Abstract: An endoscopic instrument is provided and includes a housing including an elongated shaft assembly extending distally therefrom. The elongated shaft assembly includes inner and outer shaft members. The inner and outer shaft members are removably coupled to the housing and the outer shaft member is movable with respect to the inner shaft member. An end effector is operably supported at the distal end of the outer shaft member and includes a pair of jaw members configured for treating tissue. A bushing operably couples to the inner and outer shaft members of the shaft assembly and selectively and releasably couples to the housing. The bushing includes one or more mechanical interfaces configured to engage one or more slots defined through the inner shaft member and one or more slots defined through the outer shaft member to release the inner and outer shaft members from the housing.

Abstract: A surgical tool includes a drive housing, an indicator assembly arranged within the drive housing and actuatable to provide visual indication that the surgical tool has exhausted its useful life. The indicator assembly includes a drive input rotatably coupled to the bottom of the drive housing. The drive input further including a riser and a rim where the riser contains a passage therethrough. The indicator assembly further includes an indicator shaft extending through the passage along a longitudinal axis coaxially aligned with the drive input. The drive input is rotated to actuate the indicator assembly between a non-activated state, where the indicator shaft is recessed into the drive housing, and an activated state, where the indicator shaft extends out of the drive housing to provide the visual indication.

Abstract: Various examples are provided for site specification for directional guided surface wave transmission in a lossy media. In one example, a probe site includes a propagation interface including first and second regions comprising different lossy conducting mediums. A guided surface waveguide probe positioned adjacent to the first and second regions can generate at least one electric field to launch a guided surface wave along the propagation interface in a radial direction defined by the first region and restricted by the second region. The propagation interface can also include additional regions comprising the same or different lossy conducting mediums. One or more of the regions can be prepared regions. In some cases, the regions can correspond to a terrestrial medium (e.g., a shoreline) and water (e.g., seawater along the shoreline).

Abstract: A system for aligning a leading vehicle with the vehicle to be trailed, the leading vehicle being of the type having a rearward window facing the trailing vehicle and a rear hitch for attaching a tongue of the trailing vehicle thereto. The system includes an indicating mark on the rearward window, and a rod mounted on the tongue of the trailing vehicle, the rod telescoping in both the vertical and horizontal directions such that the dimension of the rod may be adjusted so that the extremity of the rod comes into contact with the rearward window immediately adjacent the indicating means when the hitch of the leading vehicle is in alignment with the tongue of the trailing vehicle.