Abstract: The present disclosure provides, among other things, compositions and methods useful for inhibiting biofilm-forming bacteria. For example, the compositions and methods described herein can be used to inhibit the proliferation, viability, and/or biofilm-forming activity, of biofilm-forming bacteria.

Abstract: Gait, the walking pattern of individuals, is one of the most important biometrics modalities. Most of the existing gait recognition methods take silhouettes or articulated body models as the gait features. These methods suffer from degraded recognition performance when handling confounding variables, such as clothing, carrying and view angle. To remedy this issue, a novel AutoEncoder framework is presented to explicitly disentangle pose and appearance features from RGB imagery and a long short-term memory integration of pose features over time produces the gait feature.

Abstract: A vector distribution method for operation of a power amplifier of a wireless transmitter including receiving, by a first amplifier circuit, a first input vector and a second input vector. The first input vector includes data derived from an input signal of the wireless transmitter and the second input vector includes other data derived from the input signal of the wireless transmitter. The method includes, in response to receiving the input signal, instructing the first amplifier circuit to output an output signal at a high voltage.

Abstract: An energy absorbing apparatus includes particles with nanopores in a liquid. A further aspect employs a reusable energy absorbing apparatus including gas-liquid interactions in nanopores. Another aspect of the present apparatus uses oversolubility of gas in a solution to enhance bubble nucleation in hydrophobic nanopores or nanochannels, which suppresses gas outflow while promoting liquid outflow from particles. Still another aspect includes anions within an aqueous electrolytic solution, containing nanoporous material therein.

Abstract: A quantum dot microscope apparatus is provided. A further aspect employs a tilted or tapered end or tip on a microscopic probe. Another aspect of the present apparatus employs a probe including a quantum dot with only one tunneling lead connected to a power source. A manufacturing aspect includes creating a tapered or asymmetrically shaped specimen-facing end of a probe where a quantum dot is located on the end. A further manufacturing aspect includes using focused ion-beam milling to create a tip or end of a quantum dot microscope probe.

Abstract: A voltage conversion system including a source configured to supply a voltage and a switch capacitor circuit electrically coupled to the source. The switch capacitor circuit is configured to switch between a discharging state and a charging state. The switching between the discharging state and the charging state produces a boost to the supplied voltage. The voltage conversion system includes a capacitor in the switch capacitor circuit configured to store charge during the charging state and drain charge during the discharging state. The voltage conversion system includes a switching arrangement having a plurality of switch pairs configured to supply a converted voltage to a load. The switch capacitor circuit and the switching arrangement are interfaced to produce a unified circuit.

Abstract: A passive incoherent millimeter-wave imaging system includes a receiver array including a plurality of receive modules configured to receive a scene signal reflected from a scene. The scene signal is reflected in response to a plurality of incoherent communication signals being reflected off the scene, and the plurality of incoherent communication signals are spatially and temporally incoherent at a point when reaching the scene.

Abstract: Printable and stretchable thin-film devices and fabrication techniques are provided for forming fully-printed, intrinsically stretchable thin-film transistors and integrated logic circuits using stretchable elastomer substrates such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), semiconducting carbon nanotube network as channel, unsorted carbon nanotube network as source/drain/gate electrodes, and BaTiO3/PDMS composite as gate dielectric. Printable stretchable dielectric layer ink may be formed by mixing barium titanate nanoparticle (BaTiO3) with PDMS using 4-methyl-2-pentanone as solvent.

Abstract: Various disclosed embodiments pertain to a distributed audit trail system for use in a connected system including: a master unit to control a first aspect of the connected system and to create a blockchain light client and a distributed hash table (DHT); a first node to control a second aspect of the connected system; a second node to control a third aspect of the connected system; and one or more remote servers to form a blockchain full node, where the master unit, the first node, and the second node electronically communicate with each other through the DHT in order to form a combined audit trail, where the master unit creates a meta-hash of the software version of the software in the master unit, the first node, and the second node, system identification data, system sensor data, and system hardware configuration.

Abstract: A living object detection system may detect the interaction between an observer and a target object. The system may include an object sensor device, an object classification data unit, and an object detection module. The object sensor device may be attachable to the observer and include an ultrasonic sensor for sensing distance and a passive infrared sensor for sensing temperature. The object classification data unit may store predetermined object classifiers that identifies an object as a living object or non-living object. The object detection module may determine the target object as a living object or a non-living object based on the object classifiers stored in the object classification data unit and on a physical feature set of the target object, where the physical feature set may include distance and temperature parameters.

Abstract: Described herein are transgenic plants with increased oil content that exhibit enhanced expression of plastid-specific lipases (e.g., PLIP1). The manufacture of lipids can be enhanced by expression of FAD4.

