Abstract: Described herein are organoborane polymers and methods for the oxidation of these organoborane polymers to poly (vinyl alcohol) PVA. The organoborane polymers of the present invention respond to an external trigger by changing from a hydrophobic to a hydrophilic state.

Abstract: Provided is a digital microfluidic device for quick polymerase chain reaction. The digital microfluidic device includes an enclosed chamber for holding droplets comprising PCR mixtures. The chamber has an upper layer and a lower layer, which provide a top heater and a bottom heater contained in a thermal electrode respectively to form dual heaters. The lower layer further has an array of electrodes and a dielectric layer, e.g. Norland Optical adhesive 61, coating thereon. Such arrangement of the digital microfluidic device allows quick and homogeneous heating of droplets to lower the heating voltage, shorten the reaction time, and prevent the dielectric layer from breakdown during the thermal cycle.

Abstract: This invention relates to a systems, methods and apparatuses for controlling a sleep environment, particularly for controlling an indoor sleep environment, and to a method and system of waking a sleeping person. The invention monitors one or both of wet-bulb globe temperatures (WBGTs) within the sleep environment and outdoors with a view to either altering the WBGT within the sleep environment to mimic a nadir or inflection point typically found outdoors and/or generate an alarm when a nadir or inflection point of the WBGT outdoors is determined.

Abstract: The present invention relates to compounds of Formulae (I) and (II) as defined herein, and salts and solvates thereof. The present invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising compounds of Formulae (I) and (II), and to the use of compounds of Formulae (I) and (II) in the treatment or prevention of filarial worm infection, as well as other diseases or conditions in which filarial worm infection is implicated.

Abstract: The disclosure relates to compositions comprising a nucleotide sequence having two domains: a locked nucleic acid (LNA) domain and a DNA gap domain, wherein nucleotide sequence binds to an endogenous DUX4 mRNA sequence disrupts DUX4 expression.

Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for fabricating microneedle arrays that includes electrospun fibers preferentially disposed within the microneedles of the array. Providing the electrospun fibers preferentially in the microneedles allows for more of a drug or other substance present in the fibers to be deposited into tissue or to provide other benefits. A mold for forming the microneedle arrays includes an insulating surface layer. The insulating surface layer affects the electric field during electrospinning such that electrospun fibers are deposited preferentially within the microneedle cavities of the mold relative to the surface of the mold. A bulk material can then be applied to the mold to form the bulk of the microneedles with electrospun fibers embedded within and a backing layer to which the microneedles are attached.

Abstract: An exemplary system for generating an image(s) of a sample(s) can include, for example, an imaging arrangement that can include a superluminescent diode (SLD) configured to generate a radiation(s) to be provided to the sample(s), and a spectrometer configured to (i) sample an A-line sampling rate of at least about 200 kHz, (ii) receive a resultant radiation from the sample(s) based on the sampling rate, and (iii) generate information based on the resultant radiation, and a computer hardware arrangement configured to generate the image(s) of the sample(s) based on the information received from the spectrometer. The imaging arrangement can be an interferometric imaging arrangement, which can be an optical coherence tomography imaging (OCT) arrangement. The computer hardware arrangement can be further configured to facilitate a plurality of b-scan acquisitions of the sample(s) and facilitate the b-scan acquisitions in order to generate the image(s).

Abstract: A scaffold for tissue repair or wound dressing comprising: a material layer; a polymer fibre layer; and an adhesive component between the material layer and the polymer fibre layer, wherein the adhesive component comprises material having a lower melting temperature (Tm) than the material layer and the polymer fibre layer.

Abstract: Provided herein are extracellular vesicle (EV) (a.k.a. exosome) compositions for specifically targeting the delivery of a therapeutic agent to particular cells and/or tissues in a subject, as well as methods of making and methods of using said compositions. The compositions and methods disclosed herein are useful for targeted drug delivery in the treatment of diseases in which a cell surface receptor is overexpressed, such as, for example, cancer.

