A refractory article such as a stopper used in the casting of molten metals that consists of a refractory core coated with an electrically conductive layer of carbon and graphite materials such that the stopper withstands the mechanical, chemical and thermal rigors of the casting operation and provides an effective electrical contact during the molten metal casting process. The core glass is in the alkali-zinc-silicate system and contains, in Mol % on an oxide basis: 54. The chamber is pre-loaded with a reversible anticoagulant to prevent the blood from clotting during storage. This regulator varies its set point to float between ripple regulators passing current and the ripple regulators shunting current and adjusts a portion of current that is shunted away from the bus. The method includes: firing non-lethal bullets towards a person; and deploying portions on the non-lethal bullets prior to impacting the person to decrease its impact pressure on the person. Code segments stored in the digital memory are executable on the digital processor and implement a process of: a) initially sampling the output of the AD converter; b) determining from the initial sampling a burst-fired current pattern; c) sampling the output of the AD converter N times within a burst-fired current pattern to provide N samples; and d) calculating an RMS value from the N samples.