Latest technologies from Northeastern University

Machine-learning guided fast optimization of materials synthesis with high quality

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:28:53 GMT

A fast-convergence machine learning approach for materials synthesis optimization, with minimal training data Background: Materials synthesis is a complicated and lengthy process requiring a high degree of precision. At the same time, there is a constant need to develop new materials, adapt existing ones, and improve the quality of materials synthesis. Traditional approaches to materials synthesis optimization rely on trial-and-error methods that can be time-consuming and resource-intensive. The complex relationships between synthesis parameters and final material properties make it difficult...

Quantum Compiler Invention

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:26:31 GMT

A quantum compiler software utilizing multi-qubit gates for improved performance, particularly in neutral-atom architectures Background: Quantum computing technologies promise to leverage quantum effects such as entanglement to perform information processing tasks that are either too computationally costly for—or inaccessible to—a classical computer. However, the efficient compilation of quantum algorithms remains a significant bottleneck in realizing the full potential of quantum computers. Traditional quantum compilers are often optimized for two-qubit gate architectures, which ...

Multiplex network science and multiscale system dynamics: an approach to assessing the resilience of interdependent installations and infrastructure environments under compound extreme disruptions

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:15:25 GMT

Integrated modeling for resilient installations and infrastructure under extreme disruptions Background: Installations such as airports, military bases, and logistics hubs are increasingly vulnerable to disruptions from extreme weather, rising sea levels, and targeted cyber-physical attacks. These hazards often occur simultaneously or in rapid succession, creating compound extreme disruptions that can overwhelm traditional resilience planning approaches. Current risk assessment methods typically analyze individual systems in isolation, failing to capture the complex interdependencies that exi...

Mitochondrial Endoplasmic reticulum Death Inducing (MEDI) Nanomedicine

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:13:41 GMT

Liposomal nanoparticles containing a peptide along with molecules that disrupt critical cellular processes and lower the apoptotic threshold Background: Cancer cells exhibit a heightened apoptotic threshold, making them resistant to cell death, especially in multidrug-resistant (MDR) cancers. Mitochondrial fusion and fission processes contribute to this resistance by helping cancer cells maintain energy production and survive under stress. Traditional cancer therapies often fail against MDR cancers because these cells have developed mechanisms to resist multiple therapeutic approaches. The ab...

Bio-inspired proline sensors for diagnosis and surveillance of stress in living systems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:12:41 GMT

Paper-based colorimetric sensor for rapid detection of proline in plants, enabling simple stress monitoring without lab equipment Background: Controlling environmental conditions is critical for the production of agricultural crops, including food and plant-based commodities. To prevent massive loss of crops, farmers need to receive timely information about plant stress conditions. Proline is a key biomarker that accumulates in plants under various stress conditions, including drought, salinity, temperature extremes, and heavy metal exposure. Traditional methods for measuring proline require ...

System and Method for Round Trip Time Measurement in a Telecommunication Network

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:11:32 GMT

A novel approach to reduce latency and resource consumption in positioning in next-gen networks Background: Round Trip Time (RTT) measurement is an essential positioning technique in wireless networks. In the existing 5G standards, multi-cell RTT positioning methods face challenges due to high overhead and resource consumption. Traditional approaches require continuous reporting and significant radio resources, which can impact overall network performance. The need for more efficient RTT measurement techniques is critical for enabling widespread deployment of positioning services in next-gene...

Architectural framework to control and optimize non-terrestrial networks with Artificial Intelligence

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:09:14 GMT

AI-controlled non-terrestrial networks: advancing connectivity with distributed intelligence and low-latency control Background: With the growing use of non-terrestrial networks such as drones, satellites, and other infrastructure-less nodes, the challenge of reliably controlling and optimizing these networks has become more pronounced. Traditional centralized control systems are inadequate for managing the dynamic nature of non-terrestrial networks, which often operate in challenging environments with limited connectivity to ground-based control centers. The latency associated with centraliz...

Methods for supporting Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) applications Open RAN systems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:08:01 GMT

Advanced solutions for reliable beyond line-of-sight UAV operations in 5G and next-gen networks Background: The UAV industry faces significant challenges in ensuring reliable connectivity for beyond the line of sight (BLOS) operations, which are critical for applications like package delivery, infrastructure monitoring, and remote sensing. Traditional cellular networks are not optimized for UAV operations, leading to connectivity gaps, handover issues, and inadequate coverage at typical UAV operating altitudes. The unique mobility patterns and three-dimensional movement of UAVs create additio...

DARDA: Domain-Aware Real-Time Dynamic Adaptation of Edge-Assisted Neural Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:06:01 GMT

Adapting DNNs to data corruptions, ensuring efficiency in dynamic and unpredictable conditions while avoiding catastrophic forgetting Background: In the dynamic world of mobile edge computing, DNNs often face the challenge of dealing with sudden data corruptions, which can severely degrade their performance. Traditional methods for unsupervised domain adaptation at the edge are computationally expensive and may not be feasible for real-time applications. Current approaches often suffer from catastrophic forgetting, where adapting to new conditions causes the model to lose previously learne...

Enzymatic amplification/fragmentation approach for quantifying biomarkers using nanopores

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Jul 2025 11:03:01 GMT

A method based on antibodies to electrically detect biomarkers in serum and other samples Background: Biomarkers serve as indicators of biological processes or conditions. The need for advanced technology in this area arises from the demand for early and accurate detection of diseases, which can significantly improve patient outcomes through timely intervention. Traditional biomarker detection methods often rely on optical techniques that require sophisticated equipment and complex sample preparation. These methods can be expensive, time-consuming, and may not provide the sensitivity needed f...

A MEMS Resonator-based Viscosimeter

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 11:38:11 GMT

Compact and scalable technology for simultaneous measurement of viscosity and temperature providing comprehensive data Background: In industrial and environmental applications, accurate measurement of viscosity and temperature is essential for optimizing performance, maintaining safety, and ensuring process stability. Viscosity, a fundamental property of fluids, changes significantly with temperature variations, making simultaneous measurement of both parameters crucial for accurate fluid characterization. Traditional viscosity measurement methods are often bulky, expensive, and require signi...

Methods for encapsulation of DNA-modified CuAAC ligand for delivery into live cells

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 11:19:57 GMT

Advancing intracellular biomolecule labeling through enhanced DNA-modified ligand transport Background: The ability to label and track biomolecules within living cells is crucial for understanding cellular processes and developing therapeutic strategies. While DNA-conjugated CuAAC (copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition) ligands offer powerful labeling capabilities, their delivery into cells remains challenging due to the large size and charge of DNA molecules. Current delivery methods often result in poor cellular uptake, uneven distribution, or cellular toxicity. The lack of efficient ...

A System for Prevention of Amputation in Peripheral Artery disease Patients or Diabetes patients using GenAI, Deep learning and novel viz techniques

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:55:38 GMT

AI-driven system predicts amputation risk with high accuracy in patients , offering personalized treatment recommendations Background: The prevention of lower extremity amputations in patients with Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) and Diabetes Mellitus remains a critical challenge in healthcare. Current approaches lack predictive capabilities to identify high-risk patients before critical events occur. Traditional risk assessment methods rely on limited clinical parameters and often fail to capture the complex interactions between multiple risk factors. The absence of comprehensive predictive ...

Differential Scanning Micro-Calorimeter Using an Ultra-Sensitive Photonic Sensor

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:39:54 GMT

A Novel Photonic Differential Scanning Calorimeter for Ultra-Sensitive Energy Exchange Measurements Background: Traditional calorimetry methods face significant limitations in analyzing small-scale energy exchanges in biological and pharmaceutical applications. Current technologies require large sample volumes and lack the sensitivity needed for studying minute energy changes in biomolecular interactions. Conventional differential scanning calorimeters are often bulky, expensive, and require specialized facilities for operation. The inability to perform highly sensitive measurements on small ...

A multi-dimensional phenotypic space for genotype to phenotype mapping and intelligent design of cancer drug therapies using a Deep Learning Net

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:22:12 GMT

Deep learning system maps cellular phenotypes in multi-dimensional space to predict and optimize cancer drug therapy combinations Background: Current approaches to cancer drug therapy development lack a systematic way to connect cellular genetic information with therapeutic responses. While single-cell genomic technologies like ATAC-seq and RNA-seq provide detailed cellular profiles, translating this information into actionable therapeutic strategies remains challenging. The complexity of cancer cell heterogeneity and the vast number of possible drug combinations create a combinatorial explos...

Pericellular oxygen-controlling cell culture incubator

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:29:23 GMT

Incubator system that directly measures and controls pericellular oxygen levels enabling precise regulation of the cellular microenvironment Background: Cell culture is a fundamental technique in biomedical research that aims to replicate physiological conditions for cellular studies. While oxygen is a critical factor affecting cell behaviour and physiology, current oxygen-controlling technologies focus on regulating gas-phase oxygen levels through nitrogen flushing. However, recent research has revealed that the actual oxygen concentration cells experience (pericellular oxygen) differs si...

Delivery of sustained local and systemic immunomodulation

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:15:37 GMT

Reducing treatment burden with continuous immune activation Background: Current immunotherapy approaches face significant limitations in both delivery and patient experience. Standard treatments rely on either systemic intravenous injections of antibodies or small molecules that require frequent clinic visits, or localized injections that provide only short-term effects. These approaches often result in suboptimal drug concentrations at tumor sites, increased systemic toxicity, and substantial patient burden due to repeated treatments. The inability to maintain sustained therapeutic levels a...

Enhanced Proteomic Profiling of Human Plasma-Derived Extracellular Vesicles through Charge-Based Fractionation to Advance Biomarker Discovery Potential

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:13:11 GMT

Method for enhanced isolation & analysis of plasma-derived extracellular vesicles, improved biomarker discovery & disease diagnostics Background: Current methods for isolating and analyzing extracellular vesicles (EVs) from plasma face significant challenges in achieving adequate purification from abundant plasma proteins, limiting their utility for biomarker discovery and disease diagnosis. Traditional isolation methods often co-isolate protein aggregates and other non-vesicular particles, confounding downstream analyses. The heterogeneous nature of EVs in plasma, combined with thei...

Frogligo tRNA chaining strategy

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:12:09 GMT

Connecting multiple tRNA molecules, including in vitro transcribed as well as native tRNAs, to enable sequencing and structural applications Background: Transfer RNA (tRNA) molecules play a crucial role in biological processes, but technical limitations hinder their analysis. The short length of individual tRNAs makes them challenging to sequence effectively using current high-throughput sequencing technologies, which are optimized for longer nucleic acid molecules. Additionally, the complex secondary and tertiary structures of tRNAs, along with extensive post-transcriptional modifications, ...

Methods for localizing and classifying cavitation activities based on eigen-based frequency selection

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:10:59 GMT

Enhancing image-guided therapeutic ultrasound: Precise detection & classification of bubble behavior for better treatment efficacy & safety Background: In therapeutic ultrasound applications, accurately detecting and classifying bubble behavior (cavitation) is crucial for optimizing treatment efficacy and safety. Current methods for passive cavitation detection struggle with precise spatial localization and classification of different types of cavitation events. Traditional beamforming approaches have limited resolution and cannot reliably distinguish between stable and inertial ca...

Strategies to enhance protein translocation efficiency and smoothness through biological nanopores

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:04:39 GMT

Advancing protein analysis with enhanced nanopore translocation methods for single-molecule applications, single molecule proteomics Background: Accurate protein analysis is essential for advancing proteomics. Nanopore technology exhibited great promise for real-time, single-molecule protein analysis with the potential for high-throughput and cost-effective protein sequencing. However, current methods face significant challenges in controlling protein translocation dynamics through nanopores. Proteins often translocate too quickly or exhibit irregular movement patterns, making it difficult t...

Methods for single-molecule amplification of nuclear RNA

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 09:03:27 GMT

Novel technique for sorting cells based on nuclear RNA expression that enhances detection sensitivity while maintaining high sensitivity Background: Single-molecule fluorescent in situ hybridization (smFISH) stands as the gold standard for RNA visualization and quantification in cellular studies. However, its application in high-throughput methods like flow cytometry or single-cell RNA sequencing faces significant challenges due to limited signal intensity and nuclear accessibility constraints. The nuclear envelope and chromatin structure create barriers that hinder effective probe penetrati...

Plasmid vectors for in vivo selection-free use with the probiotic E. coli Nissle

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 08:48:57 GMT

Living therapeutic patches for healing mucosal wounds in the gut Background: Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD), including Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are common, debilitating, and poorly treated conditions, affecting around eight million people worldwide. Current therapeutics include immunosuppressants and biologics that are often administered systemically. More than one-third of patients require surgical colectomy. These treatment options may reduce symptoms temporarily but even in the state of clinical remission, patients still have disease activity (e.g., inflammation) l...

Method for using Reduced-Order Dynamics for Protective Equipment design

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 08:42:38 GMT

Method for using reduced-order dynamics for protective equipment design Background: The development of protective equipment, particularly helmets, requires extensive simulation and optimization to minimize injury risks. Traditional computational methods rely on high-fidelity simulations that demand significant computational resources, making iterative design optimization slow and costly. Existing engineering simulation software incorporates design optimization but struggles with high computational overhead and numerical instability. This limitation restricts the speed and efficiency of dev...

Ease-of-manufacture Highly Transparent Thin Polyvinyl Alcohol Aerogel

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 08:42:29 GMT

Energy-efficient and cost-effective method for manufacturing transparent and robust PVA aerogels for green energy applications Background: Aerogels, particularly silica-based variants, have been widely used for their exceptional thermal insulation and transparency. However, their fragility has posed significant challenges for broader applications, limiting their integration into high-performance fields such as energy-efficient building materials, aerospace, and solar energy systems. Traditional manufacturing methods, including freeze-thaw cycles, are time-consuming, require refrigeration, ...

Machine-learning assisted integrated non-linear optical spectrometer

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 06:49:43 GMT

Revolutionizing quantum and bioimaging with AI-driven non-linear optical spectroscopy Background: In the realm of optical spectroscopy, conventional non-linear optical spectrometers often struggle to effectively analyze complex biological and quantum materials, particularly beyond non-centrosymmetric second harmonic generation (SHG). Traditional approaches rely on limited detection mechanisms and lack the adaptability required for dynamic imaging environments. These methods frequently require extensive manual processing, resulting in slow analysis times and suboptimal sensitivity. The demand...

Programming cellular condensates for living materials using an intrinsically disordered protein display platform

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 06:46:20 GMT

Pioneering self-organizing living materials with dynamic reconfiguration capabilities Background: Cell surface display technology, which utilizes genetic engineering to modify proteins on cellular surfaces, has been instrumental in various biotechnology applications, including enzyme engineering and vaccine development. However, current cell surface display approaches face significant limitations in terms of display density and lack the ability to drive self-organization of cells into functional materials with programmable properties. Traditional techniques primarily use cells as factories...

A Principled Solution to the Disjunction Problem of Visual Query Representations

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 06:45:35 GMT

Revolutionizing query visualization: simplifying logical disjunctions for enhanced relational understanding Background: In the field of relational databases, logical disjunctions—statements like "color = 'red' or color = 'blue'"—are easy to interpret in text form but remain challenging to visualize in a diagrammatic format. Existing diagrammatic approaches are often constrained by scalability, ambiguity, or representational clarity. Current methods fail to effectively address the exponential growth in complexity for large or intricate queries, often re...

Cellular User Localization System: SMS Side-Channel Timing Analysis Method and Apparatus

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 06:43:58 GMT

User localization through SMS serves as a low-cost, scalable alternative to conventional location tracking Background: User localization is traditionally achieved through GPS, network triangulation, or internet-assisted location sharing. GPS-based tracking depends on device permissions, while network-based methods require extensive infrastructure and user cooperation. Additionally, in low-connectivity environments or for security-sensitive applications, conventional techniques fail to provide efficient, non-intrusive, and scalable localization. Existing solutions often rely on explicit use...

WIoT

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 22 Jan 2025 11:32:49 GMT

Techs for WIoT Event CU-LTE: An Algorithm to Enable Spectrally-Efficient and Fair Coexistence between LTE and Wi-Fi in Unlicensed Bands link: Technology -CU-LTE: An Algorithm to Enable Spectrally-Efficient and Fair Coexistence between LTE and Wi-Fi in Unlicensed Bands (testtechnologypublisher.com)

GlycoFix-3 (Structurally and Functionally Repaired Endothelial Glycocalyx, 3rd Edition)

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 10:16:33 GMT

GlycoFix-2 is a chemical formulation that repairs blood vessel linings to prevent heart diseasesGlycoFix-2: Chemical Repair of Blood Vessel Linings for Heart Disease PreventionBackground The endothelial glycocalyx is a sugar mesh coat that serves as a protective barrier for endothelial cells, such as blood vessels. The endothelial glycocalyx can degrade over time with exposure to shear, circulating enzymes and reactive oxygen species. A compromised glycocalyx exposes blood vessels to harmful substances that contribute to plaque formation, a significant contributor to cardiac e...

Device for High Throughput Isolation and Cultivation of Microbial Species

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 12:43:51 GMT

A high-throughput platform for in situ microbial cultivation using diffusion chambers, enabling the growth and isolation of uncultivated species in natural environments. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_795674473.jpeg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/vaibhav-1280x16001.jpeg Source Author Nabeel Adobe stock #795674473 Background The majority of microbial species on our planet remain uncultivated and unexplored. This invention bypasses the challenges of cultivation in the lab by moving cultivation into nature on the premise that nature contains eve...

A Method for Modulating Hydrogen Sulfide Concentrations in the Human Intestine

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 11:44:57 GMT

Engineered bacteria (smart probiotics) have been developed to sense and modify harmful sulfur species and specifically hydrogen sulfide in the gut for the treatment of intestinal diseases such as IBD. https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/vaibhav-1280x1600.jpeg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_586108897.jpeg Source: Author: Grafvision/ Adobe Stock File #586108897 Background Gastrointestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can be severely debilitating, often due to the alteration in the gut microbiome. A need persists f...

Depleting oxygen in the gut

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 11 Aug 2024 11:30:32 GMT

This invention uses membrane vesicles from bacteria to deplete oxygen in the gut, preventing the growth of harmful bacteria and improving colon health, particularly in conditions like colitis. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_801639063.jpeg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/vaibhav-1280x1600.jpeg Source: Author:JK_kyoto. Adobe Stock file # 801639063 Background A healthy gut is anaerobic. This anaerobic state is maintained through a partnership between symbiotic anaerobic bacteria and intestinal epithelial cells. I...

Bionic color structures as eco-friendly food dyes

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 10 Aug 2024 20:16:40 GMT

This technology creates eco-friendly, food-safe colorants by forming edible photonic nanostructures from natural colorants in water. Using microfluidic devices and controlled thermal processes, it enhances color stability and brightness, providing a safer alternative to synthetic additives. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/thumbnail.jpeg Copy Image URL via instructions below comm manager Background Current approaches to natural food colorants face significant challenges that limit their effectiveness and marketability. Despite decades of research, many natural colorants...

OffloaDNN: Shaping DNNs for Scalable Offloading of Computer Vision Tasks at the Edge

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:42:07 GMT

OffloaDNN enhances mobile CV task execution by optimizing DNN layers, reducing memory use by 82.5%, and increasing task handling by 26.9% https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_810835118.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-23.jpg Source Adobe Stock By Yasiru # 810835118 Background: The computational demands of deep neural networks (DNNs) for computer vision (CV) tasks pose significant challenges for mobile devices, which are designed to be lightweight, small, and energy-efficient. To address t...