Abstract: Described are methods for preparing radionuclides, such as radionuclides having a high specific activity. The disclosed methods include irradiating target nuclide materials, in solution, with a neutron source. The radionuclides can be separated from the target nuclide material by providing a solid carbon nanostructured material, as a suspension of solids, proximal to the target nuclide material in solution and using the recoil to drive adsorption of the radionuclide onto the solid carbon nanostructured material to transfer the radionuclides from the liquid phase (in solution) to the solid phase (adsorbed to the suspended solid carbon nanostructured material). One or more surfactants can be incorporated into the solution to facilitate formation of a stable suspension of the solid carbon nanostructured material.

Abstract: The invention relates to inhibitors of calcium-dependent protein kinase 1 (CDPK1) and pharmaceutical preparations thereof. The invention further relates to methods of treatment of parasitic infections, such as T. gondii, P. falciparum, C. hominis, or C. parvum infections, using the novel inhibitors of the invention.

Abstract: The present invention describes rhomboid protease inhibitors having high specificity and inhibition characteristics providing novel antibiotics, anti-malarial pharmaceutical agents, and provides a strategy for designing RiBns (rhomboid-inhibiting boronates) to target rhomboid selectively in unrelated organisms.

Abstract: III-Nitride heterostructures with low p-type sheet resistance and III-Nitride heterostructure devices with gate recess and devices including the III-Nitride heterostructures are disclosed.

Abstract: Localization and navigation systems and techniques are described. An electronic device comprises a processor configured to maintain a state vector storing estimates for a position of the electronic device at poses along a trajectory within an environment along with estimates for positions for one or more features within the environment. The processor computes, from the image data, one or more constraints based on features observed from multiple poses of the electronic device along the trajectory, and computes updated state estimates for the position of the electronic device in accordance with the motion data and the one or more computed constraints without computing updated state estimates for the features for which the one or more constraints were computed.

Abstract: Methods are provided for treating a subject with a therapeutic dose of anti-CD47 agent by administering a primer agent prior to administering a therapeutically effective dose of an anti-CD47 agent to the subject.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are a method of manufacturing a sulfide-based all-solid-state battery, and a sulfide-based all-solid-state battery manufactured thereby, wherein the battery includes a surface heat-treated positive electrode active material, which is simply performed by heating a positive electrode active material at 400° C. to 600° C. in an inert gas state, as a low-cost method of uniformly treating the surface of a positive electrode active material such that the positive electrode active material does not react with a sulfide-based solid electrolyte.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an expandable cover unit including a main body, a manipulation member installed on the main body to be rotatable or moveable upward or downward, an expanding portion installed on the main body at a position adjacent to the manipulation member and provided with at least one wing member installed on the main body to be slidable in a direction away from the manipulation member such that an end portion of the wing member protrudes outward from the main body, and a wing driving unit configured to operate the wing member to move the wing member according to the manipulation member rotated or moved upward or downward by a manipulation of a user.

Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for reducing the amount of helper data that needs to be stored using two innovative techniques. The first technique uses bit-error-rate (BER)-aware lossy compression. By treating a fraction of reliable bits as unreliable, it effectively reduces the size of the reliability mask. With the view of practical costs of production-time error characterization, the second technique enables economically feasible across-temperature per-bit BER evaluation for use in a number of fuzzy extractor optimizations based on bit-selection to reduce overall BER (with or without subsequent compression) using room-temperature only production-time characterization. The technique is based on stochastic concentration theory and allows efficiently forming confidence intervals for average across-temperature BER of a selected set of bits.

Abstract: A method of predicting joining strength of joined dissimilar materials, includes performing a joining strength test on a plurality of specimens of joined dissimilar materials each having different joining information, and acquiring force-displacement data on a basis of the joining information; constructing, in a prediction system, an artificial neural network model for predicting the force-displacement data and the joining strengths from the joining information; learning the artificial neural network model by inputting the force-displacement data to the prediction system, the force-displacement data obtained through the joining strength test; inputting joining information to be predicted to the prediction system by using a computer running a software for performing prediction for the joining strength and connected to a host computer of the prediction system through a network; and predicting, by the learned artificial neural network model, force-displacement value and joining strength.

Abstract: Natural and/or synthetic antibodies for specific proteins are adhered to nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are adhered to a substrate and the substrate is exposed to a sample that may contain the specific proteins. The substrates are then tested with surface enhanced Raman scattering techniques and/or localized surface plasmon resonance techniques to quantify the amount of the specific protein in the sample.