Abstract: The invention provides a mobile structure that can be used in any water body having a relatively uniform floor and a calm surface (i.e., beach, lake or pool). This structure has multiple hold and leaning surfaces and/or elements that lie flush and below the water level providing people with disabilities and older people a solid support structure to hold, sit, stand or lean while performing adapted swimming activities.

Abstract: A discharge assembly apparatus for discharging a metered volume of a liquid when used in combination with a liquid-containing, pressurized or pressurizable container includes an actuator assembly incorporating a valve stem having a discharge conduit arrangement with an inlet and an outlet, a metering chamber formed within the valve stem and incorporating a liquid discharge element, an inlet/outlet arrangement, and a housing wherein the valve stem and the inner surface of the housing define a fluid transfer passageway therebetween, the discharge conduit arrangement of the valve stem providing communication between the outlet of the metering chamber and the outlet of the valve stem via the fluid transfer passageway.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatuses for gathering data are disclosed. For example, a plant matter sensor includes a pair of parallel spaced apart sensor arms and a control console, a first of the arms having a plurality of emitter spaced along its length, each emitter configured to emit a signal substantially perpendicularly to the arm to be received by a corresponding receiver on the second arm. The console contains controller means to control the rate, strength and regularity of the signal emitted by each of the emitters, collectors to collect data from each receiver as to the existence or absence of receipt of a signal, a processor to process data received from the controllers and the collectors and determine the height of any plant matter traversed by the plant matter sensor and predetermined intervals, and storage to store the plant matter height data generated by the processor for subsequent download or analysis.

Abstract: A discharge assembly for discharging a metered volume of a liquid held in a pressured container includes an elongate tubular housing, a valve stem having a body locating within the housing, a chamber provided within the body of the valve stem and having a liquid inlet, and a liquid discharge element moveable along the chamber from a liquid primed position to a liquid discharged position to effect discharge of the metered volume of liquid, wherein a second fluid transfer passageway is formed along the outside of the valve stem between the inlet of the housing and the first fluid transfer passageway, and a seal is provided for relative sliding movement onto a seat as the valve stem moves to close the second fluid transfer passageway to fluid flow.

Abstract: Disclosed is a 4,4?-dicarboxy-2,2?-bipyridine derived tridentate ligand represented by formula (I): wherein definitions of Y1, Y2, and R are the same as those defined in the specification. Also disclosed are a metal complex containing the aforesaid tridentate ligand and a dye-sensitized solar cell containing the metal complex.

Abstract: The invention provides a solvent for an electrolyte solution, an electrolyte solution, and a gel-like electrolyte superior in oxidation resistance and flame resistance. A solvent for an electrolyte solution comprising at least one boric ester represented by the following formula (I), and a boric ester represented by the following formula (II): B(ORf)3 (I); B(OCH2CH2CN)3 (II) wherein, in formula (I), each Rf independently represents CH2(CF2)nCF3 or CH(CF3)2, n is an integer from 0 to 6, and at least a part of each of —ORf and —OCH2CH2CN included in the boric esters is transesterified.

Abstract: An urchin-like copper oxide material manufacturing method, comprising following steps: providing copper powder of length about 5 to 150 ?m; placing the copper powder on an aluminum oxide plate to be heated up; and heating up the aluminum oxide plate in a reaction temperature of 300° C. to 700° C., to obtain urchin-like copper oxide material on the aluminum oxide plate. By employing the manufacturing method, it only requires a simple thermal oxidation process to synthesize and obtain various types of urchin-like copper oxides having good stability and reproducibility, hereby achieving excellent performance in various opto-electronic applications.

Abstract: A system for automatically exchanging a battery of an electric vehicle, the system including a horizontal frame of a predetermined area formed at a location higher than the electric vehicle; a plurality of battery stands formed on a bottom surface of the horizontal frame at a predetermined interval; a pair of fixed guide rails arranged and installed on front and rear sides or left and right sides of the horizontal frame, respectively; a variable guide rail adapted to move horizontally along X-axis or Y-axis along the fixed guide rails; a movable rail adapted to move horizontally along Y-axis or X-axis along the variable guide rail and ascend/descend vertically; and a grasping means installed on a lower end of the movable rail and adapted to pick up a battery of the electric vehicle or a battery seated on the battery stand and exchange each other.

Abstract: A system and method for enabling distributed transaction processing by moving all application logic away from the server and into the client by using an optimistic concurrency control framework with client-side transaction validation including virtual full replication under a transactional programming model with full Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) properties.

Abstract: This invention discloses compositions and methods for inducing, promoting or otherwise facilitating pain relief. More particularly, the present invention discloses the use of sub-normovasodilatory doses of nitric oxide donors in the therapeutic management of vertebrate animals including humans, for the prevention or alleviation of pain, especially neuropathic pain. According to some embodiments of the present invention, nitric oxide donors are administered by any suitable route so as to provide concentrations of NO that are about ½ to 10?15 of those known to induce vasodilation in normal circulations.

