An ergonomically designed check-out counter system for supermarket and merchandising industries is characterised by provisions for differences in human heights, hand and position of operators and for ease in handling of merchandise to reduce fatigue and injury to the operators while providing maximum productivity under both light and heavy through put requirements. The check-out counter system includes one or more of the features of a housing defining the overall shape of the check-out counter system, a movable floor device (27) for receiving the cashier and for moving vertically up and down to position the cashier at a desired height regardless of the human height of the cashier, a movable chair device (40) positioned in the intermediate opening (24) for receiving the cashier and including adjustment devices (41,43) for moving the chair vertically and horizontally to desired positions thereby providing the cashier with the option of sitting or standing, a keyboard device (50) for entering price data of the merchandise which may be moved back and forth to accommodate right-handed and left-handed cashiers, and merchandise bagging devices (60,61,70,73) for easy handling and bagging of the merchandise after checking-­out by the cashier and providing for direct bagging by the cashier or bagging by a bagger.

A particle beam treatment system includes an accelerator system (2) that accelerates a charged particle beam and a beam transport system (3) that transports a high-energy beam emitted from the accelerator to an irradiation location, wherein the beam transport system (3) is provided with at least one steering electromagnet (33) and at least one beam position monitor (34) corresponding to the at least one steering electromagnet (33), and wherein the at least one beam position monitor (34) supplies an excitation current for correcting a beam position, which periodically varies, to the at least one steering electromagnet (33).