SAWEC: Sensing-Assisted Wireless Edge Computing

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:42:03 GMT

Sensing-Assisted Wireless Edge Computing (SAWEC) enhances mobile device performance by offloading computational tasks to edge servers, reducing video data transmission through intelligent filtering, and optimizing bandwidth usage. This innovative approach ensures faster processing times and lower latency for real-time applications. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_884397290.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-10.jpg Source Adobe Stock By your123 #: 884397290 Background: Contemporar...

Faster and Accurate Neural Networks with Semantic Inference

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:42:01 GMT

SINF intelligently clusters inputs to selectively engage DNN subgraphs, reducing computational load while maintaining high accuracy. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_367338925.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-21.jpg Source Adobe Stock By Summit Art Creations # 367338925 Background The deployment of Deep Neural Networks in real-world applications faces significant challenges due to their substantial computational and data labeling requirements. Traditional techniques aimed at optimizing...

Methods for real-time wideband RF waveform and emission classification

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:43 GMT

Revolutionary deep learning tech for accurate, real-time spectrum sensing of wireless signals like 5G, WiFi, and Bluetooth https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-17.jpg Background: Spectrum sensing is crucial in wireless communications for efficiently utilizing the limited available radio frequency (RF) spectrum. The growing demand for bandwidth, driven by the increase in wireless devices and services, necessitates technologies that can dynamically manage spectrum allocation and detect spectrum holes. Current spectrum sensing approaches of...

SiMWiSense: Simultaneous Multi-Subject Activity Classification Through Wi-Fi Signals

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:28 GMT

SiMWiSense uses Wi-Fi Channel State Information (CSI) and a few-shot learning algorithm to classify activities of multiple subjects simultaneously, overcoming scalability issues and enhancing generalization with minimal data. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/simwisense.png https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-19.jpg Source: Haque, Khandaker & Zhang, Milin & Restuccia, Francesco. (2023). SiMWiSense: Simultaneous Multi-Subject Activity Classification Through Wi-Fi Signals. 10.48550/arXiv.2304.00057. Backg...

I Sense Your Feedback: Rethinking Wi-Fi Sensing Through MU-MIMO Beamforming Feedback Learning

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:26 GMT

BeamSense uses MU-MIMO beamforming feedback for high-granularity Wi-Fi sensing, enhanced by a Few-Shot Learning algorithm for quick adaptation to new environments with minimal data. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/i-sense-you.png https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-7.jpg Source:Haque, Khandaker & Zhang, Milin & Meneghello, Francesca & Restuccia, Francesco. (2023). BeamSense: Rethinking Wireless Sensing with MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Beamforming Feedback. 10.48550/arXiv.2303.09687. Background: The demand for accurate ...

3D-O-RAN: Dynamic Data Driven Open Radio Access Network Systems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:19 GMT

3D-O-RAN enhances O-RAN with semantic slicing and dynamic neural certification for cost-effective, interoperable network performance https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_964178767.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-13.jpg Source Adobe Stock: By Ahmed 964178767 Background In the rapidly evolving landscape of cellular communications, the need for systems that can adapt to changing conditions and ensure interoperability across different vendors is paramount. Traditional radio access networks often f...

SEM-O-RAN: Semantic NextG O-RAN Slicing for Data-Driven Edge-Assisted Mobile Applications

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:17 GMT

SEM-O-RAN uses O-RAN architecture and semantic compression to offload ML tasks to the edge, optimizing network resources and reducing latency. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_273497085.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-16.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By Tierney # 273497085 Background The exponential growth in the number of connected devices and the increasingly stringent performance requirements of mobile applications, such as augmented reality and autonomous driving, have necess...

V-Edge: Enabling Vehicular Edge Intelligence in Unlicensed Spectrum Bands

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:15 GMT

V-Edge enhances vehicular intelligence using 60 GHz and sub-6 GHz technologies for low-latency, high-throughput, real-time AI processing https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_1024312513-(1).jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-15.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By nurman 1024312513 Background: As the landscape of vehicular technology evolves, the integration of AI and DL within connected and autonomous vehicles becomes increasingly paramount. Traditional methodologies for data transmission and processi...

SplitBeam: Rethinking Beamforming Feedback in MU-MIMO Wi-Fi Systems Through Split Neural Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:13 GMT

SplitBeam uses a split deep neural network to optimize Wi-Fi beamforming, improving connectivity and reducing interference by processing the channel state information matrix with machine learning. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_364124467.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-9.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By Summit Art Creations #364124467 Background: Contemporary Wi-Fi networks face significant challenges in signal transmission, especially in environments with dense obstacles or high traffic, whe...

Robust Wi-Fi Radio Fingerprinting Through MU-MIMO CSI Feedback Deep Learning

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:08 GMT

This new Wi-Fi radio fingerprinting method uses beamforming feedback for device authentication, eliminating the need for expensive SDR technology and enhancing network security with low-cost hardware. Copy Image URL via instructions below https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-11.jpg Background: With the proliferation of Wi-Fi devices and networks, secure authentication methods are increasingly essential to differentiate legitimate devices from potential security threats. Traditional methods have relied on Software-Defined Radio (SDR) techn...

ReWiS: Reliable Wi-Fi Sensing Through Few-Shot Multi-Antenna Multi-Receiver CSI Learning

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:41:06 GMT

ReWiS improves Wi-Fi sensing accuracy using multi-antenna and multi-frame CSI, employing few-shot learning for quick adaptation with minimal data in applications like remote healthcare and security. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/rewis1.png https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-8.jpg Source: Bahadori, N., Ashdown, J., & Restuccia, F. (2022). Rewis: Reliable Wi-Fi sensing through few-shot multi-antenna multi-receiver CSI learning. 2022 IEEE 23rd International Symposium on a World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Net...

Methods for reliable classification of wireless signals

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 05:40:53 GMT

This technology uses AI and neural networks for real-time wireless signal classification, enhancing detection accuracy and compensating for channel distortions by manipulating the waveform before transmission. https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-12.jpg Background: The constant evolution of networking systems necessitates advanced methods to manage signal integrity and efficiency. The integration of machine learning and AI to adapt transceiver parameters in real-time to channel conditions and traffic demands is becoming increasingly imp...

Single Antenna Subharmonic Tags

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 12:35:16 GMT

INV-23024 Background: In the realm of RFID technology, the quest for miniaturization and enhanced efficiency is paramount, driven by the need for discreet tagging across a range of applications from inventory management to personal item tracking. Traditional subharmonic RFID tags often necessitate dual-antenna setups, leading to bulkier designs that challenge their integration into environments where space is at a premium. This reliance on multiple antennas not only enlarges the tag's size but also adds complexity to its design, increases production costs, and can diminish the...

Selective Directed Assembly-based Printing of Metal Oxide Dielectric Thin Films

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 12:35:13 GMT

INV-23020 Background In the field of electronics, there's a pressing need for components that are both flexible and versatile, prompting interest in metal oxide thin films for their insulating abilities and compatibility with standard electronics manufacturing. However, the conventional processing of these films involves high annealing temperatures, which not only confines their application to a narrow range of substrates but also necessitates complex fabrication processes, including etching. This high-temperature requirement hampers the broader adoption of metal oxide th...

Ultra-low Power Timing Circuit with PLL Locking

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 12:35:10 GMT

INV-23015 Background: In fields like computing, telecommunications, and navigation, the demand for precision timekeeping has intensified, pushing the limits of current timing solutions. As the backbone of digital system performance and reliability, clock accuracy is crucial, especially for ensuring synchronization. However, existing clocking methods struggle with stability and accuracy, leading to issues like jitter and drift that hinder synchronization across devices and networks. This challenge is most pronounced in high-speed data transfer scenarios, where minor timing inaccura...

Physical security and authentication systems using near-invisible, forgery-resistant quantum signatures.

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 12:34:42 GMT

INV-22047 Background: In a world where forgery and counterfeit of high-value items are rampant, the need for advanced physical security measures is more critical than ever. This challenge spans across various sectors including art, antiques, medicines, aircraft parts, currency, and luxury goods. Traditional physical security tags, while helpful, often fall short in combating sophisticated counterfeiting techniques. Recognizing this, a team of Northeastern researchers is seeking to revolutionize this field with groundbreaking technology. Description: Northeastern res...

Side-channel power obfuscation techniques using charge-equalizing on-chip switched capacitor converters

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 12:33:30 GMT

INV-21069 Background: In cryptography, the challenge of defending digital systems against side channel attacks—where attackers gain sensitive information from a system's physical operations—remains significant. These attacks exploit variations in power consumption that occur during the use of a cryptographic key, revealing critical data. Existing defenses often fall short, failing to effectively obscure the link between key usage and power consumption patterns. This vulnerability exposes systems to attackers who employ advanced statistical techniques to uncover sec...

Fire-retardant and Spectrally Robust Melamine Formaldehyde Photonic Bulk for Efficient Daytime Radiative Cooling

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 20:02:55 GMT

INV-21082 Background: Advances in cooling technologies are essential due to rising global energy consumption driven by the need for comfortable indoor environments. Sub-ambient passive daytime radiative cooling offers a promising solution by radiating heat into space while reflecting most sunlight. However, current materials like porous polymer films and bleached wood have significant drawbacks. They are often flammable, degrade in harsh conditions, and are too costly for large-scale use. They also struggle to maintain consistent cooling performance. A more versatile and durable cooling m...

Bi-modulus Adaptive Mechanical Metamaterials (AMM) towards Infinity-D Printing

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 24 May 2024 08:42:03 GMT

INV-23086 Background: Mechanical metamaterials are designed to have unique properties like flexibility and toughness, making them essential in industries such as aerospace, automotive, and civil engineering. These materials need to withstand extreme conditions and improve the safety and durability of structures. However, current materials often fail catastrophically when they reach a certain level of stress/strain or impact, causing irreversible damage. Additionally, many metamaterials cannot adjust their structure in response to localized stress/strain, which limits their resilience and ...

An Ising Tag with a LiNbO3 Resonator for Temperature Threshold Sensing

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 22 May 2024 16:47:04 GMT

INV-23061 Background: Passive tag technology, essential for remote sensing in logistics, healthcare, and environmental monitoring, faces significant challenges despite advancements. These tags are valued for their cost-effectiveness and longevity but often struggle to perform reliably in changing environments. A key issue with current tags, like Subharmonic tags (SubHTs), is their dependence on consistent power to maintain sensitivity. This limits their effectiveness to stable environments, which is impractical for real-world applications where conditions vary. Fluctuating power l...

Dynamic ground and aerial locomotion

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 22 May 2024 13:53:37 GMT

INV-24051 Background: Bipedal robots are designed to mimic human walking and navigate difficult terrains, but they face major challenges in unpredictable outdoor environments. Traditional models often fail to recover from slips or disturbances, limiting their effectiveness in dynamic and hazardous conditions. Although adding thrusters has been proposed to improve stability and movement, existing models like Leonardo and Salto-1P use propulsion mainly for mid-air stability and do not combine it with leg actuators for more complex actions. Current methods, which include integrating ...

Lithium Ion Conducting Polymer Resin for In-Situ Curing of Cathode Binder and Electrolyte Layer for All Solid State Composite Lithium Batteries

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 22 May 2024 10:06:02 GMT

Innovative polymer enhances solid-state batteries by improving structure and ion movement, simplifying assembly and boosting performance. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_805635617_(1).jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-5.jpg Source by By Ryan/ Adobe stock file # 805635617 Background Solid state batteries are seen as a safer and more efficient alternative to traditional lithium-ion batteries, particularly valuable to sectors like electric vehicles and consumer elec...

High Precision On-chip RC Oscillator

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 16:25:33 GMT

INV-23017 Short Summary: High Precision On-chip RC Oscillator: Elevating IoT Device Performance and Integration Background: In the Internet-of-Things (IoT) sector, devices need precise timing to communicate effectively and manage power, traditionally achieved using external 32kHz crystal oscillators. While these oscillators are accurate and stable, they add extra cost and require more space, which is a problem for modern, smaller IoT devices. Adding these parts also makes the design and assembly of devices more complex, leading to longer development time and increased m...

Sealable Microvalve That Can Be Repeatedly Opened and Sealed

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 10:59:54 GMT

INV-1243 Background The typical structure for a MEMS microvalve includes an orifice and a moveable plate that can be actuated to press against the orifice. When the plate does not press against the orifice, fluid can flow through the orifice and therefore through the valve. When the plate is pressed against the orifice, fluid flow through the valve is restricted. Although the flow is restricted, this type of microvalve does not fully seal, and some flow continues through the orifice. This does not provide adequate sealing for long periods of time. Some sealable valves in prior art ...

Nanostructuring of Polymers and Polymer Composites Using Pressure

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 10:59:41 GMT

A novel procedure for nanostructuring of polymer surfaces for medical implants to resist bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation Institute Reference: INV-14027 Background So far in the medical device community, several techniques have been used to improve the cytocompatibility of polymer surfaces by chemical or physical techniques for tissue engineering applications. Nanostructuring of polymer surfaces can improve cell adhesion and proliferation. Methods of nanostructuring polymer surfaces include etching, electron beam lithography, mechanical brushing, nanopatterning the surface of a...

Nanostructured Surfaces - joint with Brown University

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 10:59:18 GMT

INV-14052 Background The attachment of bacteria to surfaces, sometimes referred to as biofilm formation, often occurs in two steps. The first step is the initial attachment of the bacteria to the surface and the second is a cell-to-cell proliferation to form multilayered bacterial clusters. The initial attachment of the bacteria to the surface is thought to be affected by surface roughness, surface charge, and hydrophobicity. Attachment of bacteria is undesirable on surfaces of devices that are intended to be placed in the body of an individual or on surfaces where materials or device...

Nano- And Microelectromechanical Resonators

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 10:59:11 GMT

INV-16015 Background Micro Electro Mechanical (MEM) resonators are key enablers for the development of miniaturized and low power multi-band radio-frequency (RF) systems capable of operating in the extremely crowded modern commercial and military spectral environment. Recently, the complete maturation of the Aluminum Nitride (AlN) Film-Bulk-Acoustic resonator (FBAR) technology has allowed the replacement of off-chip surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices in commercial products, hence enabling a significant reduction in the form-factor of their RF front-ends. The high frequency Aluminum Nitride...

Piezoelectric Cross-Sectional Lame Mode Transformer

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 10:59:05 GMT

INV-16025 Background The growing demand of service bands in miniaturized mobile platforms is leading to an increased need for reconfigurable passive components such as antennas and filtering networks for use with static devices currently employed in Radio-Frequency (RF) front-ends. Although several approaches have been discussed to vary the operation of passive components, within a significantly wide tuning range, reconfigurable passive networks still remain unused in commercial products because of the difficulties in preserving high-performance throughout the entire tuning range. Th...

Methods for electrogeneration of reactive oxygen species without external oxygen supply

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 10:59:01 GMT

Background Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are defined as a group of reactive molecules and free radicals derive from molecular oxygen, such as superoxide hydroxyl, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and ozone. They are widely used in industry and environmental protection, because of their strong oxidizing ability. Especially H2O2 can exist stable in the environment, so it is commercially produced in large quantities, and more extensively used for disinfection, pulp, and paper bleaching, wastewater treatment, chemical synthesis, groundwater remediation. Technology Overview H2O2 c...

Periodic Extensional Flow Reactor

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:42:14 GMT

INV-24009 Background The ability to precisely control molecular orientation in polymer films is critical for optimizing material properties like strength and flexibility in many industrial applications. However, current manufacturing methods rely on applying extensional flow just once during polymerization, limiting orientation control to polymers at a specific formation stage. This single use of extensional flows restricts the capacity to further manipulate polymer structure after initial formation begins. As a result, it is difficult to achieve highly anisotropic films using trad...

New Fiber-Matrix Composites with Negative Poisson's Ratio

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 00:38:32 GMT

INV-23063 Background Materials with a negative Poisson's ratio, known as auxetics, have been studied for use in applications that can resist in-plane or out-of-plane loads. When stretched these materials uniquely expand perpendicular to the applied force. However, their widespread adoption faces significant hurdles due to their typical foam-like, porous structure, which compromises their strength and durability. The cellular makeup of auxetics introduces inherent weaknesses, making them susceptible to deformation and failure under diverse loading conditions. Moreover, the chall...

Continuous reactor and additive manufacturing of metals with nanostructured inclusions

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 16:09:30 GMT

INV-21117 Background Composite materials are materials created with 2 or more substances to create materials with improved properties such as strength, light weighted-ness, stiffness, increased conductivity, and resistance to corrosion and wear. Composite materials have properties that cannot be achieved with a single material. Older and current technology include manually creating composites through hand lay-up, or compression molding and injection molding which provides limited shape complexity along with high setup and operational costs. Other processes like resin transfer molding...

Hexavalent Substituted Benzenes

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 16:08:09 GMT

INV-22066 Background Polymers in the market include structures like linear chains, bottle brushes, and Miktoarm star polymers that achieve great strength but have limitations like buckling under compression and restricting free movement. Northeastern researchers have invented a material that uses synthetic benzene with substituted functional groups to form 2-D platelet structures. While there is semblance to graphene in the structure, graphene can be easily fractured due to its inability to absorb energy. This novel material’s structure, strength, lightweighted-ness, and ...

A wide-field system integrating intensity- and spatially- modulated light for diffuse optical tomography and spectroscopy applications

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 13:52:30 GMT

INV-22102 Background Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is a non-invasive optical imaging technique that is capable of imaging deep (>1 cm) tissue physiology, such as angiogenesis and metabolism, using only non-ionizing near-infrared light. When modulating the DOT light source intensity at a radio-frequency (RF), a frequency-domain DOT (FD-DOT) can provide absolute quantification of tissue absorption and scattering properties. However, due to relatively high instrumentation complexity and cost, most DOT systems utilize only continuous-wave (CW) light sources by assuming tissue scattering ...

Obfuscating Analog Circuits using Switched Phase Circuits

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 16:21:35 GMT

INV-23098 Background The rapid expansion of internet-connected devices and advancements in AI and autonomous technologies have driven a surge in demand for analog integrated circuits (ICs), essential for interfacing digital systems with the real world. However, the security measures currently in place to protect the intellectual property of these analog ICs are proving to be inadequate. Traditional security strategies, primarily designed for digital circuits, offer limited protection when applied to analog ICs, often degrading circuit performance. These digital-based locking scheme...

Thermo-Switchable Pressure-Sensitive Adhesives

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 12:55:18 GMT

INV-24023 Background: Pressure-sensitive adhesives (PSAs) are integral in a multitude of applications, from consumer use, construction, electronics, and medicine. A major limitation of existing PSAs is their inability to switch adhesion on and off. Once applied, the adhesive cannot be easily removed or reused. Switchable adhesives have the potential to significantly reduce cost, promote sustainability, and expand their use across many industries, including advanced manufacturing and robotics. Description: Northeastern researchers have created a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) t...

Slow-wave hybrid magnonics based on interacting magnons and spoof surface plasmon polaritons

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 06 Feb 2024 13:29:02 GMT

INV-23082 A novel slow-wave method for efficiently coupling spin waves with electromagnetic waves without compromising operational bandwidth. Background: Spin wave transduction is a crucial element in the field of magnonics, a branch of a family of technologies analogous to electronics that uses spin waves (magnons) instead of electrical currents for information/energy transfer. However, simultaneously achieving high-efficiency and sizable bandwidth have always posed significant challenges in conventional methods of magnon transduction. The commercial scope and po...

