Abstract: Cell-free DNA molecules in a mixture of a biological sample can be analyzed to detect viral DNA. Methylation of viral DNA molecules at one or more sites in the viral genome can be determined. Mixture methylation level(s) can be measured based on one or more amounts of the plurality of cell-free DNA molecules methylated at a set of site(s) of the particular viral genome. The mixture methylation level(s) can be determined in various ways, e.g., as a density of cell-free DNA molecules that are methylated at a site or across multiple sites or regions. The mixture methylation level(s) can be compared to reference methylation level(s), e.g., determined from at least two cohorts of other subjects. The cohorts can have different classifications (including the first condition) associated with the particular viral genome. A first classification of whether the subject has the first condition can be determined based on the comparing.

Abstract: A photoelectrode includes a double-layer homojunction of metal oxide semiconductor films without heteroatoms incorporated. The metal oxide semiconductor films are uniform in large size with rich oxygen vacancies. For BiVO4 films, Bi precursor can be electrodeposited on a substrate under atmospheric pressure and air atmosphere. The electrolytes for electrodeposition are acidic or alkaline with controllable pHs. The electrodeposited substrate is transferred to the muffle furnace for thermal evaporation with V precursor. Film thickness and size can be controlled by electrodeposition parameters. The BiVO4 double-layer homojunction is a safer and cheaper material in photo-driven devices, hydrogen producers, and solar cells, and is an economical replacement of costly III-V compounds, polymers, and valuable fossil.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus are provided for determining whether a nucleic acid sequence imbalance exists within a biological sample. One or more cutoff values for determining an imbalance of, for example, the ratio of the two sequences (or sets of sequences) are chosen. The cutoff value may be determined based at least in part on the percentage of fetal DNA in a sample, such as maternal plasma, containing a background of maternal nucleic acid sequences. The percentage of fetal DNA can be calculated from the same or different data used to determine the cutoff value, and can use a locus where the mother is homozygous and the fetus is heterozygous. The cutoff value may be determined using many different types of methods, such as sequential probability ratio testing (SPRT).

Abstract: A method of creating a ductile, work-hardened, nanotwinned, austenite/martensite nano-lamellar nanostructure in an austenite steel alloy. Briefly, raw materials with high-purity are smelted to obtain an as-cast steel alloy ingot, which will be subjected to homogenization and cold-roll treatment for reduction. The homogenized and cold-rolled steel alloy ingot is further recrystallized to eliminate any possible casting defects and form an as-recrystallized steel alloy having a single face-centered cubic structure with recrystallized grains. The as-recrystallized steel alloy is cold-rolled again for forming a nanotwinned austenite structure and for forming martensite lamellae along nanotwin boundaries such that an austenite/martensite nano-lamellar structure in the steel alloy.

Abstract: A radiative cooling apparatus including a layer of a material. The layer defines an exterior face. The material has a composition such that the layer is configured to reflect, at the exterior face, at least partly of the incoming electromagnetic radiation of at least some wavelengths in the solar spectrum. The layer is further configured to emit thermally-generated electromagnetic emission of at least some mid-infrared wavelengths out from the exterior face. Ceramics provided by embodiments of the invention could produce extra cooling effect without any electricity consumption, creating a prominent benefit to the energy saving of air conditioning systems of buildings.

Abstract: A method and system are provided for anomaly detection in energy systems. Non-contact sensing of an energy system based on electric and magnetic fields uses non-contact electric- and magnetic-field sensors to produce electric- and magnetic-field signals. The electric and magnetic field signals are filtered to remove noise. Features are extracted and normalized from the magnetic and electric field signals to characterize parameters of each signal. Density-based spatial clustering of extracted features is performed using a selected minimum number of points required to form a cluster and a parameter indicating the distance within which data are considered to fall within the cluster. An anomaly is determined from data point(s) that do not fall within the cluster formed by data points in normal operation. The density-based spatial clustering of extracted features may be performed using a Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Application with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm. Features may be extracted using Fourier analysis.

