Abstract: Single- or double-strand oligonucleotides are used to create a molecular automata. The preferred embodiment is a DNA Turing machine and a method of performing a transition in such a DNA Turing machine.

Abstract: A heterojunction is formed between a pair of layers of different semiconductive materials whose work function difference produces a large band offset at the heterojunction. Donor or acceptor atoms are included in one regions that when photoexcited produce free charge carriers but leave behind charged centers that keep the photoexcited carriers localized. The large barrier at the heterojunction limits recombination of the free charge carriers and the charged centers and persistent photoconductivity results. This effect is used to form light operated switches. An illustrative example uses a layer of high purity gallium arsenide forming a heterojunction with a gallium-doped layer of zinc selenide.

Abstract: In a supercomputer that employs a large number of processors operating in parallel, groups of processors are assembled in clusters. Each processor in a cluster is provided with an array of lasers, a different one targeted for a particular detector associated with a specific processor of a different cluster. The detectors associated with the processors in the different cluster are assembled into an array of detectors. A processor wishing to communicate with a processor in a different cluster excites the laser in its associated array that is targeted to the detector of the processor with which it intends to communicate. The patterns of light of the various laser arrays are superimposed into one pattern focused on the detector array by means of an optical tunnel and a spherical lens.

Abstract: A tapered probe tip for use in near-field scanning optical microscopy is coated with a sheath of metal material having a plasma frequency comparable to optical frequencies. Alternatively, the sheath material has lower energy plasmons. The preferred sheath material is silver. Other preferred sheath materials are potassium, Rb, cesium, tungsten oxide, sodium tungsten oxide and Re oxide.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for tapping and distributing light propagating through a polymer optical fiber (POF). Within the polymer optical fiber, one or more mirrors are constructed. At a point in the POF where an internal mirror is constructed, light traversing the POF is efficiently diverted out of the polymer optical fiber upon striking the mirror. The light so diverted passes through a dispersing region such that only diffuse light is emitted and may be put to an advantageous use. Alternatively, a controllable shutter is placed within the polymer optical fiber such that light traversing the POF is diverted out of the polymer optical fiber upon striking the mirror when the controllable shutter so permits. The controllable shutter is variable so that variable amounts of light may be selectively emitted from the POF.

Abstract: A point-to-point optical network for interconnecting processing elements uses a two-dimensional array of chips, each of which includes a two-dimensional array of lasers that are used to target a two-dimensional array of photodetectors. A two-dimensional array of lenslets together with a spherical lens are used to focus light from a laser in the j, k position in any one of the laser arrays in any one of the chips on the particular photodetector in the j,k position in the photodetector array.

Abstract: A pattern recognition method uses unsupervised metric learning starting from a mixture of normal densities which explains well observed data. An improved decision rule is provided for selecting the reference database element most likely to correspond to a query.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for the prediction of time series data, specifically, the prediction of a foreign currency exchange rate. The method disclosed transforms the time series data into a difference of a series, compresses the transformed data using a log transformation, converts the compressed data into symbols, and subsequently trains one or more neural networks on the symbols such that a prediction is generated. Alternative embodiments demonstrate the conversion by a self-organizing map and training by a recurrent neural network.

Abstract: A technique for determining the ego-motion between two frames of an image that includes estimating likely values of the translation and rotation and making a five-dimensional search over the space of likely translations and rotations and finding the global minimum at the current motion estimate by a sum of squared differences cost function.

Abstract: The system comprises a collection of address spaces within which potentially many concurrent lightweight perceptible threads may execute. The address space is uniformly distributed among different nodes in a network of heterogeneous machines. Address spaces are first-class and may be generated dynamically. Threads within an address space may communicate with one another via shared memory; communication between address spaces takes place using explicit message-passing.