HASHI: Highly Adaptable Seafood Handling Instrument

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 11:01:32 GMT

INV-24042 https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_512005721_(2)1.jpeg Source: molpix, https://stock.adobe.com/images/industrail-robotic-arm-holding-aluminum-can-in-a-packaging-line-production-industrial-4-0-technology-for-modern-factory-management/512005721?prev_url=detail Innovative chopstick-inspired robotic end-effector offers precise, delicate handling for a wide range of food items, from beans to bananas. Equipped with advanced tactile feedback and easy-to-maintain appendages, it revolutionizes food processing and packaging efficiency. Sorce: m...

Neuro-Behavioral Assay for Physiological Evaluation of Water-Soluble Anesthetics

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 11:49:58 GMT

Background The development and use of general anesthetics is a key aspect of modern medicine. However, the current reliance on lipid-soluble general anesthetics presents issues, particularly for elderly patients who often have increased adipose tissue and decreased body water. This demographic can respond poorly to lipid-soluble anesthetics, resulting in prolonged half-life and increased susceptibility to issues such as delirium and cognitive decline during postoperative recovery. There's therefore a growing trend towards and need for water-soluble anesthetics. Despite the clear a...

Mitochondria transplantation in immune effector cells using droplet microfluidics and a sorter device for activating, modulating, or inhibiting immune cell activity or any cancer or tissue cell type

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 10:51:44 GMT

Search Result Description Here Copy Image URL via instructions below Copy Image URL via instructions below INV-23048 Background: Mitochondria are intracellular organelles that power cells by maintaining cellular homeostasis and contributing to vital cellular functions. They play an instrumental role in immune cell maintenance by managing signaling routes in immune effector cells, thereby driving immune response. However, the rising problem confronting this essential organelle is mitochondrial dysfunction, induced by excessive p...

Privacy-preserving range-free positioning of wireless devices

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 13:22:22 GMT

INV-23036 Background Collaborative positioning can be a useful approach in situations where a person needs to exchange information with nearby users. This can be particularly helpful when using a GNSS receiver in an urban area with limited satellite visibility or when indoors without the necessary technology to determine their location. Collaborative positioning can address these issues, but it does involve the sharing of data between users, which can raise privacy concerns. To address these concerns, privacy-preserving network schemes can be adopted. However, privacy-preserving network s...

On-Chip Active Resonator Based Spectrum Sensing

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 27 Dec 2023 13:08:53 GMT

INV-22107 Background Precise navigation and timing needs for both military and civilian applications are primarily enabled by GPS. While GPS can provide navigational accuracy down to a few meters, that accuracy degrades in a multi-path environment, yet various DoD applications involving drones and mobile platforms require navigational accuracy down to centimeters. Further, GPS signal is weak at the receiver and its carrier frequency is known, which makes it prone to jamming and spoofing attacks, which can disrupt the GPS based industry and pose a risk to our critical infrastructure. A pote...

Nanopore and membrane protein dynamic multichannel measurement apparatus and fabrication method for same

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 09:06:41 GMT

INV-23089 Background: Nanopore sensing devices are integral to scientific research and applications such as DNA sequencing and protein detection. The dynamic of trans and cis user access to a membrane in such devices can, however, pose significant challenges. Fulfilling the need for multiplexed and scalable nanopore sensing systems, especially those with both cis and trans access, has been a persistent issue in the field. Existing technologies usually do not support simultaneous user access to both sides of a membrane and lack multi-channel isolation during experiments. This limitation oft...

Mind Balance Training (MBT) platform

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 07:35:30 GMT

Background: The field of precision psychiatry is emerging as a significant area in the healthcare industry due to growing acknowledgment of the role of individual variability in disease etiology, treatment response, and health outcomes. Standard practice for mental health treatment often involves therapy or medication. However, the 'one size fits all' approach these methods embody is often inadequate because mental health disorders are highly personal and individual. Therefore, there's a pressing need for precision behavioral therapies that can provide personalized, adap...

Modular Robot Skin for Safe Human Robot Collaboration

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 10:49:49 GMT

INV-24004 Background: With the increasing frequency of human-robot interactions, as is the case with cobots (collaborative robots), service robots, exoskeletons and prosthetics, safety protocols have become essential. Robotic skin technology forms a crucial part of enhancing human-robot interaction and safety, allowing for real time sensing and reacting. Typical robotic skins require wired connections for data transmission and power supply, thereby limiting their application spectrum and posing challenges in adaptability and configuration. Additionally, most robotic skin technologies emplo...

Solid State Energy Storage Devices Monolithically Printed From Dispersions

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 08:59:30 GMT

scalable, directed assembly-based printing method has been developed for high-performance, stable all-solid-state Li metal micro-batteries, ideal for flexible electronics and RFID tags. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_801169798.jpeg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-scaled8.jpg Source: Shayan / Adobe Stock Abstract digital landscape with flowing streams of colored data, showcasing the seamless integration of technology in the fabric of digital communications. Stock Illustration | Adobe Stock Background Batteries that p...

Self-contained electrochromic platform for sensing and displaying color and pattern

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 20 May 2022 08:53:32 GMT

Self-Contained Electrochromic Platform for Sensing and Displaying Color and Pattern This device is capable of recognizing and replicating color schemes with a simplistic bio-inspired system Institute Reference: INV-22024 IN-PART Reference: 220516-13853-56576 Background Color surrounds our daily existence and has been implemented for centuries in our self-expression. Whether it be the color of our clothes, accessories or personal belongings, a choice is to be made daily. When it comes to our extensive selection of colors, nature has always been our largest benefactor, providing...

SCALABLE PRODUCTION OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED NANOFIBROUS MACROSCOPIC MATERIALS VIA FILTRATION

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 07:21:56 GMT

Background Amyloid fibers, produced by microorganisms, naturally form strong structural networks. These networks are of particular interest because they self-assemble, are stable in harsh environments, and have the potential to be customizable, creating stable proteins and peptides with specific functions. These nanofibers have numerous potential applications, including water purification, tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery, and environmental carbon capture. While most amyloid-based materials utilize natural sources of proteins, it is also possible to genetically engine...

Wearable Light Sensors Based on Unique Features of a Natural Biochrome

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 06:30:10 GMT

Wearable Light Sensors Based on Unique Features of a Natural Biochrome A novel, low cost, wearable device for measurement of sun exposure Background Exposure to sunlight’s harsh radiation has proven to be detrimental to our health. Ultraviolet (UV)-rays, infrared (IR) and to a lesser degree, visible light, all contribute to skin damage. Thus, measuring differing levels of sun exposure for individuals has become a popular preventative-care tactic. Current devices for generating such measurements, however, are incredibly expensive, require substantial power and often contain toxic act...

Automated Generation of All-Hexahedron Finite Element Meshes for the Superstructure of Steel Girder Bridges from Laser Scanned Data on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 17:25:39 GMT

INV-22014 Cost and time-efficient method for accurate and high-resolution inspection of steel girder bridges Background According to a recent America’s Infrastructure report, 42% of bridges are at least 50 years old and 7.5% of the nation’s bridges are considered structurally deficient. To ensure the safety of in-service bridges, the Federal Highway Administration recommends all bridges be inspected and documented periodically. Currently, the primary inspection method is visual inspection using physical methods. Despite being effective, these methods are quite time-consum...

Visible-Light Software-Defined Modem

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 04 Feb 2022 17:17:56 GMT

https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_1088897559.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-21.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By Boinah # 1088897559 Visible-Light Software-Defined Modem Self-optimizing and adaptive networks enabling multidomain communications Background Networks of autonomous and wirelessly connected sensors between unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) play a key role to accomplish a common goal in multiple domains’ applications. Some of the...

Automated Assessment of Concrete Cracks in Bridges by Exploiting UAV-Based Lidar and Camera Data

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 15:05:08 GMT

A collection of algorithms processing RGB image with Lidar data for detection and quantification of concrete cracks with high accuracy Institute Reference: INV-22013 Background Crack detection and characterization of concrete bridges is extremely important to define maintenance strategies and to optimize interventions. Existing crack assessment methods normally require each region of interest to be identified and segmented manually. Manual inspection methods are labor-intensive, time-consuming, and can even be life-threatening. Also, they are prone to human error, and they often...

Offshore Mobile Platform for Electrochemical Ocean Iron Fertilization & Hydrogen Gas Generation

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 14:39:20 GMT

An environmentally friendly and cost-effective solution to control global warming Institute Reference: INV-22035 Background The ocean is considered a large sink of atmospheric CO2 since it can uptake 25% of the emitted CO2 by human activities. Ocean iron fertilization (OIF) is one of the several proposed methods to sequestrate atmospheric CO2 and mitigate its effect on the global climate. Releasing iron at the upper level of the ocean stimulates the growth rate of phytoplankton, which consume the atmospheric CO2 and release O2. The consumed CO2 is propor...

High Performance and Sensitive X-Ray Detector With Extremely Low Applied Voltage Using Geiger Counter Structure

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 14:34:21 GMT

A novel Geiger counter design using nanomaterials, enabling x-ray detection for various applications https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_371496609.jpeg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-1280x1600.jpg Source: Author dule964/ Adobe Stock #371496609 Institute Reference: INV-21128 Background The effective detection of X-ray radiation is essential to many medical and industrial applications, including material analysis, X-ray astronomy, and security inspection. Based on the application type, X-ray detection needs differ. Secu...

DNA-based method for rapid capture, detection and analysis of viruses on surfaces

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 14:00:09 GMT

A sensitive and rapid alternative to current viral detection methods INV-21083 Background Thousands of deaths are occurring yearly due to various viral infectious diseases, which has resulted in global public health crisis. COVID‑19 has further brought into focus, the critical need for early detection to prevent transmission, apply effective therapy, and monitor disease prognosis. Sensitive methods for viral detection such as PCR are enzyme-based methods that require cold-chain conditions and an extensive amount of time. Therefore they are not viable options for rapid detection of COVI...

Site-specific Modification of Antibody through a Tranglutaminase-mediated Conjugation of Glutamine While Maintaining the Core Glycan

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 11:34:01 GMT

Site-specific Modification of Antibody through a Transglutaminase-mediated Conjugation of Glutamine While Maintaining the Core Glycan Technical advancement of site-specific antibody engineering creating more homogenous biologics Institute Reference: INV-21035 Background Antibodies are a predominant class of macromolecules with wide-spread use throughout the scientific community including laboratory assays, imaging techniques, and medical treatments. Antibodies can be costly and challenging to properly manufacture or engineer whilst maintaining initial st...

A naturally-derived and edible photonic crystal coloring system

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 09:12:38 GMT

INV-21129 Background: Colorants are applied to the food we consume with surprising frequency, in order to enhance their visual appeal. The compounds utilized to accomplish this can either be artificially synthesized or naturally derived. Artificial colorants were largely popular in previous decades, as they were inexpensive to generate, and could be easily integrated into most foods; however, safety concerns regarding potential allergic reactions and behavioral shifts prompted scientists to generate a more natural alternative. Many colorants today...

Suspensions and solutions of dyes that enable colored coatings with tunable infrared performance

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 25 Sep 2021 07:48:38 GMT

INV-21076 Background Traditionally, paints are granted color by solid, inorganic pigments evenly dispersed throughout their matrix. These pigments absorb most wavelengths of light but reflect a few remaining wavelengths, which generates the color we perceive with our eyes. Longer wavelengths (LWs) which carry heat, are also absorbed, and reflected in a similar manner to color, based on the physical and chemical properties of the paint pigments. Darker pigments, which absorb, rather than reflect, considerable amounts of LWs, create challenges for the temperature management of painted surfac...

Method for analog measurement of input signals using bi-stable digitizing micromechanical switches

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:19:14 GMT

Cost-effective, miniaturized switch-based detection method with integrated measurement functionality Institute Reference: INV-21097 Background Battery-powered wireless sensors are of particular interest in sensor networks and internet of things (IoT) applications owing to their ability to be deployed anywhere without the need for any wiring. This is especially valuable in applications that require placement in hard-to-reach or hazardous areas. Significant advances in nanotechnology and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors have resulted in the development of sensors with low ...

A Robust Infant 2D Pose Estimation and Posture Detection System

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 14:13:50 GMT

Data Efficient Machine Learning: Infant Pose and Posture Estimation Institute Reference: INV-21102 Background Recent advances in computer vision have led to powerful human activity recognition models. However, models trained on large-scale adult activity datasets have limited success in estimating infant actions/behaviors due to the significant differences in their body ratios, the complexity of infant poses, and the types of their activities. More specifically, publicly available large-scale human pose datasets are predominantly comprised of scenes from sports, TV, and other daily a...

A Co-Culture Method for Biofuel and Biochemical Production from Untreated Syngas

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 17:30:10 GMT

INV-21103 Background Syngas, a clean and renewable energy, is expected to widely replace traditional forms of energy. Also, there is a rising demand for green chemicals with a wide variety of applications, produced from syngas and derivatives. Gas fermentation using acetogenic bacteria has emerged as a promising method to synthesis gas. Acetogenic bacteria grow using gases including carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (CO2) and convert them to acetic acid and ethanol. It is widely anticipated that gas fermentation using acetogens will be a prominent component o...

Method and Apparatus with Over-the-Air Neural Networks via Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 17:25:04 GMT

INV-21107 Background The explosive growth in wireless technology and the need for sharing scarce spectrum has resulted in many scenarios where different protocols and devices must co-exist in the same frequency bands. Given such heterogeneity in operation, there are complex challenges in gaining a holistic awareness of the ongoing activity in the spectrum band, which typically relies on signal analysis. However, it is challenging to model signal analysis via analytical approaches that lead us to apply machine learning methods. Machine learning methods proposed for such purposes ar...

Method And Apparatus For Software-defined Radio with Timing, Phase, and Frequency Synchronization

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 17:18:29 GMT

INV-21094 Background Communication systems’ requirements for different applications have been changing rapidly over the years. In this regard, wireless network architectures are undergoing a radical transformation, moving away from centralized control towards a distributed paradigm where devices make local decisions towards a shared, global objective. Software Defined Radios (SDR’s) may provide flexible, upgradeable, longer lifetime, and possibly cheaper radio equipment for wireless communications infrastructure. It can also be a convenient base technology for the futu...

Pressure Eye: In-bed Contact Pressure Estimation via Contact-less Imaging

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 17:10:29 GMT

INV-21122 Background Pressure ulcers are a localized injury to the skin or underlying tissue usually over a bony prominence as a result of pressure. Pressure ulcers have been reported as the third most costly and deadly complication after cancer and cardiovascular diseases. In the United States, each year about 2.5 million hospitalizations happen due to pressure ulcers and 60,000 deaths are reported because of this complication. Such statistics will be increasing at an alarming rate in the following years due to the aging population and orthopedic comorbidities. Various computer v...

MemPoline: Protecting Sensitive Software against Memory-based Information Leakage

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 15:55:04 GMT

INV-21111 Background In recent years, various side-channel timing attacks on both CPUs and GPUs, in diverse settings such as desktops, clouds, and mobile systems have been seen. These attacks observe events on different shared resources on the memory hierarchy from timing information, and then infer memory access patterns to retrieve the secret through statistical analysis. These attacks significantly violate confidentiality and privacy requirements. Both hardware and software have been introduced as viable protection methods. Though hardware protections can be efficient, they are...

A benchtop platform to rapidly produce nanofibrous materials

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 15:47:09 GMT

INV-21085 Background Nanofibrous scaffolds can mimic the mechanical and structural properties of the natural extracellular matrix (ECM) and tissues (e.g., collagenous tissues), thereby demonstrating high potential in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. However, the rapid and reproducible fabrication of biomimetic scaffolds for tissue engineering applications has remained a challenge. For instance, engineered collagenous connective tissues should replicate the high collagen density, aligned fibrillar organization, and anisotropic mechanical properties of native tissues. C...

New smart mechanical metamaterials with tunable stimuli-responsive expansion coefficients

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 15:28:09 GMT

INV-21073 Background Smart Materials are materials with one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by externally applied stimuli such as stress, temperature, and electric/magnetic fields. The response can be reversible and demonstrated by changes in physical properties such as shape, stiffness, and viscosity in a specific manner. Smart materials do not constitute just a discrete part of the system, but can also be the system itself, representing sensing, actuation, and mechanical functions. Properties such as self-adaptability, self-sensing, s...

Three Dimensional Auxetic Tiled Composites

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 15:18:36 GMT

New auxetic materials with higher stiffness, strength, and adaptability through large mechanical load and shear https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_988355353.jpeg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-1280x1600.jpg Source: Author Irina/ Adobe Stock # 988355353 INV-21121 Background Auxetic materials deform in an unusual way when stretched or compressed. This unusual behavior enables different properties such as variable permeability, energy absorption, resistance to fracture, adaptability, and resist...

Differentiation of Olfactory Mucosa Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells to Schwann Cells for Peripheral Nerve Repair

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 26 Jun 2021 15:03:56 GMT

INV-21115 Background Peripheral nerve injuries resulting from trauma can be severe and permanently debilitating. Nerve autografting is the current gold standard for the treatment of such injuries. However, after grafting, in approximately one-third of cases, incomplete recovery with poor restoration of function is observed. This may include total loss or incomplete recovery of motor or sensory function, chronic pain, muscle atrophy, and profound weakness, which can result in lifelong morbidity. The most notable approach to overcome grafting limitation is the use of Schwann cells a...

METHODS OF MAKING GELS AND FILMS USING CURLI NANOFIBERS

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 12 Jun 2021 17:25:43 GMT

INV-21044 Background The curli system is the primary structural component of bacterial biofilm that promotes bacterial adhesion. This system is composed of highly robust amyloid nanofibers that have self-assembly properties and high resistance to harsh environmental conditions. Such unique properties make these nanofibers attractive for the production of gel and film useful in numerous applications, from food coating, food packaging, drug delivery systems, regenerative medicine to bioelectronics. Curli amyloid nanofibers can also be used as filler in alginate hydrogels. Alginate hydrogels,...

Method and Apparatus for Overlaying City-Scale IOT Control Signals Over LTE Cellular Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 20:35:35 GMT

Infrastructure-free IoT deployment based on existing LTE base-stations Institute Reference: INV-18024 Background A city-scale communication system for broadcasting control signals is disclosed based on overlaying information for sensors over existing standards compliant LTE signals without any hardware modifications to existing cellular infrastructure. Technology Overview This invention introduces a novel encoding scheme that changes the spatial positioning of Almost Blank Subframes (ABS) within a standard LTE frame to convey control information. This allows any numbe...

Topological Insulator/Normal Metal Bilayers as Spin Hall Materials for Energy Efficient Spin Orbit Torque Devices

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 11:07:21 GMT

INV-20119 Background The concept of using the spin degree of freedom to control electrical current to expand the capabilities of electronic devices has been in use for decades and generates high frequency voltage signals in the GHz range. 3D topological insulators (TIs) possess enhanced spin current to charge current conversion efficiencies which can provide the highest recorded spin orbit torques (SOT) to adjacent magnetic layers to generate magnetization oscillations and switching. These advances are highly relevant for SOT‑based magnetic random access (MRAM) units as fast ...

Rheology-Informed Neural Networks for complex fluids

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 13:43:43 GMT

INV-21050 Background Many complex and structured fluids exhibit a wide range of rheological responses to different flow characteristics. The ability to predict this complex rheological behavior is essential in better understanding and designing these complex fluids and their processing conditions. Despite the increasing trend in using artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms in many avenues of science, technical issues in material science and fluid mechanics cause this field to lag. Over the past few decades, software packages have been developed to perform flui...

