Abstract: Systems and methods for soil improvement foundation isolation and load spreading are provided. The systems and methods provided herein relate to isolation of structural foundations from soil improvement elements and distributing stress from high stiffness elements to lower stiffness materials. A shear load transfer reduction system may include one or more ground improvement elements for supporting an applied load. A shear break element may be positioned above one or more ground improvement elements. The shear break elements may be configured to have low interface shear strength. Further, systems and methods are provided for creating an engineered slip surface for reducing shear stresses between a laterally loaded foundation and a rigid foundation support element and wherein two slip pads are provided that form the engineered slip surface.

Abstract: A system includes a first structure, wherein the first structure lacks space inversion symmetry, and wherein the first structure includes a first elastic lattice. The system further includes a second structure, wherein the second structure lacks space inversion symmetry, and wherein the second structure includes a second elastic lattice. Additionally, the system includes the first structure coupled to the second structure such that the first structure and the second structure have a mirror symmetry to each other.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to novel cleavable conjugates of antibiotics and an antibacterial cell-penetrating peptide, and methods to make and use the novel cleavable conjugates of antibiotics and an antibacterial cell-penetrating peptide.

Abstract: The present technology relates generally cyclobutane boronates, including methods of preparation by exposing a mixture of a compound of Formula I in a solvent and a catalytic amount of a visible light sensitizer to provide a compound of Formula II, stereoisomers thereof, and/or salts of any of the foregoing. The cyclobutane boronate compounds are useful intermediates in the preparation of pharmaceutically active compounds as well as other other useful compounds.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are a magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) structure with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and a magnetic element including the same. The MTJ structure with PMA includes a substrate, a perpendicular magnetic anisotropic inducing layer configured to be disposed on the substrate and including an oxide-based material, a perpendicular antiferromagnetic layer configured to be disposed on the perpendicular magnetic anisotropic inducing layer and including an antiferromagnetic material, a first ferromagnetic layer configured to be disposed on the perpendicular antiferromagnetic layer and having PMA, a tunneling barrier layer configured to be disposed on the first ferromagnetic layer, and a second ferromagnetic layer configured to be disposed on the tunneling barrier layer and having PMA.

Abstract: A method for analysis of cardiac rhythms, based on calculations of entropy and moments of interbeat intervals. An optimal determination of segments of data is provided that demonstrate statistical homogeneity, specifically with regard to moments and entropy. The invention also involves calculating moments and entropy on each segment with the goal of diagnosis of cardiac rhythm. More specifically, an absolute entropy measurement is calculated and provided as a continuous variable, providing dynamical information of fundamental importance in diagnosis and analysis. Through the present invention, standard histograms, thresholds, and categories can be avoided.

Abstract: The present invention provides a memory device in which a lower electrode, a seed layer, synthetic exchange diamagnetic layers, a separation layer, a magnetic tunnel junction, a capping layer, and an upper electrode are formed on a substrate in a laminated manner, wherein a diffusion barrier is formed between the magnetic tunnel junction and the capping layer. In addition, the present invention provides a memory device in which a lower electrode, a seed layer, synthetic exchange diamagnetic layers, a separation layer, a magnetic tunnel junction, a capping layer, and an upper electrode are formed on a substrate in a laminated manner, wherein the seed layer is formed of a material that allows the synthetic exchange diamagnetic layers to grow in the FCC (111) direction.

Abstract: Compositions including a highly branched alpha-D-glucan or modified forms thereof and a solute compound are described herein. The compositions can provide increased water solubility and/or increased rate of dissolution for the solute compound. The compositions can also provide increased stability for the solute compound. Methods for preparing and using compositions including a solute compound and a highly branched alpha-D-glucan are also described.

Abstract: Provided are a novel organic semiconductor compound, a production method thereof, and an organic electronic device using the same, wherein the organic semiconductor compound includes a thiazolidine functional group introduced into a heteroaromatic ring to thereby remarkably improve photovoltaic characteristics of an organic electronic device including the same.

Abstract: There is provided a composition including a 3-bromo-4,5-dihydroxybenzaldehyde (BDB) for protecting human skin keratinocyte from ultraviolet, in which the BDB has a photo-protective effect against cell damage caused by ultraviolet in human HaCaT skin keratinocyte, activity of removing a free radical, and ultraviolet absorption activity, and inhibits formations of lipid peroxidation and protein carbonyl, inhibits DNA damage, protects a cell, and thereby exhibits cell protective activity. Thus, the BDB decreases apoptosis induced by ultraviolet, and then protect a cell to recover cell viability.

