Abstract: An anode in an electrochemical cell includes an anode active material comprising sodium and a solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) layer disposed on the anode active material. The SEI layer includes reduction products of an electrolyte solvent and is free of degradation products derived from dissolved anions of an electrolyte salt. The electrolyte solvent and the electrolyte salt are present in an electrolyte of the electrochemical cell. The SEI layer does not include a fluorine content greater than 5 wt. %.

Abstract: A switched-capacitor (SC) network in an SC converter is controlled to operate at varying resonant modes to achieve high conversion ratio efficiency, at a low circuit component count. These power converters are suited to numerous application areas including improving energy efficiency of data centers. A family of resonant switched capacitor (SC) converters with multiple operating phases are presented “Multi-Resonant SC Converters”. Described in detail are an 8-to-1 Multi-Resonant-Doubler (MRD) converter and a 6-to-1 Cascaded Series-Parallel (CaSP). The topology of these converters make them amenable to combining like units in parallel toward reaching higher power levels.

Abstract: Grow gallium-containing semi-conductor layers are grown on a substrate, wherein the gallium-containing semiconductor layers comprise AlxGayInzNvPwAsu, where 0?x?1, 0?y?1, 0?z?1, 0?v?1, 0?w?1, 0?u?1, v+w+u=1, and x+y+z=1. Dry etching of the gallium-containing semiconductor layers exposes sidewalls of the layers. Surface treatments are performed to recover from damage to the sidewalls resulting from the dry etching. Dielectric materials are deposited on the sidewalls, for example, by atomic layer deposition (ALD), to passivate the sidewalls. The resulting gallium-containing semiconductor layers have an improvement in optical efficiency as compared to gallium-containing semiconductor layers that are not subjected to the surface treatments and the deposition of the dielectric materials.

Abstract: A single photon radiation detector is designed for a particular radiation source fluence, such that an incident radiation photon strikes a scintillator monolith, creating scintillation photons, which are amplified by appropriately sized channels of photomultipliers optically coupled to the scintillator monolith. The photomultiplier output is electronically shaped into a corresponding stream of scintillation pulses (otherwise referred to as scintillation photons) that pass through a comparator to produce a bitstream of the detected scintillation photons, which is sampled into a field programmable gate array (FPGA) acting as a giga-sample transceiver to produce time-to-digital conversions, capable of producing an output data stream of 10's-of-giga-samples per second or more. Appropriate design ensures sparsity of scintillation photon arrival, so that each photon in the bitstream corresponds to a single incident scintillation photon.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides methods for producing fuels, such as biofuels, and commodity chemicals. In some embodiments, the methods comprise pretreating cellulosic biomass with a sugar acid. In some embodiments, the methods further comprise recycling sugar acids that are produced during fermentation for use in the subsequent pretreatment of cellulosic biomass. In some embodiments, the methods further comprise utilizing one or more components produced during pretreatment for subsequent fermentation. Fuels and commodity chemicals produced according to the methods of the present invention are also provided herein.

Abstract: A dual-shell architecture and methods of fabrication of fused quartz resonators is disclosed. The architecture may include two encapsulated and concentric cavities using plasma-activated wafer bonding followed by the high-temperature glassblowing. The dual-shell architecture can provide a protective shield as well as a “fixed-fixed” anchor for the sensing element of the resonators. Structures can be instrumented to operate as a resonator, a gyroscope, or other vibratory sensor and for precision operation in a harsh environment. Methods for fabricating a dual-shell resonator structure can include pre-etching cavities on a cap wafer, pre-etching cavities on a device wafer, bonding the device wafer to a substrate wafer to form a substrate pair and aligning and bonding the cap wafer to the substrate pair to form a wafer stack with aligned cavities including a cap cavity and a device cavity. The wafer stack may be glassblown to form a dual-shell structure.

Abstract: This disclosure provides a precision-positioning/quality control system capable of measuring the exact position of any given mechanical component/part of any size or shape used during an assembly process. In one aspect, a process for performing high-accuracy localization and positioning of a rigid object is disclosed. This process can begin by receiving a full image of the object. The full image is then processed by a deep-learning module to identify a set of regions of interest on the object. Next, the identified regions in the set of regions of interest are subsequently processed to identify a number of surface points within each identified region and accurately estimate their positions. After sequentially processing all the regions of interest, the process subsequently generates an accurate position estimation for the object based on the combined set of identified high-precision surface points for the set of regions of interest.

Abstract: Glaucoma or pathogenic intraocular pressure is treated by locally administering to an eye in need thereof formulations of a Wnt5a inhibitor.

Abstract: A magnetic field sensor which can achieve sensitivities competitive with modern sensors while simultaneously maintaining a small size, low power consumption, simplicity of design, and low cost. The magnetic field sensor utilizes nonlinear precession dynamics of subatomic spins to attain parametric amplification of a magnetic field. A preliminary experimental implementation of the proposed concept establishes its feasibility and can already demonstrate significant benefits over existing approaches to sensing.