Abstract: The present inventions relate to compositions and methods for providing stress tolerant transgenic plants comprising a RING domain zinc-finger motif transcription factor protein. More particularly, the invention relates to compositions and methods comprising a RING-H2 domain transcription factor protein for providing drought and salt tolerant plants, in particular comprising a recombinant XERICO gene and protein.

Abstract: A reflector apparatus is provided. A further aspect employs at least one antenna or radar operably emitting signals, and a moving object-mounted reflector which operably reflects at least some of the signals back to the at least one antenna or radar, the reflector including trihedral walls with metallic reflective surfaces. In another aspect, a programmable controller in an automotive vehicle determines a moving object-characteristic based on at least reflected signals received by a horn antenna using a Doppler or micro-Doppler effect. Still another aspect includes a trihedral reflector which moves with a movable object including handlebars, a straddled user seat and being one of: a bicycle, a motorcycle, or an all-terrain vehicle. A further aspect includes multiple spaced apart trihedral reflectors attached to a user-wearable, flexible and nonconductive substrate.

Abstract: The disclosure generally relates to a method of creating patterned metallic circuits (e.g., silver circuits) on a substrate (e.g., a ceramic substrate). A porous metal interlayer (e.g., porous nickel) is applied to the substrate to improve wetting and adhesion of the patterned metal circuit material to the substrate. The substrate is heated to a temperature sufficient to melt the patterned metal circuit material but not the porous metal interlayer. Spreading of molten metal circuit material on the substrate is controlled by the porous metal interlayer, which can itself be patterned, such as having a defined circuit pattern. Thick-film silver or other metal circuits can be custom designed in complicated shapes for high temperature/high power applications. The materials designated for the circuit design allows for a low-cost method of generating silver circuits other metal circuits on a ceramic substrate.

Abstract: The invention provides methods for treating or preventing developmental disorders associated with mutations in the OCD1 gene.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to materials and articles that provide an irreversible history of compression forces and torques experienced by the materials and articles. The disclosure relates more particularly to an multiple impact level detection assembly as well as related articles and methods. The multiple impact level detection assembly provides distinct impact patterns depending on the impact force and direction (for torqueing motions) received by the detection assembly. The detection assembly can be incorporated into a variety of articles and used in a variety of settings, for example to monitor personal safety in a protective garment such as a helmet. The detection assembly incorporates an impact detection medium (e.g., a plurality of microcapsules with an indicator therein), which can serve as an irreversible means for detecting impact on the assembly via a relief substrate incorporated into the assembly.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to a method for depolymerizing lignin. The method includes reacting a lignin compound with a thiol compound to depolymerize the lignin compound and to form a depolymerized lignin product having a reduced molecular weight relative to the lignin compound prior to reacting. The method can further include forming an oxidized thiol reaction product between two thiol groups from one or more thiol compounds, and then reducing the oxidized thiol reaction product to re-form or regenerate the thiol compound for further lignin depolymerization.

Abstract: A flexible sensor is provided. A further aspect employs a sensor apparatus including pressure or force sensing layers or sheets in addition to location sensing layers or sheets. In another aspect, an electrical sensing circuit and flexible films are used to sense pressure and/or location of a contacting object. In another aspect, a compressible polymer includes conductive particles therein such that the compressible polymer changes electrical resistance when compressed to indicate a force or location. Still another aspect has stacked sandwiches of pressure and/or location sensing films, layers or sheets.

Abstract: A sign language translation system may capture infrared images of the formation of a sign language sign or sequence of signs. The captured infrared images may be used to produce skeletal joints data that includes a temporal sequence of 3D coordinates of skeletal joints of hands and forearms that produced the sign language sign(s). A hierarchical bidirectional recurrent neural network may be used to translate the skeletal joints data into a word or sentence of a spoken language. End-to-end sentence translation may be performed using a probabilistic connectionist temporal classification based approach that may not require pre-segmentation of the sequence of signs or post-processing of the translated sentence.

Abstract: Material mixing for an additive manufacturing apparatus is provided. A further aspect employs multiple material inlets for simultaneously feeding a polymer and/or nanocomposite material in at least a first inlet, and ceramic or other particles in at least a second inlet, to a single additive manufacturing outlet nozzle. In another aspect, a three dimensional printing machine varies a chemical or compounding characteristic, such as a loading percentage, of printing material during printing. In another aspect, in situ mixing of a polymer and/or nanocomposite with variable amounts of ceramic, magnetic or other particles therein in an additive manufacturing apparatus, such as a multi-material aerosol jet printing machine.