Abstract: Provided herein is a method and a system for separating suspended particles that have differing sedimentation velocities, comprising placing the particles inside a hollow device which upon rotation, spins the suspension into a thick film within which sedimentation of the particles occurs, rotating the hollow device at a speed and for a time that allows fast-sedimenting particles to sediment into a layer of more densely packed particles while some of the slow-sedimenting particles remain outside of the dense-particle-pack, and slowing the rotation of the hollow device in a manner to prevent remixing of the layer of dense-particle-pack with a layer containing some of the slow-sedimenting particles. This method may have application in many technologies including the rapid separation of bacteria from blood components.

Abstract: The invention provides a sewer flushing device for location in a sewage system. The device comprises a housing with an inlet, an outlet and a sewage flow path defined between said inlet and outlet. At least one of the inlet or outlet is adapted to connect to a conduit of the sewage system. A gate is pivotally supported on the housing for movement between open and closed positions and the gate has a pivot axis between the upper and lower ends. Biasing means are configured to urge the gate to a closed position whereat the flow path is substantially blocked causing a build-up of sewage upstream of the gate. The gate is moved to its open position only when the build-up of sewage behind the gate reaches a predetermined level thus causing the built-up sewage to be rapidly released to flush the sewage system downstream of the flushing device.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and devices for applying and utilizing a water-soluble polymer on a surface to provide desirable properties, attributes and/or characteristics to the surface. In a first embodiment, the water-soluble polymer at least partially fills one or more pores of a fluoropolymer or a porous metal. In a second implementation, the water-soluble polymer is mixed into a base material and the mixture is applied as a coating layer onto the surface. Where the surface is an electrosurgical electrode tip, the desirable properties, attributes and/or characteristics may include the ability to attract water that assists in cooling and/or lubricating the tip, to create a low shear, sacrificial layer that protects and enhances the tip, to supply a radical scavenger or inhibitor that reduces damage at the tip, and/or to deposit factors, such as healing factors, from the tip onto one or more contact surfaces of the patient's body.

Abstract: Providing a multi-character material as part of a coating of an electrosurgical instrument. The multi-character material includes molecular chains having a hydrophobic characteristic or charged unit that bonds to a metallic substrate and/or a base material coating layer of the tip, and a hydrophilic characteristic that provides desired properties to the coated surface, such as the ability to attract water to assist in cooling and/or lubricating an electrosurgical tip, to create a low shear, sacrificial layer that protects and enhances eschar release characteristics, to supply a radical scavenger or inhibitor that reduces damage at the tip, and/or to deposit factors, such as healing factors, from the tip onto one or more contact surfaces of the patient's body. Optionally, an additional covering layer of a hydrophilic material may be applied over the multi-character material coating layer to increase the desired properties at the coated surface.

Abstract: An operating system shell provides a graphical user interface having a windowing environment with a desktop. The shell synthesizes a hypertext page for display as the desktop in the graphical user interface. The hypertext page has an embedded software object which provides graphical icon-oriented and menu-driven user interface elements for activating operating system services in the displayed hypertext page. The shell also provides windowed hypertext pages for managing file system folders. The shell synthesizes the hypertext pages from templates which can be edited to incorporate a variety of multi-media enhancements with the user interface elements in the graphical user interface. Templates can be associated with specific folders in the file system to provide folder specific hypertext pages integrated with user interface elements for managing the folder.