Mechanism for Real-Time Spectrum-Driven Embedded Wireless Networking Through Deep Learning in the RF Loop

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 11:02:10 GMT

RFLearn autonomously optimizes RF communication using deep learning for low-latency, real-time adjustments in 5G and IoT networks. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_1032238958.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-19.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By Amornrat # 1032238958 Background: The proliferation of wireless devices and 5G networks has significantly increased the demand for radio frequency (RF) spectrum resources, creating a crowded and complex environment that is challenging to manage. This ...

Antisite defect qubits in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 11:12:28 GMT

INV-21027 Background The ongoing second quantum revolution calls for exploiting the laws of quantum mechanics in transformative new technologies for computation and quantum information science (QIS) applications. Spin-qubits based on solid-state defects have emerged as promising candidates because these qubits can be initialized, selectively controlled, and readout with high fidelity at ambient temperatures. A key challenge in the development of controllable multiple-qubit systems is how to effectively couple spin defects and achieve high fidelity and long coherence times...

Recyclable, Self-cleaning Cellulose-fiber-Composites for Passive Radiative Cooling

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 06:57:45 GMT

INV-21040 Background Compressor-based cooling systems that provide comfortable interior environments for infrastructure, accounts for about 20% of the total electricity consumption around the world. The resultant heating effects and greenhouse gas emissions accelerate global warming and climate change. Emerging passive radiative cooling (PRC) techniques are a solution that can achieve sub-ambient cooling effects under direct sunlight without any energy consumption. This would simultaneously reflect sunlight and radiate excessive heat as infrared thermal radiation to outer space thro...

Method for Spectrum Sharing by Cellular and WiFi Networks Based on Cognitive Beamforming

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 10:41:17 GMT

https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_946292754.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-21.jpg Source Adobe Stock By Man888 # 946292754 INV-19022 Background In today’s cellular world mobile data traffic is increasing at an unprecedented rate, which poses a significant burden on the capacity of the underlying wireless network infrastructure - a problem often referred to as spectrum crunch. To address this challenge, researchers have been exploring new spectrum management/sharing ...

Ultra Low Power Wake up Radio Architecture

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 10:38:44 GMT

INV-21072 Background Cellular communication has experienced tremendous improvement in performance and efficiency over the past few decades. The high-power consumption of conventional low-power wide area network receivers employed in applications such as smart meters, environmental sensors, threat monitors, and other Internet of Things (IoT) applications, often dictates overall device battery life. Even though many such applications communicate at low-average throughputs, the power of the radio can be high due to the need for frequent network synchronization. Typically, sensitivity, ...

Impedance Calibration Device for Semiconductor Device

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:26:00 GMT

INV-17018 Background In semiconductor memory devices, data signals transmitted along a transmission line are reflected at the end of the transmission line. These reflected data signals may degrade the quality of the transmitted data signals. In order to reduce the reflection of the data signals, a termination resistor is usually coupled to the end of the transmission line. The termination resistor reduces the reflection of the data signals by matching internal impedance with the external impedance of a memory system. Such a termination resistor may be used in a DRAM (Dynamic Random Acc...

Characterization of dielectric slabs attached to the body using focused millimeter waves

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 14 Feb 2021 13:22:38 GMT

INV-16072 Background As people enter secure areas, it is important that they be scanned to ensure that they are not entering with weapons or explosives. In addition, airport departure gates, office buildings, stadiums and similar venues must have fast, accurate and non-intrusive means of detecting threats concealed against a highly conducting background (such as human skin). Portal-based screening systems at security check points typically use millimeter wave technology to image objects concealed beneath clothing on a human body. Specific characterization of weak dielectric threat objects,...

Internally Cooled Aerodynamically Centralizing Nozzle (ICCN) for Cold Spray

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 12:31:10 GMT

A novel cold spray nozzle design that reduces clogging, improves particle centralization, and enables high-resolution 3D additive manufacturing of metal components. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_4360250561.jpeg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-1280x1600.jpg Source: Author zyabich/ adobe stock #436025056 Background Cold spray is an additive manufacturing technology used for building metal and cermet (metal/ceramic mix) materials onto solid surfaces, repairing high value components, and printing metal and composite 3D structu...

Linearization and Translocation of Single Protein Molecules Through Biological Nanopores

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 10:32:44 GMT

INV-21060 Background Nanopore sensing is a promising technology that detects and sequences biomacromolecules without depending on biomolecule modification, labeling, or surface immobilization. Rapid detection of biomacromolecules revolutionizes the field of proteomics and disease diagnosis. Nanopore technology employs nanoscale pores between two electrolytic fluid chambers with an impermeable membrane. As the voltage is applied to the chamber, an ion current occurs, and translocation of macromolecules through the pore causes changes in the ion current. Fluctuations of the ion current and the...

PaCyR Sensors for Point of Care Cytokine Monitoring

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 08:21:38 GMT

INV-21038 Background Cytokine storm is a life-threatening uncontrolled elevation of circulating cytokines, which occurs in various inflammatory conditions such as infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and cancers. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the devastating role of a cytokine storm and brought this immune dysregulation response to attention. Cytokine storm can lead to multi‑organ failure if inadequately treated, thus the early diagnosis is important to prevent its prognostic and therapeutic implications. Currently, nonspecific markers of inflammation such as ...

A Nanopore Device to Discretely Measure Viral Particle Count and Functional Titer with Single-molecule Resolution

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 08:15:53 GMT

INV-21063 Background An effective response to viral infections relies on rapid, selective, and sensitive detection of viruses. However, it is so difficult to quantify the concentration of packaged viruses in a sample that researchers use indirect metrics to assess concentration such as plaque-forming units (PFU). Other methods for viral analysis such as immunological assays, transmission electron microscopy, and PCR-based testing, are time-consuming and require large sample volume. Measurement of the physical titer of viral particles is not sufficient. The functional titer is important in ...

Enhanced Radiation Shielding with Conformal Light-weight Nanoparticle-polymer Composite

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 08:07:04 GMT

INV-19025 Background The efficient shielding of ionizing X-ray and gamma radiation is required in medical, nuclear and aerospace industries. High Z elements such as lead, tungsten, bismuth and uranium are often used to attenuate X-ray radiation, where the shielding ability is dependent on the density and mass of the material, leading to heavy shielding materials. Further, most shielding materials are rigid solids and lack flexibility for conformal protection. To form conformal protection, a promising way is to shrink the size of effective metals and add them into a polymer matrix. Even thoug...

Robotic Leg Advancement Device

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 07:21:35 GMT

Robotic Leg Advancement Device A novel robotic device for automation of a physical therapy for gait patients Institute Reference: INV-14007 Background A commonly used gait training paradigm relies on manual leg advancement, where the Physical Therapists (PTs) help patients take their legs through the proper motion during ambulation over a treadmill, or over ground. Such manual therapy often requires 2 or 3 PTs to work together, which carries a high labor cost burden because insurance reimburses for the time of one PT working with one patient, therefore the cost of any extra help fr...

Biochemical Sensing using Microbubbles on a Chip using Whispering Gallery Mode Resonance

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 06:35:23 GMT

INV-18062 Background The development of ultrasensitive, miniature, and label-free bioanalytical detectors for medical diagnosis, drug discovery, and environmental monitoring has been a dream of scientists and biotechnologists. Such devices provide on-site and real-time information, which improves point-of-care diagnosis and high-throughput drug discovery. Chip scale calorimeter and chromatography are used for detection and quantification of bio-analytes. However, calorimeters such as thermal biosensors need a large sample volume, and it is challenging to be functionalized at chip scales. On-...

High-effective all-in-one evaporator for solar-driven water desalination

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 08:42:58 GMT

INV-21020 Background Ever since freshwater scarcity has become a threat to the sustainable development of human society, increasing access to freshwater is very important to our society. In this environment, utilizing saline waters from the oceans and other sources is attracting more and more attention. Due to the clean and sustainable characteristics of solar energy, solar-driven evaporation is becoming one of the promising approaches for water desalination and purification. The traditional solar-driven evaporation system has many disadvantages such as low efficiency and high cost be...

Gas diffusion electrodes, membrane-electrode assemblies and methods for the production thereof

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 13:21:07 GMT

INV- 15070 Background Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are considered to be one of the most promising sources of clean electrical energy for the near future. PEMFC are electrochemical generators which produce direct electrical current from a gaseous fuel (typically hydrogen, pure or in a mixture) and a gaseous oxidant, normally consisting of oxygen or air. The importance of mixed metal coatings is commonly related to the properties of binary and ternary metal alloys in the field of electrocatalysis, for instance in imparting tolerance to carbon monoxide and other organic sp...

Method and Device for Cultivation and Analysis of Novel Microbial Species with Unknown Growth Requirements

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 15:47:18 GMT

INV-15097 Background: The annual death rate due to antibiotic resistance was expected to reach 10 million by 2050. However, no new class of antibiotics has been introduced as a successful treatment option since 1987. Lack of new antibiotics is due to the fact that we do not have access to many microbial species in their natural environment, or we cannot grow them under standard laboratory conditions. Many useful microorganisms living as close as inside our gut or as remote as on the planet Mars, or in harsh natural environments have remained hidden from us. Therefore, there is a need to isol...

New Configurations of the Gear Bearing Drive

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 08:15:29 GMT

INV-13069 Background Many robotic and motion control applications demand precision rotary transmissions that can deliver high torque in compact assemblies. Planetary, or epicyclic gear drives and harmonic drives are commonly used, due to their many advantages. However, they also have drawbacks ranging from complex and higher cost manufacturing, to the potential for excessive backlash, leading to gear box wear, noise, and vibration. Gearbox backlash depends on several qualitative factors, including manufacturing precision of the gears, bearing and housing precision, metal hardness, and prec...

Antibody-based Rolling Circle Amplification for COVID-19 Detection by a Colorimetry

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 09:44:05 GMT

INV-21038 Background Viruses are conventionally detected by RT-PCR. This method requires long analysis time, highly trained professionals, and often shows non-specific characteristics. Antigens and antibodies (Ag/Ab) are commonly used for fluorescence immunoassay. However, the fluorescent signal from the individual fluorescent molecule attached to the antibody is extremely weak and requires signal amplification. This invention provides a way for a quicker and more efficient method of DNA and virus detection by rolling circle amplification. The integration of the mu...

Novel bioassay platform for drug and immunotherapy screenings in a personalized format for highly functional cell expansion

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 09:24:08 GMT

INV-19076 Background Immunological screenings for different infections and cancers can yield essential information for developing effect treatments. The efficiency and accuracy of screenings can be improved by choosing efficient matrices and type of assay. Different 3D matrices have been used for immunological screenings. However, due to limited bio‑adhesion and mobility, there has been no significant improvement. The use of biomimetic matrices requires external equipment and complex systems. Selecting the isolated droplets by fluorescent-activated droplet sorting, lim...

Single-cell Pairing Chip for Personalized Immunotherapeutic Screening

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 08:32:23 GMT

INV-19067 Background Natural Killer cells are a type of white blood cell that physically interact with target cancer cells and determine whether to lyse them. The innate heterogeneity of both cancer and NK cells leads to a variety of interactions between pairs of NK-cancer cells. Therefore, single-cell analysis would help in analyzing these interactions and reprogramming NK cell immunotherapeutic efficacy. To facilitate the analysis, researchers have developed a hydrodynamic microfluidic device that entraps NK-cancer cell pairs, and analyzes dynamic cell interactions through...

Controlled Vapor-phase ion-gating (VPIG) and ion capping of Nanomaterials

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 05:56:31 GMT

INV-17050 Background The investigation of charged particles is a fundamental aspect of several disciplines including physics, astronomy, atmospheric science, and geophysics, and, in addition to ion gauge based pressure metrology, forms a critical component of numerous advanced applications such as mass spectroscopy, plasma acceleration, oncology, radiation dosimetry, and radioactive threat detection. A variety of instruments are used to detect or count charged particles, including Faraday cups, Geiger counters, electron multiplier tubes, and solid‐state semiconductor detectors. These...

Software-Defined Control Plane for Distributed Wireless Energy Transfer System

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 10:04:28 GMT

INV-16075 Background Estimates suggest that the number of connected devices worldwide will increase to 50-200 billion by 2020, with global spending reaching 1.7 trillion in that same year. Connected devices are used at multiple levels of society, from a personal level (wearable devices) to community level (smart cities). Energy consumption demands are increasing exponentially due to the development of processor- heavy applications, higher data communication rates and technologies, and increased usage of multimedia content. To power these devices are the constraints of battery techno...

Optimal Adaptive Scheduling of Clinical Assessments

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Dec 2020 07:12:22 GMT

INV-15103 Background Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) data provides a rich context for diagnosing and tracking the progression or remediation of disease during health care interventions. EMA enables frequent data collection between clinical appointments and in non-clinical settings. When implemented on mobile systems it provides a platform for real-time delivery of behavioral therapy and healthcare management. However existing EMA approaches are limited by the following: 1) They depend on pre-selected tests and conditions that are not optimized to the patient’s behaviora...

Transwell Millifluidic

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 13:08:21 GMT

INV-19073 Background Many common microfluidic devices experience issues with cell seeding due to their small dimensions and need to be seeded using perfusion. Similarly, the diffusion of nutrients, including oxygen, is limited in many common microfluidics also due to small dimensions. Additionally, while immunofluorescence is the main analytical assay compatible with most microfluidics, many microfluidic devices are incompatible with other assays such as western blotting, ELISAs, and rt-PCR. Technology Overview The proposed device is a cost-efficient, easy-to-use, transparent flu...

Injectable, Bioadhesive Cryogel Scaffolds for Biomedical Uses

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 06:26:48 GMT

INV-19031 Background In the US, over 27 million hospital visits include invasive, therapeutic surgeries. However, despite substantial advances in gelatin, fibrin, and cyanoacrylate-based biomaterial adhesives, a robust solution with tissue integration, biomechanical integration, and wet-tissue adhesion remains a significant challenge. Hydrogels and cryogels were formulated to provide better structural integrity and biocompatibility. However due to lower mechanical strength and limited adhesion to wet tissue they have limited use. Hence there is a need for injectable, bioadhesive cryoge...

Consistent and enhanced production of anti-cancer drugs from the Madagascar periwinkle plant

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 08:27:41 GMT

INV-19070 Background The Madagascar periwinkle plant has been used for vinblastine (VBL) and vincristine (VCR) since the 1960s. These chemical compounds have been listed on “World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines”. However, due to high cost, low concentration in extracts, and unpredictable supply, the applications of VBL and VCR as essential medicines are limited. Due to the low concentrations in the leaves, VBL and VCR are currently obtained through a semi-synthetic process involving the condensation of their more abundant precursors, catharanthine (...

Self-Powered Analog Computing Architecture with Energy Monitoring to Enable Machine-Learning Vision at the Edge

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 06:51:03 GMT

INV-19034 Background The internet-of-things (IoT) is how the networking sensors are placed on everyday physical objects to perform meaningful sensing and communication. Since its conception, IoT has been touted as the next wave of computing with exponential growth prospects however this growth outlook has been tempered by technological challenges. Ideally, IoT devices should be seamlessly deployed without the need for maintenance through technology such as battery-less devices that run on harvested energy. IoT edge-devices have to address the modern computing needs of machine-learnin...

Highly Reliable and Compact Universal Power Converter

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 16:54:57 GMT

INV-16060 Background In the modern era, electrically-powered devices have become ubiquitous. A power source for an electrically-powered device often has a set of static characteristics such as a voltage level, a minimum or maximum current, and a frequency that do not align with those required by the device and thus a power convertor is required to convert to have characteristics compatible with the electrical device. Power convertors may utilize switches typically in the form of bipolar transistors or field effect transistors (FETs) or insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) to con...

Mechanisms for the Enforcement of Network Slicing Policies in Virtualized Cellular Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:24:22 GMT

An algorithm for effective management of network slices for 5G networks https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-17.jpg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_244167435.jpeg Source: By Aliaksandr Marko Adobe Stock Image :# 244167435 Background Recent studies indicate that the demand for faster, lower latency wireless cellular connection is growing exponentially every year. RAN slicing is a form of 5G virtualization that allows network infrastructure owners to dynamically &ldqu...

Methods for generating high stability gain structure and filters in integrated circuits

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 14:09:45 GMT

INV-19033 Background Internet–of–Things (IoT) envisions a large scale deployment of ultra-low-power (ULP) electronic devices integrated into our environment to perform meaningful sensing and communication. However, existing IoT devices have lower available power and can perform only a limited amount of sensing, processing, and communication, of which communication has the highest power consumption. To reduce the power consumption needed for communication, the amount of data must be reduced which can be done by incorporating computing at the edge in IoT. Analog comp...

Cationic Contrast Agents for Computed Tomography Imaging of Tissues

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 13:27:19 GMT

INV-20021 Background Early diagnosis of degenerative joint diseases like osteoarthritis (OA) is critical because it gives a narrow window of time to reverse disease progression. While computed tomography (CT) can diagnose changes in subchondral bone, it is not clinically viable for imaging joint soft tissues like cartilage that exhibit early degenerative changes associated with OA onset. CT is developed for soft tissue imaging by using radio-opaque contrast agents injected into the joint. Contrast agents like ioxaglate (IOX) are anionic and thus repelled by negatively charged carti...

photochemical etching of silicon nitride surfaces and freestanding membranes

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 13:40:09 GMT

INV-18084 Background Silicon nitride is a widely used material as a component in solid-state devices for many applications such as biotechnology, electronics, photonics, and other areas. Processing silicon nitride films in order to provide defined topographical features is a major part of the silicon industry, and it has been a routine practice for micro and nanostructure fabrication. Lithography in silicon nitride typically requires aggressive dry or wet chemical treatment, which can be accomplished using a photolithography or electron beam mask layer followed by chemical processing...

A Deep Learning-based Polymorphic Internet of Things Platform for Reliable and Secure Wireless Communications

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 19:14:03 GMT

PolyRF uses deep learning to dynamically adapt IoT signal processing, enhancing security and mitigating spectrum crunch. Copy Image URL via instructions below https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-26.jpg Background: The Internet of Things (IoT) is experiencing rapid growth, with devices increasingly relying on wireless communications. As the number of IoT devices escalates, current systems face significant challenges due to their reliance on standardized protocols. These static protocols constrain devices, leading to concerns about spectr...

Software system for generating and analyzing quantitative restoration and recovery strategies and scenarios for man-made and natural complex networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 19:13:01 GMT

INV-15090 Background Current network-based resilience solutions are ad-hoc and not generalizable across disciplines or systems. Spatial data mining -- the process of discovering previously unknown and potentially useful patterns from spatiotemporal data – when combined with network analysis, social media datasets and location sensing technologies, yields predictive insights that can inform cyberinfrastructure network resilience decision-making. An integrated platform that utilizes raw data in conjunction with user provided inputs yields actionable metri...

Segmentation Guided Image-to-Image Translation with Adversarial Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 19:11:02 GMT

INV-18073 Background Image-to-image translation is receiving increased attention due to an increasing need to compare and classify images, often mapping images in one domain to another. Existing methods mainly solve this task via a deep generative model and focus on exploring the relationship between different domains. These methods neglect to utilize higher-level and instance-specific information to guide the training process, leading to a great deal of unrealistic generated images of low quality. Technology Overview In this invention, multi-domain image-to-image transla...

Mechanisms for Adversarial Machine Learning in Wireless Systems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 19:09:37 GMT

AI-driven technology enhances real-time wireless signal classification and transceiver adjustments through adaptive neural networks https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_1089384366.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-20.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By clsdesign #1089384366 Background: Wireless machine learning systems are increasingly critical for automated decision-making in areas such as security and communications, yet they face unique vulnerabilities. Traditional protective measures, designed for...

