Abstract: Systems and methods for a capacitive coupler for high-voltage step-down include an actively-controlled current-steering circuit connected in series with a current-limiting capacitor in order to transform a higher and potentially variable AC voltage to a lower regulated DC voltage. The actively-controlled current-steering circuit includes a switching element which, during operation, is predominantly either fully open or fully closed, and comparatively spends only a small fraction of operating time in a transition-state between the open and closed positions.

Abstract: A polymerizable composition for 3D printing includes a photocurable polymer resin and metal diboride nanosheets. The resulting polymer nanocomposite includes a polymer matrix and metal diboride nanosheets dispersed throughout the polymer matrix. A method of synthesizing a nanomaterial-containing resin for 3D printing includes preparing a dispersion of metal diboride nanosheets in a solvent, and combining the dispersion with a liquid polymer resin to yield the nanomaterial-containing resin. A method of fabricating a nanocomposite structure from the nanomaterial-containing resin includes providing the nanomaterial-containing resin to a three-dimensional printer, forming a three-dimensional structure with the three-dimensional printer, and processing the three-dimensional structure to yield the nanocomposite structure.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a method in a data processing system that includes at least one processor and at least one memory. The at least one memory includes instructions executed by the at least one processor to implement a bounded-error estimator system. The method includes receiving information about a plurality of vehicle states of a vehicle from at least one sensor, determining that the information is missing data about at least one vehicle state of the plurality of vehicle states, and determining an estimated vehicle state associated with a final vehicle state. Determining the estimated vehicle state includes calculating a plurality of augmented states for each of the vehicle states included in the plurality of vehicle states and calculating the estimated vehicle state based on the plurality of augmented states. The estimated vehicle state is provided to a vehicle control system of the vehicle.

Abstract: Guidewires useful for cooperating with catheters may be actively steered and/or provide adjustable stiffness. Angle or curvature of a guidewire, and/or flexural modulus of a guidewire, may be adjusted at one or more locations between ends thereof. Variable stiffness segments may include electrically operated compressible and/or extensible materials. Multiple tensile elements may terminate at different body elements to adjust angle or curvature at multiple locations. Multiple circumferentially and/or radially contractible fiber regions may be provided and distributed over a length of a guidewire. Adjustable flexure elements arranged in or along a guidewire may be electrically operated. A flexible core member may be centrally arranged in a tubular body. A flexible guide wire or track may cooperate with electrically operable motor units.

Abstract: A separator for a lithium-based battery, and method for fabricating the same is disclosed. The method includes oxidizing cellulose fibrils to form oxidized cellulose having carboxylic functional groups, decorating the oxidized cellulose with nanoparticles, and forming the nanoparticle-decorated oxidized cellulose into a film to become the separator for the lithium-based battery. The cellulose may be a bacterial cellulose. The cellulose fibrils may be oxidized through a TEMPO oxidation. Decorating the oxidized cellulose with nanoparticles may include introducing a precursor solution to the oxidized cellulose that reacts with hydroxyl groups of the oxidized cellulose while preserving the carboxylic functional groups, causing the nanoparticles to nucleate on the surface of the oxidized cellulose. The nanoparticles may be composed of an oxide material. The oxide material may be SiO2. The precursor solution may be tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS).

Abstract: A smart hardware security engine using biometric features and hardware-specific features is provided. The smart security engine can combine one or more entropy sources, including individually distinguishable biometric features, and hardware-specific features to perform secret key generation for user registration and authentication. Such hybrid signatures may be distinct from person-to-person (e.g., due to the biometric features) and from device-to-device (e.g., due to the hardware-specific features) while varying over time. Thus, embodiments described herein can be used for personal device authentication as well as secret random key generation, significantly reducing the scope of an attack.

Abstract: A system for time series analysis using attention models is disclosed. The system may capture dependencies across different variables through input embedding and may map the order of a sample appearance to a randomized lookup table via positional encoding. The system may capture capturing dependencies within a single sequence through a self-attention mechanism and determine a range of dependency to consider for each position being analyzed. The system may obtain an attention weighting to other positions in the sequence through computation of an inner product and utilize the attention weighting to acquire a vector representation for a position and mask the sequence to enable causality. The system may employ a dense interpolation technique for encoding partial temporal ordering to obtain a single vector representation and a linear layer to obtain logits from the single vector representation. The system may use a type dependent final prediction layer.

Abstract: ElectroCorticoGraphy (ECoG) sensors and uses are disclosed. These ECoG arrays, systems, and processes may be operable or configured to: i) simultaneously record neural signals while providing stimulation on specific portions of the cortex using a user-guided stimulator; ii) acquire neural signals over a large cortex area; iii) provide individual or group stimulation while concurrently receiving neural feedback; and/or iv) acquire neural signals at a setting remote from the neural source using wireless or other communication techniques.

