Abstract: Described herein is the finding that increasing the frequency of Zscan4 activation in mouse ES cells not only enhances, but also maintains their developmental potency in long-term cell culture. As the potency increases, even a whole animal can be produced from a single ES cell injected into a 4N blastocyst at an unexpectedly high success rate. The studies disclosed herein indicate that ES cells acquire higher potency by going through the transient Zscan4 activation state more frequently than the regular state. Particularly disclosed herein is the finding that the constitutive presence of Zscan4-ERT2, even in the absence of its usual activator tamoxifen, can increase the frequency of endogenous Zscan4 activation in ES cells, resulting in the increase of developmental potency of the ES cells. Accordingly, provided herein are Zscan4-ERT2 fusion proteins and nucleic acid molecules and vectors encoding Zscan4-ERT2 fusion proteins.

Abstract: Provided herein are biodiesel fuel mixtures having improved properties for reducing NOx emissions as well as total particular matter emissions, CO emissions, and total hydrocarbon emissions.

Abstract: Techniques for implementing and/or operating a pipe deployment system that includes pipe deployment equipment, which facilitates deploying a pipe segment from a pipe coil, and a pipe drum, which includes a drum body around which the pipe coil is to be disposed. The pipe drum is to be disposed on the pipe deployment equipment and the drum body includes a drum core as well as a lower paddle assembly and an upper paddle assembly, which are slidably secured to the drum core. The pipe deployment system maintains the paddle assemblies in a retracted state to enable the drum body to be inserted into the pipe coil, extends the lower paddle assembly to a more extended state to facilitate raising the drum core, and retracts the lower paddle assembly to a less extended state and extends the upper paddle assembly to the less extended state to facilitate lifting the pipe coil.

Abstract: An apparatus is described that include a line buffer unit composed of a plurality of a line buffer interface units. Each line buffer interface unit is to handle one or more requests by a respective producer to store a respective line group in a memory and handle one or more requests by a respective consumer to fetch and provide the respective line group from memory. The line buffer unit has programmable storage space whose information establishes line group size so that different line group sizes for different image sizes are storable in memory.

Abstract: A collapsible pessary is provided, and can have a stem and at least one rotating petal member that can rotate between a collapsed state with a smaller diameter and a deployed state with a larger diameter. The collapsible pessary can have a plunger within the stem, and pushing the plunger upwards can cause the plunger to push upwards on a portion of the petal member, thereby causing the petal member to rotate into a deployed position. The pessary can be in a collapsed state wherein its overall diameter is at a minimum, or a deployed state, wherein its overall diameter is at a maximum.

Abstract: A combustion control system for an engine of a vehicle includes an ion sensing system configured to generate an ion current signal indicative of a measured current across electrodes of a spark plug associated with a cylinder of the engine and a controller configured to monitor for peaks in the ion current signal and, upon detecting at least a first peak and a second peak in the ion current signal, estimate a location of peak pressure (LPP) based on the detected second peak in the ion current signal, estimate an angle (CA50) of a crankshaft of the engine at which approximately 50% of the heat generated during combustion in the cylinder of the engine is released, and control combustion phasing of the engine based on the estimated CA50 angle.

Abstract: Spectacles that control myopia progression have a central zone that achieves foveal vision correction and distributed micro-reticle(s) and corresponding micro-lens(es) around the paracentral and/or peripheral zone of the spectacle. Each micro-lens is disposed between its corresponding micro-reticle and the pupil of a wearer's eye. The micro-reticle(s) and micro-len(s) are integrated with the structure of the spectacle to partially block some of the paracentral and/or peripheral objects from surrounding optical environment. The rest of the paracentral and/or peripheral retinal areas are still available for a wearer's eye to sense the presence and movement of surrounding objects.

Abstract: Progressive functionality command and object access for object and other content insertion and modification are provided. In a software application user interface, when a given command is selected, where the command is a parent command having one or more child commands, a subset of all available child commands under the selected parent command may be provided in the user interface in proximity to the selected parent command. If a user needs more or different commands than are presented in the subset, a contextual pane may be selectively presented in the user interface having a number of additional available commands for selection by the user. Once the contextual pane is displayed, it may stay displayed until it is manually or automatically dismissed.

Abstract: Various embodiments provide an apparatus for treating pectus excavatum. A pectus bar apparatus includes at least one elongated bar having an offset bend between a first end and a second end, at least one aperture near the first end and at least one aperture near the second end, a planar stabilizer extending orthogonally from the elongated bar, and a pair of opposing rib reveals located between the first end and the planar stabilizer. A pectus excavatum treatment kit and a method for utilizing that kit are also provided.

Abstract: A pressure relief valve configured to vent a pressurized tank in the event of a fire is provided. The pressure relief valve includes a body, a vent passage, a plug and a latch. The vent passage is disposed through the body. The vent passage can be placed in fluid communication with an internal volume of a tank and with the atmosphere. The plug is moveably mounted in the vent passage. The latch has a blocking member disposed in contact with a control end of the plug in a first configuration and out of contact with the control end in a second configuration. The second configuration allows movement of the plug in the vent passage. One or both of a shape memory alloy wire and a trigger piston is configured to actuate the latch from the first to the second configuration. The shape memory alloy wire is configured to shorten when exposed to a temperature above a threshold temperature. The trigger piston moves, e.g.

