Abstract: Disclosed is a method to control and manipulate floating water droplets. More particularly, disclosed are the self-assembly and pattern formation of electrically charged water droplets that are floating at an oil-gas interface. Also shown is that the assembly occurs because of electrostatic interactions between the drops. It is shown that the depth of the oil bath plays a significant role in the distance between the drops assembled at the interface. The relevance of the type of the boundary containing the entire system is highlighted by showing that even drops with a net zero electric charge can self-assemble under certain conditions. Furthermore, disclosed are ways to control the motion and the assembly of the drops at an interface.

Abstract: Methods for encapsulating water-soluble biologic and small molecule active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into nanoparticles by applying nanoprecipitation techniques and ion-pairing the nanoparticles with hydrophobic counterions to produce new API salts that exhibit altered solubilities are presented.

Abstract: An ink may be provided that includes a two-dimensional WS2 nanosheet and an organic solvent, such as water, and may be free of protective molecules and surfactants. Circuits may be provided that include this ink disposed onto a surface of a substrate (such as a flexible substrate) in various patterns, including, e.g., a superconducting qubit. The ink may be formed by sonicating, then centrifuging at a first speed, a sulfuric acid-KxWS2 solution, where x=0.3˜0.7, removing any supernatant from the centrifuged first suspension and replacing with water and sonicating the resulting WS2-water suspension, then centrifuging the result at a speed slower than the first speed, and using an upper portion of the resulting suspension.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for forming selenoneine or analogs thereof. The method may include phosphorylating sodium selenide to a selenophosphate, using adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and at least a first protein, generating a selenosugar by converting the selenophosphate using at least a second protein in the presence of a common sugar donor, and forming selenoneine or an analog thereof by combining the selenosugar with N,N,N-trimethyl-L-histidine or analogs thereof using at least a third protein. The method may include combining SenA, SenB, and SenC in an aqueous buffer at neutral pH and ambient temperature, and allowing SenA, SenB, and SenC to form selenoneine or an analog thereof in the presence of ATP, a common sugar donor, and sodium selenide.

Abstract: Processes that determine transcriptional regulation from genetic sequence data are described. Generally, computational models are trained to predict transcriptional regulatory effects, which can be used in several downstream applications. Various methods further develop research tools, develop and perform diagnostics, and treat individuals based on identified variants.

Abstract: Disclosed is a platform for fluorescence imaging of bulk RNA dynamics in living cells. The platform utilizes a technique including exposing a plurality of live cells configured to overexpress a WT or mutant ribonucleoside kinase UCK2 under control of an inducible promoter, a constitutively active promoter, or both, to a first quantity of a fluorescent nucleoside (such as fluorescent bicyclic and tricyclic cytidine analogues) for a first period of time.

Abstract: Antenna arrays, systems and methods using an algorithm-based array synthesis approach of designing and manufacturing an antenna array with non-uniform element distribution which fundamentally enables low side lobe beamforming capability over desired broadband/multiband frequency range across large scanning angles.

Abstract: A processing unit leverages a decode stage's pool of instructions, thereby expanding available instruction choices and eliminating the need for expensive OoO techniques to identify reordering opportunities. The processing unit introduces instruction reordering by presenting an alternative instruction to the warp scheduler through the existing interface rather than offering the oldest instruction in each warp. The result is a simple and efficient OoO engine that operates predominantly in the processing unit's front end.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method for quantitative detection of a small, aberrant viral nucleic acid. The method includes combining a detection mixture with a sample, and allowing a reaction with the test mixture to begin. The sample includes an RNA sample. The detection mixture includes a Cas13 enzyme, a reporter, a sequence-specific CRISPR RNA (crRNA), and a buffer. The method includes determining a quantitative value representative of the reporter in the test mixture, where the quantitative value is a measure of an amount of target RNA present in the RNA sample.

Abstract: Disclosed is a technique for improving the throughput of a neural network, using multiplexing and demultiplexing of information. Specifically, the multiplexing may include receiving a plurality of inputs, generating transformed inputs by performing, via a multiplexing layer, a transformation to each input of the plurality of inputs, and combining the transformed inputs into a single compact representation of the plurality of inputs. The demultiplexing may include receiving an output from a neural network, generating a plurality of values by converting, via a demultiplexing layer, the output back into independent representations, and producing predictions for each input based on the plurality of values. Further improvements may be seen when pretraining of the neural network and/or high-throughput transformers are incorporated.

Abstract: Disclosed are techniques for enhanced nucleic acid detection using blocked or partially blocked crRNAs or target RNAs, and a composition of matter (detection reactions consisting of occluded crRNAs or target RNAs). Here, the mechanism of Cas 13 protein activation in response to RNA structure perturbations was systematically probed using a massively multiplexed screen. It was found that there are two distinct sequence-independent modes by which secondary structure affects Cas13 activity: structure in the protospacer region competes with the crRNA and can be disrupted via a strand-displacement mechanism, while structure in the region 3? to the protospacer has an allosteric inhibitory effect. The kinetic nature of the strand displacement process was leveraged to improve Cas13-based RNA detection and enhance mismatch discrimination by up to 50-fold, enabling sequence-agnostic mutation identification at low (<1%) allele frequencies.

