Abstract: The present invention concerns a novel retinoic acid regulated gene whose expression product displays useful morphogenic/mitogenic properties. The present invention further concerns an isolated nucleic acid of SEQ ID NO:1 encoding a retinoic acid regulated expression product having an amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2.

Abstract: A liquid crystal optical device that includes a first substrate layer that is substantially flat and a second substrate layer that is substantially flat and parallel to the first substrate layer. The liquid crystal optical device further includes a layer of cholesteric liquid crystal disposed between the first substrate layer and the second substrate layer, where the layer of cholesteric liquid crystal is arranged in domains, each domain having a helical axis, wherein the helical axes of the domains have a plurality of orientations relative to an orientation of the first and second substrate layers, and where a wavefront of a light wave having a wavelength within a range of wavelengths changes after reflecting from the layer of cholesteric liquid crystal.

Abstract: An organic light-emitting diode display which can display independent images on both sides is described. This display can be driven with passive matrix or active matrix schemes. The invention combines a unique stacked organic diode structure and special driving schemes involving time-sequential reversed fields.

Abstract: The present invention relates to devices for detecting the presence or absence of a target molecule or substance, compounds which may be employed in such devices and methods of using such compounds. In some embodiments, the compounds are conjugated polyenes.

Abstract: A method of producing spatially varying pretilt angles across a liquid crystal cell coats a substrate with a polyimide alignment layer and a layer of photoalignment material on top of the polyimide layer. An applied beam with variable light dosage spatial or temporal profiles is then used to achieve a corresponding pretilt angle distribution.

Abstract: Compounds originally isolated from marine fungi are useful as antifouling (antibacterial and/or anti-larval settlement) agents. The compounds are 3-chloro-2,5-dihydroxy benzyl alcohol, cyclo-(Pro-Phe),3-methyl-N-(2-phenylethyl) butanamide, and succinic acid. The compounds are non-toxic or low-toxic. They can be used alone or in combination, as active ingredients for making environment-friendly antifouling formulations/coatings.

Abstract: The described method and system provide an efficient routing of data packets protocol in an event-driven and delay-constrained WSN (wireless sensor network) that optimizes the sleep/wake schedule of nodes to maximize the lifetime of the WSM, subject to a constraint on the source-to-sink delay. Online forwarding techniques may be used to transfer data reports from monitoring nodes to the sink. A delay-constrained and energy-efficient routing protocol (DCEER) for asynchronous WSNs may be used to maximize the lifetime of the WSN while remaining within the maximum allowable delay requirements. With DCEER, each node may maintain the historical cost of forwarding a packet from itself to the sink as its virtual coordinate, and packets are forwarded in the direction of descending coordinates. The cost-based coordinates may change dynamically with a time-varying channel or topology.

Abstract: We propose methods for generating a halftone image, in which each pixel takes one of two tone values. The generated image contains hidden data, which is present at data storage pixels chosen using a pseudo-random number generator. In a first case, the data is hidden within an existing halftone image by reversing the tone value at certain of the data storage pixels, and at pixels neighbouring the data storage pixels. In a second case, the halftone image is generated from a grey-scale image, and data is hidden during this conversion process.

Abstract: A catalytic material which includes a metal oxide catalyst anchored to a nano-sized metal oxide crystal as support and functions well at low temperatures. The catalytic material may optionally include another metal oxide as a promoter deposited on the surface of the support to modify the properties of the metal oxide catalyst and/or the properties of the support. The catalyst may be vanadium oxide, tungsten oxide, manganese oxide, chromium oxide or molybdenum oxide; the support may be TiO2, SiO2, Al2O3, ZrO2, or WO3; and the promoter may be vanadium oxide, tungsten oxide, manganese oxide, chromium oxide or molybdenum oxide. The present invention also provides a method of producing the catalytic materials, which is useful in removing ammonia and other nitrogen containing contaminants.

Abstract: An electroconductive bonding material is formed as a Modified Electrically Conductive Adhesive (MECA), and consists of a resin matrix and a modified conductive filler. The resin matrix if formed by providing a thermosetting or thermoplastic resin-based polymer resin. The conductive filler is a metal filler material suitable for use as conductive filler for the resin matrix. The metal filler is modified by applying a material selected from one of halogens, pseudohalogens or their precursors.

