What is claimed is:
1. A method for harvesting data from at least one device, said method comprising:
canvassing said at least one device in order to obtain data therefrom;
tracking canvassed devices that have yielded data; and
repeating said canvassing and tracking steps until the first to occur of the following:
1) data has been obtained from all of said at least one device, or
2) a certain time has passed since the beginning of said first canvassing step.
2. The method of claim 1 further including:
communicating, at the conclusion of said repeating step, to a processing center all of said obtained data.
3. The method of claim 1 further including:
establishing, prior to said first canvassing step, a window of opportunity during which it is anticipated the devices to be canvassed will be available for such canvassing; said window of opportunity coinciding with said certain time.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said window of opportunity is established based in part upon statistical information generated pertaining to availability of said devices.
5. The method of claim 4 wherein said devices are printers.
6. The method of claim 4 wherein said devices are printers and said data pertains, at least in part, to consumables used by said printers.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein said devices are printers.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein said devices are printers and said data pertains, at least in part, to consumables used by said printers.
9. A system for harvesting information from groups of peripheral devices, said devices arranged into at least one node, each said node having at least one device, said system comprising:
means at each said node for harvesting data during harvesting intervals from peripheral devices in communication with said node and for storing said harvested data, at least temporarily, at said node;
said harvesting means comprising:
means for keeping track of devices that are not available at a specific harvest time within said harvest interval;
means operable at intervals for reharvesting data from ones of said devices that were not available at a last harvest time within said specific harvest interval;
means for repeating said reharvesting of data until data has been harvested from all devices; and
means operable at the conclusion of each said harvest interval for ending said harvesting interval and for sending to said system all data harvested from said node during said harvest interval.
10. The system of claim 9 wherein said system further comprises:
means at said location for processing said data harvested from said nodes so as to provide services to said peripheral devices under control of said system.
11. The system of claim 10 wherein said peripheral devices are printers and wherein said provided services include keeping track of consumables at each said printer.
12. The system of claim 9 wherein said harvest interval is establish to fall within a time of high probability of the availability of said devices to have data harvested therefrom.
13. The system of claim 12 wherein said harvesting interval is derived, at least in part, by one of the following:
manual setting of start times, automatic setting of start times based on statistical analysis of past availability times, combination of start times and statistically based calculated times.
14. The system of claim 12 wherein the reharvesting times within a reharvesting interval are adjustable.
15. The system of claim 14 wherein said harvesting intervals are adjustable.
16. The system of claim 9 wherein the reharvesting times within a reharvesting interval are fixed periods.
17. The system of claim 16 wherein said harvesting intervals are adjustable.
18. A method for gathering consumable data from at least one device, said device having time constraints around which said consumable data can be gathered, said method comprising:
establishing a periodic time window for gathering said data, said time window optimized around the time constraints of said devices;
establishing within said time window a plurality of sub-time windows;
attempting, during a first one of said sub-time windows, to gather data from all of said devices; and
attempting, during each subsequent sub-time window of a periodic time window, to gather data from all devices that were not available during prior sub-time windows of said periodic time window.
19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:
transmitting said gathered data to a processing center remote from said devices when data has been gathered from all of said at least one device.
20. The method of claim 18 further comprising:
transmitting said gathered data to a processing center remote from said device at the expiration of all of said sub-time windows of a given time window.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of distributing a load to a cartilage defect repair plug, comprising:
a. applying the load to a first articulation layer of a cartilage defect repair plug, where the first articulation layer has a first periphery;
b. distributing the load to a second layer having a second periphery and further transferring the load in a normal direction to a first density of subchondral bone;
c. distributing the load to a third layer having a third periphery that is smaller than the second periphery and further transferring the load in the normal direction to a second density of subchondral bone that is less dense than the first density of subchondral bone; and
d. distributing the load in a fourth layer having a fourth periphery that is smaller than the third periphery and further transferring the load in the normal direction to a third density of subchondral bone that is less dense than the second density of subchondral bone.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the cartilage plug has a decreasing cross section area as measured transverse to a longitudinal axis.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the cartilage defect repair plug has a decreasing cross section length as measured transverse to a longitudinal axis.
4. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a thickness of a surrounding cartilage at an implant site opening.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising shaping the cartilage defect repair plug articulation layer to have a similar thickness to the implant site opening.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising disposing the cartilage defect repair plug into an implant site opening using a technique selected from: impacting, screwing, or press-fit techniques.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising securing the cartilage defect repair plug to an implant site using an attachment method selected from the group consisting of: mechanical attachment, adhesive attachment, chemical attachment, and combinations thereof.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the articulation layer is made of a first material and the second, third, and fourth layers are made of a second material.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the articulation layer comprises a resorbable polymer material selected from the group consisting of: lactocarbonate; polyurethane urea; polymers and copolymers of trimethylene carbonate, lactic acid, and glycolic acid; and combinations thereof.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second, third, and fourth layers comprise a porous material selected from the group consisting of: calcium sulfate, calcium phosphate, tricalcium materials, polymers and copolymers of glycolic acid and lactic acid, and combinations thereof.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein the normal direction is a 90\xb0 angle to respective densities of subchondral bone.
12. A method of preparing a cartilage defect repair plug for distributing a load at a cartilage defect site, comprising:
a. securing a first synthetic resorbable material having a first porosity to a second synthetic resorbable material having a second porosity;
b. adsorbing a bioactive agent into the first synthetic resorbable material; and
c. shaping the first synthetic resorbable material and the second synthetic resorbable material to have a stepped cone geometry to provide a plurality of right angled layers such that when a load is applied on the cartilage plug, the load is distributed in the normal direction to the first synthetic resorbable material of the cartilage plug.
13. The method of claim 12, further comprising adsorbing the bioactive agent into the second resorbable material.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the securing is selected from the group consisting of: mechanical attachment, adhesive attachment, chemical attachment, and combinations thereof.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein shaping the cartilage defect repair plug further comprises contouring the cartilage defect repair plug to match an opening in an implant site to provide a press-fit of the cartilage defect repair plug into the implant site.
16. The method of claim 12, further comprising removing a region of at least one of the first resorbable material and the second resorbable material to form a bore in the cartilage defect repair plug.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising depositing a bioactive material in the bore for delivery to the implant site; wherein the bioactive material is selected from the group consisting of: chondrocytes, undifferentiated cells, differentiation media, growth factors, platelet concentrate, nutrients, bone morphogenic proteins, osteogenic factors, and combinations thereof.
18. A method of distributing a load to a cartilage defect repair plug, comprising:
a. removing from an implant site a region of cartilage and underlying regions of a calcified cartilage interface and a subchondral bone tissue to form an implant site opening having a longitudinal axis; wherein the implant site opening at the cartilage, the calcified cartilage interface, and a first region of the subchondral bone having a first density have the same cross section size and the implant site opening has a progressively decreasing cross section from a second region of the subchondral bone having a second density that is less than the first density of subchondral bone to a distal most end of the implant site opening as measured transverse to the longitudinal axis to provide a stepped cone geometry, wherein the cone provides a plurality of right angled layers at the implant site;
b. disposing a resorbable cartilage plug in the implant site opening and mating a cartilage plug articulation layer and an adjacent, upper region of a demineralized bone matrix cartilage plug base having substantially similar cross section sizes to the stepped cone geometry of the implant site opening; and
c. distributing the load from the cartilage plug articulation layer to the adjacent, upper region of the demineralized bone matrix cartilage plug base in a normal direction to the first region of subchondral bone.
19. The method of claim 18, further comprising shaping the cartilage defect repair plug articulation layer to have a similar thickness to a thickness of the cartilage surrounding the implant site opening.
20. The method of claim 18, further comprising disposing the cartilage defect repair plug into an implant site opening using a technique selected from: impacting, screwing, or press-fit techniques.
21. The method of claim 18, further comprising securing the cartilage defect repair plug to an implant site using an attachment method selected from the group consisting of: mechanical attachment, adhesive attachment, chemical attachment, and combinations thereof.