Abstract: A surgical stapling assembly is disclosed comprising a shaft, an end effector attached to the shaft, an electric motor, a plurality of sensors positioned within the end effector to measure an electrical parameter, and a control circuit. The end effector comprises a first jaw, a second jaw movable relative to the first jaw, and a firing driver to deploy staples and cut tissue. The electric motor is to actuate the firing driver. The control circuit is to actuate the electric motor to deploy staples from a staple cartridge during a firing stroke, monitor the electrical parameter at a first location of the firing stroke, and monitor the electrical parameter at a second location of the firing stroke, wherein the first location and the second location are different.

Abstract: An optical polarizer is described in which a propagation layer (14) is covered with a dielectric buffer layer (16) and a metal layer (18). The thickness of the buffer layer is chosen so as to increase the attenuation of TM modes of radiation in the waveguide relative to TE modes. In accordance with the invention, additional discrimination between TM and TE modes is achieved by segmenting the metal layer into a plurality of tandem sections (18.1, 18.2, 18.3), thereby increasing the mode coupling loss for TM modes. A GaAs-AlGaAs rib waveguide polarizer is specifically described.