Abstract: Different techniques are presented for achieving enhanced linearity of digital transmitters. In one aspect, each unit cell of a switched capacitor circuit includes a capacitor electrically coupled via a switch to one of a drive voltage or a reference voltage, and the switch is implemented by two transistors coupled in series. The two transistors are transitioned between on and off states by control signals applied to control terminals of the two transistors, such that the control signals are pulse waves with edges temporally shifted in relation to each other and thereby reducing switching resistance during switch transitions.

Abstract: A two-dimensional image of a vehicle occupant in a vehicle is collected. The collected two-dimensional image is input to a machine learning program trained to output one or more reference points of the vehicle occupant, each reference point being a landmark of the vehicle occupant. One or more reference points of the vehicle occupant in the two-dimensional image is output from the machine learning program. A location of the vehicle occupant in an interior of the vehicle is determined based on the one or more reference points. A vehicle component is actuated based on the determined location. For each of the one or more reference points, a similarity measure is determined between the reference point and a three-dimensional reference point, the similarity measure based on a distance between the reference point and the three-dimensional reference point.

Abstract: An engine system employs a pre-assembled and/or removable cartridge. In another aspect, an ignitor, a fuel injector and an air inlet valve are all accessible from a top of a cartridge even after assembly of the cartridge to an engine cylinder head. A further aspect positions centerlines of an ignitor, a fuel injector and an air inlet valve angularly offset from each other and also angularly offset from a vertical centerline of a cartridge to which they are mounted.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a self-healing omniphobic composition including a self-healing omniphobic polymer with a crosslinked backbone. The crosslinked backbone includes a reaction product between a polyisocyanate, a functionalized omniphobic polymer reactive therewith, a reversible polyfunctional linker including a hindered secondary amino group and/or an aromatic hydroxy group, and one or more polymeric backbone components. The crosslinked backbone includes reversible urea or reversible urethane bonds between the reversible polyfunctional linker and the polyisocyanate, which in turn provide self-healing properties to the omni-phobic composition. The self-healing omniphobic composition has favorable omniphobic properties, for example as characterized by water and/or oil contact and/or sliding angles. The omniphobic composition can be used as a coating on any of a variety of substrates to provide self-healing omniphobic properties to a surface of the substrate.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a reactive distillation method for beverage spirit production, the method comprising. An initial reaction mixture includes water, ethanol, and a carboxylic acid, for example having 3 or more carbon atoms. The reaction mixture is reactively distilled in the presence of an esterification catalyst to react a portion of the ethanol and the carboxylic acid to form an ethyl carboxylate reaction product, and form a distillation product or distillate including water, ethanol, and the ethyl carboxylate. The esterification catalyst is not present in the distillation product, for example when using a solid acid esterification catalyst in the reaction mixture. In a refinement, ethanol and the carboxylic acid can be co-fermented in an initial grain mixture, which is subsequently reactively distilled according to the disclosed method.

Abstract: A system for determining a characteristic of a laser includes a collection housing receiving a laser beam comprising a first pulse, a second pulse and a time period between the first pulse and the second pulse. A photon counting detector receives photons from the laser beam disposed to generate photon signals from the laser beam and generating a start signal. A fast diode generates a stop signal to provide a time reference of counted photons ns. A controller is coupled to the photon counting detector and the fast diode. The controller counts photons from the photon counting detector occurring during the time period between the first and second pulse and generates a first output signal corresponding to a power during the time period between the first pulse and the second pulse.

Abstract: A multiband sensing system includes an active multiband sensing unit configured to transmit a radio frequency (RF) signal in multiple bands and communicate with a network. The active multiband sensing unit includes at least one transmitting antenna configured to transmit the RF signal. The multiband sensing system includes a passive multiband sensing unit including at least one receiving antenna configured to receive the RF signal, an acoustic actuator powered by the received RF signal including an actuating sensor element configured to actuate in response to receiving extracted modulated information of the RF signal, and an acoustic detector. The acoustic detector includes a detector transmitting antenna configured to backscatter a new frequency band signal to the active multiband sensing unit and a detector sensor element configured to sense data. The sensed data is modulated over the received RF signal to produce the new frequency band signal.

Abstract: A computer-implemented method for generating a representation for a fingerprint includes receiving, by a computer processor, an image of a given fingerprint. The method extracts particular attributes for the given fingerprint from the image using a first neural network. The first neural network is trained to identify particular attributes in fingerprints and constructs a first feature vector from the extracted particular attributes, where the first feature vector has a first fixed length. The method includes extracting textural features of the given fingerprint from the image using a second neural network, where the second neural network is trained to identify textural features that are not limited to particular attributes and constructing a second feature vector from the extracted textural features, where the second feature vector has a second fixed length. The method includes concatenating the first feature vector with the second feature vector to form a representation for the given fingerprint.

