Abstract: A novel anode for a zinc battery is proposed, in which zinc is provided as a coat of zinc powder onto a tin substrate, which is in turn laid over a copper substrate for a current collector. Alternatively, the coat of zinc powder is laid over titanium as the current collector. Such configurations mitigate zinc corrosion and hydrogen production.

Abstract: An electrotactile apparatus has an electrode-array unit and a driver unit for generating a haptic feedback to a user. The electrode-array unit uses electrodes to electro-stimulate the user's skin with pulsed voltage signals generated by the driver unit, inducing excitation currents flowing in the user to generate the haptic feedback. The driver unit is self-powered or wirelessly powered for supporting untethered electrotactile stimulation to the user. A common counter electrode installed on the driver unit contacts the user's skin and collects the excitation currents returned from the user. Advantageously, the common counter electrode is located on an outer surface of the driver unit and the driver unit is substantially flexible, facilitating the common counter electrode to seamlessly contact the user's skin for achieving a stable electrode-skin interface while positioning the driver unit as a whole on the user's skin to provide untethered virtual touching experience to the user.

Abstract: The present invention provides a new wideband mm-wave end-fire magneto-electric dipole antenna with excellent beam-scanning radiation patterns and reasonably low side lobes and low cross polarizations. The antenna comprises: an asymmetrical substrate integrated coaxial line feed comprising: a first substrate having a first substrate thickness; a second substrate placed on the first substrate and having a second substrate thickness different from the first substrate thickness; a conductive signal line deposited on an upper surface of the first substrate; and two rows of waveguiding vias positioned along and at both sides of the signal line respectively; a ?-shaped probe adopted to excite the antenna; a pair of shorted planar parallel plates serving as magnetic dipole and two pair of vertical conductive vias serving as electric dipole; and a folded vertical reflector consisting of conductive vias and strips is added to reduce the back radiation and to improve the gain of antenna.

Abstract: A cryo formulation-based microneedle device for ocular delivery of bioactive therapeutic agents. The microneedle device includes: one or more microneedle patches each including an array of miniaturized needles, wherein each miniaturized needle defining a base end and a tip; and a substrate to which the base end of the array of miniaturized needles is attached or integrated thereto; wherein the microneedle patch is in a cryo status; wherein each of the one or more microneedle patch is adapted to be applied on cornea of an eye, in which the miniaturized needles penetrates into the eye; and wherein the miniaturized needles is further arranged to melt so as to release one or more bioactive therapeutic agents into the eye to achieve a targeted therapeutic effect.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods modifying cell surface markers of red blood cells (RBCs) and uses of the same. In particular, the method comprises contacting an RBC with a peptide in the presence of a ligase, under suitable conditions and for sufficient time to allow ligation of the peptide to the RBC to form an RBC-peptide conjugate. In one embodiment, the ligase is OaAEPI ligase. The RBC-peptide conjugate may be further contacted with an effector molecule under suitable conditions and for sufficient time for conjugation of the effector molecule to the RBC-peptide to form an RBC-peptide-effector molecule conjugate.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a bimetallic coordination metal-organic framework material, a preparing method thereof, and an application thereof. In the bimetallic coordination metal-organic framework material, carboxyl groups and soft groups of ligands are coordinated with coordination metal ions to assemble a structure having space and functions divided into covalent charge carrier layers and charge storage ion layers. Further, through the conjugation effect, the bimetallic coordination metal-organic framework material has unique electromagnetic properties, good electrical conductivity, and magnetic coupling performance. Thus, the bimetallic coordination metal-organic framework material is used as superconducting materials, conductive materials, semiconductor materials, or electromagnetic materials.

Abstract: A battery includes a plurality of energy storage units, a flexible linkage arranged to physically and electrically connect each adjacent pair of energy storage units, and an encapsulation arranged to encapsulate the energy storage units and the linkages. The energy storage units are movable with respect to each other via the flexible linkage within each adjacent pair of energy storage units in the encapsulation.

Abstract: A method for forming a complex shape three-dimensional ceramic article by printing a first layer of a first material having a first fraction of first ceramic particles and a first fraction of a first polymeric ceramic precursor. A second layer is printed such that it is at least partially disposed on the first layer of a second material having a second fraction of second ceramic particles and a second fraction of a second polymeric ceramic precursor. A composite of the first layer and the second layer is heated at a temperature sufficient to decompose the first and second polymeric ceramic precursors and sinter the article. During the sintering process, the first and second layers with different fractions of ceramic particles undergo different degrees of shrinkage, resulting in a tuneable mismatch of the bilayer structure and accurately achieving a targeted geometry.

Abstract: A tricuspid valve apparatus may include a frame and an associated neo-prosthetic valve. The frame acts as a stabilizing structure that extends cephalad into the morphologic or functional right atrium (upstream) and caudally into the morphologic or functional right ventricle (downstream). The frame comprises a strutted atrial dome that conforms to the atrium without obstruction of blood flow from the incoming great veins (i.e. superior vena cava and inferior vena cava) or other anomalous veins and/or tributaries. The frame further comprises ventricular struts to be placed within the right ventricle to secure the neo-prosthetic valve in a desired position. The assembly of the frame and valve is collapsible so that prior to deployment the assembly is placed in a vascular catheter, and then self-expands upon release in the heart.