Mechanism for Real-Time Channel-Resilient Optimization of Deep Learning-based Radio Fingerprinting Algorithm

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 19:08:35 GMT

DeepRadioID uses FIR filters and deep learning for unique, energy-efficient IoT device authentication without resource-intensive cryptography https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_1087414419.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-24.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By Wilasini #: 1087414419 Background: The rapid proliferation of IoT devices has intensified the need for secure and efficient authentication methods to safeguard against unauthorized access and potential security breaches. Traditional crypt...

WNOS: An Optimization-based Wireless Network Operating System

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 19:01:17 GMT

https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_181871014.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-21.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By tippapatt # 181871014 INV-18026 Background Existing wireless networks are inherently hardware-based and rely on closed and inflexible architectures that delay the adoption of new wireless networking technologies. It is challenging to control large-scale networks of heterogeneous devices with diverse capabilities and hardware. On the other hand, so...

Low Latency Caching and Forwarding Method for Content Distribution Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 18:55:07 GMT

INV-18030 Background Research on information-centric networking (ICN) architectures over the past few years show a number of central network design issues. One prominent issue is how to jointly design traffic engineering and caching strategies to maximally exploit the bandwidth and storage resources of the network for optimal performance. While traffic engineering and caching have been investigated separately for many years, their joint optimization within an ICN setting was under‑explored. Current networks suffer from latency/slowed response based on the amount of data bei...

A Framework for Joint Dynamic Forwarding and Caching in Content Distribution Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 16:05:22 GMT

This technology introduces the Virtual Interest Packet (VIP) framework, an advanced solution for Named Data Networking (NDN) that optimizes traffic engineering and caching strategies to improve network performance. By dynamically balancing network loads and maximizing cache efficiency, the VIP framework significantly reduces user delays and enhances content distribution in data-driven applications like CDNs and data centers. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_9433728091.jpeg Source: Adobe Stock: By Ilja File #943372809 ...

Oxygen as an immunological adjuvant or co-adjuvant to reinforce vaccines and immunotherapies

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 13:29:26 GMT

INV-21019 Background Vaccines are crucial to fight infections, cancer, and autoimmune conditions as they aid in generating immune response before the onset of the disease. Vaccines developed with purified molecules often do not stimulate an effective immune response as compared to the immune response generated against natural infection. Hence, adjuvants and co-adjuvants are necessary to make the vaccines effective. The development of vaccines acting on the regulatory mechanism of the immune system to produce the response could enhance the effectiveness and potency of the vaccine. Maturation ...

Microelectromechanical Resonant Circulator (MIRC)

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 08:00:00 GMT

INV-17028 Background Conventional circulators are based on magnetic biasing and ferromagnetic materials. Despite their maturity and broad availability, conventional magnetic circulators are largely unattractive for integration, due to their bulky dimensions and the incompatibility of the magnetic materials with IC technology. Alternative approaches for magnet-less non-reciprocity based on linear and periodically time-variant circuits require either large modulation frequencies (similar to or even higher than RF frequency), which unavoidably increases the power consumption, or the use...

Method and Apparatus for Efficient Access Point Discovery Based on Learning CSI in Dense Wi-Fi Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 07:32:37 GMT

INV-20082 Background Consider a building where Access Points (APs) are deployed to provide WiFi connectivity. When a Wi-Fi device such as a smartphone, tablet, or laptop enters the building, before being able to communicate with the Internet, it needs to establish a connection with the AP. Legacy procedures require the client to scan the neighborhood in order to find a set of viable APs, before choosing the most appropriate AP to establish the connection. The process requires a handshake of several low data rate packets between the APs and the client, which wastes the spectrum reso...

Core loss suppression with sustained soft magnetic properties in ferromagnetic metal - ferrite composites for high frequency inductor applications

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 05:30:28 GMT

INV-20096 Background We face many technological challenges related to wireless communication and the rapid transfer of large amounts of data. Major advances in addressing these challenges are being driven by the advent of 5G (and, soon to be 6G) revolution. To meet 5G requirements and performance demands, new materials are required to resolve existing shortcomings of the current state-of-the-art solutions to energy conversion, conditioning, and storage in the form of inductor components. These components are principally limited by today’s materials in terms of low permeabili...

High Resolution Full-Body In-Bed Pose Estimation Platform using Multimodal Sensing

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 06:51:44 GMT

INV-21014 Background Although computer vision has been extremely successful in employing deep neural networks for many visual perception applications, its use is still hindered when it comes to practical medical applications. This shortcoming is due to the factors include lack sample data, the cost of data gathering and labeling, patient privacy and safety and accessibility, and unobtrusiveness of the data collection/monitoring technologies. In‑bed pose estimation has practical value in medical and healthcare applications, yet mai...

Robotic Mariculture System

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 06:13:51 GMT

INV-18005 Background There is a crisis in global fisheries stock due to industrial fishing, including illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, accompanying habitat destruction, pollution and climate change. Rearing livestock for food is a major source of greenhouse gas and can be supplanted by enhancing fish protein as a food source. Several esthetic and environmental issues constrain development of mariculture in coastal waters. People do not want industrial operations on ocean front property and surface‑based fish farms are navigational hazards. They also produce considera...

Joint Routing and Caching Method for Content Delivery with Optimality Guarantees for Arbitrary Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 08:18:00 GMT

INV-17104 Background The corona virus outbreak has increased video streaming, data traffic and the proliferation of rich media file distribution and consumption around the world. With the advent of the 5G network and forecasted growth, speed and efficiency are predicted to further tax current content delivery technologies. And anything that conveys reach and heavy or performance-sensitive data requires a CDN, Current networks suffer from latency/slowed response based on the amount of data being transferred and the amount of congestion on a network. These algorithms aim to reduce those...

A Parallel Droplet Microfluidic Device for Monitoring of Bacteria Culture and Multi-drug Screening

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 16:40:41 GMT

A novel high-throughput device that can simultaneously monitor more samples without the need for pre-amplification https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_997601708_(1).jpeg Source: Adobe Stock by Degimages/ File # 997601708 INV-17084 Background To combat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections there is a need for rapid discovery of new antibiotic drugs. Traditionally antibiotic testing is performed by methods such as an antimicrobial susceptibility test (AST) that requires longer analysis time. New techniques such as MALDI-TOF mass spectros...

Novel cost-effective high-efficient solar-driven water desalination device

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 08:29:31 GMT

INV-21007 Background Solar energy is now emerging as one of the most promising sustainable energy sources, as it is clean and can be supplied without any environmental pollution compared with other forms of energy. Abundant solar energy makes solar-driven evaporation a promising approach for water desalination and purification. In a conventional solar-driven evaporation system, bulk water is heated to a high temperature to generate water vapor, resulting in a slow response to sunlight and heat loss to the bulk water or the external environment. In 2011, researchers demonstrated a floa...

Single Cell Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization In Microfluidic Droplets

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 13:08:47 GMT

INV-16002 Background Nuanced variations at the molecular, cellular and physiological level among individuals require designing personalized treatments, which are tailored to their unique characteristics. Cellular heterogeneity and the need for personalized therapeutic interventions provide a strong rationale to perform analysis at single-cell level. Emerging technologies, including genome sequencing, proteomics, and imaging protocols are useful techniques to characterize molecular information at single-cell scale. However, some of these techniques such as qRT-PCR and RNA sequencing ...

Deep field penetration in transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) via magnetic flux concentrator and strategic excitation coil placement

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 12:47:06 GMT

INV-14084 Background Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a method for noninvasive, non-contact stimulation of neurons in the brain by magnetic induction of electrical currents. The TMS devices currently available on the market provide superficial stimulation due to the rapid attenuation of the field. Deeper penetration can only be achieved using strong excitation currents that produce a large induced fields on the scalp, which result in uncomfortable procedures for the patient and painful muscle contractions. The proposed technology enables deep penetration to a...

Method for noninvasive focalized deep brain stimulation

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 19:12:29 GMT

INV-21009 Background The clinical use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is among the most prominent achievements in the field of neuroscience in the past two decades. The use of TMS to intervene with malfunctioning brain circuits has revolutionized the way neural disorders are treated and understood. TMS, as an FDA-approved technique, has provided remarkable relief to patients with Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia, and other debilitating disorders. TMS is a noninvasive brain stimulation technique, does not require surgery, and does not inflict physical damage ...

FInD (Foraging Interactive D-prime) - A rapid and general method for efficient and sensitive visual function assessment

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 16:06:43 GMT

21015 Background Vision screening in both clinical and basic science is a critical step that quantifies functional deficits in the visual system. In clinical practice, vision screening is essential for disease diagnosis and monitoring; in basic science, it can quantify sensory or perceptual performance or ensure that research participants meet specific study inclusion or exclusion criteria. Recent social distancing measures and developments in communication, display and sensor technologies mean that remote vision screening may play a significant role in teleophthalmology. Significant v...

DeepBeam: Coordination-Free mmWave Beam Management With Deep Waveform Learning

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 15:06:31 GMT

DeepBeam uses deep neural networks for passive, efficient 5G beam alignment, reducing latency and overhead. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_489684549.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-18.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By Tee11 # 489684549 Background: The surge in mobile data traffic necessitates a new generation of wireless systems, leading to the development of 5G networks designed for high data rates and capacity. While 5G utilizes frequencies in the 24-52 GHz range to offer wide band...

Pinhole Zero-Mode Waveguides

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 11:11:08 GMT

INV-15100 Background Zero-mode waveguides (ZMWs) are nanostructures that can be used to isolate and optically investigate single molecules using fluorescence measurements. ZMWs suffer from inefficiency problems with sample loading as they rely purely on diffusion for the localization of molecules in the ZMW detection volume. Several methods have been developed to counteract this inefficiency, including magnetic bead loading and the use of nanopores to electrophoretically draw in charged molecules. Unfortunately, magnetic bead loading does not yield exceptional improvements over diffu...

Vapour-phase gating induced single-ion detection in graphene and single-wall carbon nanotube networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 11:07:03 GMT

INV-17012 Background Miniaturized devices having ultrasensitive ion detection capability are useful as ion detectors in diverse applications, including detection of radioactive material or other sources of radiation, electron/ion beam calibration, monitoring of pressure or vacuum, and detection of energetic particles from outer space. Carbon nanotubes (CNT) have been proposed as an ion sensing element in such devices. CNT also has been used as a sensing element in a radiation sensor, where the CNT is used to form parallel plate electrodes. However, for any given bias voltage, a CNT-...

Exosome Detection in Microfluidic Droplets

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 07:48:38 GMT

INV-17081 Background Extracellular vesicles are secreted by cells and contain essential biological components such as proteins, lipids, and genetic materials. Cells use these vesicles to communicate with other cells. These vesicles could be used to introduce therapeutic agents in cells and detect the diseased condition but, detecting cell-secreted extracellular vesicles (40-100nm diameter) is challenging with existing techniques. Current detection methods include the use of highly specific, complex, and expensive instruments. An additional challenge is that large quantities of exosomes...

Simultaneous detection, identification and correction of network parameter and measurement errors in electric power systems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 15:57:15 GMT

INV-18007 Background Accuracy of the network parameters has a strong influence on the results of power system state estimation. It has been shown earlier that normalized Lagrange multipliers can be used as a systematic way of identifying errors in network parameters. However, this approach carries a rather heavy computational burden limiting its practical utilization to small-size systems. Technology Overview This invention describes an efficient procedure that can be applied either to the single-scan or multiple-scan schemes with equal ease. The idea is to derive and compu...

Hardware and Software for Underwater Networking with Amphibious Smartphones

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 13:39:14 GMT

https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-15.jpg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_1062931861.jpeg Source Adobe Stock By Levan # 1062931861 INV-17098 Background Recent technological advances have brought to the end-user market smartphones that are able to remain fully-functional even when submerged under water. This capability will soon enable the commercialization of a plethora of exciting smartphone apps, including life-saving systems such as real-time monitoring of scuba divers breathing. On...

Emota, Facial Recognition and Emotion Detection Methods and Techniques

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 13:22:57 GMT

SW-20019 Background Facial recognition technology is a growing area of interest, where researchers are using these new application for study in psychology, response marketing and product testing, among others. There are also applications where the use of facial image capture and analysis that can be used to create new methods for control, mediation and integration of personalized information into web based, mobile apps and standalone system for media content interaction. Technology Overview Facial recognition is a field of software engineering that leverages algorithms to extract f...

Nitrogen-functionalized Platinum-Iridium Electrocatalyst

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 11:52:35 GMT

INV-15098 Background Understanding the fundamentals of electrochemical interfaces will undoubtedly reveal a path forward towards a society based on clean and renewable energy. In particular, it has been proposed that hydrogen can play a major role as an energy carrier of the future. To fully utilize the clean energy potential of a hydrogen economy, it is vital to produce hydrogen via water electrolysis, thus avoiding the co-production of CO2 inherent to reformate hydrogen. While significant research efforts elsewhere are focused on photochemical hydrogen production from water, the in...

A unified framework for multi-access edge computing (MEC) network slicing in 5G networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 05 Oct 2020 11:14:29 GMT

Sl-EDGE: An automated solution to handle network slicing and MEC functionalities with minimal human interaction https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_300273788.jpeg Source: Adobe Stock By metamorworks/ File # 300273788 INV-20109 Background It has become apparent that advanced softwarization and virtualization paradigms such as network slicing will be the cornerstone of 5G networks and the Internet of Things. Indeed, by sharing a common underlying physical infrastructure, network operators (N...

Porous Transition Metal Dichalcogenides Nanosheets and Quantum Dots Fabrication Thereof

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:32:17 GMT

INV-18002 Background The increasing global need for potable water is critical. While water is available in ample quantities on earth, the vast majority (>98%) is in undrinkable form (e.g., seawater, brackish water, or sewage water). There is a need for new materials and processes that can efficiently purify water by removing debris, biological matter, organic and inorganic impurities, and various salts. The most challenging of these impurities are salt and small neutral organic molecules, because their hydrodynamic size is most comparable to water molecules, complicating size-based separa...

Cationic Polymers as Co-Drugs for chemotherapeutic Agents

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 08:27:43 GMT

INV-17100 Background There are numerous anticancer chemotherapies available in the market that show cytotoxic effects along with unwanted various side effects. Researchers are trying to induce desired clinical effects at lower concentrations without much success as lowering the drug concentration has led to lower cytotoxicity. The invention puts forward a co-administration method to facilitate the delivery of the drug to the nucleus of the cell and improve cytotoxicity at a lower drug concentration. Technology Overview The novel treatment of cancer includes administering a mixtu...

CMOS Compatible Sputter Deposited Topological Insulator BixTe(1-x) / Ferromagnet Thin Film Heterostructures for Spintronics Applications

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 04:37:38 GMT

INV-20061 Background Topological Insulators (TI) have been reported to provide high efficiency of spin-orbit torque to adjacent magnetic layers to cause switching in magnetic states. This is highly applicable for exciting magnetization oscillations and switching in the magnetic layer in nonvolatile memory devices such as Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). Traditionally Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) techniques have been used to grow TI thin films. These processes require temperatures that are higher than Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS...

Virtual Reality Experiment Designer

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 04:24:19 GMT

INV-20038 Background The use of virtual environments in human behavioral research and training is experiencing rapid growth. Currently, no commercially available product that offers flexible integration of multiple peripheral sensors with a virtual environment that is configurable from a user interface. Human movement researchers frequently hire programmers to create custom software for their individual needs. Technology Overview This invention, HANDoVR, is a software platform for studying and training human upper limb motor behavior in a computerized immersive virt...

Ultra-Compact RF Magnetoelectric Antennas Based on Acoustic Resonance in NEMS Resonators

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 04:11:22 GMT

INV-16087 Background Antennas that interconvert between electric power and electromagnetic wave radiation, act as the omnipresent critical component in communication systems including radars, satellites, smartphones, and wireless devices, etc. However, the key challenge of antenna lies in its miniaturization. State of the art compact antennas relies on electromagnetic (EM) wave resonance, which typically has a size of more than l0/10, i.e. 1/10 of the EM wavelength l0. The limitation on antenna size has made it very challenging to achieve compact electric field sensors and ...

Electromagnetic system to magnetically align discontinuous composite fibers printed from a direct-write 3D printer

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 03:39:42 GMT

INV-16050 Background 3D printing is an additive manufacturing process in which layers of material are deposited according to a three-dimensional computer model. This process has been transformative in prototyping and low-volume part production, but the monolithic (mostly polymer and some metal or ceramic) materials currently used have insufficient mechanical properties for some potential applications. Composite materials – specifically polymer-ceramic hybrids – show tremendous promise for robust 3D printed structures, but currently can only be aligned in a single directio...

CU-LTE: An Algorithm to Enable Spectrally-Efficient and Fair Coexistence between LTE and Wi-Fi in Unlicensed Bands

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 10:36:12 GMT

https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_209498176.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-21.jpg Source Adobe Stock By Alexander #209498176 INV-16069 Background To cope with the increasing scarcity of spectrum resources, a promising approach is needed to extend the new-generation of LTE/LTE-A cellular systems to unlicensed bands, which leads to so-called unlicensed LTE (ULTE). However, such extension is by no means straightforward primarily because of the lack of compatibility bet...

Low-Power Transmitter Architecture for Wireless Communication with Binary Frequency Shift Keying using Frequencies in the Medical Implant Communication Service Band

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 07:52:17 GMT

INV-17075 Background Power requirements are a substantial limitation of wireless communication devices. Conventional wireless communication devices have been powered using two main approaches: using a battery that requires replacement, or energy harvesting from an external source. A problem arises when such devices must operate continuously to send data, implement alerts, monitor, and report conditions. Under such operational conditions, conventional wireless communication devices are unable to meet power demands without sacrificing design characteristics, such as performance, size, and weig...

New Method for Discovery of Bioactive Molecules

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 07:19:55 GMT

INV-20024 Background Microbes are a foundation of the discovery of bioactive molecules because they produce an enormous variety of secondary metabolites, some with desirable activities ranging from antibiotics to anti-inflammatory to anticancer to industrial enzymes. The advent of next-generation sequencing technologies uncovered that microbial genomes have genomic capacity far beyond that which had been discovered so far. However, most of the gene clusters that code for such metabolites are inaccessible because they are not expressed under artificial lab conditions. For the past tw...

Live Single-Cell Bioassay in Micro-droplets

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 07:00:18 GMT

INV-17085 Background The outcome of many pathological diseases including cancer is determined by types (functional and phenotypical) of immune cells present in the body. The existence of tremendous heterogeneity in these cells influences the time taken for the immune reaction and an individual’s ability to recover from the illness. Hence, assessing the intracellular and intercellular signaling to assess heterogeneity of immune cells by single-cell analysis is important for translational medicine. The current single-cell analytical methods are unable to analyze dynamic changes in cell s...

A Rapid On-Site Detection Method for Gamma-Hydroxybutyric Acid (GHB), a Popular Psychoactive Drug.

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 08:20:10 GMT

INV-20053 Background Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is used for recreational purposes as a club drug and often leads to drug-facilitated sexual assault. GHB can cause severe cognitive dysfunction and even death when overdosed. The risks associated with a lack of quick on-site diagnostic solutions as intoxicated individuals are often left unaided due to the lack of knowledge about the cause of the toxicity. In the current market, the diagnosis of GHB toxicity or overdose almost exclusively relies on the advanced, costly research facility and laboratory equipment such as mass spectrometry o...

Hygroscopic Molecules Inhibit Collagen Nucleation

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 08:14:11 GMT

INV-20080 Background Collagen serves as the premier, load-bearing molecule in humans and animals, and is one of the major building blocks of bones, skin, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. This abundant protein helps to support and repair damaged tissue. However, the medical community has struggled to fully leverage the power of collagen for use in everything from wound care, to the treatment of collagen-based pathologies such as tendinitis. Products such as collagen patches and sponges are used in a variety of applications, however, issues can arise with transporting protein to the in...

