Invention Disclosure最新文献

The drop-stick test system (DTS) invention has the capability to measure reaction accurately for sideline mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) assessment. The reaction time (RT) measurements showed moderate to good inter-instrument reliability with an overall ICC of 0.82 (95 % CI 0.78–0.85). RT is a useful biomarker of mTBI or concussion, but existing technologies in controlled laboratory environments are not feasible for assessments in the field. With wearable technologies and wireless connection with smartphones, it is now easier to conduct RT assessments on the field. The purpose was to develop a portable DTS involving wearable inertial sensors translatable from the laboratory to the sideline assessments on athletic fields. This project investigated if RT measurements using sensors are reliable metrics when compared to the gold-standard motion capture laboratory-test. The intent was to invent and assess the reliability of a clinical DTS using sensors in conjunction with an easy RT measurement protocol. The integrated inertial sensors in the DTS have the potential to reliably capture RT, allowing it to more easily translate into the training room or field environment.

Alkylene oxides of low molecular weight, ethylene, and propylene oxides, have a widespread use in industry. They are used to produce other chemicals and products such as solvents, surfactants, antifreeze, adhesives, polyurethane foams, and pharmaceuticals. They are also used as fumigants in agricultural products and as sterilant for medical equipment and supplies. Unfortunately, it is worth noting that alkylene oxides also possess several physical and health hazards that merit special attention. They are flammable,explosive and their storage and transportation warrant stringent safety rules. The obvious solution to reduce the risk is to generate them from intermediate safety materials only when and only where they are necessary. The literature suggests that correspondent carbonates are very stable precursors. The scope of our study is that of identifying the optimal conditions to generate ethylene and propylene oxide in the moment just before their reaction and uses. The patent deals with some equipment and process conditions that guarantee a fast and reliable dissociation of carbonates in their correspondent oxides. The natural output of the patent is a unit able to provide the dangerous material in situ, under controlled conditions . As a results, all the risks related to transportation and storage are eliminated.

The invention consists of a special synthesis concept for the assembly of reinforced, ultra-thin membranes made from so called 2-dimensional materials: A primary, 1–10 atomic layer thick film of the 2-dim material is synthesized and lithographically pre-structured towards a film containing a periodic hole structure. A secondary ultra-thin (1–5 atomic layer) film of the same material is then synthesized and merged with the holey film with contact at the nm length scale to result in a novel 2-dim membrane material with periodically alternating film thickness. The basic structure of such an assembly is shown in the TOC Figure.

The resulting new material combines the high mechanical stability of the thick membrane sections with the properties of the thinner membrane segments. Already a doubled membrane thickness leads to a significant stability increase in these thickness regimes, while the thin regions are highly required in applications where the electronic properties rapidly change with decreasing thickness or where the thin membrane sections turn into an electron transparent material.

The novel 2-dim material can be used to span large holes with ultra-thin, freestanding membranes, but may also be used to achieve a highly reliable transfer protocol for the assembly of devices in planar technology.

Medicated surgical patch with a medication layer, backing film, adhesive layer, and protective liner is described in this invention. The patch is useful for a subject undergoing peritoneal dialysis where catheter is used. The medication layer in the surgical patch contains medication. A backing film is disposed on one side of medication layer and skin adhesive layer is disposed beneath the medication layer. Protective liner is disposed beneath the skin adhesive layer. The surgical patch holds the catheter and diffuses the medicine into the skin preventing any exit site infection. The surgical patch also can be used to prevent infections that may be due to laparascopic surgical incisions or other incisions.

The role of biosensors as point-of-care devices is well explored in recent years and their usage in the current market has been highly increased after the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. The point-of-care devices generally use sensing principles of electrochemical, immune fluorescence, microbial and electromagnetic. The sensor we developed uses the phenomenon of Surface Plasmon resonance with optic fiber technology which is a novel design to implement in point-of-care devices. With the latest innovations and improvements in 3D printing technologies the development and prototyping of these POC devices have been accelerated to the greatest potential. Here the entire device was prototyped using Creality Upgraded Ender 3 2021 model 3D printer where the 3D files were sliced in Ultimaker Cura software and printed with PLA filament by fused filament deposition modeling (FFDM). The device has a USB light and camera source on either side of the sensing chamber and a cassette with optic fiber coated with respective antibodies as a sensing platform. The device is connected to respective USB ports and introduced with the sample over a cassette and placed in the reaction chamber. The reaction occurs spontaneously which is captured by the webcam and recorded by the software. We tested the bare sensor with increased concentrations of glycerol after coating it with a silver mirror by a standard reproducible method of Tollens silver mirror. The sensor showed the best sensitivity with increasing concentrations of glycerol. The sensor also immobilized with target antibodies of pLDH parasite lactate dehydrogenase by non-specific binders just by adding target bio-analyte and receptor over silver mirror functionalized surface and tested with positive control antigen of malaria parasite antigen. The sensor showed the highest sensitivity at 50X concentration of antigen and least at 10x concentration stating maximum and minimum values for a limit of detection. This device using this principle could has wide functionalities to detect multiple biological samples by changing the antibodies to our respective analyte over the reaction chip for multiple times with low cost.

