Abstract: A handheld optical apparatus for imaging a sample has an interferometer having at least output and collection waveguides formed on a photonic integrated circuit substrate. A light source generates light of wavelengths above a threshold wavelength. A first signal detector obtains an interference signal from the interferometer between a first portion of the light scattered from the sample and a reference portion of the light. A processor is programmed with instructions that perform optical coherence tomography processing on the obtained interference signal.

Abstract: A biodegradable material is capable of recovery and recycling by dissolution in water at a temperature 40° C. or higher. The material is insoluble in water at 25° C. The material includes one or both of virgin or scrap polyvinyl alcohol material resultant from manufacture of an article composed of polyvinyl alcohol, or a waste stream containing polyvinyl alcohol material.

Abstract: The invention describes a method for the manufacture of a plasticized polyvinyl alcohol polymer mixture, the method including the steps of introducing a polyvinyl alcohol polymer with a degree of hydrolysis of at least 98 wt % or a blend of the polyvinyl alcohol polymer into a mixing reactor; reacting a reaction mixture comprising a processing agent, plasticizer and polyvinyl alcohol polymer in a reaction zone to form plasticized polyvinyl alcohol polymer; wherein the processing agent is water, or a mixture of water and one or more C1-C4 alcohols or other hydroxyl compounds wherein the boiling point of the processing agent is less than the boiling point of the plasticizer; wherein the processing agent is from 3 wt % to 18 wt % in the reaction mixture; and allowing the plasticized polyvinyl alcohol polymer mixture to pass from the mixing reactor.

Abstract: A biodegradable material capable of recovery and recycling by dissolution in water at a temperature 40° C. or higher, the material being insoluble in water at 25° C.; wherein the material comprises one or both of: virgin or scrap polyvinyl alcohol material resultant from manufacture of an article composed of polyvinyl alcohol, the material having a degree of hydrolysis of at least 98 mol %, or a waste stream containing polyvinyl alcohol material having a degree of hydrolysis of at least 98 mol %.

Abstract: The invention describes a method for the manufacture of a plasticised polyvinyl alcohol polymer mixture, the method comprising the steps of: introducing a polyvinyl alcohol polymer comprising at least 98 wt % polyvinyl alcohol or a blend of the polymer into a mixing reactor; wherein the mixing reactor comprises a blending chamber having a primary inlet, a primary outlet and at least two inter-engaging components extending between the primary inlet and primary outlet, the components being arranged to apply a shearing force to the polymer while the polymer is conveyed by the components from the inlet through a reaction zone to the outlet; one or more secondary inlets located downstream from the primary inlet for introducing reactants comprising a processing agent and a plasticiser to the chamber to form a reaction mixture; wherein the blending chamber comprises a plurality of heated regions arranged so that the mixture is subjected to a controlled temperature profile; a secondary outlet located between the r

Abstract: A permanent magnet motor has a stator and a rotor rotatably mounted to the stator. The stator has a housing with n side portions and n connecting portions distributed alternately, wherein n is a integer equal to or greater than 3. Adjacent side portions are interconnected by one of the connecting portions. The radial cross section of each side portion is a convex curved line which is curved outwardly relative to a straight line passing through the two ends of the convex curve line. Permanent magnets are fixed to an inner surface of the housing. An end cap fixed to one end of the housing, has a bottom and n side walls extending from the bottom. A flat mounting surface is formed at the outer surface of a first one of the side walls.

Abstract: A method for characterizing image contents automatically or semi-automatically using image acquisition parameters and metadata is presented. The method establishes probabilistic and deterministic relationships between different types of metadata and the semantic attributes and contents of images. It furnishes a mechanism that enables the automatic and semi-automatic classification, annotation, tagging, indexing, searching, identification or retrieval of images based on their contents, semantic properties and metadata characteristics. The method uses, but is not limited to, image capture metadata such as focal length, exposure time, relative aperture, flash information, ISO setting, angle of view, subject distance, timestamp, GPS information as well as other forms of metadata, including but not limited to, captions, keywords, headings, tags, comments, remarks, titles which may be automatically, semi-automatically, or manually generated.

