An accommodation for animals, such as cows, including a massage member and a brushing member for massaging and brushing animals in a milking compartment wherein the animals are automatically milked. The milking compartment mounts longitudinal guide members on which the massage member and the brushing member can be moved in longitudinal directions relative to the animal while being manipulated to massage and brush the back, hind quarters and sides of the animal while the animal is being milked. T...

A minimally invasive, medical device 10 for removing stones, calculus or the like from the renal or biliary systems includes a reversibly collapsible basket 12 and an elongated member 14 for delivering the basket 12 to the location of the stones, calculus or the like. The basket 12 is tipless and atraumatic in use, and includes at least one superelastic wire loop 20 and at least one superelastic wire leg 26, the wire leg 26 preferably being incorporated into a second superelastic wire loop 24. T...

A pneumatic tire for a passenger car wherein a plurality of grooves are disposed on a tread surface to define and form land portions, and kerfs which are open to the grooves at at least one of the ends thereof are disposed on the land portions. At least one stage of step portion is disposed in a step shape on at least one of the groove walls of the grooves, and a plurality of kerfs are disposed on the step portion with smaller gaps than those of the kerfs disposed on the land portions.

Packaging for at least one bottle having a cylindrical base portion and a narrowed neck portion comprising a shell formed of a nonplastic material. The shell is formed of first and second parts. The first and second parts each have a bottle receiving recess formed therein. The bottle receiving recesses have first and second portions. The first portion is formed to receive the cylindrical base portion of the bottle and the second portion is formed to receive the neck portion of the bottle. The fi...

A method and structure for providing ESD protection for an integrated circuit having multiple pairs of voltage supply rails, each pair including a VDD rail and a VSS rail. In one aspect, ESD devices are connected between pairs of supply rails and I/O pins of the integrated circuit, and antiparallel diodes are connected between respective VSS rails and a VSS-ESD rail.

A food or beverage or animal feed composition which includes an antimycotic effective amount of propionibacteria metabolites with the proviso that such metabolites not solely contain propionic acid is provided. Also disclosed is the addition of a potentiator in combination with such metabolites.

A ladder including storage areas for allowing access to an area out of reach of a user. A tool box is removably connected at a top end of the ladder so as to be easily accesible to a user of the ladder. The ladder includes a first pair of legs and a second pair of legs extending at an adjustable angle to the first pair of legs. A plurality of steps extend between the legs of the first pair of legs and a storage compartments is positioned below each of the plurality of steps. The storage compartm...

An adapter for adapting a uniform contact grid of an electrical testing device for testing printed circuit boards to an irregular contact configuration of connection points on a printed circuit board to be tested includes upper and lower pin retention plates respectively defining a cover surface to lie against a surface of the printed circuit board to be tested and a base surface to lie on a contact field of the testing device. Substantially an entire space between the upper and lower pin retent...

A tire tread comprising an elongated tread strip of tire tread compound of high resistivity having a transverse width (TR) and, within the transverse width (TR) at least one longitudinally extending conducting strip of low resistivity tire compound with a volume resistivity less than 10.sup.8 ohm-cm, the at least one conducting strip extending from the top to the bottom surface of a tread strip.

This invention relates to improved poly(vinyl chloride) compositions which contain ionomeric additive polymers, and to a process for preparing such compositions.