Abstract: Methods and apparatus for forming a conformal SiCON film on a surface are described. A SiCN film is formed on a substrate surface and exposed to a low temperature steam annealing process to form a film resistant to damage by rapid thermal processing or ashing. The film is treated by rapid thermal processing and then subjected to a high temperature anneal to form a film with a low dielectric constant.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to systems, methods and compositions provided herein that include a compound protease. The compound protease can contain a protease domain, a cut site for another enzyme and an association domain. In some embodiments, the compound protease is part of a protein circuit.

Abstract: In one aspect, the invention relates to an immunogenic composition that includes a mutant Clostridium difficile toxin A and/or a mutant Clostridium difficile toxin B. The mutant toxin may include a glucosyltransferase domain having at least one mutation and a cysteine protease domain having at least one mutation, relative to the corresponding wild-type C. difficile toxin. The mutant toxins may include at least one amino acid that is chemically crosslinked. In another aspect, the invention relates to methods and compositions for use in culturing Clostridium difficile and in producing C. difficile toxins.

Abstract: In some examples, an imaging device can include a processing resource and a memory resource storing instructions to cause the processing resource to perform a feature extraction process to extract a gamut-based feature included in a plurality of pixels of a scanned image to determine whether the scanned image includes a particular marking, apply a classification model to the scanned image, and optimize the scanned image based on the classification of the scanned image.

Abstract: The invention provides nucleic acid molecules encoding FGF21 mutant polypeptides, FGF21 mutant polypeptides, pharmaceutical compositions comprising FGF21 mutant polypeptides, and methods for treating metabolic disorders using such nucleic acids, polypeptides, or pharmaceutical compositions.

Abstract: A remote memory system includes a substrate of a multi-chip package, an integrated circuit chip connected to the substrate, and an electro-optical chip connected to the substrate. The integrated circuit chip includes a high-bandwidth memory interface. An electrical interface of the electro-optical chip is electrically connected to the high-bandwidth memory interface. A photonic interface of the electro-optical chip is configured to optically connect with an optical link. The electro-optical chip includes at least one optical macro that converts outgoing electrical data signals received through the electrical interface from the high-bandwidth interface into outgoing optical data signals. The optical macro transmits the outgoing optical data signals through the photonic interface to the optical link. The optical macro also converts incoming optical data signals received through the photonic interface into incoming electrical data signals.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides antisense oligonucleotides, compositions, and methods that target a LIPA intron flanking exon 8, thereby modulating splicing of LIPA pre-mRNA to increase the level of LIPA mRNA molecules having exon 8, e.g., to provide a therapy for Wolman Disease or Cholesteryl Ester Storage Disease. The present disclosure provides an antisense oligonucleotide including a nucleobase sequence at least 70% complementary to a LIPA pre-mRNA target sequence in a 5?-flanking intron, a 3?-flanking intron, or a combination of exon 8 and the 5?-flanking or 3?-flanking intron.

Abstract: A screening tool for deciding whether to refer patients to a specialist who provides a particular medical therapy is created as a model that is trained, validated, and then applied to subject patients. The training of the model utilizes a training set of answers to the set of questions and a specialist conclusion about referral for the patients who provided the training set of answers in order to drive the model to an ideal sensitivity and an ideal specificity. The model is then validated using a validation set of answers and a specialist conclusion about referral for the patients who provided the validation set of answers to produce a resulting sensitivity and specificity. Once the resulting sensitivity and specificity achieve a target, the model is validated and is then used in practice for subject patients.

Abstract: A video on demand server includes a video pump an ad management system interface to disable fast forwarding during commercials and allow fast forwarding during play of content. A playlist generator configures the disabling and allowing of fast forwarding and compiles the playlist from (a) separately provided breakpoints for the commercials during presentation of the content, and (b) an ad map including trick mode instructions that define commands for enabling and disabling trickmode during presentation of the commercials.

Abstract: In accordance with some embodiments, advertisements may be inserted into ongoing content using predefined break points within that content. For example, the break points may be defined by times within the content and specify advantageous situations for the interruption of the ongoing content and the insertion of commercials. In some embodiments, conditions may be placed on the activities which may occur during the playback of commercials, including the disabling of fast forwarding. In addition, commercials may be automatically inserted in the predetermined content break point based on user provided criteria. In some embodiments, the user criteria may be applicable generally to all assets and, in other cases, the user criteria may be specific to a particular asset, but, in both cases, in some embodiments, the advertisements may be populated within the content automatically.

Abstract: An asset-backed investment instrument that increases deferred tax liabilities for an investor and, therefore, is attractive to any investor that benefits from deferred tax liabilities, such as certain insurance companies. Ownership of an asset underlying the investment instrument is transferred to an investing entity. The transferred asset is leased from the investing entity for a predetermined period. The lease may include a like-kind exchange feature to lengthen the predetermined period of the lease and to allow the accrued deferred tax liabilities to remain outstanding for a longer period of time. The lease may also include a Terminal Rental Adjustment Clause to remove the risk of a change in an estimated residual value from the investing entity.

Abstract: A silver dispersion is obtained by reducing a silver compound in the presence of a polymeric dispersant of an ionic hydrophilic segments, such as methacrylic acid segments con and nonionic hydrophilic segments such as hydroxyl terminated polyethylene glycol segments. Aqueous inkjet inks may contain such dispersants and other common ingredients such as a humectant. The inks can be printed on ceramic substrates and sintered under heat to form solid, conductive patterns of silver.