Abstract: A drug composition contains an effective amount of a drug active containing a polymyxin, an effective amount of otilonium bromide, and a pharmaceutically-acceptable carrier. A method for treating or protecting against a Gram-negative infection containing the step of administering a drug composition, a disinfecting composition similar to the drug composition, and an adjuvant for a drug active also may contain otilonium bromide.

Abstract: A method for generating a 3D image of a body shape includes obtaining a set of far-field patterns of electromagnetic waves from a given body shape of a human or animal, establishing a one-to-one correspondence between the body shape and the set of far-field patterns of electromagnetic waves, representing the far-field patterns as a shape generating vector, mapping a vector of characteristic parameters to the shape generating vector, producing a body generation model by taking the vector of characteristic parameters and the shape generating vector as input and output data to form a training dataset for machine learning, specifying a characteristic vector of an unknown geometric body shape and obtaining a shape generating vector of the unknown geometric body shape based on the body generation model, and reconstructing the unknown geometric body shape based on the shape generating vector.

Abstract: Disclosed are a soft bistable magnetic actuator, a fabrication method thereof, a fatigue testing device, and an auto underwater vehicle. The method for fabricating the soft bistable magnetic actuator includes the following operations: casting a soft precursor by injection molding, wherein the soft precursor consists of a soft deformable portion and a soft peripheral portion surrounded, the soft deformable portion is made of magnetic particles and polymer, and the soft peripheral portion is made of a magnetic particle, a mixture of organic liquid, and polymer; and extracting the organic liquid by an organic solvent shrinks the soft peripheral portion, buckles the soft deformable portion towards one side.

Abstract: A two-dimensional spectrum recording apparatus has a source of collimated laser light impinging on a sample on a plate. The light passing through the sample forms an object wave and the light not passing through the sample forming a reference wave, which interfere with each other to form a holographic image at the plate. A beam splitter receives the collimated laser light from the sample and forms separate first and second light beams. A linear polarizer receives the first beam and passes it to a polarization camera having a Full Stokes mask. The camera records the light that passes through the Stokes mask. A slit aperture receives the second beam and transforms it into a slit of light that is applied to a diffraction grating. A diode array receives the second beam from the diffraction grating and forms a light spectrum that is recorded.

Abstract: An interfacial plasmonic heating intensified IP reaction (IPH-IP) is used to fabricate highly permeable and selective polyamide RO membranes. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are introduced to the IP reaction interface to serve as nano-heat generators under light illumination. The coupling of generated nano-heat rapidly promotes the interfacial temperature, thereby boosting the formation of extensively “nano-foamed” polyamide with prominent nanovoids and high crosslinking degree. These features enable the resulting RO membrane to achieve a superior combination of water permeance (3.4 L m?2 h?1 bar?1) and NaCl rejection (99.7%). This outstanding separation performance further enables the membrane to efficiently remove a wide spectrum of toxic contaminants frequently found in different water sources, revealing huge potential for various water treatment applications.

Abstract: Provided is an aqueous redox flow battery comprising a positive electrode, a negative electrode, a posolyte chamber containing a posolyte in a solvent, a negolyte chamber containing a polysulfide based negolyte and a soluble organic catalyst in a solvent, and a separator disposed between the posolyte chamber and the negolyte chamber, wherein the soluble organic catalyst has a potential lower than the polysulfide based negolyte.

Abstract: An electronic reader for electro-chemical transistors (OECT) includes a potential output control module that controls the Vd, Vs, and Vg for the OECT under test, a high accuracy current monitor module which contains a transimpedance amplifier (TIA) used to control the output voltage and convert the input channel current Ids into a voltage value. A microcontroller (MCU) that controls the working sequences of the TIA so as to realize the specific characterization mode and enable an adjustable output voltage range. The MCU further controls a programmable sampling rate of up to 200 k samples per second (SPS) with low noise by down-sampling the base rate, convolution processing it and interpolating it back to ah high frequency, but without the noise. The device is small enough to be worn by a user and its output is sent to a mobile device for reading.