Abstract: A noise suppression circuit uses a chip type ferrite bead as a major component of the noise suppression circuit. A motor using this circuit and the compact arrangement of the noise suppression circuit within the layout of an end cap of the motor is also disclosed. The preferred embodiment avoids soldering of the ferrite bead during assembly of the motor.

Abstract: A PMDC motor, particularly for driving an automobile liftgate, comprises a stator and a rotor rotatably mounted to the stator. The stator comprises a housing and an end cap mounted to one end of the housing. The end cap comprises: a first brush, a second brush, a first terminal, a second terminal, a first choke connected in series with the first brush and the first terminal, a second choke connected in series with the second brush and the second terminal, an overcurrent protection component connected in series with the second brush, and a set of capacitors. Each of the chokes comprises an inductor core extending axially and a winding wound about the inductor core.

Abstract: A motor comprises a stator and a rotor (20) disposed within the stator. The stator comprises: a housing (31) having a polygon cross section that comprises a plurality of side portions (32a-32d) and a plurality of curved corner portions (33a-33d), each of the corner portions connect two adjacent side portions and curve around a center (O?) which is offset from the rotational center (O) of the rotor; and a ring magnet (34) fixed to the inner surface of the housing. An air gap (37) is formed between a peripheral surface of the rotor (35) and an inner surface of the ring magnet (34). The thickness of the ring magnet at portions corresponding to the corner portions (33a-33d) of the housing being larger than the thickness of the ring magnet at portions corresponding to the side portions (32a-32d) of the housing.

Abstract: A method for characterizing image contents automatically or semi-automatically using image acquisition parameters and metadata is presented. The method establishes probabilistic and deterministic relationships between different types of metadata and the semantic attributes and contents of images. It furnishes a mechanism that enables the automatic and semi-automatic classification, annotation, tagging, indexing, searching, identification or retrieval of images based on their contents, semantic properties and metadata characteristics. The method uses, but is not limited to, image capture metadata such as focal length, exposure time, relative aperture, flash information, ISO setting, angle of view, subject distance, timestamp, GPS information as well as other forms of metadata, including but not limited to, captions, keywords, headings, tags, comments, remarks, titles which may be automatically, semi-automatically, or manually generated.

Abstract: A motor comprises a stator and a rotor (20) disposed within the stator. The stator comprises a shell comprising a plurality of sidewalls (10a-10d) and arcuate connection parts (11a-11d) connecting neighboring sidewalls. The cross section of the shell is a polygon with fillets. The stator also comprises a plurality of magnets (12a-12d) installed inside the arcuate connection parts. The magnets (12a-12d) are mutual arranged at intervals. The outer surface of each magnet (12a-12d) is attached to inner surfaces of the two neighboring sidewalls (10a-10b) and a gap is formed between the magnet and the inner surface of the corresponding arcuate connection part. Air gaps are formed between the inner surface of the magnets (12a-12d) and the outer surface of the rotor. Disposing the magnets inside the arcuate connection parts improves the space utilization ratio.

Abstract: An electric motor has a rotor (20), a housing (10) and a ring magnet (12) fixed onto an inner surface of the housing. The housing (10) has a cross section in a polygon, preferably tetragonal, shape that comprises a plurality of side portions (10a˜10d) and a plurality of curved corner portions (11a˜11d), each of which connects two adjacent side portions. The thickness of the ring magnet at portions corresponding to the corner portions of the housing is larger than the thickness of the ring magnet at portions corresponding to the side portions of the housing. An air gap (123) is formed between a peripheral surface of the rotor and an inner surface of the ring magnet, the thickness of the air gap at portions corresponding to the corner portions of the housing being smaller than that of the air gap at portions corresponding to the side portions of the housing. The motor has a polygon housing which is convenient to install and has good space utilization.