Abstract: A fog-based self-powered system for collecting atmospheric water and generating electricity is presented. The system includes a mesh-based fog harvester for accumulating water droplets from atmospheric moisture. A droplet distributor receives accumulated water droplets from the mesh-based fog harvester. A droplet electrical generator harvests energy from the water droplets accumulated in the droplet distributor. The droplet electrical generator includes an electret surface for receiving the water droplets from the droplet distributor and at least two electrodes. A water reservoir receives water droplets from the droplet electrical generator.

Abstract: A triboelectric generator includes a first triboelectric material providing a first surface, a first electrode attached to the first triboelectric material, a second triboelectric material providing a second surface for contacting the first surface, and a second electrode attached to the second triboelectric material. The second triboelectric material is different from the first triboelectric material. The first electrode and the second electrode are arranged to be electrically connected via an electrical connection. The first triboelectric material comprises a polymer material and an organic semiconductor material arranged in the polymer material.

Abstract: A controlled oxidizing method is provided for preparing a high-performance nickel-rich lithium ion battery cathode material having a composition of LiNixM1-xO2, where 0.6<x<0.9, and M is one or more metals selected from the group consisting of Co, Mn, Fe, Ti, Zr, V, and Cr. The method comprises combining a water-soluble salt precursor of nickel and a water-soluble salt precursor of the one or more M metals with one or more oxidizing agents to form an aqueous solution. The aqueous solution is alkalized to a selected pH value to produce precipitated precursors. The precipitated precursors are mixed with a lithium precursor to form a lithiated precursor. The lithiated precursor is calcined to form the nickel-rich lithium ion battery cathode material.

Abstract: The syntheses of two phosphoramidite building blocks based on BNSF and BNSMB structures are disclosed. Furthermore, some common molecular intermediates have been designed and linked to the central biphenyl core of the two molecules, resulting in a versatile and cost-effective design. These compounds can be effectively introduced to DNA oligonucleotides via the well-established standard cyanoethylphosphoramidite chemistry on the nucleic acid synthesizer. Fragmentation of these BNSF- and BNSMB-functionalized DNA strands is achieved by both one-photon and two-photon photolysis of photoliable bonds of [2-(2-nitrophenyl)propoxy]carbonyl groups on BNSF and BNSMB molecules respectively, resulting in two short pieces of single-stranded DNAs.

Abstract: A woven, water-vapor permeable, water-responsive, shape-memory wool fabric that possesses switchable pore size and shape responsive to varying water content absorbed thereby is demonstrated, more particularly, the wool fabric exerts corresponding thermal and water vapor regulations between the wearer and the surroundings with respect to the temperature and humidity changes.

Abstract: An antenna includes, from top to bottom and bonded together, an upper substrate, a bonding film, a ground plane and a lower substrate. A parasitic patch arrangement and two pairs of radiator arms associated therewith are arranged on an upper surface of the upper substrate. One radiator arm pair are responsive to a differential signal received through respective vias, which extend through the upper substrate, and respective feed lines, which are arranged on a lower surface of the upper substrate, to emit a first radio frequency signal. The other radiator arm pair are responsive to another differential signal received through respective vias, which extend through the substrates, and respective feed lines, which are arranged on a lower surface of the lower substrate, to emit a second radio frequency signal orthogonal to the first radio frequency signal. A gap between one radiator arm pair intersects that between the other pair.

Abstract: A dual-band HP omnidirectional antenna includes an electrically small (ES) first omnidirectional loop antenna for a first band, and a second omnidirectional loop antenna for a second band. The first omnidirectional loop antenna and the second omnidirectional loop antenna are capable of operating independently in the first band and the second band. A loading effect of the second omnidirectional loop antenna adapted to suppress a higher-order mode of the first omnidirectional loop antenna.

Abstract: Systems and methods for improving magnetic resonance imaging relate to reconstructing multi-slice images based on sharing the strong structural similarities between adjacent image slices. In addition, a joint denoising method exploits these structural similarities. In part the reconstruction is based on use of a residual neural networks and denoising is achieved with a deep learning based strategy. The system and method have proved useful in both simulation and in vivo brain experiments, demonstrating significant noise reduction in all images and revealing more microstructural details in quantitative diffusion maps.

Abstract: A method of preventing or treating a subject suffering from a flavivirus infection by administering an effective amount of berbamine or its analogue to the subject, berbamine has a structure of Formula (I), wherein the flavivirus infection is caused by Japanese encephalitis virus, Zika virus or Dengue virus. A method of inhibiting the entry of a flavivirus, an enterovirus and/or a lentivirus into host cells includes contacting the host cells with an effective amount of berbamine of its analogue, berbamine has a structure of Formula (I), wherein the flavivirus is Japanese encephalitis virus, Zika virus or Dengue virus.

Abstract: A method of providing an image to image translation using a style based generator architecture for generative adversarial networks. The method includes the step of applying a feature alignment loss function defined by: LossFA=?i=mnwi·L1(?(GSM)i,?(GTM)i) wherein GSM and GTM are respective generators of a source model and a target model, ?(·)i is the extraction of the ith layer of features and wi represents the weight of L1 loss at the ith layer, the L1 loss weight wi being reduced as layers decrease such that L1 loss at higher layers has a higher weight than the L1 loss at lower layers.

Abstract: The quality of cell-free DNA for analysis is improved by techniques described herein. Cell-free DNA may include DNA with defects that do not allow for analysis of those DNA with techniques such as sequencing and targeted capture enrichment. These defects may be defects within the strands of the DNA and not present at the ends of the DNA. These intrastrand defects in cell-free DNA can be repaired. The repair of the defects in cell-free DNA may then allow for these repaired cell-free DNA to be analyzed by techniques, including sequencing and targeted capture enrichment.