Abstract: In an aspect, provided herein are methods for producing sulfuric acid and hydrogen gas, the methods comprising steps of: providing sulfur dioxide formed by thermal conversion of a sulfur-containing species; electrochemically oxidizing said sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid in the presence of water; and electrochemically forming hydrogen gas via a reduction reaction. In some embodiments, the methods comprise a step of thermally converting said sulfur-containing species to said sulfur dioxide. Systems configured to perform these methods are also disclosed herein. Also provided herein are methods and systems for producing sulfuric acid and hydrogen gas by electrochemically forming the sulfuric acid and the hydrogen gas in a mixture comprising a sulfur material, a supporting acid, and water. Also provided herein are methods and systems for producing a cement material.

Abstract: An energy-efficient disinfection or sterilisation of contaminated liquid, such as water contaminated with viruses or microbes includes an asymmetric configuration of a cavitation nozzle made from dielectric material that enables the formation of a single, stable cavitation bubble of a large volume. A low-pressure gaseous plasma is continuously formed inside the cavitation bubble by electrodes to prevent contact of the metallic electrode with liquid water and Ohmic heating of the contaminated water. The electrodes are connected to a high voltage power supply. The power supply enables formation of a continuous stable gaseous discharge inside the cavitation bubble and radicals and radiation useful for destruction of viruses to the levels below the current US EPA standard in few minutes, while the temperature of liquid water remains practically unchanged. Use is not only for hospitals and pharmaceutical companies but the food industry and agriculture as well.

Abstract: A directly connected drill pipe applicable to extreme conditions includes a tool joint pin and a tool joint box, where an external pipe section is located on an external side of a threaded section of the tool joint pin, and an annular groove is formed between the external pipe section and the threaded section of the tool joint pin. An insertion section of the tool joint box can be inserted into the annular groove in a matched manner. A main shoulder of the tool joint pin is located at an end of the external pipe section, a main auxiliary shoulder of the tool joint pin is located on a bottom surface of the annular groove, and an auxiliary shoulder of the tool joint pin is located at a small end of the tool joint pin. The tool joint box has three corresponding shoulders which form a 3-stage sealing with the tool joint pin.

Abstract: A method for using an artificial neural network associated with an agent to estimate depth, includes receiving, at the artificial neural network, an input image captured via a sensor associated with the agent. The method also includes upsampling, at each decoding layer of a plurality of decoding layers of the artificial neural network, decoded features associated with the input image to a resolution associated with a final output of the artificial neural network. The method further includes concatenating, at each decoding layer, the upsampled decoded features with features obtained at a convolution layer associated with a respective decoding layer. The method still further includes estimating, at a recurrent module of the artificial neural network, a depth of the input image based on receiving the concatenated upsampled decoded features from each decoding layer. The method also includes controlling an action of an agent based on the depth estimate.

Abstract: A method of manufacturing copolymer includes mixing and reacting a polyester, an aliphatic polyol or an aliphatic polyol oligomer, and a first catalyst in a first region of a screw to form a polyester polyol, and side-feeding a lactone or a lactam to a second region of the screw to copolymerize the lactone or a lactam and the polyester polyol to form a copolymer, wherein the first region and the second region are continuous connecting regions.

Abstract: A robotic gripper may be configured to dexterously manipulate an article. The robotic gripper may include two or more fingers containing one or more rotatable contacts each. The rotatable contact may transition between a rotation mode and a braking mode such that the contacts are free to rotate in the rotation mode and are prevented from being rotated in the braking mode. In some instances, the robotic gripper may make contact with the article via the contact pads. Thus, the robotic gripper may dexterously manipulate the article via the contact pads and brake.

Abstract: An approach to place recognition from an image makes use of the detection of objects at a set of known places as well as at an unknown place. Images of the detected objects in an image of the unknown place are processed to yield respective numerical descriptors, and these descriptors are used to compare the unknown place to the known places to recognize the unknown place. At least some embodiments make use of a trained parameterized image processor to transform an image of an object to an object descriptor, and the training of the processor is meant to preserve distinctions between different instances of a type of object, as well as distinctions between entirely different types of objects.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a multi-phase liquid composition including: a first aqueous phase; a second aqueous phase; a lipid bilayer; and an organic phase, a device for measuring the permeability of drugs including the multi-phase liquid composition, and a method for measuring the permeability of drugs.

Abstract: The present invention provides a Diels-Alderase and use thereof, and belongs to the field of gene engineering technology. The Diels-Alderase is MaDA, and its amino acid sequence and gene sequence are represented by SEQ ID Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. The present invention also provides MaDA-1 and MaDA-2, both of which are homologous proteins of MaDA, and their amino acid sequences are represented by SEQ ID Nos. 10 and 12, respectively. The present invention has discovered that MaDA and its homologous proteins from Morus alba can stereospecifically synthesize natural products of endo configuration, and prepare D-A type natural products and their analogs in vitro using chalcones and dehydroprenyl-containing compounds as substrates, which helps to develop and utilize the medicinal value of such natural products, and also provides a possibility to synthesize other six-membered ring-containing important chemical precursors or natural products.