Abstract: A permanent magnet motor has a stator and a rotor rotatably mounted to the stator. The stator has a housing with n side portions and n connecting portions distributed alternately, wherein n is a integer equal to or greater than 3. Adjacent side portions are interconnected by one of the connecting portions. The radial cross section of each side portion is a convex curved line which is curved outwardly relative to a straight line passing through the two ends of the convex curve line. Permanent magnets are fixed to an inner surface of the housing. An end cap fixed to one end of the housing, has a bottom and n side walls extending from the bottom. A flat mounting surface is formed at the outer surface of a first one of the side walls.

Abstract: A motor of a door lock for a vehicle comprises: a motor housing; an end cap fixed to the motor housing; and a rotation detector. The motor housing accommodates an armature including a motor shaft and a commutator. A sensor magnet is fixed to the motor shaft and the rotation detector comprises a rotation sensor fixed to a circuit board fixed to an inner part of the end cap and disposed adjacent the sensor magnet for sensing rotation of the magnet to produce a corresponding signal. A sensor connector fixed to the circuit board and electrically connected with the rotation sensor; connects to signal wires which transfer the signal to a microprocessor of the vehicle.

Abstract: Current humanization approaches for immunoglobulins focus mostly on modifying the framework regions into human sequences. Herein is provided a method for humanizing antibody complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) through functional humanization to reduce the potential immunogenicity of non-human CDR-containing antibodies. CDRs with high sequence homology to the parent CDR are identified from a database of human CDR sequences. One or more human CDRs that are highly homologous to the parent CDR sequence can be used to replace the corresponding CDRs of murine immunoglobulins (or their humanized, or re-engineered versions). Human CDRs that improve or have minimal effects on the antigen binding affinity and specificity are adopted.

Abstract: A PMDC motor, particularly for driving an automobile liftgate, comprises a stator and a rotor rotatably mounted to the stator. The stator comprises a housing and an end cap mounted to one end of the housing. The end cap comprises: a first brush, a second brush, a first terminal, a second terminal, a first choke connected in series with the first brush and the first terminal, a second choke connected in series with the second brush and the second terminal, an overcurrent protection component connected in series with the second brush, and a set of capacitors. Each of the chokes comprises an inductor core extending axially and a winding wound about the inductor core.

Abstract: Immunoglobulin libraries are provided that contain randomly assembled FR1, CDR1, FR2, CDR2, FR3, CDR3 and FR4 sequences of heavy or light chain immunoglobulin variable regions. The libraries exhibit a degree of repertoire diversity not found in natural immune systems and can be used to express novel immunoglobulins. The libraries can be used for screening antibodies with the target specificity of interest. The resultant antibodies can be fully human and non-immunogenic.

Abstract: A motor comprises a stator and a rotor (20) disposed within the stator. The stator comprises: a housing (31) having a polygon cross section that comprises a plurality of side portions (32a-32d) and a plurality of curved corner portions (33a-33d), each of the corner portions connect two adjacent side portions and curve around a center (O?) which is offset from the rotational center (O) of the rotor; and a ring magnet (34) fixed to the inner surface of the housing. An air gap (37) is formed between a peripheral surface of the rotor (35) and an inner surface of the ring magnet (34). The thickness of the ring magnet at portions corresponding to the corner portions (33a-33d) of the housing being larger than the thickness of the ring magnet at portions corresponding to the side portions (32a-32d) of the housing.

Abstract: An electric motor has a rotor (20), a housing (10) and a ring magnet (12) fixed onto an inner surface of the housing. The housing (10) has a cross section in a polygon, preferably tetragonal, shape that comprises a plurality of side portions (10a˜10d) and a plurality of curved corner portions (11a˜11d), each of which connects two adjacent side portions. The thickness of the ring magnet at portions corresponding to the corner portions of the housing is larger than the thickness of the ring magnet at portions corresponding to the side portions of the housing. An air gap (123) is formed between a peripheral surface of the rotor and an inner surface of the ring magnet, the thickness of the air gap at portions corresponding to the corner portions of the housing being smaller than that of the air gap at portions corresponding to the side portions of the housing. The motor has a polygon housing which is convenient to install and has good space utilization.