramedullary rod system capable of treating a variety of femoral bone fractures using a uniform intramedullary rod design. The system generally comprising an intramedullary rod defining an opening having an upper surface and a transverse member including a bone engaging portion and a connection portion defining a thru-hole with the nail sized to pass therethrough. A pin is selectively coupled to the transverse member to rigidly assemble the transverse member to the nail when the nail is passed through the thru-hole and the pin is received within the opening. In an alternative design, an epiphyseal stabilizer is joined to the nail by a locking member.

The invention relates to pre-processing of a pronunciation dictionary for compression in a data processing device, the pronunciation dictionary comprising at least one entry, the entry comprising a sequence of character units and a sequence of phoneme units. According to one aspect of the invention the sequence of character units and the sequence of phoneme units are aligned using a statistical algorithm. The aligned sequence of character units and aligned sequence of phoneme units are interleaved by inserting each phoneme unit at a predetermined location relative to the corresponding character unit.

A collapsible gastrointestinal anchor can be characterized in various embodiments by a radial force of about 0.1 Newtons (N) or greater at a compressed diameter of 25 millimeters (mm); by an average spring rate of about 13 Newtons/meter (N/m) or greater in a range of motion between a relaxed diameter and a compressive elastic deformation diameter; or by a radial force over the range of motion of about 0.1 N or greater. Typically, the anchor can be adapted to be retained within a subject's intestine, more typically in the duodenum, or particularly in the duodenal bulb just distal to the pylorus. A gastrointestinal implant device includes the collapsible gastrointestinal anchor and a floppy sleeve. The sleeve is open at both ends and adapted to extend into a subject's intestine, the anchor being coupled to a proximal portion of the sleeve. Also include are methods of implanting the gastrointestinal implant device in a subject, and methods of treating a subject for disease. The disclosed gastrointestinal invention leads to an improved ability to secure anchors and devices in the gastrointestinal tract while tending to minimize migration.

Embodiments of the invention relate to electrophysiology catheters and methods of using the same. According to one embodiment, the catheter includes a braided conductive member at its distal end that can be radially expanded, for example using a mandrel slidably disposed within a shaft of the catheter. According to another embodiment, the catheter comprises a tip portion constructed of an elastomeric material. According to a further embodiment, the catheter includes a braided conductive member wherein a thermocouple is formed using one filament of the braided conductive member and one thermocouple wire. Other embodiments of the invention relate to a handle for use with a catheter and methods of using the same. According to one embodiment, the handle comprises a thumbwheel coupled to a housing, a spring disposed within the housing in contact with the thumbwheel, and means for increasing compression of the spring to increase rotational friction on the thumbwheel.

Apparatus is provided for use with a native valve of a heart of a subject. The apparatus includes: (1) an annular upstream support portion, comprising an expandable first frame, the upstream support portion configured to be placed against an upstream surface of the native valve; (2) a flexible polyester connector; and (3) an anchoring element, flexibly coupled to the upstream support portion by the connector, and configured to anchor the upstream support portion to the native valve by engaging tissue of the native valve.

A method for motion estimation within biological tissue is disclosed. The method involves acoustically coupling a transducer to a target biological tissue, which transducer emits an ultrasonic signal and collects the energy back-scattered by the target issue. A first set of energy data is collected and stored, then target tissue is axially compressed and a second set of ultrasonic energy data is collected and stored. One of the first and second data sets is warped to account for the anticipated compression forming a warped data set. This warped data set is cross-correlated with the unwarped one of the first and said second data sets to obtain a fine scale displacement of said target biological tissue from the displacement estimated by the warping. This fine scale displacement is summed with the warped data set to obtain a total axial displacement. A gradient of the total axial displacement is taken and used to form a strain image. An apparatus for practicing this method is also disclosed.

In an image encoding/decoding device of the present invention, the prediction direction in a target block, i.e., a block which becomes the target of the intra-frame prediction processing, is estimated by taking advantage of pre-encoded blocks which are adjacent to the target block. First, as edge information on decoded images on the adjacent blocks, intensities and angles of the edges are calculated. Next, of the degrees of likelihood calculated with respect to each prediction direction by taking advantage of this edge information and, e.g., a neural network, the prediction direction whose degree of likelihood is the highest is employed as the prediction direction in the target block. Also, a variable-length code table is dynamically created based on the estimated result, which allows a significant reduction in the prediction-direction representing code amount.