Abstract: A TiO2—SiO2 aerogel and TiO2—SiO2 aerogel monolith with a regular and predeterminable shape and an ordered mesoporosity and a method of making the aerogel and aerogel monolith, using surfactants in preparing the SiO2 sol before mixing with TiO2 sol. The aerogel obtained by this method has a specific surface area greater than 400 m2/g and a pore volume larger than 0.5 cc/g.

Abstract: A thin-film transistor includes a source and a drain that have each been replaced with a metal by a heat-treatment at a temperature within the range of 250° C. and 500° C.

Abstract: A frequency compensation method for voltage-mode switching regulators is disclosed. A lowpass filter and a bandpass filter are employed in the two signal paths into the dual inputs of PWM comparators. In one embodiment, two zeros are generated to compensate for the L-C output filter poles. Stable operation, low output voltage ripple and fast load transient response are achieved; while the power consumption of error amplifier and the area for implementing on-chip passive components are greatly reduced.

Abstract: Described herein are finger registration systems and methods for use with a multi-touch device that can facilitate in place execution of commands or operations, thereby reducing focus switching and minimizing hand movement. The finger registration methods are simple and robust, using only contact points on the touch-based device, without requiring additional hardware. Direct mapping of operations to gestures involving individual fingers or combination of fingers (e.g., finger chords), provides a new and rich set of direct manipulation without focus switching for selecting commands/operations.

Abstract: A transmission protocol is provided for wireless communications in an OFDMA system that uses a rateless code and techniques are provided for dynamically adjusting the subcarrier resources allocated to an OFDMA relay node so that the relay is used at the right time according to the instantaneous channel state information (CSI). As a result, a higher throughput is achieved between source and destination nodes based on a low complexity algorithm for determining when relay assistance is helpful for completing a transmission between the source and destination nodes.

Abstract: Described herein are various embodiments of a coding technique that utilize a stream cipher for switching between first and second coding conventions for encoding a symbol sequence. The first coding convention specifies a first mapping between a symbol and a first codeword and the second coding convention specified a second mapping between the symbol and a second codeword. According to the invention, a key generated by the stream cipher is used to selected one of the first and second coding convention and the mapping of the selected coding convention is then utilized for encoding the symbol.

Abstract: A novel chemical genus of furan-2-one antifouling compound as non-toxic, environment friendly antifouling agent, a coating material for objects submerged under the water based on the furan-2-one compounds. The substituted furan-2-one antifouling compounds have a furan-2-one ring and an alkyl side chain thereto and are of the formula: where n=6-14, representing the number of carbon atoms in said side chain.

Abstract: We propose methods for generating a halftone image, in which each pixel takes one of two tone values. The generated image contains hidden data, which is present at data storage pixels chosen using a pseudo-random number generator. In a first case, the data is hidden within an existing halftone image by reversing the tone value at certain of the data storage pixels, and at pixels neighbouring the data storage pixels. In a second case, the halftone image is generated from a grey-scale image, and data is hidden during this conversion process.

Abstract: The present invention provides a patterned polarization converter having multiple domains that can be used to convert input linear polarized light to output light with spatially varying polarization states, including domains that produce linearly polarized light and domains that produce circular polarized light based on the patterning of the domains. A patterned polarization converter having multiple domains may be used in a polarization sensor application capable of detecting the polarization state of input light. The present invention further provides patterned radial and azimuthal polarization converters, which have utility in applications such as optical tweezers. Additionally, patterned polarization converters may be used to fabricate more patterned polarization converters having the same pattern using one-step photoalignment to copy the pattern of an existing patterned polarization converter to an unpatterned photoalignment layer.

Abstract: A wireless communication system and constituent wireless communication devices are provided to implement a distributed, cognitive radio approach to spectrum sharing. Under the distributed approach, individual wireless communication devices self-enforce negotiated agreements on usage of an available spectrum without intervention from a centralized authority. Particularly, individual wireless communication devices are configured to enhance information rates of their respective transmissions under predetermined constraints. The predetermined constraints can include transmit power constraints (e.g., a maximum power available to the wireless communication devices), or interference constraints (e.g., constraints on the amount, direction, and/or quality of interference generated by transmissions).