Abstract: The technology described herein enables users to enrich their vocabulary by annotating and/or automatically translating specific words, which are predicted to be unknown to the specific user. The user experiences the original content enriched with adaptive, smart in-line annotations of unknown words. The technology is tailored to individual users by understanding an individual user's vocabulary in a particular language. As a user consumes content or performs document authoring/editing activities, the system captures language usage patterns, maintained in a private Vocabulary Analytics Store (VAS) for the particular user. Information in the VAS is used as input to a machine classifier that determines whether a word is likely to be known or unknown to a user.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for managing electronic devices with autonomous wireless authentication. In one example, the security system includes one or more computer processors, a memory, and a communication channel configured to be coupled to an electronic system. The security system further includes a radio frequency (RF) transceiver configured to receive user-authentication information from a wireless device, and an authentication subsystem for authenticating a user. The authentication subsystem enables the use of the electronic system based on the received user-authentication information. Further, the authentication subsystem sends, over the communication channel, an enable command to the electronic system after the user is authenticated, and the electronic system is not operable until the enable command is received.

Abstract: Device assisted CDR creation, aggregation, mediation and billing is provided. In some embodiments, device assisted CDR creation, aggregation, mediation and billing for a wireless network includes collecting device generated service usage information for one or more devices in wireless communication on the wireless network; and providing the device generated service usage information in a syntax (e.g., a device assisted charging data record (CDR)) and a communication protocol (e.g., 3GPP, 3GPP2, or other communication protocols) that can be used by other network devices to augment or replace network generated service usage information for the one or more devices in wireless communication on the wireless network.

Abstract: Systems and methods for application identification in accordance with embodiments of the invention are disclosed. In one embodiment, a user device includes a processor and memory configured to store an application, a session manager, an application identifier, and at least one shared library, and the processor is configured by the session manager to communicate the application identifier and the application identifier data to an authentication server and permit the execution of the application in response to authentication of the application by the authentication server.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, of training a global policy neural network. One of the methods includes initializing an instance of the robotic task for multiple local workers, generating a trajectory of state-action pairs by selecting actions to be performed by the robotic agent while performing the instance of the robotic task, optimizing a local policy controller on the trajectory, generating an optimized trajectory using the optimized local controller, and storing the optimized trajectory in a replay memory associated with the local worker. The method includes sampling, for multiple global workers, an optimized trajectory from one of one or more replay memories associated with the global worker, and training the replica of the global policy neural network maintained by the global worker on the sampled optimized trajectory to determine delta values for the parameters of the global policy neural network.

Abstract: A tool (10) for assisting an optician in removing lenses (42) from or inserting lenses into eyeglass frames (44) includes an elongated block of substantially rigid material (12) having a forward working end (14) and a rearward free end (16) opposite the working end, the portion between the free end and the working end functioning as a handle to be grasped by a person's hand. A first recess (24) is formed in the bottom surface (22) of the block along with a first curved surface (26) and a first hook (28). The first curved surface includes a rearward facing pointed edge (27). Similarly, a second recess (36) is formed in the top surface (20) of the block along with a second curved surface (38) and a second hook (40). The hooks (28, 40) are adapted to rest against the edge (46) of the frame (44) as the pointed edge (27) or the second curved surface (38) presses the lens (42) out of or into the frame (44) as the free end (16) of the tool is rotated.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides for power conservation in truly wireless earbuds or other paired wireless devices, by switching a secondary device into a power save mode when the devices are not receiving traffic from the host. In this power-save mode the devices are put into a lower duty cycle than conventional configuration. The primary and secondary devices communicate over a backchannel communication link at a very low duty cycle, in some examples below lower bounds specified for standard communication with other devices. The primary earbud may be responsible for letting the secondary earbud know when to leave power-save mode and resume regular operation.

Abstract: Apparatuses, methods, and systems are disclosed for synchronization signal block reception and synchronization signal block transmission. One apparatus (200) for synchronization signal block reception includes a receiver (212) that receives (402) multiple synchronization signal blocks. The multiple synchronization signal blocks have different power levels corresponding to at least two synchronization signal blocks of the multiple synchronization signal blocks.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method and apparatus for document recommendation by obtaining a plurality of first data for a source recommendation task from activities related to a source user using a plurality of first documents; obtaining a plurality of second data for a target recommendation task from activities related to a target user using a plurality of second documents; performing the target recommendation task based on the plurality of first data, the plurality of second data, and knowledge transferred from the source recommendation task to obtain a target recommendation model; and conducting document recommendation to the target user using the target recommendation model.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention relate to an improved stimulation device. Embodiments of the improved stimulation device includes a cup and a driver. The cup has a cavity surrounded by a rim. The driver comprises a plate disposed on an underside of the cup, a cam disposed adjacent to the plate, and a motor mechanically coupled to the cam. The driver comprises a cam pin affixed to the cam, and a bearing rotatably disposed on the cam pin. The bearing is mechanically coupled to a lifter. The lifter is mechanically coupled to a linear bearing, enabling a smooth reciprocating back-and-forth motion from the rotation of the motor. A top of the cup swells and unswells during an operation cycle of the driver.