Abstract: Adhesive articles containing microtopography, such as microprotrusions, and a coating of adhesive glue, such an adhesive having known toxicity and/or tissue reactive functional groups are described herein. The articles described herein contain a substrate, a plurality of microfeatures, and an adhesive, such as an adhesive glue. The articles described herein exhibit a 90° pull off adhesion of at least about 1.5 N/cm2. The articles described herein can contain less adhesive than when the adhesive is used alone without microtopography and yet exhibit equivalent adhesive strength with little or no toxicity or other adverse side effects (e.g., exothermic reaction).

Abstract: Biomimetic Hybrid Actuators employed in biologically-inspired musculoskeletal architectures employ an electric motor for supplying positive energy to and storing negative energy from an artificial joint or limb, as well as elastic elements such as springs, and controllable variable damper components, for passively storing and releasing energy and providing adaptive stiffness to accommodate level ground walking as well as movement on stairs and surfaces having different slopes.

Abstract: In exemplary implementations of this invention, two LCD screens display a multi-view 3D image that has both horizontal and vertical parallax, and that does not require a viewer to wear any special glasses. Each pixel in the LCDs can take on any value: the pixel can be opaque, transparent, or any shade between. For regions of the image that are adjacent to a step function (e.g., a depth discontinuity) and not adjacent to a sharp corner, the screens display local parallax barriers comprising many small slits. The barriers and the slits tend to be oriented perpendicular to the local angular gradient of the target light field. In some implementations, the display is optimized to seek to minimize the Euclidian distance between the desired light field and the actual light field that is produced. Weighted, non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is used for this optimization.

Abstract: A method of tooth treatment includes sensing a surface condition of tooth or gum and controlling ejection of a fluid jet against the tooth based on the sensed condition. The fluid may be a liquid and may be carried in a self-contained reservoir in a handle of a fluid ejection device. The liquid can be a cleansing solution and may contain cleaning particles. The ejection can be controlled to clean teeth at high pressure and to reduce pressure applied to gum, for example, to clean plaque. In some embodiments, the method may be used to remove soft tooth. The method may further include automatically scanning the fluid jet relative to a handle of an injection device. In an embodiment, the fluid is ejected by means of a fluid ejector comprising a stationary magnet assembly providing a magnetic field and a coil assembly, slidably disposed with respect to the magnet assembly, the coil assembly driving ejection of the fluid jet.

Abstract: Systems and methods for prediction and detection of circulatory shock using estimates or measurements of arterial blood pressure, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, total peripheral resistance, cardiac ejection fraction, cardiac contractility and ventricular end-diastolic volume are provided. These estimates and measurements are used to determine a type of circulatory shock. In some embodiments, the type of circulatory shock is determined to be one of septic shock, hypovolemic shock, anaphylactic shock, hemorrhagic shock, and cardiogenic shock.

Abstract: A method for reconstructing multiple images of a subject depicting multiple different contrast characteristics from medical image data acquired with a medical imaging system is provided. Multiple image data sets are acquired with one or more medical imaging systems and the image data sets used to estimate hyperparameters drawn from a prior distribution, such as a prior distribution of image gradient coefficients. These hyperparameters and the acquired image data sets are utilized to produce a posterior distribution, such as a posterior distribution of image gradients. From this posterior distribution, multiple images with the different contrast characteristics are reconstructed. The medical imaging system may be a magnetic resonance imaging system, an x-ray computed tomography imaging system, an ultrasound system, and so on.

Abstract: A system and method for controlling the operation of a particulate filter is disclosed. The objective of this control system is to manipulate the properties and spatial distribution of contaminant material accumulated in filters to reduce filter pressure drop and associated deleterious impacts of the contaminant material on filter performance.

Abstract: Semiconductor structures and techniques are described which enable forming aluminum nitride (AIN) based devices by confining carriers in a region of AIN by exploiting the polar nature of AIN materials. Embodiments of AIN transistors utilizing polarization-based carrier confinement are described.

Abstract: Transparent displays enable many useful applications, including heads-up displays for cars and aircraft as well as displays on eyeglasses and glass windows. Unfortunately, transparent displays made of organic light-emitting diodes are typically expensive and opaque. Heads-up displays often require fixed light sources and have limited viewing angles. And transparent displays that use frequency conversion are typically energy inefficient. Conversely, the present transparent displays operate by scattering visible light from resonant nanoparticles with narrowband scattering cross sections and small absorption cross sections. More specifically, projecting an image onto a transparent screen doped with nanoparticles that selectively scatter light at the image wavelength(s) yields an image on the screen visible to an observer. Because the nanoparticles scatter light at only certain wavelengths, the screen is practically transparent under ambient light.

