Abstract: Described herein are laminate structures with enhanced sound-damping properties and mechanical properties. The laminates are composed of an interlayer structure disposed between a first glass substrate and a second glass substrate, wherein the interlayer is composed of a polymer layer designed such that sound attenuation or damping by the laminate is optimized. The laminates described herein may be used in vehicles or architectural panels. In one or more embodiments, the laminate may be disposed in an opening of a vehicle body. Where the vehicle body is an automobile, the laminate could be used as a windshield, a side window, sunroof or rear windshield. The body of some embodiments may include railcar body, or an airplane body. In other embodiments, the laminate may be used in architectural panels, which may include a window, an interior wall panel, a modular furniture panel, a backsplash, a cabinet panel, or an appliance panel.

Abstract: A metal catalyst is formed by vaporizing a quantity of metal and a quantity of carrier forming a vapor cloud. The vapor cloud is quenched forming precipitate nanoparticles comprising a portion of metal and a portion of carrier. The nanoparticles are impregnated onto supports. The supports are able to be used in existing heterogeneous catalysis systems. A system for forming metal catalysts comprises means for vaporizing a quantity of metals and a quantity of carrier, quenching the resulting vapor cloud and forming precipitate nanoparticles comprising a portion of metals and a portion of carrier. The system further comprises means for impregnating supports with the nanoparticles.

Abstract: A device for implantation in a body may include a body defining a lumen. The body may have a first end and a second end, and the lumen may define a central axis. The body may include a first flexible flange having a first base portion and a first angled portion. The first base portion may be about perpendicular to the central axis and extend radially away from the first end. The body may further include a second flexible flange having a second base portion and a second angled portion. The second base portion may be about perpendicular to the central axis and extend radially away from the second end. The first and second angle portions may be generally angled toward each other. A loading device may be configured to load the device into a delivery device. The delivery device may be configured to delivery and deploy the device.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus comprising TLR-4 based electrochemical biosensor and a method for using the same to detect the presence of gram-negative bacteria or lipopolysaccharide in a sample. In one particular embodiment, the apparatus comprises an electric conducting solid substrate surface having a monolayer of a mixture of linkers each of which has a first functional group that is attached to the surface of said electric conducting solid substrate. The mixture of linkers comprises tethering-linkers and spacer-linkers such that the amount of spacer-linkers is equal to or greater than that of the tethering-linkers. The tethering linker also comprises a second functional group that is used to attach a toll-like receptor 4 (TLR-4).

Abstract: Disclosed are several examples of systems that can read millions of news feeds per day about topics (e.g., your customers, competitors, markets, and partners), and provide a small set of the most relevant items to read to keep current with the overwhelming amount of information currently available. Topics of interest can be chosen by the user of the system for use as seeds. The seeds can be vectorized and compared with the target documents to determine their similarity. The similarities can be sorted from highest to lowest so that the most similar seed and target documents are at the top of the list. This output can be produced in XML format so that an RSS Reader can format the XML. This allows for easy Internet access to these recommendations.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for determining the progressive potential of a disease is disclosed. The forward to backward propagating second harmonic generation signal derived from a second harmonic generation instrument is used to assess the collagen microstructure of imaged body tissue by way of numerical values that are in turn used to determine the progressive or metastatic potential of the disease. The disease may, for example, be a cancer such as breast cancer, lung fibrosis, colorectal adenocarcinoma, or the like. The apparatus may include in vivo instruments or laboratory diagnostic instruments with methods disclosed herein.

Abstract: A patterned article and a method of making the patterned article. The patterned article comprises a glass substrate and black matrix segments. The black matrix segments are in the form of a pattern and at least one of the segments has a line width of 8 ?m or less. The article also comprises an adhesion agent positioned between the glass substrate and the black matrix segments. The adhesion agent provides at least one of: a total surface energy of 65 mN/m or less and at least a 30% reduction in surface polarity compared to a control untreated glass surface as determined by H2O and diiodomethane contact angle and application of the Wu model.

Abstract: A gyroscope includes a first mass, a second mass, and a drive structure configured to drive each of the first mass and the second mass in a drive mode. The drive structure includes a first portion and a second portion, with the first portion being configured to drive the first mass in a direction along a drive axis and the second portion being configured to drive the second mass in a direction opposite to the first mass along the drive axis. The gyroscope further includes a sense structure configured to sense motion of each of the first mass and the second mass in a sense mode along a direction substantially perpendicular to the drive axis, and a plurality of flexures configured to couple the first portion to the second portion and further configured to decouple the drive mode and the sense mode.

Abstract: A bi-directional converter voltage controlled current system and methods are disclosed. A bi-directional converter provides a bi-directional current to an electrical bus according to a variable duty-cycle control signal. Also, a bi-directional current sensing sensor senses the bi-directional current to provide a sensor voltage signal proportional to the converter current. Further, a variable duty-cycle controller controls a duty-cycle of the variable duty-cycle control signal to control a voltage of the electrical bus based on an error signal.

