Abstract: An improvement in a method for providing localized cooling of tissue when thermally mediated by electromagnetic radiation comprises directing at least one spurt of a heat transferring substance onto a selected location on the tissue, and preventing ignition of the heat transferring substance by heating from the electromagnetic radiation. Preferably liquid carbon dioxide under pressure is supplied as the heat transferring substance, and adiabatically expanded to provide a solid carbon dioxide spray onto the selected location.

Abstract: A corrosion monitoring device for monitoring corrosion in fluid containing systems and other equipment exposed to a corrosive environment comprising sensor elements having a composition substantially the same as the equipment being monitored, the sensor elements having a predetermined thickness for exposure to a corrosive solution of the fluid containing system. An electrical property of the monitoring device changes when corrosion penetrates through the thickness of the sensor element. A digital output device generates a first binary signal when corrosion has not penetrated through the thickness of the sensor elements, and a second binary signal when corrosion has penetrated through the thickness of the sensor elements. Multiple sensor elements may be used to provide multiple binary signals. Information from the digital outputs may be processed to provide a cumulative log of corrosion measurements.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present disclosure provides systems, devices, and methods for non-invasively modifying, maintaining, or controlling local tissue optical properties. Methods and devices of the disclosure may be used for optically clearing tissue, for example, for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes. A method of optically clearing a tissue may comprise contacting the tissue with an optical clearing device having a base, an array of pins fixed to one side of the base, a brim fixed to the base, an inlet port in the base, an exit port in the base, and a handpiece interface tab fixed to the side of the base opposite the array of pins, applying a mechanical force to the tissue, and illuminating said tissue with at least one wavelength of light through the optical clearing device. A method may further comprise controlling the temperature of the tissue illuminated.

Abstract: A dielectric is provided which possesses high dielectric constant and high dielectric strength, while having the ca-pabilities of a polymer. The dielectric comprises a nanometric composite, which includes a stoichiometric nano-particulate filler embedded in a polymer or resin matrix. Filler particles are reduced in physical size to dimension to the same order as the polymer chain length of the host material and interact cooperatively thereby mitigating the associated Maxwell-Wagner process and reducing interfacial polarization. The internal fields for the new formulation are nearly a factor of 10 lower then for conventional (micro) material. The large changes in the internal field of the composite permit engineering of nanocomposite materials with enhanced electric strength and improved voltage endurance properties.

Abstract: A method for tomographic imaging comprises the steps of providing a source of at least partially coherent radiation and a frequency-swept laser source through an interferometer; phase modulating the radiation in the interferometer at a modulation frequency for elimination of DC and autocorrelation noises as well as the mirror image; detecting interference fringes of the radiation backscattered from the sample into the interferometer to obtain a spectral signal; transforming the spectral signal of the detected backscattered interference fringes to obtain a time and location dependent signal, including the Doppler shift and variance, at each pixel location in a data window; and generating a tomographic image of the fluid flow in the data window and of the structure of the scanned fluid flow sample in the data window from the time and location dependent signal. The apparatus comprises a system for tomographic imaging operating according to the above method.

Abstract: A digital imaging system provides color information of an entire port wine stain or other skin condition with a single image in CIE L*a*b* color space (L*, a*) derived from RGB pixel data (R, G, B). Cross-polarization optics produce marked reduction in specularly reflected light in the images. A patient positioning device allows for repeatable positioning of the patient's head or body portion. The digital nature of the system provides a near real-time mapping of melanin and erythema or other skin chromophore metrics. The cross-polarized diffuse reflectance color digital imaging system obtains subsurface skin color information and acquisition of facial images in a reproducible fashion at a fixed distance from an illumination source at optimized angles of view depending on the region of interest being imaged.