Abstract: A detector module is provided that can be used as part of a time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET) system. The detector module comprises a plurality of emitter elements, each emitter element including an emitter composed of a substance that produces scintillation light and/or Cherenkov radiation in response to gamma photons and, coupled to each of two opposing ends of the emitter, a plurality of photodetectors. The height or thickness of the emitters between their coupled photodetectors is less than 20 mm (e.g., 5-15 mm). The photomultipliers may be silicon photomultipliers or SiPMs that have surface areas less than approximately 9 mm2. Due to the quantity of photodetectors, their operating locations at both ends of each emitter, and the relative thinness of the emitters, the emitter elements and the detector module provide a timing resolution better (lower) than 100 ps full width at half maximum.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides methods and compositions for increasing resistance of plants to a disease caused by infection with bacteria of a Liberibacter species.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, compositions and methods for using a split dCas protein system to modify the epigenetic profile of a gene of interest. The systems, compositions, and methods are useful for modifying the epigenetic profile of a particular gene within a cell, based on the discovery that effective expression of a larger-sized recombinant protein can be successfully achieved using two separate expression cassettes each encoding a half of the protein fused with a half of an intein, utilizing the unique feature of an intein system to ultimately rejoin the two halves to form one larger fusion protein with the intein spliced out.

Abstract: Provided are methods of treating various forms of hearing loss caused by aberrant calcium fluxes in auditory cells. The methods encompass the administration of agents which prevent abnormal calcium fluxes, stabilize SERCA2b activity, or prevent ER UPR apoptotic responses. The methods include therapeutic treatments of subjects suffering from hearing loss as well as preventative treatments which protect auditory cells from cell death, for example as caused by exposure to loud noise.

Abstract: Hemofilters for in vivo filtration of blood are disclosed. The hemofilters disclosed herein provide an optimal flow of blood through the filtration channels while maintaining a pressure gradient across the filtration channel walls to enhance filtration and minimize turbulence and stagnation of blood in the hemofilter.

Abstract: System and device configurations, and processes are provided for determining position based on low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite signals. Frameworks described herein can include performing Doppler frequency measurement for received quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) signals. The framework may include channel tracking operations to determine Doppler shift measurements, a navigation filter operation to determine clock drift based on each Doppler shift measurement from each channel tracking loop, and determining position of a device based on LEO satellite signal sources. Frameworks described herein are also provided for carrier phase differential (CD)—low Earth orbit (LEO) (CD-LEO) measurements that may utilize a base and a rover without requiring prior knowledge of rover position. Embodiments can also cancel effects of ionospheric and tropospheric delays on the carrier phase and CD-LEO measurements.

Abstract: A computer implemented method or system for creating a route for navigating a transit hub or plaza using an application executing on a user's mobile device. The application accesses a tessellated map comprising first tiles each including a different area of interest on the map; and second tiles including a walkable area connecting the different areas of interest. The application highlights one of the first tiles including one of the different areas of interest selected using input from the user; highlights one of the second tiles including a location of the mobile device on the map; and highlights a series of the second tiles linking the location to the one of the areas of interest. A method of creating the tessellated map is also disclosed.

Abstract: Provided herein are devices comprising one or more cells, and methods for fabrication thereof. The devices may be electrochemical devices. The devices may include three-dimensional supercapacitors. The devices may be microdevices such as, for example, microsupercapacitors. In some embodiments, the devices are three-dimensional hybrid microsupercapacitors. The devices may be configured for high voltage applications. In some embodiments, the devices are high voltage microsupercapacitors. In certain embodiments, the devices are high voltage asymmetric microsupercapacitors. In some embodiments, the devices are integrated microsupercapacitors for high voltage applications.

Abstract: Described herein are devices and methods utilizing cascade photocatalysis to drive multiple chemical reactions via a series of photoelectrochemical catalysts driven by the conversion of light into current by one or more photovoltaic devices. The described devices and methods are tunable and may be used in conjunction with different reactants and products, including the conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable hydrocarbon products.

Abstract: The invention provides antibodies, and antigen-binding fragments thereof, that specifically bind to CXCR5. The antibodies can be afucosylated and exhibit increased ADCC compared with the otherwise identical fucosylated antibodies. The invention includes uses, and associated methods of using the antibodies.

Abstract: Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, categorizing users of a cellular network according to a plurality of user categories, identifying, by a machine learning model, a service degradation in the cellular network, identifying at least one affected user, the at least one affected user being affected by the service degradation, identifying one or more affected user categories including the at least one affected user, identifying potentially affected users, the potentially affected users being categorized according to the one or more affected user categories, and taking action to isolate the potentially affected users from the service degradation. Other embodiments are disclosed.