Abstract: Contacts for solar cells and other optoelectronic devices are provided. Embodiments described herein take advantage of the surface Fermi level pinning effect to build an electrical field inside of a semiconductor to extract or inject carriers for solar cells, photodetectors, and light-emitting device applications. For example, n-type or p-type two-dimensional (2D) materials can be used in contact with an n-type semiconductor to form a “p-region” so that a p-n junction, or an i-n or n-n+ junction can be constructed. Similarly, n-type or p-type 2D materials can be used in contact with a p-type semiconductor to form an “n-region” so that an n-p junction, or an i-p or p-p+ junction can be constructed. These structures can provide sufficiently high electrical field inside the semiconductor to extract photogenerated carriers in solar cells and photodetectors or inject minority carriers for light-emitting devices.

Abstract: Methods and systems for remote sleep monitoring are provided. Such methods and systems provide non-contact sleep monitoring via remote sensing or radar sensors. In this regard, when processing backscattered radar signals from a sleeping subject on a normal mattress, a breathing motion magnification effect is observed from mattress surface displacement due to human respiratory activity. This undesirable motion artifact causes existing approaches for accurate heart-rate estimation to fail. Embodiments of the present disclosure use a novel active motion suppression technique to deal with this problem by intelligently selecting a slow-time series from multiple ranges and examining a corresponding phase difference. This approach facilitates improved sleep monitoring, where one or more subjects can be remotely monitored during an evaluation period (which corresponds to an expected sleep cycle).

Abstract: Various embodiments of systems and methods for an at-risk system identification via analysis of discussions from various online hacker communities are disclosed herein.

Abstract: A solid electrolyte represented by general formula LiySiRx(MO4), where x is an integer from 1 to 3 inclusive, y=4?x, each R present is independently C1-C3 alkyl or C1-C3 alkoxy, and M is sulfur, selenium, or tellurium. Methods of making the solid electrolyte include combining a phenylsilane and a first acid to yield mixture including benzene and a second acid, and combining at least one of an alkali halide, and alkali amide, and an alkali alkoxide with the second acid to yield a product d represented by general formula LiySiRx(MO4)y. The second acid may be in the form of a liquid or a solid. The phenylsilane includes at least one C1-C3 alkyl substituent or at least one C1-C3 alkoxy substituent, and the first acid includes at least one of sulfuric acid, selenic acid, and telluric acid.

Abstract: Various embodiments of a cyber-physical system for providing cloud prediction for photovoltaic array control are disclosed herein.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods of improving cell lysis procedures and yields of intracellular biomolecules extracted from biomass. The methods comprise storing the microbial cells in ultra-low temperature (ULT) conditions for at least 10 minutes prior to lysing the cells.

Abstract: A skylight for a building includes a solar panel arranged within the skylight, the solar panel comprising one or more photovoltaic cells to collect direct radiation from rays of sunlight for conversion to electrical power, and an optical element to receive the direct radiation and refract it to the solar panel, and to receive the direct radiation and diffuse radiation scattered from the rays of sunlight and refract the direct radiation and the diffuse radiation through the skylight, bypassing the solar panel, to provide daylighting in the building.

Abstract: Relay-aided intelligent reconfigurable surfaces (IRSs) are provided. A novel relay-aided intelligent surface architecture is described herein that has the potential of achieving the promising gains of IRSs with a much smaller number of elements, opening the door for realizing these surfaces in practice. A half-duplex or full-duplex relay is connected to one or more IRSs. This merges the gains of relays and reconfigurable surfaces and splits the required signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain between them. This architecture can hen significantly reduce the required number of reconfigurable elements in the IRS(s) while achieving the same spectral efficiencies. Consequently, the proposed relay-aided intelligent surface architecture needs far less channel estimation/beam training overhead and provides enhanced robustness compared to traditional IRS solutions.

Abstract: Electroplating of aluminum may be utilized to form electrodes for solar cells. In contrast to expensive silver electrodes, aluminum allows for reduced cell cost and addresses the problem of material scarcity. In contrast to copper electrodes which typically require barrier layers, aluminum allows for simplified cell structures and fabrication steps. In the solar cells, point contacts may be utilized in the backside electrodes for increased efficiency. Solar cells formed in accordance with the present disclosure enable large-scale and cost-effective deployment of solar photovoltaic systems.

Abstract: Provided herein are highly sensitive compositions and methods for detection of at least one specific nucleic acid molecule in a sample. The presence of a specific nucleic acid provides a positive indicator of a pathogenic agent, contaminant, non-canonical bases, and/or wild-type or mutated genes in a sample or a cell. Applications for which the compositions and methods are particularly well suited include point-of-care disease diagnosis or cellular RNA imaging.

Abstract: Provided herein are methods of tracking molecular dynamics in three dimensions. In some embodiments, the methods include introducing an incident light toward a second surface of a substrate to induce a plasmonic wave at least proximal to a first surface of the substrate. A population of particles is connected to the first surface of the substrate via one or more first biomolecules. In some embodiments, the methods also include detecting a change in position of the particles in the population along at least three dimensions over a duration from a change in intensity of the incident light reflected at an interface of the first surface of the substrate. Related systems and computer readable media are also provided.

Abstract: Various embodiments of a bio-inspired robot operable for detecting crack and corrosion defects in tubular structures are disclosed herein.