Abstract: A microscale gas breakdown device includes a first surface and a second surface. The first surface and the second surface define a gap distance. The device includes a perturbation on the first surface or the second surface. The perturbation is defined by a height value and a radius value. The device includes a current source or a voltage source configured to apply a current or a voltage across the first surface and the second surface. In response to the current or the voltage being applied, a resulting discharge travels along a first discharge path in response to being exposed to a high pressure and a second discharge path in response to being exposed to a low pressure.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to sintering compositions that can be used in three-dimensional printing or additive manufacturing processes. The sintering compositions generally include one or more metallic iron-containing powders and a minor amount of a boron-containing powder as a sintering aid. Sintered models or products formed from the sintering compositions have substantially improved density and surface roughness values relative to models formed without the boron-containing powder.

Abstract: The disclosure is directed to compounds of the formula (I): and uses of such compounds to treat neurodegenerative diseases and cancers.

Abstract: Provided herein are methods and compositions for determining the susceptibility of Parkinson's disease patients to optimized drug therapy (ODT) and or deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to chemical compounds that modulate proteasome activity, pharmaceutical compositions containing such compounds, and use of these compounds and compositions for the treatment of disorders of uncontrolled cellular proliferation such as, for example, a cancer. This abstract is intended as a scanning tool for purposes of searching in the particular art and is not intended to be limiting of the present invention.

Abstract: Described herein are constructs, compositions and methods for precise in vivo imaging of the structures and dynamics of protein-based scaffolds with and without their designated cargos.

Abstract: A harmonic radar apparatus includes a transmitter configured to transmit a plurality of fundamental frequencies towards a scene. A further aspect of the harmonic radar apparatus includes a receiver configured to receive a reflected signal from the scene, the reflected signal being modulated based on the scene, and a re-radiated signal from a tag, the re-radiated signal being at a harmonic frequency of at least one of the plurality of fundamental frequencies transmitted by the transmitter.

Abstract: A sensor apparatus is provided. Multiple opposite and self-powered sensors are provided in another aspect of the present apparatus. A further aspect employs a sensor apparatus including a first pair of flexible piezoelectric sensors attached to opposite sides of an exterior surface of a workpiece and at least a second pair of flexible piezoelectric sensors attached to opposite sides of the exterior surface of the workpiece. Another aspect of the present apparatus uses pairs of thin film piezoelectric sensors which are configured to detect bending curvature of a workpiece in at least two dimensions by sending voltage output signals from both of the sensors of a first pair and/or both of the sensors of at least a second pair to a controller and/or electrical circuit.

Abstract: A method for treating or inhibiting the progression of placental insufficiency syndrome in a subject in need thereof is provided. The method includes administering to the subject a therapeutically effective amount of a composition including irisin.

Abstract: Gait, the walking pattern of individuals, is one of the important biometrics modalities. Most of the existing gait recognition methods take silhouettes or articulated body models as gait features. These methods suffer from degraded recognition performance when handling confounding variables, such as clothing, carrying and viewing angle. To remedy this issue, this disclosure proposes to explicitly disentangle appearance, canonical and pose features from RGB imagery. A long short-term memory integrates pose features over time as a dynamic gait feature while canonical features are averaged as a static gait feature. Both of them are utilized as classification features.

Abstract: The invention relates to nucleic acids encoding a p-coumaroyl-CoA:monolignol transferase and to inhibitory nucleic acids adapted to inhibit the expression and/or translation of a p-coumaroyl-CoA:monolignol transferase RNA. Inhibition of p-coumaroyl-CoA:monolignol transferase in plants improves the incorporation of monolignol ferulates into the lignin of plants, giving rise to plant biomass that is more easily processed into useful products such as paper and biofuels.

Abstract: A soft gripper apparatus is provided. In another aspect, a soft gripper includes tribo-skin pressure sensors, an internal bending sensor, at least one flexible gripping finger and an actuator. A further aspect of a soft gripper apparatus employs longitudinally elongated, laterally spaced apart and self-powering, electrically conductive strips that sense and send a bending signal to a programmable controller indicative of a bending angle of a gripping finger within which the strips are encapsulated. Another aspect of a gripping apparatus includes at least one workpiece pressure sensor and/or at least one bending sensor, which are connected to a programmable controller and electrical circuit to automatically determine a characteristic of the workpiece.