Abstract: System and methods for producing synthesis gas are provided. The system includes a reactor and a steam generation system designed to provide precise control of the rate of steam generation to mix steam with fuel gas to produce humidified fuel gas, which is then fed into a combustion chamber of the reactor. The molar ratio of hydrogen to carbon monoxide in the synthesis gas output from the reactor may be accurately controlled by adjusting the humidity of the fuel gas input into the combustion chamber.

Abstract: A functional ultrathin battery separator and method for fabricating the same is disclosed. The battery separator includes a polymer substrate that is flexible, and a functional barrier layer deposed on the polymer substrate. The functional barrier layer is polycrystalline and includes a metal-organic framework and a plurality of micropores. The functional barrier layer is able to flex with the polymer substrate. The functional barrier layer is compact, such that diffusion pathways through the functional barrier layer are limited to a cutoff size, and such that the diffusion pathways that are largest are located within grains of the polycrystalline functional barrier layer rather than between grains. The battery separator may be less than 10 ?m thick, and the polymer substrate may be less than 9 ?m thick. The metal-organic framework may be ZIF-8, and the functional barrier layer may be less than 2 ?m thick.

Abstract: An apparatus includes a body and a plurality of members extending from the apparatus configured to form carvings with different geometries along 2D layered semiconductor material. The apparatus includes conductive pins positioned along the plurality of members that accommodate individual sensing of current-voltage characteristics per carving. The carvings can include small stripes and the apparatus can probe the electrical resistance of the small stripes of 2D layered semiconductors where the geometry defines strong current confinement, thus enabling the rapid extraction of sheet resistance for rapid comparison between material quality.

Abstract: A novel framework to transform a T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire sample into a fixed-length vector. Short peptide sequences with different lengths in each TCR may be encoded into a numeric vector with fixed dimensions. A large amount of existing TCRs from healthy individuals may be pooled to generate a distribution of the encoding vector in a high-dimensional Euclidean space. Unsupervised clustering may be performed on the “points” in this space (each point is a TCR) to group them into antigen-specific clusters. The centroid of each cluster may be defined as a repertoire functional unit (“RFU”). For a new TCR repertoire sample, each TCR may be assigned to its most similar RFU group, and the RFU counts may be normalized by the number of sequences in the repertoire. The output data may be a fixed-length RFU vector, with each number representing the relative abundance of the given RFU in the repertoire.

Abstract: A system and method for the automatic stimulation of a vagus nerve for post-stroke rehabilitation is disclosed. The system includes an application subsystem having an electrode positioned to stimulate the vagus nerve and coupled to a user outside of a surgical setting. The system also includes a waveform generator communicatively coupled to the electrode, and a triggering subsystem including a receiver configured to detect the presence of a tag. The triggering subsystem is communicatively coupled to waveform generator and is configured to automatically trigger the stimulation of the vagus nerve upon detecting the presence of the tag. The tag is located proximate a rehabilitation context such that the tag is detected when the user is using the rehabilitation context, resulting in the vagus nerve of the user being automatically stimulated by the electrode in response to the user's post-stroke rehabilitation training.

Abstract: Embodiments can take brain activity measurement and decode into continuous language. Embodiment can use non-invasive brain recordings, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to detect changes in blood oxygen level that are coupled to neural activity. These brain recordings can be used by a language reconstruction model that involves a neural language model to predict a next word in a sequence and an encoding model to decode the recordings into continuous language, or sequences of words.

Abstract: In some aspects, the present disclosure provides a nanoparticle composition comprising tRNA and an aminolipid delivery compound. The aminolipid delivery compound may be a dendrimer, dendron, or dendritic lipid, a polymer such as a polyamide or polyester, or a lipid with one or more hydrophobic components. In some embodiments, these compositions may be administered to a patient to treat a genetic disease or disorder such as cystic fibrosis, Duchene muscular dystrophy, or cancer.

Abstract: Provided herein are methods and related devices for preprocessing a biological sample during transit. The method may comprise the steps of: storing a biological sample in a storage container having walls that defines a storage volume; transporting the storage container with the stored biological sample to a sample processing facility; controlling one or more storage container parameters during the transporting step to initiate preprocessing of the biological sample; wherein the controlling step improves a processing parameter at the sample processing facility.

Abstract: Compositions and methods for detection of anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. Patient samples known or suspected of containing ACPAs were probed against citrullinated proteins, and antibody responses to 190 citrullinated proteins in 20 RA patients were investigated. Unique antibody reactivity patterns in both clinical anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide assay positive (CCP+) and negative (CCP?) RA patients were observed. At individual antigen levels, six novel antibody/antigen complexes were discovered and validated against specific citrullinated antigens (Myelin Basic Protein (MBP), osteopontin (SPP1), flap endonuclease (FENI), insulin like growth factor binding protein 6 (IGFBP6), insulin like growth factor I (IGF1) and stanniocalcin-2 (STC2)) in RA patients. Identification of immune-dominant epitope(s) for citrullinated MBP was also performed. The identified biomarkers have high specificity, especially MBP.

