Staple cartridge

A staple cartridge comprising a mechanism configured to overcome an empty/missing cartridge lockout is disclosed.

Method for repair of ligament or tendon

This invention relates to a method for repair of a ligament and/or tendon in a patient comprising applying a patch to said ligament or tendon, wherein the patch is flexible, and bio-compatible and comprises a support layer and a matrix layer.

Pulser with double-bearing position encoder for non-invasive physiological monitoring

A double-bearing position encoder has an axle stabilized within a housing via two bearings disposed on opposite walls of the housing. The axle is in communications with a rotating cam. The cam actuates a pulser so as to generate an active pulse at a tissue site for analysis by an optical sensor. The axle rotates a slotted encoder wheel or a reflective encoder cylinder disposed within the housing so as to accurately determine the axle position and, hence, the active pulse frequency and phase.

Methods and systems for provisioning mobile devices with payment credentials

Embodiments are described that are directed to optimizing the provisioning of payment account credentials to mobile devices utilizing mobile wallets. In some embodiments, one of multiple provisioning schemes may be selectively chosen for payment account credential provisioning based upon a determined risk involved with a particular provisioning request. A low risk provisioning request leads to an immediate provisioning of a payment credential, whereas a provisioning request of high risk results in the provisioning request being denied. In some embodiments, medium risk provisioning requests will cause an additional user authentication to be performed before the payment account provisioning is finalized. The additional user authentication may occur using a separate communication channel than the channel in which the provisioning request was received.

Alarm suspend system

An alarm suspend system utilizes an alarm trigger responsive to physiological parameters and corresponding limits on those parameters. The parameters are associated with both fast and slow treatment times corresponding to length of time it takes for a person to respond to medical treatment for out-of-limit parameter measurements. Audible and visual alarms respond to the alarm trigger. An alarm silence button is pressed to silence the audible alarm for a predetermined suspend time. The audible alarm is activated after the suspend time has lapsed. Longer suspend times are associated with slow treatment parameters and shorter suspend times are associated with fast treatment parameters.

Physiological acoustic monitoring system

A physiological acoustic monitoring system receives physiological data from an acoustic sensor, down-samples the data to generate raw audio of breathing sounds and compresses the raw audio. The acoustic monitoring system has an acoustic sensor signal responsive to tracheal sounds in a person. An A/D converter is responsive to the sensor signal so as to generate breathing sound data. A decimation filter and mixer down-samples the breathing sound data to raw audio data. A coder/compressor generates compressed audio data from the raw audio data. A decoder/decompressor decodes and decompresses the compressed audio data into decompressed audio data. The decompressed audio data is utilized to generate respiration-related parameters in real-time. The compressed audio data is stored and retrieved so as to generate respiration-related parameters in non-real-time. The real-time and non-real-time parameters are compared to verify matching results across multiple monitors.

System and method for creating avatars or animated sequences using human body features extracted from a still image

A user may create an avatar and/or animated sequence illustrating a particular object or living being performing a certain activity, using images of portions of the object or living being extracted from a still image or set of still images of the object or living being. The resulting avatar and/or associated animated sequence may be created to include recognizable facial or other features of the individual(s)/objects, and may, for example, be suitable for exchange over the Internet, or as part of a game or other activity.

Multi-network tokenization processing

Methods are provided for enabling a transaction using a token associated with a first payment network to be conducted using a second payment network. When a transaction using a token is submitted to a payment network, the payment network can determine the payment network associated with the token. If the token is associated with a second payment network, a token verification request including the token can be sent to the second payment network. The second payment network can then return a token verification response including a primary account identifier such as a primary account number (PAN) corresponding to the token and a validation result. The transaction may then be processed using the primary account identifier.

METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING LASER SCANNERS

A method for manufacturing laser scanners is provided. Laser scanners are configured to drive their light-deflecting assemblies at a fixed drive frequency. By selecting for inclusion in the laser scanners only those light-deflecting assemblies that have resonant oscillation frequencies falling within a specified range, operation of the laser scanners remains within engineering tolerances even through extreme environmental changes. Moreover, the method results in laser scanner having greater unit-to-unit consistency during operation even in extreme environments.

Methods of laser processing photoresist in a gaseous environment

Methods of laser processing photoresist in a gaseous environment to improve at least one of etch resistance and line-edge roughness are disclosed. The methods include sequentially introducing first and second molecular gases to the photoresist surface and performing respective first and second laser scanning of the surface for each molecular gas. The first molecular gas can be trimethyl aluminum, titanium tetrachloride or diethyl zinc, and the second molecular gas comprises water vapor. Short dwell times prevent the photoresist from flowing while serving to speed up the photoresist enhancement process.