Abstract: A fatigue resistent ferroelectric element having a ferroelectric body, and regions of enhanced oxide ion mobility on opposite sides of the body to which are attached electrodes. In one embodiment, an element made from the known ferroelectric material PZT is treated at each of two surfaces where the electrodes are to be attached with a fast ion conductor, such as doped yttria stabilized zirconia. In another embodiment, a ferroelectric element constructed essentially of strontium tantalite (SrTaO.sub.6) has each of its surfaces where electrodes are to be attached treated with bismuth oxide (Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3) that is then diffused into surface regions of the element during an annealing process.

Abstract: A VLSI circuit layout method includes defining a circuit to be designed in terms of a set of components V and a set of nets H connecting the components. A cost function is defined using a spreading function to define a cost of a VLSI circuit layout. A simulated annealing is applied to the cost function to produce a VLSI circuit layout having a minimal cost function. The resulting VLSI circuit layout requires minimal area.

Abstract: A computer-implemented process for determining a ranked set of solutions to a bipartite graph matching problem, such is involved in multi-target tracking, maximum flow matching, or data association in matching elements of a first set to elements of a second set to minimize the cost of the association. A feature of the process is a partitioning into subproblems such that the most probable solutions are in the smaller subproblems and the computation begins by solving the smallest subproblem in the search for the best solution.

Abstract: Dynamic histogram warping is performed on histograms extracted from an image pair of a scene. The warped histograms are remapped to the image pair and the resulting remapped image pair is subsequently subjected to image processing.

Abstract: A method for improving the cache locality of an application executing in a computer system by decomposing the application into one or more threads and subsequently scheduling the execution of the threads such that a next thread to be executed is likely to reside in cache. The method operates by identifying a tour of points through a k-dimensional space such that cache misses are minimized. The space is divided into a plurality of equally sized blocks and may be extended for application to multiple cache levels.

Abstract: A number of layered vanadium oxide crystalline compositions are prepared by simple hydrothermal reactions. Generally, the compositions comprise parallel layers of mixed valence vanadium oxides with guest cations intercalated between the layers. The guest cations may comprise metal coordination complexes with bidentate ligands, monomeric ammonium or diammonium cations, or mixtures of alkali metal cations with monomeric ammonium cation or diammonium cations.

Abstract: The quaternary Zintl material (Et.sub.4 N).sub.4 ?Au(Ag.sub.1-x Au.sub.x).sub.2 Sn.sub.2 Te.sub.9 ! that contains 1-D semiconducting chains composed of four metallic elements is prepared by treating ethylenediamine extracts of a pentanary K--Au--Ag--Sn--Te alloy with Et.sub.4 NI.

Abstract: The results of a full-text, document search by a character string search processor are treated as vector patterns whose elements become a term match grade by use of a membership function of the term match frequency. The closest pattern to the query pattern is found by the similarity between the query pattern and each of the filed sample patterns. The similarity is calculated by use of fuzzy-logic. The similarity is ranked in order of similarity magnitude, thereby reducing the search time. The search time can be shortened by categorizing the filed patterns by term set and similarity to a cluster center pattern. If the cluster center patterns are stored, the closest cluster address can be inferred by fuzzy logic inference from the match between the query document and the term set or the similarity of the query to the cluster center.

Abstract: Any deterministic finite-state automata (DFA) can be implemented in a sparse recurrent neural network (RNN) with second-order weights and sigmoidal discriminant functions. Construction algorithms can be extended to fault-tolerant DFA implementations such that faults in an analog implementation of neurons or weights do not affect the desired network performance. The weights are replicated k times for k-1 fault tolerance. Alternatively, the independent network is replicated 2k+1 times and the majority of the outputs is used for a k fault tolerance. In a further alternative solution, a single network with k.eta. neurons uses a "n choose k"encoding algorithm for k fault tolerance.

Abstract: A non-magnetic magnetoresistive head for reading a magnetic pattern stored as domains in tracks on a storage device uses as the sensor a wafer of a high electron mobility non-magnetic semiconductor, such as indium antimonide or mercury-cadmium telluride, which includes an electrode configuration that includes an inner stripe electrode and an outer rectangular electrode surrounding the inner electrode. The wafer is supported so that the plane of the wafer is parallel to the disk and perpendicular to the magnetic field being sensed.