Abstract: A photonic conversion device is provided, comprising a photoactive layer, a dielectric layer, a porous conductor layer, and an electron transport layer in contact with the porous conductor layer. A light emitting device may be in contact with the electron transport layer, forming a conversion device with gain. A method of manufacturing a photonic conversion device may also be provided, comprising forming a photoactive layer, forming a dielectric layer over the photoactive layer, and depositing a conductor layer in contact with the dielectric layer, wherein one or more regions of the dielectric layer are masked during deposition such that the conductor layer includes a plurality of pores that extend through the conductor layer.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an X-ray imaging device for minimally invasive surgery, the device including: a rod having a clamp module disposed at a first end of the rod and including a first clamp body, a second clamp body, and a clamp support; an X-ray emission module; an X-ray sensing module; and a manipulation module, in which the rod is inserted into the human body, X-rays are emitted from the X-ray emission module with the first end of the first clamp body and the first end of the second clamp body open with a lesion positioned therebetween in the human body, and the X-rays travel through the lesion and is then sensed by the X-ray sensing module.

Abstract: Provided is a composition for preventing or treating oxidative brain injury and brain dysfunction including an extract of Astragali Radix and Salvia Miltiorrhizae Radix as an active ingredient, the composition having a highly outstanding preventive or therapeutic effect in animal models simulating brain-tissue damage and brain dysfunction induced by acute and long-term excessive stress generated in actual clinical practice, which is effectively usable as a therapeutic agent thereof.

Abstract: Electrode configurations for electric-field enhanced performance in catalysis and solid-state devices involving gases are provided. According to an embodiment, electric-field electrodes can be incorporated in devices such as gas sensors and fuel cells to shape an electric field provided with respect to sensing electrodes for the gas sensors and surfaces of the fuel cells. The shaped electric fields can alter surface dynamics, system thermodynamics, reaction kinetics, and adsorption/desorption processes. In one embodiment, ring-shaped electric-field electrodes can be provided around sensing electrodes of a planar gas sensor.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to extracts from chestnut plants and compositions comprising compounds contained therein. In certain embodiments, the extracts are derived from the leaves of a Castanea plant. In certain embodiments, the disclosure relates to methods of treating or preventing bacterial infections, acne, and other related uses.

Abstract: Clostridium difficile is the most common hospital acquired pathogen in the United States, and infection is in many cases fatal. Toxins A and B are its major virulence factors, but increasingly a third toxin may be present, known as C. difficile transferase (CDT). An ADP-ribosyltransferase that causes actin cytoskeletal disruption, CDT is typically produced by the major, hypervirulent strains and has been associated with more severe disease. It is disclosed herein that CDT enhances the virulence of two PCR-ribotype 027 strains in mice. The toxin induces pathogenic host inflammation via a novel Toll-like Receptor 2 (TLR2) dependent pathway, resulting in the suppression of a protective host eosinophilic response. Finally, it is disclosed that restoration of TLR2 deficient eosinophils is sufficient for protection from a strain producing CDT. These findings offer an explanation for the enhanced virulence of CDT-expressing C.

Abstract: The present invention relates to Acanthophysium sp. KMF001 strain having high cellulose activity, and more particularly, to a novel Acanthophysium sp. KMF001 strain having the ability to produce endo-?-1,4-glucanase, ?-glucosidase, and cellobiohydrolase and to a culture of the strain. The novel Acanthophysium sp. KMF001 strain according to the present invention can produce highly active cellulases, including endo-?-1,4-glucanase, ?-glucosidase, and cellobiohydrolase, and thus can be advantageously used not only for enzymatic saccharification of lignocellulosic biomass, but also in various industrial fields, including the pulp and paper making industry, the detergent industry, the agricultural product processing industry, the fiber industry, and the livestock industry, in which the degradation of cellulose is required.

Abstract: A chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) contains a human Fc?RI? extracellular domain or a mutant Fc?RI? extracellular domain that has a reduced binding affinity for human IgE compared to wild type human Fc?RI? extracellular domain. The CAR further contains an intracellular signaling domain comprising at least one immunoreceptor-based activation motif (ITAM). The CAR may further comprise a costimulatory signaling domain, such as an intracellular domain of at least one of the costimulatory molecules 4-1BB, CD27, CD28, CD134 or ICOS. T cells transduced with vectors encoding the CAR are used in CAR-based adoptive T-cell therapy for targeting IgE-expressing B cells and treating IgE-mediated allergic diseases.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a novel carbon dioxide fixation cycle synthesizing a carbohydrate product from carbon dioxide in vitro. In addition, the present invention relates to a unit or a composition carrying out carbon dioxide fixation in cyclic manner. Additionally, the present invention relates to a method to fix carbon dioxide or a method to produce glyoxylate from the carbon dioxide fixation cycle. The present carbon dioxide fixation cycle is not found in natural world, and we found that, when the novel carbon dioxide fixation cycle is used, only three ATP molecules are consumed to fix one carbon dioxide molecule, and thus novel carbon dioxide fixation cycle has an energy conversion efficiency approximately 2.5 times higher than that of the Calvin cycle.

Abstract: Systems, devices and methods that can be used to obtain objective pressure measurements in a body cavity using one or more monitoring bladders mounted on a catheter. The monitoring bladders may be adapted to connect or be connected to a system capable of providing objective pressure measurements indicative of the compressive forces acting on the one or more monitoring bladder in the body cavity. The body cavity may include, for example, the rectum, esophagus, stomach, intestine, colon, reproductive tract, urethra, oronasopharnygeal tract, etc.