Abstract: A method of forming crystalline sheets using a Horizontal Ribbon Growth process, where the sheet of material formed in the process is withdrawn from a crucible in a specified manner to reduce instabilities in the process and to regulate crystal growth dynamics.

Abstract: Provided is a system, method, and apparatus for forming surface designs in hard-setting materials. The method includes depositing a hard-setting material mix to create a construction component, controlling a movable unit to manipulate a surface of the construction component with a first profile tool arranged on the movable unit based on surface design data before the hard-setting material mix sets, and controlling the movable unit or at least one other movable unit to manipulate the surface of the construction component with a second profile tool arranged on the movable unit or the at least one other movable unit based on the surface design data before the hard-setting material mix sets, wherein the second profile tool comprises a blade edge and a trowel edge.

Abstract: Provided herein are methods, reagents, and kits for isolating polypeptides, such as a proteome. Also provided herein is a modified trypsin polypeptide that is resistant to autolysis, and that can be selectively-separated from a biological sample once digestion is complete.

Abstract: An expandable valved conduit for pediatric right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) reconstruction is disclosed. The valved conduit may provide long-term patency and resistance to thrombosis and stenosis. The valved conduit may enlarge radially and/or longitudinally to accommodate the growing anatomy of the patient. Further, a method is disclosed for the manufacture of the valved conduit based in part on a plastically deformable biocompatible polymer and a computer-optimized valve design developed for such an expandable valved conduit.

Abstract: A novel class of imaging systems that combines diffractive optics with 1D line sensing is disclosed. When light passes through a diffraction grating or prism, it disperses as a function of wavelength. This property is exploited to recover 2D and 3D positions from line images. A detailed image formation model and a learning-based algorithm for 2D position estimation are disclosed. The disclosure includes several extensions of the imaging system to improve the accuracy of the 2D position estimates and to expand the effective field-of-view. The invention is useful for fast passive imaging of sparse light sources, such as streetlamps, headlights at night and LED-based motion capture, and structured light 3D scanning with line illumination and line sensing.

Abstract: A hybrid microneedle array and a method of fabricating the array is used for delivery of drugs, vaccines, and other therapeutic agents into tissues, including skin, heart, inner ear, and other tissues. The microneedle array can facilitate precise and reproducible intradermal delivery. Each microneedle has a dissolvable tip with a hollow body permitting the delivery of a variety of therapeutic agents into the skin. A fabrication process utilizes a two part mold to separately mold a dissolvable tip and a solid body portion of each microneedle in the array.

Abstract: A method and device for fabricating vascular networks in for tissue engineering. The vascular network is embedded in a porous scaffold and is created from a sacrificial wax template, according to one embodiment. A extrusion-based three dimensional printer is used to create the template, wherein the printer utilizes an extruder incorporating a mixer to maintain the consistency of the extrudate.

Abstract: During training of deep neural networks, a Copernican loss (LC) is designed to augment the standard Softmax loss to explicitly minimize intra-class variation and simultaneously maximize inter-class variation. Copernican loss operates using the cosine distance and thereby affects angles leading to a cosine embedding, which removes the disconnect between training and testing.

Abstract: Internet of Things (“IoT”) appliances are gaining consumer traction, from smart thermostats to smart speakers. These devices generally have limited user interfaces, most often small buttons and touchscreens, or rely on voice control. Further, these devices know little about their surroundings—unaware of objects, people and activities around them. Consequently, interactions with these “smart” devices can be cumbersome and limited. The present invention presents an approach that enriches IoT experiences with rich touch and object sensing, offering a complementary input channel and increased contextual awareness. The present invention incorporates a range sensing technology into the computing devices, providing an expansive ad hoc plane of sensing just above the surface with which a device is associated. Additionally, the present invention can recognize and track a wide array of objects, including finger touches and hand gestures.

Abstract: A computer-program product storing instructions which, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to, for one or more iterations, update parameters associated with a machine-learning network utilizing perturbations for input data, wherein the perturbations are sampled utilizing Markov chain Monte Carlo, identify a loss value associated with each perturbation in each iteration, and evaluate the machine learning network by identifying an average loss value across each iteration and outputting the average loss value.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a novel technique that employs non-invasive ultrasound for spatiotemporal modulation of the refractive index in a medium to define and control the trajectory of light within the medium itself, thereby creating a virtual sculpted lens. By varying the amplitude of ultrasonic waves in the medium, the numerical aperture (NA) value of the virtual sculpted lens can be changed. The location of the focus of the virtual sculpted lens can be precisely scanned within a scattering tissue.

Abstract: A method includes producing an amorphous precursor to a nanocomposite, the amorphous precursor comprising a material that is substantially without crystals not exceeding 20% volume fraction; performing devitrification of the amorphous precursor, wherein the devitrification comprises a process of crystallization; forming, based on the devitrification, the nanocomposite with nano-crystals that contains an induced magnetic anisotropy; tuning, based on one or more of composition, temperature, configuration, and magnitude of stress applied during annealing and modification, the magnetic anisotropy of the nanocomposite; and adjusting, based on the tuned magnetic anisotropy, a magnetic permeability of the nanocomposite.

Abstract: Described herein are divalent nucleobases that each binds two nucleic acid strands, matched or mismatched when incorporated into a nucleic acid or nucleic acid analog backbone, such as in a ?-peptide nucleic acid (?PNA). Also provided are genetic recognition reagents comprising one or more of the divalent nucleobases and a nucleic acid or nucleic acid analog backbone, such as a ?PNA backbone. Uses for the divalent nucleobases and monomers and genetic recognition reagents containing the divalent nucleobases also are provided.

Abstract: The disclosure describes a wearable, low-cost and low-power Electrical Impedance Tomography system for gesture recognition. The system measures cross-sectional bio-impedance using electrodes on wearers' skin. Using all-pairs measurements, the interior impedance distribution is recovered, which is then fed to a hand gesture classifier. This system also solves the problem of poor accuracy of gesture recognition often observed with other gesture recognition approaches.

Abstract: A computing system for generating image data representing a speaker's face includes a detection device configured to route data representing a voice signal to one or more processors and a data processing device comprising the one or more processors configured to generate a representation of a speaker that generated the voice signal in response to receiving the voice signal. The data processing device executes a voice embedding function to generate a feature vector from the voice signal representing one or more signal features of the voice signal, maps a signal feature of the feature vector to a visual feature of the speaker by a modality transfer function specifying a relationship between the visual feature of the speaker and the signal feature of the feature vector; and generates a visual representation of at least a portion of the speaker based on the mapping, the visual representation comprising the visual feature.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an innovative multi-layer hybrid/digital MIMO architecture that comprises single-stream or fully-connected (FC) multi-stream beamforming tiles (with RF complex-weights) in the first layer, followed by a fully connected (analog/digital) baseband layer. This architecture overcomes the complexity versus spectral-efficiency tradeoffs of existing hybrid MIMO architectures and enables MIMO stream/user scalability, superior energy-efficiency, and spatial-processing flexibility.

Abstract: A high-performance thermal interface comprising a nanowire array disposed between a bottom metal layer and a top metal layer in which each nanowire is coated with a 3D fuzzy graphene layer. The thermal interface can be used by bonding it to the surfaces of adjoining substrates using layers of solder.