Abstract: The disclosure relates to a sterilization apparatus which uses thermal or non-thermal plasma to disinfect surgical scoping devices such as endoscopes, gastroscopes, laparoscopes and the like. Aspect of the disclosure provide: (i) an apparatus for sterilizing inside an instrument channel formed with an insertion tube of a surgical scoping device, (ii) a whole-device sterilization apparatus for treating the entire exterior surface of a surgical scoping device, and (iii) an apparatus for cleaning and sterilizing a distal end face of an insertion tube of a surgical scoping device.

Abstract: A treatment apparatus which uses thermal or non-thermal plasma to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) by destroying bacteria. The apparatus comprises an elongate probe that includes a coaxial cable for conveying radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic (EM) energy and/or microwave EM energy, a probe tip connected at the distal end of the coaxial cable for receiving the RF and/or microwave EM energy, and a gas conduit for conveying gas to the probe tip. The probe tip comprises a first electrode connected to the inner conductor of the coaxial cable, and a second electrode connected to the outer conductor of the coaxial cable, and wherein the first electrode and second electrode are arranged to produce an electric field from the received RF and/or microwave EM energy across a flow path of gas received from the gas conduit to produce a thermal or a non-thermal plasma.

Abstract: A video information extraction system includes a memory to store a video; a textual information extraction module to obtain information about terms, entities, relations, and events from a ground truth caption corresponding to the video; and a video captioning module including an encoder (i) to receive the information about the terms, entities, relations, and events from the textual information extraction module, and (ii) to extract video features from the video; and a decoder to generate a text caption based on the extracted video features.

Abstract: A method for context-aware text recognition employing two neuromorphic computing models, auto-associative neural network and cogent confabulation. The neural network model performs the character recognition from input image and produces one or more candidates for each character in the text image input. The confabulation models perform the context-aware text extraction and completion, based on the character recognition outputs and the word and sentence knowledge bases.

Abstract: An apparatus that accelerates the determination of NN free energy of binding estimates for a large number of DNA oligomers using reconfigurable hardware and applies it to the design of high quality DNA code word libraries. The invention provides a reconfigurable hardware accelerator and method for implementing a nearest-neighbor based free energy calculation. The invention further provides a method to produce the maximum weight of the 2-stem common subsequence of two DNA oligonucleotides. In practice, the present invention comprises a general purpose microprocessor or computer, a hardware accelerator, and a software program.

Abstract: A metal piece having an organic coating with improved corrosion resistance and adhesion is described which comprises a zinc or zinc alloy plated metal piece having on its surface, a chromate film deposited from an aqueous acidic chromium solution comprising trivalent chromium as substantially the only chromium ion present, and a cathodic electrocoated siccative organic coating on the chromate film. In one embodiment, the zinc alloy includes a substantial gamma crystallographic phase. A process for obtaining such coated metal pieces also is described.

Abstract: A metal piece having an organic coating with improved corrosion resistance and adhesion is described which comprises a zinc or zinc alloy plated metal piece having on its surface, a chromate film deposited from an aqueous acidic chromium solution comprising trivalent chromium as substantially the only chromium ion present, and a cathodic electrocoated siccative organic coating on the chromate film. A process for obtaining such coated metal pieces also is described.

Abstract: A metal piece having an organic coating with improved corrosion resistance and adhesion is described which comprises a zinc or zinc alloy plated metal piece having on its surface, a chromate film deposited from an aqueous acidic chromium solution comprising trivalent chromium as substantially the only chromium ion present, and a cathodic electrocoated siccative organic coating on the chromate film. A process for obtaining such coated metal pieces also is described.