University of Limerick Patent applications |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20150338337 | DIFFERENTIAL INFRA RED NANOSCOPY SYSTEM AND METHOD - The invention provides a method and system to record the absorption of a sample, said method comprising the steps of providing first and second pulsed beam of light on said sample using one or more light beams, said first and second pulsed beam having different spatial definition; measuring the difference in intensity transmitted through and/or reflected by a sample; and generating an image by scanning the sample while making such measurements. The system and method of the invention can work down to resolution of several 100 of nm, affording thus a large improvement in comparison to synchrotron IR imaging that is the closest technique existing today. The advantage versus scanning probe approach is the absence of physical probe, thus suppressing confinement to surface information and removing uncertainty regarding the working behaviour of the probe. | 11-26-2015 |
20150150711 | THERAPEUTIC DEVICE FOR NECK PAIN - A therapeutic device has a body ( | 06-04-2015 |
20150112312 | TRANSURETHRAL CATHETER KIT, AND SYRINGE ASSEMBLY SUITABLE FOR USE IN CORRECTLY INFLATING A TRANSURETHRAL CATHETER - A transurethral catheter kit containing a balloon catheter and a syringe assembly adapted for inflation of the balloon, The syringe assembly includes a syringe and a nozzle incorporating a narrow bore proximal to a pressure relief valve. The narrow bore serves to resist the flow of fluid between the syringe and the balloon, thereby avoiding a rapid pressure increase in the balloon that can result in damage to tissues or premature activation of the pressure relief valve. Also provided is a method for correctly placing a transurethral balloon catheter in a patient using the kit. | 04-23-2015 |
20150077736 | SENSOR FOR COMBINED TEMPERATURE, PRESSURE, AND REFRACTIVE INDEX DETECTION | 03-19-2015 |
20150045885 | SEEDLESS GROUP IV NANOWIRES, AND METHODS FOR THE PRODUCTION THEREOF - A water dispersible, biocompatible, non-toxic, seedless Group IV nanowire having an etched surface and surface oxide is provided. Also provided is a method of forming water dispersible seedless Group IV nanowires, comprising the steps of providing pristine seedless Group IV nanowires, and reacting the nanowires with a solution of an acidic amino acid to etch the nanowires and promote the formation of a water dispersible oxide layer through the formation of etched nanowires. | 02-12-2015 |
20140343625 | MUSCLE STIMULATION DEVICE - A surface NMES stimulation device the device has a control processor, a voltage regulator connected to a high voltage supply, a bridge of control switches, and electrodes or electrode terminals connected in the bridge to receive drive signals via the control switches. The processor directs a drive scheme for the bridge control switches in which charge build-up on a user's skin is allowed to dissipate to ground in an inter-pulse interval. An isolation capacitor isolates the high voltage supply from the electrodes, and charging of the capacitor only occurs if a switch allows it. Sensors senses supply voltage and bridge current and the processor monitors there to determine further stimulation and faults. | 11-20-2014 |
20140303460 | SYSTEM FOR MANAGEMENT AND PREVENTION OF VENOUS POOLING - A monitoring system comprises sensors adapted to be worn by a user, and, a processor linked with the sensor. The processor receives sensor data and processes this data to determine user posture data including data indicative of vertical distance between level of the user's heart and ankle. Based on the posture data together with a value for degree of user chronic venous insufficiency and/or blood density, generate an estimate of user static venous pressure while the user is static, without calf muscle pump activity. The processor also processes the sensor data to determine if there is calf muscle pump activity, and generates an estimate of user active venous pressure according to the static venous pressure estimate, rate of calf muscle activity, and a value for degree of user chronic venous insufficiency. The processor may generate the venous pressure estimate in real time, and may control an NMES device accordingly. | 10-09-2014 |
20140220091 | EMBEDDING NANOPARTICLES IN THERMOPLASTIC POLYMERS - The present invention relates to a polymeric material having one or more nanoparticles embedded within the surface layer of a single side of the material. In some embodiments, the nanoparticles are microbiocidal nanoparticles which impart antimicrobial characteristics to the polymeric material within which they sprayed and pushed by are embedded. | 08-07-2014 |
20140213762 | CASEIN HYDROLYSATE - A casein hydrolysate formed by controlled hydrolysis of a casein substrate by an | 07-31-2014 |