Abstract: A display system comprises a display and a controller operatively coupled to the display. The controller is configured to receive text, parse the text to isolate a segment of the text, compute a time interval for display of the segment, present the segment on the display during the computed time interval, remove the segment from the display following the computed time interval, and repeat the parsing computing, presenting, and removing, for subsequent segments of the text.

Abstract: A human subject is tracked within a scene of an observed depth image supplied to a general-purpose body-part tracker. The general-purpose body-part tracker is retrained for a specific scenario. The general-purpose body-part tracker was previously trained using supervised machine learning to identify one or more general-purpose parameters to be used by the general-purpose body-part tracker to track a human subject. During a retraining phase, scenario data is received that represents a human training-subject performing an action specific to a particular scenario. One or more special-purpose parameters are identified from the processed scenario data. The special-purpose parameters are selectively used to augment or replace one or more general-purpose parameters if the general-purpose body-part tracker is used to track a human subject performing the action specific to the particular scenario.

Abstract: An infrared imaging system is formed by passively aligning two or more lens wafers including a plurality of lenses. The lens wafers may be pre-fabricated lens wafers in which the plurality of lenses are aligned utilizing an alignment jig having a plurality of conduits for distributing bonding material. Alternatively, the lens wafers may be formed of a base material molded around the plurality of optical lenses. The lens wafers may have a variety of alignment features, alignment inserts and/or alignment elements.

Abstract: Ambulatory monitoring of human health is provided by a multi-component multi-sensor wireless wearable biosignal acquisition system comprising a torso device and a peripheral device communicating wirelessly, and a mobile phone for receiving collected data and uploading it over cellular network or WiFi to a remote computer for multivariate analysis. Biosignals include EKG and PPG, from which a determination of pulse transit time can be made.

Abstract: A method of tracking a subject includes receiving from a source a depth image of a scene including the subject. The depth image includes a depth for each of a plurality of pixels. The method further includes identifying pixels of the depth image that image the subject and deriving from the identified pixels of the depth image one or more machine readable data structures representing the subject as a model including a plurality of shapes.

Abstract: A process for serializing and deserializing instance data from a schema is disclosed. A schema can be used to automatically and dynamically generate classes and methods. First, the raw schema may be parsed into an intermediate data structure consisting of <key,value> pairs representing object properties and attributes of the properties. Then, an exemplary process generates new parser classes and methods by iterating over the intermediate data structure's keys and generating classes or class variables based on the property type. Accessors and mutators are generated for each class variable. Additionally, a serialization method and a constructor method are generated for each class. These classes and methods are stored in memory and can be used by a host programming language to transmit, receive, and manipulate data to or from an API.

Abstract: Systems and methods for automated fluid sampling for tracer testing are described. In one aspect, an automated fluid sampling system includes a pressurized line, such as a production well or an injection well connectively and a fluid separation vessel receiving sample fluids therefrom. The fluid separation vessel includes a plunger and is configured for gravity-mediated phase separation of the sample fluids into a plurality of aqueous, organic and/or gas phase fluid fractions and includes pluralities of inlet and outlet ports for mediating flow of sample fluids therethrough. At least one purging fluid source, such as a gas or liquid, is used for driving the plunger. Sample fluid collection vessels receive phase-separated sample fluids from the fluid separation vessel.

Abstract: In an embodiment, a method of aligning elements in a manufacturing process includes placing a middle element onto a base element, the base element forming first alignment features, the middle element forming apertures therethrough corresponding to the first alignment features. The method also includes placing second alignment features of an upper element onto the first alignment features such that the first and second alignment features cooperate, through the apertures, to align the upper element with the base element. An infrared lens assembly includes a lens formed of an infrared transmitting material that is disposed within a carrier of a base material, the lens being molded within the carrier with at least one feature that secures the lens to the carrier.

Abstract: A method for protecting a sheet surface by forming a discontinuous layer of a long-chain organic material having a main carbon chain comprising at least 12 carbon atoms and a hydrophilic group at one end of the main chain on the sheet surface. The protective layer is easy to remove using standard cleaning method, while providing satisfactory surface protection against particle contamination and scratches, at a very low coating thickness. The invention is particularly useful for protecting glass sheet surfaces during glass sheet finishing such as edge grinding and polishing. The invention is especially useful for the finishing and packaging of LCD glass substrates.

Abstract: A tunable ablation delivery device is disclosed. The tunable ablation delivery device includes a housing and a detection element on the housing for detecting a physiological indication. The tunable ablation delivery device further includes an ablation element disposed within the housing. An opening in the housing is positioned relative to the ablation element to facilitate a treatment using the ablation element modality.

Abstract: A pressure vessel includes a first (base or innermost) layer composed of a resin-impregnated woven sleeve with chopped basalt fibers assembled in the voids of the sleeve and impregnated with an epoxy resin. A second and third layer is composed of continuous basalt fiber filaments arranged in a helical pattern, with the helical angle of the second layer being not equal to that of the third layer. A fourth layer is composed of continuous basalt fibers arranged in a hoop pattern. The fifth (outermost) layer is composed of randomly oriented chopped basalt fibers impregnated with a resin matrix and compacted with the subsequent wound filaments at up to ten pounds of tension.