Robust Self-Regeneratable Stiff Living Materials

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 07:16:33 GMT

INV-20116 Background Most biomaterials (e.g. wood, silk) found in nature are formed at ambient conditions and degrade naturally to enable a sustainable ecosystem. In contrast, the production of human-made materials (e.g. cement, plastics) requires high temperatures or harsh chemical treatments, while their non-biodegradability unfavorably affects our environment. With the growing concerns on global climate changes, it is important to take inspiration from nature and design materials for a sustainable world. This sustainability issue can be addressed by employing living cells as factories t...

Rapid, benchtop, manufacturing of microfluidic organs-on-chips with integrated electrodes using laser cut double sided adhesives, thermoplastics and inkjet printed silver electrodes

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 07:09:53 GMT

INV-18019 Background In recent years, there has been an increased interest in organs-on-chips technology as these physiological models may augment drug discovery. However, the lack of rapid, scalable, and facile manufacturing techniques limit the widespread use of organs-on-chips. Most intestine-on-a-chip models are manufactured via poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) soft lithography; which limits industrial scaling and requires microfabrication training and equipment. Also, PDMS absorbs hydrophobic molecules and is gas permeable, limiting use for drug discovery and modeling hypoxic tissues such ...

Nanopreparation for Co-Delivery of Drugs and siRNA

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 06:36:59 GMT

INV-13004 Background Overexpression of p‑glycoprotein (encoded by MDR1 gene) is often associated with multidrug-resistant cancer. This protein leads to drug resistance by the efflux of chemotherapeutic drugs from the cancerous cells. Small interfering RNA (siRNA), also known as post-transcriptional gene silencer, can suppress the expression of specific disease-related genes by silencing specific complementary mRNA (such as MDR1 gene). However, the therapeutic uses of siRNA are unexplored due to shortcomings of the delivery system including enzymatic degradation of siRNA, limited non‑viral ...

Satellite-MALDI of Nucleic Acids

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 06:32:01 GMT

INV-18071 Background DNA and RNA structural analysis provides useful information for drug discovery, disease diagnosis, and clinical research. Currently, used detection techniques include liquid chromatography‑mass spectrometry (LC/MS), antibody-based tests such as ELISA and Ames tests. However, these tests are time-consuming, expensive, less accurate, less sensitive, and require multiple runs to obtain all the information. Also, in MS analysis the molecular fragmentation leads to noise in the data. Our researchers aim to resolve these issues with the novel satellite‑MALDI technique. ...

Making Oligonucleotides Better Biopharmaceuticals with Brush Polymer-Assisted Compaction

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 12:14:59 GMT

INV-16006 Background Oligonucleotide-based gene therapy holds tremendous promise for treating a variety of disorders with a genetic basis, including cancers, neurological diseases, and metabolic conditions. However, due to difficulties including poor accumulation at target sites, removal by immune responses, nuclease degradation, and low biochemical efficacy few therapies are available commercially. To overcome these shortcomings, complexation of nucleic acids with cationic and noncationic polymers have been used but the problems with the immunogenic response and low residence time in blood ...

Allosteric Modulators of CB1 Cannabinoid Receptors

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 15:38:50 GMT

INV-1242 Background Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a major psychiatric eating disorder associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Its characteristic symptoms include the refusal to maintain minimally normal body weight, an intense fear of becoming fat, and a disturbed perception of body shape and size. It is also characterized by anhedonia whereby patients experience little pleasure or reward in many aspects of their lives. Pharmacotherapeutic interventions for the treatment of AN are extremely limited, as there is still a lack of understanding of their pathogenesis. The endocann...

Non-noble metal catalysts for oxygen depolarized cathodes and their application in chlor-alkali electrolysis cells

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 13:23:52 GMT

Background There is an increasing demand for chlorine in the last several decades, and the worldwide chlorine production exceeds 60 million metric tons per year in 2013. The current state of the art in chlorine production involves electrolysis of sodium chloride using a membrane-based chlor-alkali technology where the cathode reaction involves hydrogen evolution. These state of the art membrane reactors are one of the most energy-intensive processes in the industry. Chlor-alkali electrolysis operates at a typical current density of 4 kA/m2 corresponding to 3.2 V, with the average elect...

An Integrated Microfluidic Platform for Liquid-in-gas Droplet Digital Biochemical Sensing

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 11:02:55 GMT

INV-17011 Background Over the past two decades, concepts of compartmentalization and miniaturization of analytical techniques are being explored. The microfluidic platform has several advantages including automated handling of samples in a short time, adjustable and minimal sample volume requirements. Hence, droplet microfluidics has rapidly emerged as an essential component in modern multifunctional Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) and micro-Total Analysis Systems (TAS) for a multitude of applications. This invention introduces a new droplet-based approach that incorporates a gas phase for generating li...

A Bilayer Nanomesh Based Electrophysiological Microelectrode

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 06:34:27 GMT

INV-18009 Background Mapping electrical activity is critical in neuroscience, cardiac physiology, and muscle contraction, among others. The stakes are perhaps the highest in brain mapping, where it is critical to measure fast currents from neurons, while simultaneously imaging the cell morphology. There are currently no tools that can provide both millisecond and single-cell resolutions at large scale. There is growing interest in developing transparent microelectrodes to overcome the limitations of individual electrical and optical modalities. By making the electrodes transparent, on...

Pathways to High Energy Product FeNi-based Alloys Using Multiple Drivers

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 06:01:45 GMT

INV-18006 Background Alloys comprised of iron and nickel have been essential to human civilization and adopt cubic crystal structures. A lower symmetry tetragonal phase of FeNi, known as tetrataenite, has been identified as a component of many meteorites and features a high magnetization and a room-temperature magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy density in the range 1.0e1.3 MJ/m3. In support of the global energy challenge, special attention has been devoted to the development of new magnetic materials, such as L10-type FeNi, with the potential to supplement and/or replace rare-earth-base...

Stop-Start Method in a Microfluidic Calorimeter

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 19:33:01 GMT

INV-17017 Background A method, the Stop‑Start method, to eliminate the effect of air bubbles in microchannels utilizing continuous flow is described. In a continuous flow micro-channel, two or more different fluids enter from separate inlets and mix. Introducing a new fluid in microfluidics is usually accompanied by air bubbles. The accumulation and formation of air bubbles is a problem in microfluidics devices as they can be disruptive to the samples flowing into the microfluidic channel and can change the microenvironment. Technology Overview This invention has two ...

Heterocyclic-Dithol Click Chemistry

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 19:22:13 GMT

INV-18001 Background As exemplified by thiolate-ene “click” chemistry, the unique properties of thiolates enable highly selective reactions. Dithiol-diene reaction partners can template high order structures and are employed (in vitro) in polymer syntheses, in biochemical probes, and to stabilize proteins. Unfortunately, ‑enes react with a myriad of essential protein cysteine residues, resulting in toxicity that limits their applicability in vivo. Technology Overview This invention has a more biocompatible method for crosslinking thiolate pairs. Northeas...

Contactless Optothermal Heating of Silicon Nitride for Instant Temperature Control of Individual Particles, Molecules, and Molecular Complexes near Surfaces

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 19:03:59 GMT

INV-17039 Background A nanopore is a nanoscale hole through a solid-state impermeable membrane that separates two electrolyte buffer reservoirs. The nanopore is filled with the same electrolyte buffer, which makes a liquid junction between the two reservoirs. The temperature at the nanopore is measured by tracking the ion current through the pore, the magnitude of which is highly temperature-dependent. Temperature is scanned by rapidly changing the laser power while an entity is trapped in the pore, which can be achieved using a variety of devices. Technology Overview In...

Power Efficient and Ultra-Compact Magnetoelectric VLF Communication System with Direct Modulation of Magnetoelectric Antennas (GSC Missing)

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 18:59:23 GMT

INV-17015 Background Mechanically displacing the magnetic charges or hard magnet generates varying electromagnetic (EM) fields, that can provide a means for transmitting very low frequency (VLF) electromagnetic waves. However, this method has many challenges to overcome because of extremely low radiation efficiency associated with the energy losses due to the large frictional forces leading to damping, losses, and heat generation. Particularly, achieving a high linear or angular velocity for 10kHz or above is very challenging due to the limited angular speed of mechanical motors. &n...

Photo-Cation Enhanced Detection

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 02:43:51 GMT

Generation of High Yields of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) Using Recycled Metal Catalysts

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 02:31:12 GMT

INV-20045 Background This technology relates to the upcycling of waste plastics to value-added products, in this case carbon nanomaterials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs). This invention is exemplified in a method where metallic substrates are used as catalysts for the growth of nanotubes. The feedstock consists of polymers or other organic materials, such as biomass. The CNTs are generated using the hydrocarbon-rich pyrolysis or oxidation products as carbon donors. These stainless steel substrates can be of various configurations, including, but not limited to, wire cloths, particl...

Generation of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) at the Presence of Additives

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 02:27:03 GMT

INV-20046 Background Generation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) from feedstocks of polyethylene terephthalate (PET or PETE) polymers is challenging, unlike the generation of CNTs from polyolefinic polymers (polyethylene and polypropylene) or from polystyrene polymers. The low yield of gaseous pyrolyzates from PET, particularly the very low content of hydrocarbons (HC) among the gaseous products is not optimal for generation of nanotubes, as it is the hydrocarbons that serve as carbon donors for their growth on the catalytic substrates. Moreover, extensive research reveals that benz...

Multifunctional Self-Assembling Polymeric Nanosystems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 09:07:19 GMT

INV-0908 Background Delivery of nucleic acid therapies to specific diseased tissues and cells in the body is challenging due to large molecular weight, negative charge, and relatively poor stability, especially in biological fluids that are rich in degrading enzymes (DNase and RNase). The majority of the technologies for nucleic acid delivery utilize cationic lipids and polymers that form electrostatic complexes with the negatively-charged acid construct. These cationic systems are inefficient for gene therapy or RNA interference therapy due to lack of intracellular release an...

A Method to use On-Chip Temperature Sensors for Detection of Trojan Circuits

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 13:00:06 GMT

INV-15110 Background A major challenge associated with the security of chips is that design companies are continuing to lose control over manufacturing operations because the high-volume fabrication of chips with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies is being transferred to foundries of other companies around the globe. This shift has led to critical security concerns because of the risk of malicious circuits being inserted during the fabrication process. Needed are novel methods of verifying every chip received from a manufacturer. Diverse approaches are emergi...

StudyCrafter

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:42:58 GMT

SW-19036 Background StudyCrafter has been developed in response to several challenges that the social and behavioral science face and the opportunities that game design and crowdsourcing technologies and techniques provide, namely: - engaging participants; - broadening participation: through the appeal of games; - context: context of tasks matter. Games immerse participants in situations believably; - encouraging replication: with Studycrafter studies can be replicated with a few button clicks; - increasing complexity: with crowdsourcing, it becomes...

Concurrent eddy current loss suppression and sustained permeability using trace amounts of highly insulating magnetic integranular inclusions

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:39:39 GMT

INV-18034 Background One approach to reduce eddy current loss is to restrict the flow of eddy currents by increasing the resistivity of the material. For this purpose, insulating oxide particles (e.g., CaO, SiO2, Nb2O5, Ta2O5, HfO2, ZrO2, and V2O5) have been shown to preferentially increase the grain boundary resistance of polycrystalline ferrite cores by segregating them to grain boundary regions, which results in a decrease in eddy current loss. However, this approach comes with a substantial cost to permeability originating from the presence of the nonmagnetic impurities at the gr...

Tunable and Reconfigurable Atomically Thin Heterostructures

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:29:10 GMT

Allosteric Probes for CB1 Cannabinoid Receptor

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:07:29 GMT

Thermally induced suppression of COVID-19 virus replication and other lung-related viral diseases using aerosol delivered superparamagnetic nanoparticles

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 04:01:04 GMT

INV-20108 Background COVID-19 is a rapidly evolving situation that compelled researchers from all around the globe to dedicate themselves to finding the best treatment options for the disease. Despite the extensive research and the development of COVID-19 vaccines, people are still struggling with the disease and the incidence rate of the disease is high. Since the start of the pandemic over 100 million cases of the disease have been reported with more than 2 million deaths. The clinical manifestations of the disease range from asymptomatic to severe lung injury and multiple organ failure...

Methods for the Manufacture of Thermal Interfaces, and Articles Comprising The Same

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 19:39:20 GMT

INV-20009 Background Circuit designs for electronic devices such as televisions, radios, computers, medical instruments, business machines, and communications equipment have become increasingly smaller and thinner over time. The increasing power of such electronic components has resulted in increased heat generation during use. Moreover, smaller electronic components are being densely packed into smaller spaces, resulting in more intense heat generation with increased hot-spot temperatures. At the same time, temperature-sensitive elements in electronic devices may need to be mainta...

A probiotic product for detoxification of the recreational drug gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB)

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 19:29:34 GMT

INV-20018 Background GHB is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter and a psychoactive drug. It is a precursor to γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate in certain brain areas. GHB has been used for recreational purposes as a club drug and, in some instances, leads to drug-facilitated sexual assault. When over-dosed, GHB can cause severe cognitive dysfunction and even death. Between 1995 and 2005, in the US alone, there were 209 confirmed death cases caused by an overdose of GHB or its analogs. While this is a sizeable number, it is most likely a significant under-representati...

Aluminum Nitride Lithographically Defined Resonant Rods for RF Filtering Applications

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 15:37:51 GMT

INV-20013 Background A report has been released on a new RF acoustic resonant technology that enables the production of integrated silicon chips of low-loss and wideband miniaturized filters for communication systems (cellphones or other wireless devices). The same device can be exploited to attain unique sensors within the Internet-of-Things (IoT). Differently from previously developed technologies, the reported tech uses the unique acoustic properties of profiled piezoelectric layers to achieve much better performance in terms of electromechanical coupling coefficients than that...

A-Eye: A device for accurately identifying color

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 15:24:13 GMT

A cyber-physical system using thin film filters and Bayesian inference to accurately estimate light wavelengths with 99% accuracy, suitable for vision systems https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-1280x1600.jpg https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_700243538.jpeg Source: Author Ali Hanif Sumbul / Adobe Stock #700243538 Background Cone cells are natural photoreceptor cells in the retinas of vertebrate eyes. They respond differently to light of different wavelengths and thus responsible for color vision, a sensatio...

AI-based Covid-19 drug discovery

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:58:12 GMT

INV-20097 Background The speed and the disruptive nature of the COVID-19 pandemic have taken both public health and biomedical research by surprise, demanding the rapid deployment of new interventions and the development and testing of an effective cure and vaccine. Considering the compressed timescales, the traditional methodologies relying on iterative development, experimental testing, clinical validation, and approval of new compounds are not feasible. A more realistic strategy relies on drug repurposing, required to identify clinically approved drugs, with known toxicities an...

SteaLTE: Private 5G Cellular Connectivity as a Service Through Full-Stack Wireless Steganography

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:52:14 GMT

SteaLTE enhances 5G security with covert network slices for private, reliable, and stealthy communications.” https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_1011326470.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-14.jpg Source: By Official Adobe Stock #1011326470 Background: The surge in privacy threats and data breaches has underscored the critical need for secure communications in cellular networks. With the rollout of 5G technology, which offers remarkable speed and bandwidth improvements, the chall...

Synthesis of Highly Active Fe-N-C Catalysts Via Non-Contact Pyrolysis of Gas-Phase Iron

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:42:01 GMT

INV-20028 Background Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), based on proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), were commercialized in 2014. The catalysts used for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in PEMFCs are Pt-alloys. The cost of automotive fuel cell systems is still high due to the high loading of Pt on the PEMFC cathode. One of the strategies to address this issue is to replace Pt-alloys with earth-abundant, inexpensive materials (platinum group metal (PGM)-free). The leading PGM-free catalysts for the ORR in PEMFCs are single transition metal atoms (M=Mn, Fe or Co) embedd...

Functionalized Monometallic Transition Metal Surfaces for Selective hydrogen Evolution Reaction

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:39:31 GMT

Morpho-functional robots with legged and aerial modes of locomotion

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:37:51 GMT

A transformative quadrupedal robot, Husky, morphs into an aerial quadrotor, combining robust legged and aerial mobility using advanced composite materials and lightweight actuators. https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/husky-carbon-v10-a-quadripedal-robot-capable-of-multi-modal-locomotion-with-ground-and.jpg Source: Ramezani, A., Dangol, P., Sihite, E., Lessieur, A. "NU's Husky Carbon" (PDF) Generative Design of NU's Husky Carbon, A Morpho-Functional, Legged Robot Background This invention is a morp...

Bat-inspired landing gear for aerial drones

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:18:18 GMT

INV-20030 Background This technology will allow aerial drones to land on structures including steel frames found in residential spaces. This type of aerial drone can be used in residential spaces for surveillance and monitoring as well as energy harvesting while passively hanging from structures. Currently, there is no comparable technology reported at the concept level or demonstration. Existing approaches are limited to standard wheel-based landing gears in fixed-wing systems, conventional landing gears in vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) or rotary-wing systems. &nbs...

Nanococktail for combination therapy, compositions, methods, and uses

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:15:07 GMT

INV-20007 Background It is difficult to achieve optimal exposure of all agents in combination therapy with drugs that exhibit different properties. Nanoparticle delivery systems are a well-known means to modify the pharmacokinetics and distribution of drugs. Northeastern researchers have demonstrated that through nanoencapsulation, similar pharmacokinetic profiles for drugs that exhibit drastically different half-lives without nanoencapsulation can be achieved. Technology Overview In this invention, Northeastern researchers have developed a nanococktail comprised of...

Magnetic Matrix Connector for High density, Soft Neural Interface

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:13:36 GMT

INV-20017 Background In this invention, the Magnetic Matrix connector (MagMatrix) for high-density, soft neural interfaces such as neural microelectrode arrays (MEA) is used. In order to interface with the soft devices and rigid measuring electronics, a connector is necessarily required. Currently, there are several available strategies such as utilizing a Anisotropic (ACF) cable, Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) connector, wire bonding, soldering, etc. Those methods all have their limitations, especially when the number and density of the device channels are scaled up. The soldering/wir...

Reconfigurable filter based on commutation of single frequency resonators

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 14:03:26 GMT

INV-20054 Background Filters for mobile communication systems are currently relying on micro-scale frequency-trimmed piezoelectric resonators. Since modern radios operate in a wide range of the radio frequency (RF) spectrum, hundreds of resonators can be found on a single mobile radio. Frequency trimming often requires technological challenges, resulting in expensive fabrication processes for each of these filters. As the RF spectrum moves up to higher frequencies, these processes will become even more challenging and the need for new filtering solutions will become a top priority....

Impedance-engineered magnetoceramic meta-structures for smart radomes and electronic warfare/co-site interference countermeasures

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 09:41:23 GMT

INV-19011 Background An ongoing challenge for the United States' national defense sector is the development of highsuperior structural and electromagnetic functionality for radome and other protective structures to defeat extreme electronic warfare (EW) threats and mitigate co-site interference. Additionally, effective protection against extreme environmental conditions is required to mitigate warfare damages. Technology Overview The proposed invention consists of the design and processing of magneto-ceramics, and integration with frequency‑selective band-pass met...

SwarmControl: Software-Defined Drone Network Control in The Sky

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 07 Jul 2020 06:14:10 GMT

https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_866159883.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-21.jpg Source: Adobe Stock By Supaporn Chanthra # 866159883 INV-19059 Background Intelligent unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) are attracting the interest of the networking community as a “tool” to provide new capabilities, to extend the infrastructure of wireless networks, and to make it more flexible. Because of their unique characteristics such as fast d...