Abstract: Improved integration of optoelectronic devices is provided by a spacer layer laterally sandwiched between distinct regions that are monolithically fabricated onto the same substrate (e.g., by selective epitaxy). An optical waveguide in one of the regions can optically couple to an optoelectronic device in another of the regions through the spacer layer, thereby providing a monolithically integrated form of butt-coupling. Preferably, the spacer layer thickness is less than about 50 nm, and is more preferably less than about 20 nm, to reduce optical loss. The spacer layer is preferably electrically insulating, to prevent shorting of devices grown by selective epitaxy.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of producing silver films having large nanoparticles caused by cracking during anaerobic annealing to provide surfaces that exhibit increased metal enhanced fluorescence. Preferably the annealing process is conducted on a silver film having a thickness from about 14 to 17 nm for about an hour at a temperature of approximately 190° C. to about 210° C. resulting in the conversion of the just-continuous films into large particulate films, not readily assessable by other chemical deposition techniques.

Abstract: A method of treating and/or preventing oxidative damage, comprising administering an effective IsoK/NeuroK adduct formation suppressing amount of a phenolic amine compound and/or pyridoxamine or pyridoxamine analog, including embodiments where the phenolic compound is at least one of a pyridoxamine, salicylamine, tyrosine compound or an analog thereof.

Abstract: A method of epitaxial growth of a material on a crystalline substrate includes selecting a substrate having a crystal plane that includes a plurality of terraces with step risers that join adjacent terraces. Each terrace of the plurality or terraces presents a lattice constant that substantially matches a lattice constant of the material, and each step riser presents a step height and offset that is consistent with portions of the material nucleating on adjacent terraces being in substantial crystalline match at the step riser. The method also includes preparing a substrate by exposing the crystal plane; and epitaxially growing the material on the substrate such that the portions of the material nucleating on adjacent terraces merge into a single crystal lattice without defects at the step risers.

Abstract: A method for making a carbon nanotube micro-tip structure is disclosed. A carbon nanotube film structure and an insulting substrate are provided. The insulating substrate includes a surface. At least one strip-shaped recess is defined at the surface. The carbon nanotube film structure is covered on the surface of the insulating substrate, and has a suspended portion covered on the at least one strip-shaped recess. The suspended portion of the carbon nanotube film structure is laser etched, to define a first hollow pattern in the suspended portion and form a patterned carbon nanotube film structure according to the first hollow pattern. The patterned carbon nanotube film structure includes two strip-shaped arms. The two strip-shaped arms are joined at one end to form a tip portion. The tip portion is suspended above the strip-shaped recess.

Abstract: The present invention provides for a method of evaluating whether a compound is effective in activating a calcium-calmodulin dependent kinase II? promoter in a human neuronal cell which comprises: (a) contacting the human neuronal cell which has been stably transformed by a recombinant nucleic acid molecule comprising a gene of interest operatively linked to a nucleic acid encoding a calcium-calmodulin dependent kinase II? promoter which has a nucleotide sequence of the promoter in ATCC Accession No. 98582 with the compound, and (b) comparing the expression level of the gene of interest in the neuronal cell in step (a) with the level in the neuronal cell in the absence of the compound, thereby determining whether the compound is effective in activating the calcium-calmodulin dependent kinase II? promoter.

Abstract: Peptides able to inhibit or activate the translocation or function of ?PKC are identified. Administration of the peptides for protection or enhancement of cell damage due to ischemia is described. Therapeutic methods to reduce damage to cells or to enhance damage to cells due to ischemia are also described, as well as methods for screening test compounds for ?PKC-selective agonists and antagonists.

Abstract: Systems and methods can be configured to perform operations related to determining a phase transfer function of a digital imaging system. A digital image that includes at least one edge is received, the at least one edge includes a plurality of pixels with disparate pixel values. The at least one edge from the digital image is identified and an edge spread function is generated based on the identified edge. The edge spread function can be generated by taking at least one slice across the identified at least one edge. A line spread function is generated based on the edge spread function. An optical transfer function is generated based on a Fourier transform of the line spread function. A phase error is also identified. The phase transfer function of the digital image is identified based on the phase of the generated optical transfer function and the identified phase error.

Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an anti-adhesion material having sufficient in vivo degradability and excellent anti-adhesion characteristics, and also superior to conventional ones in terms of handling properties under wet conditions. The anti-adhesion material (1) of the present invention has a sheet-like base layer (10) containing a water soluble polymer (e.g., pullulan), a first cover layer (20) placed on a surface on one side of the base layer (10) and containing an aliphatic ester, and a second cover layer (30) placed on a surface on the other side of the base layer (10) and containing an aliphatic ester. The optical thickness of each of the first cover layer (20) and the second cover layer (30) is set to be 27 nm or greater and smaller than 160 nm.

Abstract: A solid laser apparatus which includes: two reflection elements for forming an oscillator; a plate-shaped gain medium being disposed between the two reflection elements, thereby augmenting a stimulated emission light in a thickness-wise direction; a doughnut- or deformed-doughnut-type planar waveguide being disposed so as to make an inner peripheral face thereof come in contact with an outer peripheral face of the plate-shaped gain medium; and a plurality of excited-light sources being directed in five or more directions, the excited-light sources being coupled to an outer peripheral face of the doughnut- or deformed-doughnut-type planar waveguide so as to make excited lights propagate from the outer peripheral face of the doughnut- or deformed-doughnut-type planar waveguide to the plate-shaped gain medium.