Abstract: A design methodology and tool called INFORM are provided that use a two-phase approach for sample-efficient constrained multi-objective optimization of real-world nonlinear systems. In the first optional phase, one may modify a genetic algorithm (GA) to make the design process sample-efficient, and may inject candidate solutions into the GA population using inverse design methods. The inverse design techniques may be based on (i) a neural network verifier, (ii) a neural network, and (iii) a Gaussian mixture model. The candidate solutions for the next generation are thus a mix of those generated using crossover/mutation and solutions generated using inverse design. At the end of the first phase, one obtains a set of nondominated solutions. In the second phase, one chooses one or more solution(s) from the non-dominated solutions or another reference solution to further improve the objective function values using inverse design methods.

Abstract: A process for making liquid fuels, especially diesel fuel, from primary alcohols. The process involves subjecting a feedstock comprising primary alcohols to Guerbet coupling to yield a first intermediate mix; subjecting the first intermediate mix to hydrogenolysis to yield a second intermediate mix; and subjecting the second intermediate mix to etherification to yield a liquid fuel suitable for use in internal combustion engines.

Abstract: Media are described herein for the degradation and/or remediation of fluorochemicals. Briefly, a medium comprises an electron donor; a fluorochemical component; an electron acceptor; and a Feammox bacterium and/or one or more enzymes exhibiting reductive dehalogenase activity, the Feammox bacterium and/or enzyme(s) capable of fluorochemical degradation in conjunction with oxidation of electron donor and electron transfer to the electron acceptor. In some embodiments, the fluorochemical component comprises one or more fluorochemicals selected from the group consisting of perfluoroalkyl compounds, polyfluoroalkyl compounds, fluorinated carboxylic acids, fluorinated alcohols, and fluorinated sulfonates. The medium, in some embodiments, comprises water, soil, sludge, sorbents and/or solids contaminated with the fluorochemical component.

Abstract: According to various embodiments, a machine-learning based system for mental health disorder identification and monitoring is disclosed. The system includes one or more processors configured to interact with a plurality of wearable medical sensors (WMSs). The processors are configured to receive physiological data from the WMSs. The processors are further configured to train at least one neural network based on raw physiological data augmented with synthetic data and subjected to a grow-and-prune paradigm to generate at least one mental health disorder inference model. The processors are also configured to output a mental health disorder-based decision by inputting the received physiological data into the generated mental health disorder inference model.

Abstract: A magnetic orbital angular momentum beam accelerator will accelerate charged particles, electrons or ions, from rest in zero or low magnetic field into a high magnetic field regions with high kinetic energies in the form of magnetic orbital angular momentum. For example, a beam injector that accelerates electrons or ions into 1T magnetic fields with tens of keV kinetic energies transverse to the magnetic fields can be used to heat magnetically confined plasmas, to inject an initial energetic plasma component with high magnetic orbital angular momentum and to produce highly transverse particle momenta to the magnetic field for electron or ion beam lithography.

Abstract: Described herein, are compositions and methods for preserving human milk, preventing rancidity of human milk, extending shelf life of human milk, and maintaining the nutritional properties of human milk. Specifically, the present disclosure provides, among other things, devices for storing preserved human milk and methods and compositions for preserving the same.

Abstract: Compositions of matter and methods for using the composition of matter may be provided. The method may include providing a virus-like particle (VLP) comprising C. elegans retrotransposon 1 (Cer1) and a heterologous RNA-based agent to an organism and allowing the organism to transfer the heterologous RNA-based agent to a tissue within the organism.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates generally to image processing, and more particularly, toward techniques for structured illumination and reconstruction of three-dimensional (3D) images. Disclosed herein is a method to jointly learn structured illumination and reconstruction, parameterized by a diffractive optical element and a neural network in an end-to-end fashion. The disclosed approach has a differentiable image formation model for active stereo, relying on both wave and geometric optics, and a trinocular reconstruction network. The jointly optimized pattern, dubbed “Polka Lines,” together with the reconstruction network, makes accurate active-stereo depth estimates across imaging conditions. The disclosed method is validated in simulation and used with an experimental prototype, and several variants of the Polka Lines patterns specialized to the illumination conditions are demonstrated.

Abstract: Disclosed are methods and a pharmaceutical composition for the prevention and treatment of fibrosis by the inhibition of fibronectin matrix assembly, as well as insights into the molecular mechanism by which cell-mediated assembly of fibronectin (FN) matrix contributes to extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation. Peptides S2, S3, S20, and variants thereof may be utilized, either alone or fused to one or more proteins. In one aspect, a construct comprising a first protein fused to a first end of a peptide and a second protein fused to a second end of the peptide may be used, where the peptide has at least 80% sequence identity to S2, S3, or S20. The peptide may then be allowed to interact with fibronectin.