Real-Time multiplex Measurement of Antibody-Antigen Binding Constant using Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) device

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 09:02:52 GMT

INV-14118 Background A major challenge in the detection of soluble molecules, such as biomolecules, drugs, proteins, antigens, and antibodies, is the ability to monitor time‑varying concentrations and reaction association/dissociation constraints in real‑time. This technology comprises a microsphere-based immunoassay fitted to a microfluidic-based format in order to develop a LOC (Lab‑On‑a‑Chip) device that integrates laboratory functions such as real-time monitoring of a target with clinically relevant analytes via antibody-antigen recognition effect. Further, a mathem...

Functional phenotyping of cells in droplet based platforms

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 09:01:31 GMT

INV-16003 Background Recently, the development of microfluidic, technology-enabled analysis of cell phenomena on the single-cell level has been a growing area of research within the academic realm. Current microfluidic platforms based on micro-well technologies do not provide a robust protocol for cell co-encapsulation in a controllable microenvironment, nor do they provide simultaneous surface and secretion monitoring. Micro-wells permit gravity-based sedimentation of cells into the holding sites using a two-step cell loading process to promote heterotypic contact between the...

Biomaterial-based COVID-19 vaccine

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 09:00:02 GMT

INV-20110 Background To date, there are over 16 million confirmed cases of people infected with the COVID-19 virus, with over 649,000 deaths worldwide. While the medical community works to develop a way to combat this virus, there are currently no known effective treatments or vaccines. A number of RNA vaccines are currently in development. The Cambridge based company Moderna is expected to enter Phase 3 testing for their mRNA vaccine candidate within the next few weeks. However, if an mRNA vaccine were to be approved, it would be the first of its type. Additionally, many o...

Biodegradable Implant for Sustained Trans-Nasal Delivery to the Brain

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 08:59:08 GMT

A sustained-release delivery vehicle for the treatment of brain diseases https://nu.technologypublisher.com/files/sites/1-s2.0-s0168365921000365-ga1_lrg.jpg Source: mrithi Padmakumar, Gregory Jones, Grishma Pawar, Olga Khorkova, Jane Hsiao, Jonghan Kim, Mansoor M. Amiji, Benjamin S. Bleier, Minimally Invasive Nasal Depot (MIND) technique for direct BDNF AntagoNAT delivery to the brain, Journal of Controlled Release, Volume 331, 2021, Pages 176-186, ISSN 0168-3659, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.01.027. INV-20104 &nb...

Zero Power Radio Frequency Receiver

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 07:55:42 GMT

INV-16023 Background A near-zero power RF (Radio Frequency) receiver capable of detecting wake-up signatures transmitted from a source of interest. A proposed RF receiver will be able to discriminate against the signature of interest in the presence of a noisy RF background. The proposed architecture is based on a high-Q MEMS voltage transformer, a high-Q MEMS resonant switch tuned to the modulation frequency of the RF signature, and a threshold detector. Technology Overview In the proposed architecture, a very low power amplitude-modulated incoming RF (Radio Frequenc...

METHODS AND COMPOSITIONS FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF INDIVIDUAL LONG AND ULTRALONG NUCLEIC ACID MOLECULES

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 17:31:59 GMT

INV-20100 Background Accurate analysis of the precise order of nucleotides in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules is fundamentally important to understanding the biology and function of all living organisms, including viruses. Since the complete sequence of nucleic acid was first reported in 1965, technologies for DNA sequencing have undergone a number of dramatic improvements. At present, next-generation sequencing (NGS), such as that offered by the Illumina platform and third-generation sequencing, the single-molecule real-time (SMRT) platform, or the...

DNA Adductomics by Mass Tag Prelabeling

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 17:31:26 GMT

Background DNA adducts are damaged nucleotides in DNA as a consequence of its exposure to genotoxic agents or conditions. Measurement of multiple DNA adducts in a single procedure is referred to as “DNA adductomics”. In the leading analytical technique for this purpose, typically the following sequence of steps takes place starting with a biosample: - Isolate the DNA - Digest it to deoxynucleosides enzymatically - Remove the enzymes and inject into a UPLC-tandem mass spectrometer using CID conditions that release the sugar as a neutral - Observe peaks for adducts as pr...

Parametric Acoustic-based Passive Transponders for ultra-sensitive Continuous- and Threshold-Sensing

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 17:27:46 GMT

New sensors for simultaneous achievement of a continuous temperature sensing and threshold temperature sensing in the same device Institute Reference: INV-20086 Background As wireless sensing and monitoring has continued to play an increasingly pivotal role in a variety of applications, a strong need has developed for scalable, low power/zero power systems with long range and high sensitivity. Recently, much attention has been paid to the development of compact and passive radio-frequency (RF) transponders. This has been driven by the growing need to protect specialized equipm...

Methods and Compositions for Use of Mitochondrial Therapies to Improve Female Reproductive Potential

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 17:27:25 GMT

INV-20078 Background The ability of the female germ cell, called an oocyte, to mature into an egg, fertilize, and develop into a healthy preimplantation embryo required for successful pregnancy (whether fertilization occurs inside (in vivo) or outside (in vitro) the body) is influenced by the quality of the oocyte itself (viz. intrinsic factors) as well as oocyte-extrinsic factors deriving from the environment in which the oocyte resides. The ovaries are the first organs to fail with age in almost all mammalian species, including humans, and this event is well out-of-sync with chr...

Reversible Microwells for Single Cells Culture and Recovery

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 11:01:46 GMT

INV-20077 Background Microwells are popular single cell-level culture platforms where small wells of tens of microns in size are able to hold only one cell or cell pairs according to the scope. Arrays of these wells are useful to separate cell populations and culture or image them. However, these wells are monolithic and normally engraved in the material. Recovering selected cells of interest can be done via micromanipulation techniques, but it results in an operationally complex process that is expensive, time-consuming, low-throughput and difficult to automate. Technology ...

DNA Preservation in Biological Specimens Using Metal Chelators

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 11:00:13 GMT

INV-20074 Background The growing importance of DNA-based research has created an increasing demand for methods that can preserve high-quality DNA in biological samples. A number of available preservation techniques can delay the degradation of DNA in tissue samples, but many are not easily adapted to the wide range of conditions commonly encountered by researchers working in the field. For example, cryopreservation is considered to be among the best techniques for preserving DNA in tissue, but mechanical freezers and freezing agents such as dry ice and liquid nitrogen are expensive...

Frontal Face Sythesis from Multiple Low-resolution Images

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:58:30 GMT

INV-20067 Background Face-based generative tasks (e.g., face rotation, hallucination, and attribute editing) have gained more traction in research communities with advancements in deep learning. However, the practical significance of identity-preservation is frequently overlooked, which generates significant challenges for face images with large poses and low-quality. With regard to this, some researchers recently made progress in the synthesis of frontal faces with large pose variations. However, past works focusing on faces with large poses assume images of high-quality. Thus, exis...

Engineering a Porous Conductive PEDOT:PSS-DVS scaffold for Microbial Fuel Cell Air Cathodes

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:55:43 GMT

INV-20037 Background Conductive polymers provide a unique opportunity to combine traditional energetic materials with inexpensive components. The result is unparalleled processability wherein chemistries are tunable and morphologies can be manipulated, thus creating unique device architectures and applications. Traditional conductive materials utilize complex chemistries or expensive rare-earth components. In contrast, organic chemistry-based derivatives provide further flexibility and tunability, which is more expensive to attain using conventional materials. Specifically,...

Green-synthesized tellurium nanowires for the growth of metallic nanoparticles on top

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:53:01 GMT

INV-18120 Background Traditional physicochemical approaches for the synthesis of compounds, drugs, and nanostructures are developed either as potential solutions for antimicrobial resistance or to fight against cancer. Nevertheless, these approaches have several limitations, such as the use of toxic chemicals and the production of toxic by‑products with limited biocompatibility. New methods are needed to overcome this limitation. Technology Overview In this invention, Northeastern researchers used a green chemistry approach for the generation of metallic nanoparticles or na...

Aluminum Nitride Combined Overtone Resonators for the mmWave Spectrum

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:51:51 GMT

INV-20023 Background The development of wireless communication systems has been steadily growing, and conventional sub-6 GHz frequency bands are too congested to meet the high data rate requirements of several emerging technologies like a connected vehicle. This game-changing technology requires high-bandwidth, low-latency and high-reliability for short-range wireless links to communicate with compatible systems in vehicles and infrastructures and devices available to pedestrians. The 5G cellular network can be considered the key enabler for such a ubiquitous and pervasive mobile i...

A method to directly synthesize 2D nanomaterials by heating of bulk sources

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:44:03 GMT

INV-20015 Background There exist a multitude of methods for fabricating monolayer nanomaterials, such as chemical methods (including chemical vapor deposition (CVD), vacuum deposition and vaporization, gas condensation, sol‑gel fabrication, electrodeposition), and mechanical methods (including liquid-phase exfoliation (LPE), Scotch‑tape). The conventional chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has proven to be the most effective method for fabricating high-quality 2D nanomaterials. CVD uses a few precursor reactant chemicals and an inert carrier gas ‑‑ the precursor reactant chemicals ev...

Electrically Actuatable Zero-mode Waveguides for High-Throughput pg-Level Sequencing

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:41:55 GMT

INV-20008 Background DNA sequencing technologies have undergone tremendous improvements in recent years in throughput and quality. One advantage of single-molecule DNA sequencing technologies is that long DNA molecules can be read in a single run, which greatly facilitates genome assembly and aids in the construction of reference-quality genomes. In 2003, Pacific Biosciences introduced a version of single-molecule sequencing called single molecule, real-time (SMRT) sequencing, in which DNA replication by a polymerase is monitored in real-time by tracking the incorporation of fluore...

High Quality Factor Integrated Acoustic Resonant Metamaterials with Giant Frequency Tuning Range (>30%) for Reconfigurable Radio-Frequency (RF) Front-Ends

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:41:22 GMT

INV-20003 Background The need for miniaturized radios have increased the need for reconfigurable CMOS-compatible RF front-ends. Tunable bandpass/notch filters and wide tuning range low-jitter Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs) are desirable to form adaptive, low-power and miniaturized multi band radios. In the last decades, Aluminum Nitride (AlN) acoustic resonators have been used to form (1-5GHz) CMOS-compatible filters and VCOs. However, because of material limitations, these devices only enable a low tuning range (<2-3%) and moderate Q-values (~2000). ...

High-Resolution Sensor of Biopolymer Sequence and Molecules Based on a Localized Nanopore Electrode Sequencer (LNES)

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:40:50 GMT

INV-19043 Background This technology introduces two approaches to polymer sequencing using nanopores in electrically conducting, ion‐intercalating MXene membranes, split into two applications: - The first application of MXene membranes is based on ion transport localization between an ultrathin nanopore composed of intercalated ions (between MXene sheets), and an electrolyte chamber. - In the second application, ion transport localization between two ultrathin ion intercalating MXene electrodes provides a finite path for ions to afford true single-base resolution. Technolo...

In-Bed Pose Estimation using Under Cover Imaging via Thermal Diffusion

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:40:17 GMT

INV-19039 Background Human in-bed pose estimation has huge practical values in medical and healthcare applications, yet still mainly relies on expensive pressure mapping (PM) solutions which costs thousands of dollars. Methods via other sensing modalities such as depth sensing (e.g. Microsoft Kinect) or camera-based method (e.g. RGB videos) have been proposed, though they either provide limited pose detection granularity or cannot work under full darkness or covered conditions common in sleeping contexts. Technology Overview Northeastern University researchers develop...

Multifunction ferrite nanoparticles for targeted ultrahigh resolution imaging and concomitant magnetohyperthermia of cancers

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:37:46 GMT

INV-19038 Background Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been vastly used in medical diagnoses of many diseases. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in 2016, 12% of the population in the United States have received an MRI (i.e ~ 38 million MRI scans) among which approximately 70% of those (i.e ~ 27 million) were performed using magnetic contrast agents (CAs) such as Gadolinium (Gd)-based CAs. However, there is a growing concern over the toxicity of Gd-based CAs, with even more concern when scans are administered to children. Health risks due to the depos...

Magnetic Microwires for Energy-Transporting Biomedical Applications

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:34:23 GMT

INV-19021 Background During the 1980s, amorphous magnetic microwires were widely used in biomedical devices. These wires are highly responsive magnetic material with unique magneto-elastic interactions, inexpensive and easy to produce in 1000s of meters. After the 1990s, new opportunities for biomedical advances elevated this class of materials for biomedical applications. In particular, their micron-scale diameter, passivated (non-reactive) surface and bio-compatible constituents (Fe, Si, B) allow contemplation of these microwires for minimally invasive biomedical applications, in...

On-Surface Mass Tagging

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:20:41 GMT

INV-19002 Background An array of detection techniques are used to measure sorbed substances on surfaces. Mass spectrometry is the preferred method since it can provide both qualitative and quantitative information. Technology Overview In this proposed technique, heat, plasma, electrospray, or organic solvent can be used to recover a sorbed compound from a SAS for detection. When heat, plasma or electrospray is employed, sorbed compounds can be directly volatilized for entry into a mass spectrometer. A target compound or type of compound is reacted coval...

Optically monitoring brain activities using 3D-aware head-probe

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:18:52 GMT

INV-18119 Background The field of brain imaging research presents an opportunity to develop one of the most advanced, target‑specific and accurate diagnostic methods for fully understanding disease mechanisms and pathways, including providing actionable information for tackling diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. However, state‑of‑the‑art neuroimaging technologies are limited in their practical applications. Technology Overview The proposed invention features a wireless, accurate and scalable neuroimaging technology. The proposed optical brain imaging p...

A method to localize small and high contrast inclusions in ill-posed model-based imaging modalities

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:17:06 GMT

INV-18109 Background The proposed invention describes a unique image reconstruction technique that was specifically developed to image small, high-contrast objects, such as a tumor inside tissue. With this image reconstruction technique, Northeastern researchers have been able to dramatically enhance the property contrast of tumors and abnormal inclusions by 50- to 100-fold. Technology Overview The proposed method is extremely effective in revealing small and high-contrast inclusions, which is essential in tumor detection and other functional imaging scenarios, partic...

Oxygen Releasing Cryogels

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:16:37 GMT

INV-18108 Background Hydrogels have been used for several biomedical applications because of their three dimensional nature, high water content, and wide range of polymers that can be used for their fabrication. Hydrogels as 3D scaffolds have recently gained momentum because they can mimic key features of the extracellular matrix, which is mainly due to their structural similarity with native ECM and their tuneable biophysical properties. Recent advances in hydrogel polymerization led to the development of cryogels: highly macroporous hydrogel scaffolds polymerized at subzero tempera...

High throughput toxicity assay on coordinately ordered single cells with individual identity

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:16:02 GMT

INV-18104 Background Cytotoxicity plays an important role in understanding biological mechanisms, detecting diseases, and screening therapeutics. Cytotoxicity measurement is usually carried out by incubating cells in different sized wells with a specific treatment, which yields results based on the average response of cells in the same well. However, cell populations are heterogeneous, and differentiating responses of individual cells within large populations has become crucial, which reflect the importance of studying cellular behavior at a single cell level. The most commonl...

Lipid-Free Anchoring of Thermophilic Bacteriophage G20C Portal Adapter into Solid-State Nanopores

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:14:52 GMT

INV-18089 Lipid-free Anchoring of Thermophilic Bacteriophage G20C Portal Adapter into Solid-State Nanopores A novel system for high‑resolution DNA and RNA sequencing, protein identification, and protein conformational change monitoring Background Nanopore-based sensors have advanced the sensitivity and selectivity of single-molecule detection. Currently, electrical and electro-optical sensors require the creation of lipid bilayers or solid-state pores in metallic membranes. Both are heavily used in biotech, but they also have limitations.This invention proposes a hybrid model where a pr...

IR reflective colorants from natural light scattering nanoparticles

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:12:23 GMT

INV-18061 Background Pigments and pigments encapsulated within nanoparticles have recently been identified to have unique absorptive and scattering profiles in the visible range. It has properties in the infrared (IR) regions. Polymeric fibers are a central component of many technologies that require or are acquiring advanced optical functionality that could benefit from natural, environmentally-friendly optical materials. Technology Overview Northeastern researchers chose fibers as a platform material to test this method. Fibers are fabricated by co-extruding the chromatop...

A Minimal Cell Lysis and Bottom-up Proteomics Sample Preparation Technique

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:10:41 GMT

INV-18031 Background Quantifying proteins in limited samples are required for many practical applications, including biopsies, tissue samples, clinical trial of pharmaceuticals, and others. Several methods have been developed for doing sample prep with minimal losses. However, all existing methods uses a chemical that undermines mass-spec analysis or involves expensive equipment. Technology Overview In this invention, a novel method to process proteomic applications is performed by a small amount of triethylammonium bicarbonate added to a final concentration, followed...

Ultrasensitive and High-Throughput Quantification of Post-translational Modifications of Proteins by Mass Spectrometry

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:09:01 GMT

INV-18021 Background Advances in single-cell RNA-sequencing (transcriptomics) and genomics have been instrumental in our understanding of gene expression and human disease. While advancements have been made in single-cell protein analysis, state of the art technologies still have significant limitations. Most proteomic methods rely on antibodies to detect select protein epitopes and can analyze only a few dozen proteins per cell. Additionally, many antibodies have low specificity for their targets, which result in nonspecific protein detection. Although some highly specific a...

Gelatin/elastin composites for peripheral nerve repair

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:08:20 GMT

Development of photocrosslinkable composites that support the growth of neurites & provide increased adhesion, reducing the need to suture Institute Reference: INV-18008 Background Suturing peripheral nerve transections is the predominant therapeutic strategy for nerve repair. However, the use of sutures can lead to scar tissue formation, hinder nerve regeneration, and prevent functional recovery. Fibrin-based adhesives have been widely used for nerve reconstruction, but their low adhesiveness and mechanical strength, as well as their inability to promote nerve regeneration...

Chemo-Enzymatic Site-Specific Photocaging of Peptides and Proteins

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:06:56 GMT

INV-17072 Background Photocaging is a process in which a molecule is covalently modified by a photolabile group; the molecule is often referred to as being ‘caged.’ Typically. caging renders the molecule non-functional. Subsequently, photolysis of such ‘caged’ peptides and proteins removes the photolabile group and regenerates the native (or unmodified) peptides and proteins, thereby unmasking the original activity. In essence, the caging and decaging permits both temporal and spatial control of peptide and protein function. Photocaging has broad applications...

Sparse Capacitive Link Universal Converters and a Novel Control Method for Capacitive Link Universal Converters

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:05:43 GMT

INV-16024 Background This invention consists of two novel methods. The first one is a new converter topology called a sparse capacitive link universal converter and the second one is a fast response control scheme for the capacitive link universal converters. Capacitive link universal converters can offer numerous advantages over existing power converters, and the sparse capacitive link universal converter proposed in this invention further improves the attributes of this type of converter. The proposed technology can be used for both the original and sparse configurations, which ...

