At present, the fruit picking in most countries still largely relies on manual operation. Manual fruit picking can protect the fruits from damage during the operation process. However, it is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and poses a potential safety risk to the workers while working at heights not reachable. Therefore, a variety of fruit picking machines and platforms have been developed and incorporated into fruit production to improve the fruit picking efficiency. However, they are very costly in manufacturing and frequently cause damages to fruit during the fruit picking process. Recently various relatively simple mechanical fruit picking devices have been designed and developed as an alternative for these automatic fruit-picking systems to reduce the manufacturing costs. These devices have been used in fruit production. However, they still have some shortcomings such as poor portability and complex operation. They also lack mechanisms sufficient to avoid damages to fruit to ensure fruit appearance and quality. This study was to invent a portable and convenient mechanical tool that could be used in combination with manual operation for fruit picking. A portable Scissors-type fruit picking device has been developed, which has two hinged levers designed to drive the closure of the shear blades at the top of fruit picking bowl to cut the fruit pedicel, achieving rapid and safe fruit picking. The portable Scissors-type fruit picking device invented here is an innovation, with a purely mechanical design that has the advantages of ingenious design, simple structure, good portability, ease of operation, and low costs of use. This device is suitable for large-scale application in the field of fruit picking in many countries.

Background: It seems that angled Scissors may be able to minimize the occurrence of obstetric anal sphincter injuries (OASIS) during vaginal delivery by correcting the angle of the episiotomy incision. For this purpose, this study aimed to evaluate the episiotomy characteristics of EPIScissors–60 Scissors compared with Mayo Scissors.    Methods: In this single-blind clinical trial study, 64 pregnant women candidates for natural childbirth were included; 32 women underwent episiotomy with Mayo Scissors and 32 underwent episiotomy with the EPIScissors–60 instrument. Then, post-suturing angle, incision length, episiotomy, postpartum pain, bleeding volume, and the incidence of OASIS and dyspareunia were assessed. The collected data were analyzed by independent sample t test, chi-square test, and the Fisher exact test.    Results: Episiotomy incision length in the EPIScissors–60 group with a mean of 4.75 ± 0.72 cm was significantly longer than the Mayo group with a mean of 3.91 ± 0.52cm (P < 0.001). In addition, the incidence of dyspareunia was not significantly different between the 2 groups (6.3% vs 15.6%; P = 0.426). Sphincter damage did not occur at all in the EPIScissors–60 group and only 2 cases of grade 3 sphincter rupture occurred in the Mayo group (P = 0.238). The mean of post suturing angle in the EPIScissors–60 group (59.09° ± 3.47°) was significantly higher than the Mayo group, with a mean of 31.06° ± 7.21° (P < 0.001).    Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, the use of EPIScissors–60 can be associated with a higher post-suture episiotomy angle compared with Mayo Scissors. As a result, both the incidence of OASIS and its long-term side effects, like dyspareunia, were decreased. However, in our study, the incidence of these complications was very rare and not different between the 2 groups.

Background: Seroma formation is a common complication after surgery for breast cancer. It may originate from dissected lymphatic ducts in axillary area. Two important predictive factors are the surgical technique, and instruments used during surgery. This study was conducted to determine the impact of three axillary dissection techniques, namely, blunt dissection with hemostat, sharp dissection with Metzenbaum Scissors, and dissection with harmonic Scissors, on seroma formation. Methods: Patients with a tissue diagnosis of breast cancer who did not have metastasis, and were candidates for either breast conservation surgery (BCS) and sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) with or without axillary lymph node dissection (ALND), or modified radical mastectomy (MRM) were included in a prospective study. Patients were randomly allocated to one of the above mentioned three groups. The incidence of seroma formation was compared among the groups. Results: Sixty patients (age: 50. 25 ± 10. 33 years) were enrolled for the study. At the end of the study, after four weeks of postoperative follow up, 19 patients developed seroma (31. 6%), of whom 5 (26. 3%) had dissection with harmonic Scissors, 6 (31. 5%) with Metzenbaum Scissors, and 8 (42. 1%) were dissected bluntly. There was no significant difference among groups regarding seroma formation (P = 0. 583). Conclusion: Application of harmonic Scissors for axillary dissection has no significant impact on seroma formation. However, MRM leads to significantly more seroma formation compared with BCS.

This paper is based on the research which was conducted earlier on Kansei Engineering (KE) and resulted in a new concept for Scissors to redesign it with another method called “ User Centered Design” (UCD). This is a shift from translation of the consumers’ psychological feeling about a product related to their perception of the design (KE) to focus on designing for and involving users in the design process (UCD). According to UCD process, after understanding and specifying the context of use, specifying the requirements and evaluation of KE concept were simultaneously (By 52 users, 30 female and 22 male), next steps were producing design solutions and evaluating those solutions about requirements (By 41 subjects, 26 female and 15 male). Specifying the requirements and evaluations were by usability test via focus groups and interviews. The final concept obtained high available satisfaction rates defined in the research project. In addition, some comfort design factors for hand tools (e. g. reducing wrist bent while working and reduction of hand pain) were measured and the new designed product achieved a highly satisfactory result. At last a comparison between UCD and KE had been done.