Abstract: The invention relates to a compound of formula Ia and/or formula Ib: or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt, solvate or prodrug thereof, where the groups are defined herein. The invention also relates to a pharmaceutical formulation comprising the compound for treating or detecting a microbial infection in a subject, a method of determining antimicrobial resistance of a microbial infection using the compound, and a method of determining an effective dose of one or more antimicrobial agents to kill a microorganism using the compound.

Abstract: Methods for training statistical models for the bandgap and energy dispersion of materials as a function of an applied strain, as well as uses of these trained statistical models for elastic strain engineering of materials, are described.

Abstract: The invention relates to hydrophobic hollow fiber membranes, and in particular, to hydrophobic organic-inorganic composite hollow fiber membranes. Methods for forming the hydrophobic organic-inorganic composite hollow fiber membranes are also disclosed. The hydrophobic organic-inorganic composite hollow fiber membranes may be used in membrane contactor applications such as gas-liquid (G-L) contactor and liquid-liquid (L-L) contactor processes. Applications for G-L membrane contactors include gas streams purification (gas absorption), water ozonation, and water deoxygenation. Applications for L-L membrane contactors include direct contact membrane distillation and liquid-liquid extraction.

Abstract: The invention provides a method for detecting bacteria. The method utilises a peptide that forms a complex with a conjugated reporter polymer and is susceptible to cleavage by one or more proteases on the surface of a bacteria. Presence or absence of the bacteria can be determined by assessing the optical absorption and/or colour and/or photoluminescence (e.g. fluorescence) of the conjugated reporter polymer, which may undergo a conformational change after binding with the to the cleaved peptide substrate. Specifically, the peptide substrate may comprise a cleavage site for digestion by the protease, and the protease may be an omptin protease. The conjugated reporter polymer may be selected from a polythiophene, a poly(1,4-phenylene vinylene) (PPV), a poly(1,4-phenylene) (PPP), a polyfluorenes (PFO), a nitrogen-containing polymer such as polyquinoline, poly(2,5-pyridinevinylene) (PPyV), 1,3,4-oxadiazole, and poly(9-vinylcarbazole) (PVK), and a polypyrrole.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a buckling actuator, comprising: a first electrode; a second electrode; and a film of a dielectric elastomeric material having a first surface and a second surface sandwiched between the first and second electrodes, wherein the material is formed by the random block copolymerisation of a polymeric material comprising silicon or nitrogen atoms that has two or more acrylate or vinyl end groups, and a polar polymeric material having two or more acrylate or vinyl end groups. Also disclosed herein is a method of forming said dielectric elastomeric material.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are compounds or salts and/or solvates of formula I, II and III, where the compounds or salts and/or solvates have the following structures: (X)a—Y—(Z)b I; II; or X?—Y? III; where X, Y, Z, X?, Y?, a, b, R4, R6 and R7 are as defined herein.

Abstract: An example of a three-dimensionally printed object includes a bulk portion having a ferritic microstructure; and a site-specific alloyed section having a pearlite microstructure. The three-dimensionally printed object may be generated using different examples of a three-dimensional (3D) printing method. Each example of the 3D printing method utilizes a two-stage heat treatment.

Abstract: A non-volatile memory includes: a buffer region in direct contact with a first electrode; and a principal memory region between the second electrode and the buffer region. The principal memory region includes: a first active region disposed in direct contact with the buffer region; a second active region with a second oxygen concentration that is lower than a first oxygen concentration of the first active region; a first scavenger region formed with a third oxygen concentration that is lower than the second oxygen concentration; and a second scavenger region disposed in direct contact with the second electrode, the second scavenger region being formed with a fourth oxygen concentration. Each of the second active region and the second scavenger region is disposed in direct contact with the first scavenger region, the second active region and the second scavenger region being formed physically spaced apart from one another.

Abstract: The present disclosure generally relates to a method of manufacturing a spiral sheet product via an additive manufacturing process, the method comprising: obtaining an electronic file representing a geometry of the spiral sheet product; and controlling an additive manufacturing apparatus to manufacture, via the additive manufacturing process, the spiral sheet product according to the geometry specified in the electronic file. The geometry of the spiral sheet product comprises: a geometric model of a spiral body revolving around a longitudinal axis, the spiral body comprising spiral sections repeating along the longitudinal axis; each spiral section comprising unit cells repeating along a spiral length of the spiral section; and each unit cell comprising a geometric pattern, such that the repetitive geometric pattern functionalizes the spiral sheet product that is arrangeable into a flat sheet product that is larger than a build chamber of the additive manufacturing apparatus.

Abstract: A composition which conditions a surface for electroless deposition of a metal is disclosed. The composition comprises a polymer surfactant comprising repeating units of a monomer, wherein each of the repeating units comprises a functional group; a metal ion; and water, wherein the functional group in each of the repeating units forms a complex with the metal ion. In a preferred embodiment, the functional group is amine, and the surfactant comprises polyethyleneimine and/or polyallylamine. The metal ion comprises cobalt, rhodium, palladium or silver. A method of forming the composition as well as a method of electroless deposition using the composition are also disclosed.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a composite material suitable for use in surface-enhanced Raman scattering, the material comprising a substrate layer having a surface; a plurality of layers of core-shell particles formed on the surface of the substrate layer, wherein the core is formed from a plasmonic metal nanoparticle, and the shell is formed from a metal-organic framework (MOF), and wherein the plurality of layers of core-shell particles provide a thickness of from 0.5 to 10 um on the surface of the substrate layer. In specific embodiments, the plasmonic metal nanoparticles are silver nanocubes, and the MOF is ZIF-8.