The single most important characteristic of a pork belly, which is the most valuable pork carcass primal in North America, is its degree of firmness. To date, firmness evaluation has either been subjective and therefore variable, or require 1–5 min for an objective assessment in the latter stages of fresh production. The invention is a machine for rapid and standardized measurement of fresh pork belly firmness as soon as the belly is removed from either the left or right side of the carcass. The equipment is manually operated, compact, portable, and has the flexibility to be adapted to long or short bellies across a wide range of carcass weights. Although designed to be used with rib-in bellies, it can also be used with ribbed bellies. Firmness categorization rather than measurement can be achieved by careful placement of bracing in the angle gauge. As it is constructed from approved food safe materials, the invention can be used in meat production areas and fully washed down with other equipment at the end of the production day. The invention is designed for data collection in either scientific or industry meat research. Benefiters include meat scientists, pork packers, and swine breeding companies.

Since all art materials in time are prone to degradation due to environmental conditions, a solution is needed to delay or even to prevent such an interference. Graphene, the pioneer of 2D materials, seems to pave the way to this end either as a protective layer on artworks or as an inclusion in paints, dyes, pigments acting as protective additive, respectively. Regarding the former, the proposed invention provides a method for applying a protective graphene coating onto a surface, such a two- or three-dimensional artwork or other coloured surface. The steps followed within this method are: Deposition of Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) produced graphene onto a supporting substrate in order to produce a graphene/substrate composite; Removal the graphene membrane from the supporting substrate; and Deposition the graphene membrane onto the surface of interest All the pre-mentioned steps are performed following the roll-to-roll method (Choi et al., 2015), with the assistance of a tailor-made laminator. However, the direct deposition of graphene onto artworks may not be straightforward due to the wet transfer and hot lamination conditions that can be catastrophic for fragile painted substrates. The novel strategy designed exploits the high-quality CVD monolayer graphene and uses a pressure-sensitive adhesive film (PSAF) in the transfer process that has been demonstrated to enable graphene wetting on the final target-substrate (Kim et al., 2015), thus maximizing the contact area and van der Waals interactions. The low work of adhesion between graphene and the PSAF, compared to the corresponding between graphene and the destination surface, promotes the transfer that can be performed at mild pressure and temperature conditions, without using a surface modifier or adhesives (Martins et al. 2013). Additionally, the proposed roll-to-roll method does not affect the mechanical integrity of the typical paper substrates used in graphic arts. As for the protective additive case, graphene is employed in the form of an aqueous dispersion in media such as paints, dyes, inks, pigments and/or varnishes used for artistic purposes in order to create indelible colours to capable to prevent degradation, attributed to UV radiation, moisture and oxidizing agents. The method presents a new approach for obtaining aqueous dispersions for the hydrophobic graphene and thus, protecting artworks and painted indoor/outdoor wall surfaces taking advantage of the optical and barrier properties of graphene.

The present article describes a traveling-wave thermoacoustic refrigeration system driven by a thermoacoustic heat engine. The coupled engine-refrigerator system consists of a resonator tube, which the thermoacoustic engine and thermoacoustic refrigerator are coaxially located at the extremities of the resonator tube. A thermoacoustic engine (refrigerator) consists of a regenerator, a hot (cold) heat exchanger, two ambient heat exchangers, and a thermal buffer tube. The cross-sectional area of the engine is lower than the resonator cross-sectional area, so a holder is employed to fix the engine inside the resonator tube. The hemispherical end caps, the inner ducts, and the outer ducts have variable cross-sectional areas designed to create a converging-diverging path for the acoustic wave from the outer space to the inner space of the coaxial ducts. Progressive companies on the lookout for a reliable, maintenance-free, environmentally-friendly cooling technology driven by any heat source are the potential customers of this scalable invention.

The present invention discloses a new Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnostic kit that tests blood, saliva and urine, providing a faster, more sensitive, affordable and non-invasive way than conventional method of detection. This detection assay only requires a few microliters of the body fluids to quantify the target AD-related protein biomarkers.

The assay is based on the immunoreaction between the target protein biomarkers and their corresponding pair of antibodies followed by fluorescence labelling with a newly developed cyanine turn-on fluorophore. The intensity of the fluorescence signal can act as an index to evaluate the severity of AD.

Therefore, the present invention can serve as an analytical tool for early diagnosis, progression monitoring and staging.

The patented technology is a novel, portable, non-invasive, and flexible technical solution for converting biogas into valuable chemical compounds, such as bio-methanol and bio-dimethyl ether (bio-DME). It consists of compact modules, connected to each other through a flange-valve-flange system, to be installed downstream an existing traditional biogas plant.

The two main sections of the module are those of reforming and synthesis: in the first the biogas is converted into bio-syngas (H₂/CO/CO₂), while in the second the bio-syngas is transformed into advanced biofuels such as bio-methanol and bio-DME. Parts of the synthesis module can always be changed with small investments to switch the final products, according to local market needs and price volatilities. Downstream at the synthesis section, it is possible to add a module for the separation and the purification of the chemical products.

The technology has been validated at the 0.15 MWe industrial scale.