Abstract: The present invention provides a method for removing a tattoo in a region of skin the method comprises administering to a least a portion of the tattoo a composition comprising an effective amount of a bisphosphonate and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable excipient to at least cause fading of the tattoo in said region.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method of determining a storage location by size for harvested tubers deposited by a bin piler are provided. The method may comprise: capturing one or more images of the harvested tubers; segmenting individual tuber depictions visible in the images; determining one or more shape characteristics for a plurality of the individual tuber depictions; identifying one or more unoccluded tuber depictions by determining that at least one of the individual tuber depictions is an unoccluded tuber depiction based on the shape characteristics of that individual tuber depiction; measuring a size of tubers corresponding to at least one of the unoccluded tuber depictions; attributing an average size to at least tubers corresponding to the occluded tuber depictions based on the measured size; determining the storage location of the harvested tubers based in part on bin piler location data; and recording in memory the storage location and average size.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described for the monitoring of patient motion via the detection of changes in capacitance, as measured using a capacitance position sensing electrode array. The changes in capacitance may be processed to determine a corresponding positional offset, for example, using a calibration data set relating capacitance to offset for each electrode of the array. The detected positional offset may be employed to provide feedback to a surgeon or operator of a medical device, or directly to the medical device for the control thereof. A medical procedure may be interrupted when the positional offset is detected to exceed a threshold. Alternatively, the detected positional offset may be employed to manually or automatically reconfigure a medical device to compensate for the detected change in position. Various configurations of capacitive position sensing devices are disclosed, including embodiment in incorporating capacitive sensing electrodes with a mask or other support structure.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described for the monitoring of patient motion via the detection of changes in capacitance, as measured using a capacitance position sensing electrode array. The changes in capacitance may be processed to determine a corresponding positional offset, for example, using a calibration data set relating capacitance to offset for each electrode of the array. The detected positional offset may be employed to provide feedback to a surgeon or operator of a medical device, or directly to the medical device for the control thereof. A medical procedure may be interrupted when the positional offset is detected to exceed a threshold. Alternatively, the detected positional offset may be employed to manually or automatically reconfigure a medical device to compensate for the detected change in position. Various configurations of capacitive position sensing devices are disclosed, including embodiment in incorporating capacitive sensing electrodes with a mask or other support structure.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for removing a tattoo in a region of skin the method comprises administering to a least a portion of the tattoo a composition comprising an effective amount of a bisphosphonate and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable excipient to at least cause fading of the tattoo in said region.

Abstract: A radiation treatment planning system and method for generating plans to treat plural target volumes, each associated with a prescribed dose, does not require delivery of radiation to every target volume from every beam direction. Allowing target volumes to be omitted for some control points facilitates generation of treatment plans that deliver less radiation dose to non-target tissues by allowing beam shaping to more closely fit the remaining target volumes. Simulated annealing using an objective function may be applied to determine parameters such as the number of control points for which a target volume is not targeted.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for removing a tattoo in a region of skin the method comprises administering to a least a portion of the tattoo a composition comprising an effective amount of a bisphosphonate and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable excipient to at least cause fading of the tattoo in said region.

Abstract: Generating a plan for radiation treatment of multiple target volumes such as, for example, multiple brain tumors, involves optimizing a grouping of the target volumes into subsets and generating treatment plans for each subset. Resulting treatment plans may minimize radiation dose to tissues outside of the target volumes. A radiation treatment planning system may be configured to operate in this manner and to upload control signals which cause a radiation therapy device such as a linear accelerator to execute the radiation treatment plans.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described for the monitoring of patient motion via the detection of changes in capacitance, as measured using a capacitance position sensing electrode array. The changes in capacitance may be processed to determine a corresponding positional offset, for example, using a calibration data set relating capacitance to offset for each electrode of the array. The detected positional offset may be employed to provide feedback to a surgeon or operator of a medical device, or directly to the medical device for the control thereof. A medical procedure may be interrupted when the positional offset is detected to exceed a threshold. Alternatively, the detected positional offset may be employed to manually or automatically reconfigure a medical device to compensate for the detected change in position. Various configurations of capacitive position sensing devices are disclosed, including embodiment in incorporating capacitive sensing electrodes with a mask or other support structure.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for determining an angular trajectory for dynamically rotating a multileaf collimator during arc therapy. According to various embodiments, a suitable collimator trajectory may be determined based on the reduction or minimization of a residual unblocked area residing between a planning target volume and leaves of the multileaf collimator in the beam's eye view over the set of control points corresponding to an arc therapy plan. Various example methods are provided for determining collimator trajectories based on whitespace reduction, and for providing quantitative measures of whitespace optimization associated with a given trajectory. In some embodiments, the whitespace may be calculated using terms that account for the overlap of a planning target volume with an organ at risk of exposure.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a biomaterial fabrication process for the manufacture of a collagen based fabric for an aligned collagen fiber network.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for removing a tattoo in a region of skin the method comprises administering to a least a portion of the tattoo a composition comprising an effective amount of a bisphosphonate and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable excipient to at least cause fading of the tattoo in said region.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method for removing a tattoo in a region of skin the method comprises administering to a least a portion of the tattoo, and a composition comprising an effective amount of a bisphosphonate and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable excipient to at least cause fading of the tattoo in said region.

Abstract: A method for quantifying, during pacemapping, a comparison of a BSPM of interest to a pace site BSPM. The method may include receiving at a computing device a plurality of ECG signals from an acquisition system. The pace site BSPM may be calculated using the plurality of ECG signals. The BSPM of interest may be compared to the pace site BSPM, by: retrieving the BSPM of interest from memory accessible by the computing device; and, calculating one or more comparison metrics for the BSPM of interest as compared to the pace site BSPM. An indication of similarity between the BSPM of interest and the pace site BSPM based on the comparison metric calculated may be displayed on a user interface in communication with the computing device.

Abstract: Among other things, in general, an acousto-mechanical transducer for the interconversion of electricity and acoustic waves is described. Methods are also described for the construction of such transducers.

Abstract: Amblyopia is a prevalent form of visual impairment that generally arises during infancy and early childhood when inputs to the visual cortex form the two eyes are poorly balanced. Disclosed herein are methods involving retinal inactivation of at least one retina to treat visual impairment in the form of amblyopia or other conditions.

Abstract: Methods and compositions for enhancing an immune response to a selected antigen are described. The methods are useful for the treatment and prevention of microbial infections, such as infections caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. The methods and compositions include host defense peptides, polyphosphazenes and immunostimulatory sequences to enhance the immune response to a coadministered antigen.

Abstract: An implantable bone-conduction hearing actuator based on a piezoelectric element, such as a unimorph or bimorph cantilever bender, is described. Unlike other implantable bone conduction hearing actuators, the device is subcutaneous and once implanted is entirely invisible. The device excites bending in bone through a local bending moment rather than the application of a point force as with conventional bone-anchored hearing aids.

Abstract: Among other things, in general, a two-stage filtration and extraction assembly is described, as well as methods of use thereof.

Abstract: An implantable bone-conduction hearing actuator based on a piezoelectric element, such as a unimorph or bimorph cantilever bender, is described. Unlike other implantable bone conduction hearing actuators, the device is subcutaneous and once implanted is entirely invisible. The device excites bending in bone through a local bending moment rather than the application of a point force as with conventional bone-anchored hearing aids.