Abstract: A handheld device for photoacoustic microscopy. The handheld device includes an optical assembly, a light beam scanner and a transducer unit. The optical assembly is arranged to provide a light beam. The light beam scanner includes a reflector arranged to reflect the light beam from the optical assembly to provide a reflected light beam to an object, a first drive mechanism operable to move the reflector relative to the optical assembly to move the reflected light beam relative to the object, and a second drive mechanism operable to move the reflector relative to the optical assembly to move the reflected light beam relative to the object. The transducer unit is arranged to detect photoacoustic signals emitted by the object in response to receiving the reflected light beam.

Abstract: An aberration in a fetal genome can be identified by analyzing a sample of fetal and maternal DNA. Classifications of whether an aberration (amplification or deletion) exists in a subchromosomal region are determined using count-based and size-based methods. The count classification and the size classification can be used in combination to determine whether only the fetus or only the mother, or both, have the aberration in the subchromosomal region, thereby avoiding false positives when the mother has the aberration and the fetus does not.

Abstract: An eye-gaze tracking apparatus and a method of eye-gaze tracking. The eye-gaze tracking apparatus comprises: a plurality of foreground cameras each arranged to capture at least a portion of a target view area of a user; and an eye-gaze estimation module having at least one eye-gaze camera each arranged to capture an image an eye of the user, so as to estimate a position of a pupil of the eye based on the image of the eye; wherein each of the plurality of foreground cameras includes a field-of-view (FOV) being different from each other.

Abstract: The present disclosure generally relates to various phototriggered drug release and photoreactions, including reactions generally based on triplet-triplet energy transfer with light excitation at long wavelengths. One aspect of the present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for absorbing energy in a photosensitizer, transferring that energy by triplet-triplet energy transfer to cleave a cleavable or other active moiety causing the release of a releasable moiety. One aspect relates to a composition comprising a photosensitizer which is capable of singlet-to-triplet (S-T) activation at a near-infrared (NIR) wavelength, a cleavable moiety to accept triplet-triplet energy transfer from the photosensitizer in a higher energy state to cause cleavage of the cleavable moiety, and a releasable moiety releasable from the composition upon cleavage of the cleavable moiety. Such systems and methods may be used in various biological or physical applications.

Abstract: A system for suppressing radio frequency interference (RFI) or electromagnetic interference (EMI) in a radar or magnetic resonance imaging system that scans target(s) with energy and receives signals that reflect or echo from the target(s). The system involves obtaining RFI/EMI data in the absence of signals of interest in the scanning system using at least one primary antenna and a plurality of reference antennas. The reference antennas are designed and arranged to detect RFI/EMI signals but not signals of interest in the scanning system. Simultaneously a model, e.g. CNN, is trained with the RFI/EMI data to determine the non-linear signal mappings among primary and reference antennas. The trained model is applied to predict the RFI/EMI received by the primary antenna in the presence of signals of interest. Finally, the RFI/EMI signals received by the primary antenna are removed by subtracting out the predicted RFI/EMI.

Abstract: Embodiments of this invention provide methods, systems, and apparatus for determining whether a fetal chromosomal aneuploidy exists from a biological sample obtained from a pregnant female. Nucleic acid molecules of the biological sample are sequenced, such that a fraction of the genome is sequenced. Respective amounts of a clinically-relevant chromosome and of background chromosomes are determined from results of the sequencing. The determination of the relative amounts may count sequences of only certain length. A parameter derived from these amounts (e.g. a ratio) is compared to one or more cutoff values, thereby determining a classification of whether a fetal chromosomal aneuploidy exists. Prior to sequencing, the biological sample may be enriched for DNA fragments of a particular sizes.

Abstract: A system and devices provide for accurate localization of orthopedic implants based on magnetic tracking approach (MTA) technology and without radiation. The system includes at least one magnetic beacon that is joined to an orthopedic screw/implant fixed to a patient's spine. A detector in the form of a magnetic sensor array detects the magnetic field from the beacon and produces an electrical signal in response thereto. A computer using a multi-objective magnetic location algorithm tracks the spatial position and movement of the beacon based on the electrical signal, and hence tracks the patient's spine.