20140090071 | Systems and Methods for Runtime Adaptive Security to Protect Variable Assets - A method of adapting a security configuration of a data processing application at runtime, and a system, together with its computing architecture, are disclosed. The system stores a causal network comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of incoming and outgoing causal links associated therewith, wherein each node of the causal network is associated with a security concern or a requirement that can be affected by any configuration of the security controls. The current value of assets nodes, as well as those of the security concerns that can be affected by monitored contextual factors, are updated. The control nodes corresponding to the security controls is updated according to the security configuration whose utility is evaluated by the causal network. The node corresponding to the at least one variable is updated with the determined current value, which is propagated through the causal network through the causal links associated with the updated node. The security configuration with the highest utility is selected and replaces the actual configuration by activating and/or deactivating the security functions corresponding to security control nodes enabled/disabled in the selected security configuration. | 03-27-2014 |
20140069182 | TESTING APPARATUS AND METHOD - An apparatus for testing effects of relative movement of a fluid and an object has a test chamber ( | 03-13-2014 |
20130183188 | MIXTURE OF POWDERS FOR PREPARING A SINTERED NICKEL-TITANIUM-RARE EARTH METAL (Ni-Ti-RE) ALLOY - A mixture of powders for preparing a sintered nickel-titanium-rare earth (Ni—Ti—RE) alloy includes Ni—Ti alloy powders comprising from about 55 wt. % Ni to about 61 wt. % Ni and from about 39 wt. % Ti to about 45 wt. % Ti, and RE alloy powders comprising a RE element. | 07-18-2013 |
20130153677 | LIQUID DROPLET DISPENSER - An apparatus for dispensing droplets comprises a dispensing tip with an orifice having a cross sectional area in the range of 0.00002 mm2 to 0.03 mm2. An actuator assembly comprising an actuator element engages with and disengage from the tip and, when engaged, couples acoustic energy to liquid in the tip to expel the liquid through the orifice as a droplet. The actuator assembly includes one or more piezo elements, which may be in the form of piezo stacks. In some embodiments, the actuator assembly comprises a plurality of jaws adapted to move to engage with the dispensing tip for dispensing. This allows side loading of the tip followed by movement of the actuator assembly to engage the tip. | 06-20-2013 |
20130101455 | METHOD OF FORMING A SINTERED NICKEL-TITANIUM-RARE EARTH (Ni-Ti-RE) ALLOY - A method of forming a sintered nickel-titanium-rare earth (Ni—Ti-RE) alloy includes adding one or more powders comprising Ni, Ti, and a rare earth constituent to a powder consolidation unit comprising an electrically conductive die and punch connectable to a power supply. The one or more powders are heated at a ramp rate of about 35° C./min or less to a sintering temperature, and pressure is applied to the powders at the sintering temperature, thereby forming a sintered Ni—Ti-RE alloy. | 04-25-2013 |
20130085355 | MONITORING SYSTEM - A system and method for non-invasive monitoring of cardiac activity in a human or animal is disclosed. A radiation source directs radiation through a patient site, and a detector detects radiation after passing through a patient tissue. A processor processes data derived from the detected radiation, determining pulse peaks and troughs and calculating area under a pulse peak to provide a real time cardiac output indicator. The radiation wavelength is on a haemoglobin spectral isosbestic point, not influenced by changes in SpO2 concentration. The processor performs numerical integration of pulse data between troughs, and wherein said integration is performed per pulse. Preferably, the processor monitors trends, thus providing very useful information and reducing need for calibration. | 04-04-2013 |
20120250258 | A COOLING DEVICE - A cooling device has a finless heat sink ( | 10-04-2012 |
20120207435 | OPTICAL DEVICES AND METHODS OF MANUFACTURE OF OPTICAL DEVICES - A method for performing a multi-stage dilation of optical fibres is described, the method comprising performing successive dilation steps such that the adiabatic condition is maintained throughout the fibre. There is also described various optical devices employing such multi-stage dilated optical fibres, as well as methods of manufacture of the optical devices. | 08-16-2012 |
20120203522 | Method and System for Analysis of an Object - The invention provides a method and system for analysing the physical properties of an object using a computing device, to any desired accuracy and spatial resolution with a degree of certainty and no longer restricted by the floating point limitations of the computing device. The system and method of the invention employs a method of scaling which uses differing scales for individual rows of arrays, and by further using differing scales for individual columns of the arrays. This method allows for the removal of errors in the calculation of property values so that the accuracy of the resultant physical property distribution may be known with a degree of certainty and no longer restricted by the floating point limitations of the computing device. | 08-09-2012 |
