Abstract: A catheter connection system is disclosed. In one embodiment, a catheter connection system may include at least two components and a deformable sealing element positioned between the at least two components configured to allow, upon deformation, fluid flow through the at least two components. In another embodiment, the catheter connection system may include a sealing element positioned between at least two components, wherein the components are coupled to one another by a locking member.

Abstract: A one-piece connector of plastic is provided for removing a housing and needle of a Huber needle assembly from a patient. The connector has a rectangular frame that can be positioned about a gripping surface on the housing of the needle assembly and a pair of wings that pivot upwardly to contact each other to provide a gripping surface for a user to pull the connector and housing of the needle assembly from the patient.

Abstract: Various methods and apparatuses are described that provide instrumentation and analysis of an electronic design. A method for providing performance instrumentation and analysis of the electronic design includes defining a first and second set of intended software instrumentation test points and an associated first and second set of performance analysis units. The method further includes instrumenting the first and second sets of software instrumentation test points and the associated first and second sets of performance analysis units to a first model and a second model, respectively. The method further includes creating a first and a second set of software instances associated with the first and second sets of intended software instrumentation test points and associated sets of performance analysis units during run time of a first simulation and a second simulation of the electronic design associated with the first model and second model, respectively.

Abstract: An extrusion device is described herein, including an inventive die and mandrel that enable the production, using a conventional ram extruder, of strong coherent extremely thin-walled tubes having a wall thickness in the range of about 0.020 mm and about 0.080 mm.

Abstract: Methods of coupling a catheter to a stem are disclosed. In some embodiments, a stem extends longitudinally between a proximal end and a distal end, and the stem can include at least one enlargement positioned between the proximal end and the distal end. In some embodiments, a catheter can be positioned over the at least one enlargement and over a region of the stem that is proximal to the at least one enlargement. In further embodiments, a collar can be mated to the stem.

Abstract: A user interface for a sonographic device is disclosed that displays a sonographic image and at least one reference object corresponding to a catheter size. The reference object may be scaled in proportion to the sonographic image. In addition, the user interface may further display a plurality of vertical lines and a plurality of horizontal lines arranged in a grid-like pattern and placed over the sonographic image. The size of both the sonographic image and the at least one reference object may change in proportion to a chosen insertion depth. A display device, a sonographic device and corresponding methods are also disclosed.

Abstract: Various methods and apparatus are described for a speech recognition system. In an embodiment, the statistical language model (SLM) provides probability estimates of how linguistically likely a sequence of linguistic items are to occur in that sequence based on an amount of times the sequence of linguistic items occurs in text and phrases in general use. The speech recognition decoder module requests a correction module for one or more corrected probability estimates P?(z|xy) of how likely a linguistic item z follows a given sequence of linguistic items x followed by y, where (x, y, and z) are three variable linguistic items supplied from the decoder module. The correction module is trained to linguistics of a specific domain, and is located in between the decoder module and the SLM in order to adapt the probability estimates supplied by the SLM to the specific domain when those probability estimates from the SLM significantly disagree with the linguistic probabilities in that domain.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to implants having two arms and a support portion configured to support a body tissue, such as a urethra. The implants are anchored in soft tissue with tissue anchors having a plurality of barbs. The tissue anchors contain an aperture through which a portion of arm is maintained. A locking member is disposed within at least one of the arms to facilitate fixation of the arm to at least one of the anchors.

Abstract: A catheter connection system and a method of connecting the catheter connection system to a catheter. The catheter connection system includes a hub assembly and a collar. The hub assembly includes a cannula extending from a distal end thereof, and a collet defining an inner surface spaced apart from the cannula to permit passage of a catheter wall between the body and the cannula. The collet includes a proximal barb on an outer surface and the collar includes an attachment barb on an inner surface, engagement of the respective barbs acting to provide a permanent connection between the collar on the collet, while permitting free rotation of the collar about the collet.

Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for inserting flexible, multi-lumen catheters into blood vessels, and in particular, for inserting flexible, split-tip catheters into blood vessels. The invention accomplishes these objects by temporarily stiffening each catheter lumen and tip independently through use of intra-catheter stiffener elements disposed within the catheter lumens. This provides means for advancing the catheter/stiffeners assembly through a subcutaneous tunnel, and over a plurality of guidewires until a distal tip of the catheter is at a desired position within the vessel. The intra-catheter stiffener elements are sufficiently stiffening to allow advancing the catheter over guidewires, but sufficiently flexible to allow bending and looping of the catheter for proper placement within the vessel.

Abstract: A medical needle shield apparatus having an anti-rotation component prevents the medical needle from rotating relative to a safety shield.

