Abstract: Viscoelastic hydrogel microparticles are used for repair of tissue defects and injuries or filling and occlusion of anatomical structures. These are administered as a microparticle suspension using a catheter, syringe, steerable catheter tip, or comparable technology into the site, where they can be further stabilized by crosslinking or sealing, or through incorporation of a support or encapsulating structure. Materials and methods for solidifying, stabilizing and sealing these materials can be used that are also biocompatible and easily deployed with catheters in the body. The micron sized interstitial spacing provides a scaffold for ingrowth and migration of cells into the gel matrices.

Abstract: A method for fabricating a Bismuth-doped silica-based optical composition. The method has the steps of: depositing SiO2 to obtain a silica material, soaking the silica material into an aqueous Bismuth solution, incorporating GeO2 into the silica material, and vitrifying the silica material at a temperature greater than 1500° C. to obtain the Bismuth-doped silica-based optical composition. In some embodiments, the fabricated Bismuth-doped silica-based optical composition has GeO2 of greater than 12 mol % (such as 19 mol %) and is suitable for transmitting therethrough optical signals of one or more of E and S bands.

Abstract: Systems and methods are described for generating record clusters. The methods comprise receiving a plurality of records from data sources and providing at least a subset of the records to a scoring model that determines scores for various pairings of the records, a score for a given pair of the records representing a probability that the given pair of records contain data elements about the same entity. The method further comprises generating a graph data structure that includes a plurality of nodes, individual nodes representing a different record from the records. The method also comprises assigning a different unique identifier to individual clusters of the final clusters and responding to a request for data regarding a given entity by providing aggregated data elements from those records of the records associated with a cluster of the final clusters having an identifier that represents the given entity.

Abstract: An optical fiber and an optical amplifier including the optical fiber are disclosed, the optical fiber includes a core region for guiding a propagation of a multimode optical signal, a cladding region laterally surrounding the core region and at least two doped rings, each of the at least two doped rings having a corresponding rare-earth or transition metal dopant concentration. The core region includes a central core having a first refractive index, at least one core layer laterally surrounding the central core, each of the at least one core layer having corresponding internal and external radii, an internal radius of an innermost core layer corresponding to a radius of the central core and an external radius of the outermost core layer corresponding to a radius of the core region.