Abstract: The present invention provides novel agents for broad spectrum influenza neutralization. The present invention provides agents for inhibiting influenza infection by bind to the influenza virus and/or hemagglutinin (HA) polypeptides and/or HA receptors, and reagents and methods relating thereto. The present invention provides a system for analyzing interactions between infolds and the interaction partners that bind to them.

Abstract: A composite film includes a substrate that is not responsive to relative humidity, and also one or more layers of hygromorphic material. The hygromorphic material expands in response to an increase in relative humidity and contracts in response to a decrease in relative humidity. In some cases, the composite film is bi-layer or tri-layer. The composite films are fabricated such that they undergo a desired bending pattern in response to changes in relative humidity. In some cases, these bending patterns are combinations of two bending primitives: a smooth curve and a sharply angled curve. These two primitives are combined to create a variety of shape transformations including 1D linear transformation, 2D surface expansion and contraction, 2.5D texture change and 3D folding. Any type of hygromorphic material may be employed, including living gram positive and gram negative bacterial cells, yeast cells, plant cells, mammalian cells, cell debris, or hydrogel.

Abstract: A system and corresponding method using a cooperative localization technique for self identifying a location of a wireless device in a wireless network is presented. The system may estimate an arbitrary signal metric as a function of a signal received by the wireless device from the at least one other wireless device in the wireless network. The system may also convert at least one belief representing a distribution of at least one possible location of the at least one other wireless device to generate at least one converted belief. The system may further determine a self-belief as a function of the at least one converted belief and identify a self location, as a function of the self-belief, within the wireless network.

Abstract: Compositions that include nanoscale structured materials or precursors thereof (e.g., self-assembling peptides) are described. The compositions can include other substances (e.g., a vasoconstrictor). Also described are methods for using the compositions to promote hemostasis, to protect the skin or wounds from contamination, to decontaminate a site upon removal of previously applied compositions that provided a protective coating, and to inhibit the movement of bodily substances other than blood. The compositions are also useful in isolating tissue, removing tissue, preserving tissue (for, e.g., subsequent transplantation or reattachment), and as bulking, stabilizing or hydrating agents. Medical devices that include the compositions (e.g., a stent or catheter), bandages or other wound dressings, sutures, and kits that include the compositions are also described.

Abstract: Tetrahedral [MoO4]2? readily binds CO2 to produce a robust [MoO3(?2-CO3)]2? that can affect the reduction of CO2 to formate.

Abstract: The present invention generally relates to methods and systems for carrying out a pH-influenced chemical and/or biological reaction. In some embodiments, the pH-influenced reaction involves the conversion of CO2 to a dissolved species.

Abstract: A transportation service reservation method executes, by a computer, a process including receiving a ride request specifying an origin and a destination, generating feasible products having service types, by referring to a storage unit that stores information indicating a schedule allocated to each vehicle and the service types of the schedule, for each vehicle capable of providing products having the service types, computing a choice probability of each product forming an assortment of the feasible products, for each of assortments satisfying a predetermined condition amongst the subsets of the feasible product set that are generated, computing an expected value of a number of future ride requests, and selecting an assortment to be presented with respect to the ride request, from the assortment satisfying the predetermined condition, based on the choice probability and the expected value.

Abstract: Provided herein are lipidoids that may be prepared from the conjugate addition of alkylamines to acrylates. In some embodiments, provided lipidoids are biodegradable and may be used in a variety of drug delivery systems. Given the amino moiety of the lipidoids, they are well-suited for the delivery of polynucleotides, in addition to other agents. Nanoparticles containing the inventive lipidoids and polynucleotides have been prepared and have been shown to be effective in delivering siRNA.

Abstract: Described herein is an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system that incorporates sensor data to statistically minimize the time to autonomously locate a target on the ground. The system uses a two-stage approach to finding the RF target: 1) randomized flight, such as Lévy fight, to search the ground space and, 2) a geo-localization process, such as a simplex minimization process, to home in on the target.

Abstract: Methods of treating a fungal infection in a subject, the method comprising administering to the subject a modified saponin.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method of amplifying temporal variation in at least two images includes converting two or more images to a transform representation. The method further includes, for each spatial position within the two or more images, examining a plurality of coefficient values. The method additionally includes calculating a first vector based on the plurality of coefficient values. The first vector can represent change from a first image to a second image of the at least two images describing deformation. The method also includes modifying the first vector to create a second vector. The method further includes calculating a second plurality of coefficients based on the second vector.