Abstract: Apparatuses and methods for coating and/or loading a medical device with a therapeutic agent prior to or during the placement of the medical device within the patient's body. In one variation, the medical device is coated and/or loaded with a therapeutic agent while the device is positioned in a delivery apparatus. In another variation, the delivery apparatus comprises a reservoir for retaining a therapeutic agent. The user may release the therapeutic agent from the reservoir prior to or during the placement of the device to coat and/or load the device with the therapeutic agent.

Abstract: A feeding tube device for delivering a substance into a stomach of a patient. The feeding tube may include an overlapping segment integrally formed with and extending from the distal end of the feeding tube, and an inflation lumen defined within the feeding tube. The overlapping segment may surround at least a portion of the distal end of the feeding tube to form a balloon structure in communication with the inflation lumen.

Abstract: An access port for subcutaneous implantation is disclosed. Such an access port may comprise a body for capturing a septum for repeatedly inserting a needle therethrough into a cavity defined within the body. Further, the access port may include at least one feature structured and configured for identification of the access port subsequent to subcutaneous implantation. Methods of identifying a subcutaneously implanted access port are also disclosed. For example, a subcutaneously implanted access port may be provided and at least one feature of the subcutaneously implanted access port may be perceived. Further, the subcutaneously implanted access port may be identified in response to perceiving the at least one feature. In one embodiment, an identification feature is engraved or otherwise defined by the access port, so as to be visible after implantation via x-ray imaging technology.

Abstract: A method of making a stent-graft includes providing a self-expanding stent having a collapsed configuration with a first diameter and an expanded configuration with a second diameter greater than the first diameter, the stent including a polymeric coating on at least an inner surface, disposing a graft on a mandrel having a third diameter greater than the second diameter, and contacting an outer surface of the graft with the coated inner surface of the stent, the stent applying a compressive force to the graft.

Abstract: A fatigue test system for repetitively deforming a substantially tubular implant structure which is within a radial range and within an axial range expandable and contractable and which has at least a first and a second end, wherein the system comprises at least a first and second part which are controllably moveable relative to each other, and a first and a second fixture assembly for fixing the first end to the first part and the second end to the second part, so that the system controls in use the position of each of the first and second end of the tubular implant structure.

Abstract: A system and a method for advertisement for a business is provided. The contemplated embodiments of the system and method utilize a sign having interchangeable capabilities such that the sign may be changed based on promotional programs and or may be changed to display new design for advertisement. Additionally, a contemplated embodiment of the system and method utilize a sign that may be interchangeable and moreover may display three dimensional promotional materials including toys, small articles among others. The invention may comprise a plurality of parts including a first backboard portion having a plurality of slots wherein a second promotional material may be inserted in the backboard portions and may be removable inserted and interchanged based on desired promotions and display materials.

Abstract: Various methods and apparatus are described for archiving of an electronic document between multiple interconnected archive units of a distributed server network in geographically-dispersed locations in order to store identical copies of the electronic document at the same time. An archival portal server in the distributed server network sends a five-step, two-phase commit protocol to a selected set of two or more transaction manager instances resident on remote archive units. The archival system reconciles if an error occurs between a start of a transmission of the electronic document and a permanent archiving of that electronic document, or the electronic document is stored in a permanent data storage location within each of the archive units at an end of the two-phase commit protocol making archiving of an electronic document to multiple locations an atomic operation.

Abstract: Various methods, apparatuses, and systems are described for a moving thumbnail generator. The moving thumbnail generator generates one or more moving thumbnails that are tagged and time-stamped to arbitrary video trigger events that take place in an associated original video file. Each of the moving thumbnails has two or more moving frames derived from its associated original video file at a portion in the original video file that is tagged and time-stamped to one or more relevant video trigger events in order for the generated moving thumbnail to summarize a visual content of the associated original piece of video file to a user. The tag carries information about content that takes place in the original video file and metadata about that content including a time reference to frames that are contextually relevant to the reason why a viewer of the thumbnail might be interested in viewing that thumbnail.

Abstract: Various methods and apparatus are described for a memory scheduler. The memory scheduler has a pipelined arbiter to determine which request will access the target memory core. Pipelining occurs in stages within the arbiter over a period of more than one clock cycle. The pipelined arbiter uses two or more weighting factors affecting an arbitration decision that are processed in parallel. A predictive scheduler in the memory scheduler uses data from a previous cycle to make the arbitration decision about a request during a current clock cycle in which the arbitration decision is made in order to increase overall system efficiency of requests being serviced in the integrated circuit.