Abstract: The invention relates to a computer-implemented method for improving data security in a computing device (10), the computing device (10) including a computer system (12) with a processor (16) for executing computer instructions (18) and a physical memory (20) accessible to the processor (16), the computer system (12) being configured as an implementation of a computer architecture suitable for switching between a trusted execution environment (22) for executing a trusted computing process (24) and a rich execution environment (26) for executing a client computing process (28) corresponding to the trusted computing process (24), wherein an access of the rich execution environment (26) on the trusted execution environment (22) is restricted and/or secured, wherein the rich execution environment (26) and the trusted execution environment (24) respectively are switchable between a user mode (30) in which execution of one or more selected computer instructions (18) for accessing the physical memory (20) is restric

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a master-slave robot arm control system and method. The control method includes steps of: (a) providing a master and a slave robot arms; (b) executing a robot arm demonstration task, wherein the step (b) includes steps of: (b1) utilizing the slave robot arm to output a force feedback; (b2) generating an action command by operating the master robot arm; (b3) calculating and generating a movement command; (b4) controlling the slave robot arm to move and to generate a movement trajectory and the force feedback correspondingly; (c) repeating the step (b) to collect a plurality of movement trajectories of the slave robot arm; (d) utilizing a statistic module to analyze the plurality of movement trajectories; (e) generating an optimized trajectory of the slave robot arm; and (f) controlling the slave robot arm to execute a robot arm task.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of detecting clustering of Rat Sarcoma Vims (Ras) protein in a cell comprising culturing the cells on an array of nanostructures and detecting the clustering of Ras protein around the nanostructures by using optical microscopy. In one embodiment, the nanostructures are nanobars. The invention further relates to the use of the method in identifying the isoform or mutation status of Ras protein, and anti-Ras drug screening.

Abstract: A method of imaging comprises: generating a superoscillatory field from coherent electromagnetic radiation; placing an object in the superoscillatory field; detecting one or more intensity distributions of the superoscillatory field scattered by the object; and determining at least one characteristic of the object from the one or more intensity distributions.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method for training a system to segment a computerized tomography (CT) image, comprising receiving a plurality of data groups, each group comprising an image pair comprising a CT image, a magnetic resonance (MR) image and a segmentation mask for the MR image; training a first generator of a first generative adversarial network (GAN) using the image pairs, to generate a synthetic MR image from a CT image based on relationships between image features of the CT image and MR image in each image pair; and training a second generator of a second GAN to generate a synthetic mask for the synthetic MR image based on relationships between features of the synthetic MR image and segmentation mask of each data group.

Abstract: Disclosed is an apparatus and method for forming a magnetic recording medium having a recording layer with a plurality of perpendicular magnetic domains configured to store data; and a carbon overcoat formed on the recording layer. The carbon overcoat is characterized by a sp3 carbon content greater than 70%, and a thickness of less than 1.2 nm.

Abstract: Herein discloses a method of carbonating reactive magnesia cement, which includes: (i) providing an aqueous suspension including a carbon dioxide-producing bacteria; (ii) mixing the aqueous suspension with a precursor which the carbon dioxide-producing bacteria generates carbon dioxide from for a duration to form an aqueous mixture sufficient for substantially carbonating the reactive magnesia cement; (iii) mixing the aqueous mixture with the reactive magnesia cement to form a blend; wherein a nutrient is provided in the aqueous suspension of step (i) or in the reactive magnesia cement of step (iii) to sustain the carbon dioxide-producing bacteria in the reactive magnesia cement; and (iv) curing the blend to carbonate the reactive magnesia cement. A reactive magnesia cement composite formed by the method is also disclosed.

Abstract: A system comprising: a reverse osmosis (RO) membrane module having an inlet, a permeate outlet, and a concentrate outlet, the RO membrane module being operable to separate a feed into a RO permeate and a RO concentrate, the RO concentrate being delivered out of the RO membrane module via the concentrate outlet; a first tank; and a fluid circuit, the fluid circuit coupling the RO membrane module and the first tank, the fluid circuit being configured to provide a flow path including: a first feed flow path directing the feed to the inlet; a first concentrate flow path directing the RO concentrate from the concentrate outlet to the first tank; and a second feed flow path directing the feed from the first tank to the inlet, wherein the first feed flow path and the second feed flow path are configured to receive the feed from different sources.

Abstract: A receiver includes a voltage-to-time converter configured to sequentially output a first converted signal and a second converted signal based on a first signal, a second signal, and a time difference; a first time comparator configured to determine a first bit value based on a first first-arrival signal (FAS) and output first data including the first bit value; a delay time generator configured to select a non-target signal and a target signal based on the first bit value and from among the first converted signal and the second converted signal; and a second time comparator configured to determine a second bit value based on a second FAS and output second data including the second bit value.