Continuous, continental-shelf-scale monitoring, temporal-spatial distributions, species classification and behavior of marine mammals from multiple species

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:03:48 GMT

Novel 3D in vivo mimicking microenvironment to deliver cell based therapy and/end evaluate new therapeutics and in vivo cell delivery methods

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:02:00 GMT

INV-14119 Background Most common cancer models and cell therapy are used to evaluate the efficacy of drugs at the preclinical stage. 2D monolayers have failed to mimic in‑vivo human tumor biology and do not consider the effect of tumor microenvironment when testing out the therapeutic efficacy of new drug candidates. As a result, 90% of the promising preclinical drugs fail to transform into an efficacious treatment option. A robust microfluidic method is developed to generate 3D cellular biomaterial (such as alginate, cologne, PLGA, and agarose) spheroids, which resembles in-v...

Label-free Fluorescence-based Biopolymer Sequencing using Nanopore Arrays

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 10:00:25 GMT

INV-14062 Background Nanopore sequencing is a third generation approach used in the sequencing of biopolymers, where polynucleotides are in the form of DNA or RNA. Using nanopore sequencing, a single molecule of DNA or RNA can be sequenced without the need for PCR amplification or chemical labeling of the samples. Nanopore sequencing has the potential to offer relatively low-cost genotyping, high mobility for testing, and rapid processing of samples with the ability to display results in real-time. Technology Overview This technology provides a novel approach for h...

Engineering Bacillus subtilis as a Versatile and Stable Platform for Production of Nanobodies

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 13:25:24 GMT

INV-20012 Background Nanobodies, are a novel class of therapeutic proteins based on single-domain antibody fragments. Due to their small size and unique structure, they have shown great potential as next generation biological drugs. Existing methods for producing these nanobodies have come with certain drawbacks. A common method for production of nanobodies involves intracellular expression using the bacteria E-Coli. This involves the lengthy steps of releasing intracellular proteins for purification, as well as the complete removal of endotoxins, which would otherwise expose pati...

Oligonucleotide-based therapeutics targeting COVID-19

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 13:24:52 GMT

Background Oligonucleotides (ONs) are a promising class of agents in the fight against a wide variety of diseases including cancers, neuropathies, and metabolic disorders. Despite decades of research results indicating widespread clinical success, the therapeutic use of ONs have yet to be realized, which is somewhat due to the bio-pharmaceutical difficulties intrinsic to nucleic acids. Chemically modified ONs, such as phosphorothioates and morpholinos, have been developed to circumvent some of these challenges, which resulted in six ON drugs reaching the market in the US to dat...

Man 1-2 Man-PEGylated Derivative as a Tool for in vitro and in vivo Dendritic Cell Targeting

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 13:10:08 GMT

INV-1151 Background The immune system (IS) has a delicate equilibrium between its cells. The most important cells of the IS are the B lymphocytes (BL), macrophages (MO), and dendritic cells (DC), so-called antigen presenting cells (APC). They are the key-linkers between the innate and the adaptive immunity, which is a crucial factor that will lead to a response or anergy towards the antigen. Dendritic cells are known as the most important antigen presenting cells (APC) since they are the only known cells able to prime naive T lymphocytes (TL), triggering and directing the immu...

Grayscale photolithography method for graded apertures for electrophysiology and nanopore sensing measurements

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:52:18 GMT

INV-20026 Background Lipid membranes are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry and research areas to study the impact of various drugs on protein channels, which are often drug targets. The proposed process to form angled apertures can be used for various applications, such as to make a pillars-on-wedge aperture that supports lipid membranes for electrophysiology experiments. Technology Overview In this invention, Northeastern researchers have developed a method to produce a graded aperture in a polymeric material using grayscale photolithography (GPL). The distinguish...

A robust flow-through platform for organic contaminants removal

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:51:40 GMT

INV-20020 Background This technology aims to address the most significant issues associated with the Fenton process (a classical water treatment process). Fenton reagents, consisting of ferrous iron ion and hydrogen peroxide, are most reactive in acidic conditions. Therefore, in practical water treatment, a lot of acids are used to adjust the reaction solution from neutral to acidic. Moreover, the use of ferrous iron ion as a catalyst will produce iron sludge precipitate at the end of the reaction, which is a secondary pollutant for further treatment. Northeastern researchers aim t...

Versatile Strategy for Covalent Grafting of Biomolecules to Cryogels

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:47:17 GMT

INV-20010 Background Biomaterial‑based scaffolds are being used as 3D culture systems in vitro and as molecular and cellular delivery vehicles in vivo. To support cellular survival, activation, and differentiation, cells need to be provided with biomolecular cues that trigger specific signaling pathways. To facilitate survival and expansion of primary T lymphocytes, biomolecules that trigger T-cell receptor signaling and provide co-stimulatory cues are required. Therefore, biomolecules such as activating antibodies, protein complexes and polysaccharides need to be integrated into b...

Mechanism for Embedded Deep Reinforcement Learning in Wireless Internet of Things Devices

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:45:42 GMT

DeepRadioID uses deep learning and FIR filters for unique, energy-efficient IoT authentication, enhancing security and accuracy. https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/adobestock_150511712.jpeg https://nu.testtechnologypublisher.com/files/sites/mark-saulich-25.jpg Source:Irina Strelnikova / Adobe Stock file 150511712 Background: The rapid proliferation of IoT devices has intensified the need for secure and efficient authentication methods to safeguard against unauthorized access and potential security breaches. Traditional cryptographi...

Methods for creating thermally conductive boron nitride films and coatings on component surfaces

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:45:12 GMT

INV-20002 Background Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) particles are an industrialized filler that provides increased thermal conductivity to resin systems. hBN particles have high thermal conductivities with the long axis of the crystal exhibiting ~300-600 W/mK and the short-axis exhibiting ~20-40 W/mK. Further, hBN is a good dielectric. This combination makes hBN particles a choice filler for thermal management applications that require dielectric materials. Technology Overview In this invention, the incorporation of hBN into polymeric compounds is done by novel processing ...

System and Method for Joint Computation, Caching, and Forwarding in Data-intensive Dispersive Computing Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:44:35 GMT

INV-20001 Background This method can optimally accomplish data-intensive dispersive computing in a general network, by jointly forwarding computation requests, scheduling computations, and replicating and storing data. The method focuses on data-intensive computation, where computations require significant data inputs. Computation request forwarding decisions, computation scheduling, as well as data request forwarding and caching/storage decisions, are jointly determined. Technology Overview Northeastern researchers propose an idea of the DECO (Data-centric Computation) fra...

Non-divergent state estimator for large scale power systems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:43:25 GMT

INV-19056 Background When solving the power system state estimation problem for very large interconnected systems, certain zones can experience convergence issues for various reasons such as bad data, loss of measurements, topology errors, etc. In such cases, a solution may not be reached by the integrated system state estimator. The purpose of this technology is to develop an alternative approach that will automatically detect issues associated with the affected subsystem and isolate its solution from the rest of the system solution. This way, it will be possible to provide a state ...

Aloe Vera-mediated tellurium nanoparticles with antibacterial and anticancer properties

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:40:56 GMT

INV-18121 Background Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has emerged as an increasing threat to health in society, due to the misuse of antibiotics and the development of bacterial strains with resistance. Data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicates that at least 2 million people become infected with antibiotic‑resistant bacteria in the United States annually, and of those, at least 23,000 people die as a consequence. Therefore, novel approaches to combat antibacterial resistance to antibiotics need to be developed, especially those that do not require the use of antib...

Novel Allosteric Modulators of CB1 Cannabinoid Receptor

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:39:35 GMT

Background A novel class of compounds containing indole functionality has been found to have robust positive allosteric modulator (PAM) activity at the CB1 cannabinoid receptor. GAT1102 is a representative compound from this class shown to be effective in lowering intraocular pressure in the animal model with potential utility in treating glaucoma. Technology Overview A structurally novel class of compounds containing N-aryl indole moiety and an additional carboxylate functionality has been found to act as a CB1 PAM. This class of compounds are structurally novel from our previou...

Bead-barcoded digital quantifiers of molecular species

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:39:06 GMT

INV-18085 Background A problem plaguing health in society today is a need for rapid tools for accurate diagnosis of disease. Early signs of cancers, infections, and other diseases are typically accompanied by molecular indicators called as biomarkers, that are often too low in abundance to quantify using conventional techniques. Protein biomarkers are difficult to diagnose because they cannot be directly copied to produce multiple copies, and techniques such as ELISA have their limitations in terms of detection limits. Technology Overview This invention utilize...

Novel Selective Activators of Neuronal GIRK Heteromeric Channels Effective in Animal Models of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:38:22 GMT

INV-18111 Background G protein-gated inwardly rectifying potassium (GIRK) channels, are channels distributed throughout the central nervous system as well as the heart. Pharmacological investigations of GIRK channels, along with studies in animal models, suggest that GIRK activity has an important role in physiological responses, including pain perception and memory modulation. However, the lack of selective GIRK drugs that discriminate among the different GIRK channel subtypes (brain vs. cardiac), have hampered investigations into their precise physiological relevance and the...

A Method of Determining Cache Contents under Congestion Dependent Costs for Arbitrary Networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 21 May 2020 13:23:30 GMT

INV-18101 Background Kelly networks are defined as multi-class networks of queues with Poisson arrivals and service times. They capture a broad array of queue service disciplines, including FIFO, LIFO, and processor sharing. One of their most appealing properties is that they give rise to product-form steady-state distributions: the joint distribution of all queues in the network can be written as the product of the marginals over each queue and enables closed-form characterizations e.g., expected queue sizes, packet delays, and server occupancy rates in steady-state. This allows eas...

Geohyperbolic routing and addressing schemes for telecommunication networks

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 23 Jan 2018 11:03:23 GMT

INV-17060 Background Conventional circulators are based on magnetic biasing and ferromagnetic materials. Despite their maturity and broad availability, conventional magnetic circulators are largely unattractive for integration, due to their bulky dimensions and the incompatibility of the magnetic materials with IC technology. Alternative approaches for magnet-less non-reciprocity based on linear and periodically time-variant circuits require either large modulation frequencies (similar to or even higher than RF frequency), which unavoidably increases the power consumption, or the use...

Zipper Aid via an Attachable Guide

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 12:35:05 GMT

INV-14091 Description Patients suffering from tremors, such as in Parkinson’s Disease, often face difficulty in performing tasks requiring small muscle movements. Even small children are not very comfortable in managing these tasks independently. One of such tasks is alignment of two ends of an open ended zipper. Currently, zippers are designed with three-dimensional fitment mechanism, which is extremely tedious to manage, especially for these groups of individuals. To address this issue, some of the zip...

Piezoelectric MEMS Resonator Technology with Integrated Phase Change Material Switches

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 12:34:45 GMT

INV-14097 Background There is increasing demand for highly reconfigurable radio frequency (RF) systems capable of operating in the severely crowded and rapidly changing modern commercial and military spectral environment, at a reduced overall component count and with a reduced development cost compared to conventional multi-band radios. In this context, the implementation of high quality factor (Q) micro acoustic resonators with monolithically integrated switching and frequency reconfiguration functionalities will dramatically reduce loss associated with the filtering element. This enables ...

Instrumentation amplifier with built-in digitally-programmable input capacitance cancellation

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 09:41:31 GMT

INV-14068 Background Battery-powered portable or implantable biopotential and bioimpedance measurement devices are becoming increasingly widespread in the medical diagnostics field. The signal acquisitions of the main biosignal-sensing applications such as electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG) involve voltage measurements from a few microvolts to several millivolts. Biopotentials are conventionally acquired using electrodes covered with electrolyte gels or solutions to decrease the contact impedance at the skin interface. However, wet-contact measurements cause d...

Methods and Compositions for Ex Vivo Generation of Developmentally Competent Eggs from Germline Cells Using Autologous Cell Systems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 09:28:09 GMT

INV-14038 Background According to the latest CDC records, about 12% of women aged 15-44 are suffering from some sorts of infertility; yet, less than 2% of infertile couples actually undergo assisted reproductive therapy (ART). Besides the prohibitive cost of infertility treatments, many factors, including diminished population of immature egg cells in ovaries, premature ovarian failure/insufficiency, genetic causes, and immunological abnormalities lead to the failure of the therapy. To overcome the limitations of ART, we resort to pluripotent stem cells that can be different...

Chemical Sensing with Fibrous Materials

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 09:25:54 GMT

INV-14037 Background Conventionally, various types of sensor elements have been used for detection of physiological analytes. Some of the most common ones are nanosensors and microworms. In vivo use of nanosensors has been limited by cellular uptake and diffusion into biological systems. Microworm sensors can overcome such limitations of nanosensors; however, they have limited lifetime and they are difficult to mass produce. Hence, the development of new biosensors that allow efficient and localized monitoring of physiological analytes and overcome prior art limitations are needed. Technolo...

Aluminum Nitride Piezoelectric NEMS devices using 2-Dimensional Electrode Material

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 08:42:13 GMT

INV-13074 Background Traditional IR detectors based on semiconductor photon-detectors need cryogenic cooling, making them bulky, costly and inconvenient to use. Uncooled IR thermal detectors based on bolometric principle have been recently developed, which are much smaller, lighter, cheaper and power-efficient, making them good alternatives to semiconductor detectors. However, relatively slow response time and poor detection limit are the main obstacles for uncooled thermal detectors to rival traditional semiconductor detectors. Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) are devices that integra...

Ultrasonics-based system for detection of metallic security threats containers on cargo

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 09:17:04 GMT

INV-15027 Description In prior-art, most security threat detection techniques/procedures use X-ray based detection systems. In general, X-rays are harmful and their prolonged exposure can have devastating effects. Moreover, X-ray based systems are not capable of providing information regarding thickness of the container as X-rays have limited penetration abilities. This invention relates to a novel detection system comprising use of ultrasonic waves for detection of suspicious metallic containers on cargo. Value Proposition The system: • Has a faster sca...

Rapid Gas-Phase Isotopic Labeling for Enhanced Detection of Protein Conformations

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 08:11:06 GMT

INV-0940 Background Sensitive analytical tools are needed for the rapid characterization of conformations of both small globular proteins and large macromolecular complexes. Characterization of non-native conformational structures, including misfolded proteins and aggregated proteins is highly important in the detection of a variety of diseases with such pathophysiology, including neurodegenerative diseases. Ion mobility spectrometry techniques are valuable tools that help to separate complex mixtures and to determine structural information. There are different ion mobility spectrom...

Platinum Alloy Electrocatalysts with Enhanced Resistance to Anion Poisoning for Low and Medium Temperature Fuel Cells

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 08:09:25 GMT

A novel approach that enables the development of platinum based binary and ternary alloy electro-catalysts Institute Reference: INV-0863 Background Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are useful due to their high energy density, high efficiency, relatively low operating temperature and low emission of pollutants. However, low performance of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode is a principle obstacle to the successful application of PEM fuel cells, particularly in transportation. Various Pt based alloy catalysts have been developed and show enhanced catalytic activi...

On the move millimeter wave interrogation system with a hallway of multiple transmitters and receivers

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 08:00:11 GMT

INV-14050 Description The use of millimeter-wave imaging techniques/systems is well known in prior art. Current techniques/systems generally use portal configuration and/or monostatic radar technology. The images generated using such systems often have reconstructed artifacts, such as dihedral effects, misrepresenting sudden indentations and protrusions. These artifacts in turn lead to undesirable false alarms. This invention discloses a novel, on the move millimeter wave interrogation system that combines multiple wave transmitters and receivers to create real-time,...

A Versatile Self-Sustaining Method and Device for Fuel/Power Generation by Sequential Gasification and "Clean Combustion" of Waste Products

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:51:26 GMT

Method and device for fuel and power generation by clean combustion of organic waste materials. Institute Reference: INV-1108 Background Fossil fuel resources are finite, and are widely expected to dwindle in the not too distant future. As these resources become more scarce, the costs of extracting fuel have been on the rise and it has become more imperative to identify and utilize alternative fuel resources to limit reliance on fossil fuels. In addition, the total amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated in the US alone has increased by three-fold from 80 million to 250 ...

Macrophage-Targeted Multi-Compartmental Delivery Systems

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:43:21 GMT

INV-1028 Background Macrophages are important immune cells in the body that regulate different biological processes involved in inflammatory and infectious diseases. Macrophages originate from the mononuclear phagocyte system (MPS) in the bone marrow. The MPS system comprises of monocytes and tissue, it matures into a larger phagocytic cell called a macrophage. They reside in the liver (Kupffer cells), lungs, spleen, lymph nodes, thymus, gut. To combat inflammation and infections, macrophages have to be converted from the rested to an activated state. The activated cells have an enhanced ca...

Hydrogel with Initiator-Tightened Surface

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:02:08 GMT

INV- 1007 Background The absence of highly porous, uniformly nanoporous surfaces places limitations on handling, fractionating, extracting, recovering and concentrating aqueous and nonaqueous samples of chemicals and biological substances, both soluble and insoluble. For example, if the surface is not highly porous, then a process that depends on the surface porosity will be slowed down. A surface that is not nanoporous is limited in its ability to provide size separations or retentions involving dissolved nanosubstances, especially if the size of the pores is not uniform. The porosity, siz...

Method and Device for Drug Discovery

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 06:50:32 GMT

INV-1253 Background Historically, natural products and microorganisms have been considered as the major sources of new pharmaceutical compounds. However, in recent years, there has been a dramatic drop in natural-based drug discovery from big pharmaceutical companies. The major challenges are the prevailing paradigm for drug discovery in large pharmaceutical industries, and the technical limitations in identifying new compounds with desirable activity. The prevailing paradigm uses high throughput screening (HTS) methods. HTS of natural sources results in the rediscovery of known com...

Method for Delivery to the Brain of Plasmid DNA Encoding Therapeutic Proteins for CNS Disorders

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:29:04 GMT

INV-1262 Background Neurodegenerative diseases are debilitating diseases that impose significant financial and social impact and burden. The prevalence of these diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is progressing at an alarming rate in the aging population. If left unchecked, more than 12 million Americans will suffer from neurodegenerative diseases by 2030. Gene therapy can be a potential therapy for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases however, drug delivery to the central nervous system (CNS) fa...

Fabrication of Flexible and Transparent Supercapacitors Using Thin Film Carbon Electrodes with Controlled Morphologies

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 08:25:47 GMT

Flexible and transparent supercapacitors with nanostructured electrode morphology, conformal electrolyte packaging and high power density Institute Reference: INV-1266 Background It is understood well that supercapacitors improve storage density through the use of a porous material that increases the specific area of the electrodes. There has been interest in using carbon-based nanomaterials as supercapacitor electrodes due to several advantages of carbon, such as light weight, high electrical conductivity, and electrochemical surface area. Activated carbon (AC) has received a lot ...

Radionuclidic and Non-radionuclidic Molecular Imaging Agents for the Estrogen Receptor Based on 11-beta Subsituted Steroidal Anti-Estrogens

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:29:04 GMT

INV-13041 Background Breast cancer has become the most common cancer globally as of 2021, accounting for 12% of all new annual cancer cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. Among patients with breast cancer, approximately 75% have elevated expression of estrogen receptor (ER). Knowing the hormone receptor status of cancer is important in designing effective treatment and predicting disease prognosis. In addition to breast cancer, there are other estrogen-dependent diseases such as uterine and ovarian cancer that need appropriate diagnosis methods. Current common diagnos...

Non-noble Metal Based ODC Cathodes for Chlorine Evolution Processes

CRI@Northeastern.edu — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 12:05:11 GMT

INV-13048 Background Use of “depolarizers” in electrolytic reactions helps lower input electrical energy in electrochemical processes. For example, in batteries depolarizers help prevent buildup of hydrogen gas bubbles thereby preventing the voltage, and thereby current, from being reduced. Among the known depolarizers, including sulfur dioxide which is used for lowering energy use in production of hydrogen, oxygen consuming cathodes have gained in importance due to the high onset potential of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Oxygen depolarized cathodes are used in th...