Abstract: An image adaptive feature extraction method includes dividing an image into a plurality of blocks, performing a feature extraction processing on the plurality of blocks, and obtaining a block feature from each of the plurality of blocks after the feature extraction processing; calculating each block feature by means of a support vector machine (SVM) classifier, wherein each block feature is calculated to obtain a hyperplane normal vector; setting a threshold value, determining the block feature according to the hyperplane normal vector, recording the block as an adaptive feature block when a value of the hyperplane normal vector is higher than the threshold value, and integrating each adaptive feature block to form an adaptive feature image. Because an image adaptive feature extraction process is performed before a pedestrian image detection is calculated, and effective feature data is then selected, computational efficiency is boosted and detection pedestrian error probability is reduced.

Abstract: A technology enabling a terminal to receive acknowledgement (ACK)/negative ACK (NACK) information about data transmitted from the terminal is provided. The method includes receiving cyclic shift information for a reference signal from the base station; transmitting, to the base station, the data and a reference signal which is cyclic-shifted using a cyclic shift value, the cyclic shift value being determined based on a dynamic cyclic shift value mapped one-to-one to the cyclic shift information for the reference signal; and receiving, from the base station, the ACK/NACK information about the transmitted data through a radio resource of a downlink channel, the radio resource of the downlink channel being identified based on a modifier mapped one-to-one to the cyclic shift information for the reference signal.

Abstract: Information indicating a shape of a screen, a shape of a viewing area and a relative positional relationship between the viewing area and the screen is acquired. A shared area in which a three-dimensional image presented by a three-dimensional display is to be arranged in order to be observed from any position in the viewing area is created based on the acquired information. Based on the acquired information, a specific area in which a three-dimensional image presented by the three-dimensional display is to be arranged in order to be observed from a specific position in the viewing area is created. The data indicating the created shared area and the data indicating the specific area are generated.

Abstract: The present invention provides a means to modulate gene expression in vivo in a manner that avoids problems associated with CRISPR endogenous protein knock-out or knock-in strategies and strategies that provide for correction, or alteration, of single nucleotides. The invention includes inserting into the genome a nucleotide encoding a heterobifunctional compound targeting protein (dTAG) in-frame with the nucleotide sequence of a gene encoding an endogenously expressed protein of interest which, upon expression, produces an endogenous protein-dTAG hybrid protein. This allows for targeted protein degradation of the dTAG and the fused endogenous protein using a heterobifunctional compound.

Abstract: Disclosed are a method, an apparatus, and a system for performing channel access. In detail, provided are a method including: receiving uplink scheduling information; and when the user equipment has stopped an uplink transmission during the uplink transmission being performed according to the uplink scheduling information, to resume the uplink transmission, performing a second type channel access when a channel sensed by the user equipment is continuously idle after the uplink transmission has been stopped, and performing a first type channel access when the channel sensed by the user equipment is not continuously idle after the uplink transmission has been stopped, wherein the first type channel access comprises performing a random backoff after a channel sensing, and the second type channel access only comprises performing a channel sensing and an apparatus and a system therefor.

Abstract: A method for cryptographic key provisioning includes, via a main authentication server (MAS), generating a first secret key and registering a client by performing a first portion of a first instance of a distributed threshold oblivious pseudo-random function. The first instance of the function results in the client obtaining a root secret key and the MAS obtaining a corresponding root public key. The method includes authenticating the client to the MAS by performing a first portion of a second instance of the distributed threshold oblivious pseudo-random function. The second instance of the function results in the client obtaining the root secret key. Information stored by the client, the first secret key, and a second secret key generated by a support authentication server are inputs to at least one of the first and second instances of the distributed threshold oblivious pseudo-random function.

Abstract: A metal-ion battery is provided. The metal-ion secondary battery includes a first chamber, a second chamber, and a control element. A positive electrode, a negative electrode, a separator disposed between the positive electrode and the negative electrode, and a first electrolyte are disposed within the first chamber. A second electrolyte is disposed within the second chamber, and wherein components and/or concentration of the first electrolyte are different from those of the second electrolyte. The control element determines whether to introduce the second electrolyte disposed within the second chamber into the first chamber via a first pipeline.

Abstract: The present invention relates to methods for identifying, assessing, preventing, and treating metabolic disorders and modulating metabolic processes using Slit2.

Abstract: An apparatus for individually trapping atoms, individually imaging the atoms, and individually cooling the atoms to prevent loss of the atoms from the trap caused by the imaging. The apparatus can be implemented in various quantum computing, sensing, and metrology applications (e.g., in an atomic clock).

Abstract: Systems and methods of a vehicle for visually displaying a current state of a vehicle in regards to operational constraints of the vehicle are disclosed. Exemplary implementations may: generate output signals conveying operational information regarding the vehicle; visually present information; determine, based on the output signals, the operational information; determine, based on the operational information, a current vehicle state of the vehicle; determine, based on the operational information, predicted boundaries of the current vehicle state; determine a metric value of a metric representing a difference between the current vehicle state and the predicted boundaries of the current vehicle state; and effectuate display of the metric upon the visual display unit.

Abstract: A lens antenna apparatus includes a plurality of antenna units and a lens structure configured to change a phase of an electromagnetic wave, emitted by at least one antenna unit among the plurality of antenna units. The lens structure changes the phase such that the overall outputs from the plurality of antenna units have different radiation patterns.