Abstract: A system for indexing, updating, and search haplotypes for genetic genealogical discovery in genotype databases. The system includes a pool of genetic indexes, a haplotype ingestion engine, and a haplotype query engine. The haplotypes of a number of individuals in a genotype database are indexed by a pool of multiple panels, and each panel pool can be dynamically updated by the insertion or deletion of individual haplotypes. A genetic genealogical search of a query haplotype against the database is achieved by first projecting the query onto a subset of panels in the pool, then conducting long match queries over each panel, and finally aggregating the identified long matches into Identical-by-Descent segments, i.e., DNA matches, between the query and the haplotypes in the database.

Abstract: A time-synchronized micro-scale continuous point-on-wave (CPoW) measurement device, referred to as micro-CPoW, is provided. The distribution system is an integral part of the electric power system, but not much is known about how it behaves in real-time. To address this knowledge gap, a low-cost, time-synchronized, CPoW measurement system is designed, built, and characterized herein. The purpose of the micro-CPoW measurement device is to monitor the instantaneous electric current flowing through a distribution line in real time. Detection of harmonics, identification of incipient fault conditions, and general power quality monitoring are typical uses for the measured information. Because the micro-CPoW measurement device is self-powered by the line current and communicates wirelessly, it can be installed without ground-mounted instrument transformers, low-voltage power sources, or communications cabling.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are compositions for treating cancer comprising a modified veratridine. In certain aspects, the modified veratridine comprises a polyglutamic acid (PLE) or polyethylene glycol/polyglutamic acid (PEG-PLE) conjugated to the 4? hemiketal thereof. Further disclosed is a method of treating colorectal cancer in a subject comprising administering to a subject an effective amount of the disclosed compositions.

Abstract: Described herein are means for systematically determining an optimal approach for the computer-aided diagnosis of a pulmonary embolism, in the context of processing medical imaging. According to a particular embodiment, there is a system specially configured for diagnosing a Pulmonary Embolism (PE) within new medical images which form no part of the dataset upon which the AI model was trained.

Abstract: A method of making a metal-polymer composite includes dealloying metallic powder to yield porous metal particles, monitoring a temperature of the mixture, controlling the rate of combining, a maximum temperature of the mixture, or both, and combining the porous metal particles with a polymer to yield a composite. Dealloying includes combining the metallic powder with an etchant to yield a mixture. A metal-polymer composite includes porous metal particles having an average particle size of about 0.2 ?m to about 500 ?m and a thermoplastic or thermoset polymer. The polymer composite comprises at least 10 vol % of the porous metal particles. A powder mixture includes porous metal particles having an average particle size of about 0.2 ?m to about 500 ?m and a metal powder. The powder mixture includes about 1 wt % to about 99 wt % of the porous metal particles.

Abstract: Described herein are methods and systems for identifying and/or treating subjects having cancer who are more likely to respond to treatment with an inhibitor of the transcription factor HIF-2?.

Abstract: A number of improvements are provided relating to computer aided surgery utilizing an on tool tracking system. The various improvements relate generally to both the methods used during computer aided surgery and the devices used during such procedures. Other improvements relate to the structure of the tools used during a procedure and how the tools can be controlled using the OTT device. Still other improvements relate to methods of providing feedback during a procedure to improve either the efficiency or quality, or both, for a procedure including the rate of and type of data processed depending upon a CAS mode.

Abstract: A computer-implemented model is trained or otherwise configured for real-time production control. The model incorporates a plurality of classes of residence time control and optimizes produce performance by managing an associated machine's behavior according to real-time system states. The model can formulate a Markov decision process and feature-extraction method and feature-based approximation architecture to reduce state space of the model. Simulation is employed in training to estimate parameters of feature-based approximate architecture to obtain a lookahead function of the Markov decision process.

Abstract: A system for implementation within a visual sensing pipeline facilitates dynamic voltage scaling for image sensors, enabling image sensors to capture frames at varying fidelities for improved energy efficiency. The system includes hardware and software interfaces to enable dynamic voltage scaling, and are demonstrated with integration into an RPi-based streaming platform. The system is evaluated with representative IoT/AR workloads over various voltage scheduling policies.

Abstract: An imaging system configured to transform a lateral scan motion into axial refocusing, thus enabling aberration free remote focusing. In one embodiment, the imaging system provides aberration free remote focusing by causing a beam of light to be scanned over a stationary mirror having a variable height in the scan direction, thereby causing the beam of light to be defocused in an axial direction in the return direction (e.g., the direction of propagation for the reflected beam of light). By configuring the back-reflected light resulting from the lateral scan component as described herein, a pure axial scan motion may be obtained at the rate of the employed (lateral) scanning technology (e.g., a GSM). This capability allows the imaging system of the present inventive concept to leverage rapid lateral scan technologies to produce rapid axial displacement of the axial focus of the beam of light.

Abstract: Methods for treating, reducing, ameliorating or inhibiting symptoms idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) or interstitial pneumonia, comprising administering to a subject in need of an effective amount of a) multiple EGF-like-domains-9 (MEGF9) or a biologically active fragment thereof; b) uncoordinated receptor 5A (UNC5A) or a biologically active fragment thereof; c) dolichyl-phosphate beta-glucosyltransferase (ALG5) or a biologically active fragment thereof; d) a combination of two or three of a)-c); e) an antibody specifically binding to a); f) an antibody specifically binding to b); g) an antibody specifically binding to c); h) a combination of two or three of e)-g); or i) a combination of at least one of a)-c) and at least one of e)-g). Pharmaceutical compositions and processes for making and using the compositions are also disclosed.