Abstract: The present invention describes a cardiac prosthetic system (400) comprising: an anchoring conduit (200) having a harbour (415), the harbour including a first releasably engaging component (515); a temporary valve (305) and a heart valve prosthesis (420) having a second releasably engaging component (445) enabled to be securely coupled and uncoupled from the first releasably engaging component (515) of the harbour (415).

Abstract: A device for sculpting a substrate includes a vertically displaceable probe having a nano-scale dimensioned probe tip. A displacement mechanism is configured to adjust a vertical displacement between the probe tip and the substrate. A heating mechanism selectively heats the probe tip to a preselected temperature that is sufficient to cause a portion of the substrate in contact with the probe tip to decompose.

Abstract: The present invention comprises systems and methods for detecting flame blowout precursors in combustors. The blowout precursor detection system comprises a combustor, a pressure measuring device, and blowout precursor detection unit. A combustion controller may also be used to control combustor parameters. The methods of the present invention comprise receiving pressure data measured by an acoustic pressure measuring device, performing one or a combination of spectral analysis, statistical analysis, and wavelet analysis on received pressure data, and determining the existence of a blowout precursor based on such analyses. The spectral analysis, statistical analysis, and wavelet analysis further comprise their respective sub-methods to determine the existence of blowout precursors.