20120126438 | Process and System for Fabrication and Surface Modification of Colloidal Carbon Spheres in Supercritical Media - A process for producing monodispersed carbon spheres comprising the steps of mixing supercritical-carbon dioxide fluid under pressure with a solvent in an inert atmosphere; heating the mixture in to a temperature to carbonise the solvent; and modulating the pressure to the heated mixture to produce carbon spheres. Subsequent addition of an organometallic precursor can be used to induce the nucleation and growth of nanocrystals across the surface of the spheres. | 05-24-2012 |
20120125572 | COOLING DEVICE - This disclosure relates to a low-profile cooling device ( | 05-24-2012 |
20120001781 | Digital Background Calibration System and Method for Successive Approximation (SAR) Analogue to Digital Converter - The invention provides a digital background calibration system and method for a successive approximation analog-to-digital converter comprising a digital to analog converter (DAC) having a plurality of weighted capacitors to be calibrated; means for splitting each of said weighted capacitors into a plurality of sub-capacitors and at least one redundant capacitor; means for multiplying the voltage level of at least one of the sub-capacitors with a PN sequence; and means for calibrating the weighted capacitor from the multiplied sub-capacitor and the redundant capacitor. | 01-05-2012 |
20110193054 | DEPOSITION OF MATERIALS - The method utilises a conducting trench base with non-conducting trench walls to corral charged particles precisely into the trenches. The nanoparticles are close packed in the channels and highly ordered. This approach utilises the charge on the particles to selectively deposit them within the trenches, as all nanoparticles in solution can be charged, and this can be extended to any nanoparticle system beyond gold. Also, this method results in the layer-by-layer growth of the gold nanoparticles. Therefore the depth of the nanoparticle layers within the trenches is controllable. This allows the possibility of heterolayered structures of different nanoparticle layers. Further this method ensures that assembly occurs to fill the void space available provided the back-contacting electrode is more conducting than the trench walls. This allows nanoparticle assemblies to be corralled into any lithographically defined shape, which makes this approach highly adaptable to a range of applications | 08-11-2011 |
20110114230 | Nickel-Titanium-Rare Earth Alloy and Method of Processing the Alloy - A nickel-titanium-rare earth (Ni—Ti-RE) alloy comprises nickel at a concentration of from about 35 at. % to about 65 at. %, a rare earth element at a concentration of from about 1.5 at. % to about 15 at. %, boron at a concentration of up to about 0.1 at. %, with the balance of the alloy being titanium. In addition to enhanced radiopacity compared to binary Ni—Ti alloys and improved workability, the Ni—Ti-RE alloy preferably exhibits superelastic behavior. A method of processing a Ni—Ti-RE alloy includes providing a nickel-titanium-rare earth alloy comprising nickel at a concentration of from about 35 at. % to about 65 at. %, a rare earth element at a concentration of from about 1.5 at. % to about 15 at. %, the balance being titanium; heating the alloy in a homogenization temperature range below a critical temperature; and forming spheroids of a rare earth-rich second phase in the alloy while in the homogenization temperature range. | 05-19-2011 |
20110012687 | DIGITAL PULSE WIDTH MODULATOR - The invention provides a multi-phase digital pulse width modulator (MP-DPWM) to implement a distribution scheme which applies the duty cycle in the fastest possible manner with restriction on the number of switching actions per phase and cycle, and additionally takes the number of available phases into account. It modulates switching signals according to a duty cycle input command, their previous switching states, and the current switching cycle. The controller is adapted to additionally take the residue of the previous subcycle into account. In the control scheme: | 01-20-2011 |
20100317176 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE SYNTHESIS OF SEMICONDUCTOR NANOWIRES - The invention provides a system and method for producing semiconductor nanowires, for example germanium or Silicon, grown by solution decomposition comprising the steps of heating at least one high boiling point solvent to its reaction temperature in a chamber and injecting a precursor directly into the chamber to react with the at least one high boiling solvent to produce a refluxing solvent. Subsequent vapour deposition of a monomer, achieved by the refluxing solvent, onto a locally heated substrate contained within the chamber produces the semiconductor nanowires. The system and method removes the dependency upon the incorporation of metal catalyst for the production of silicon and germanium nanowire, thereby nullifying the adverse effects of metal contamination in the resulting semiconductor nanowires. | 12-16-2010 |
20100310528 | Vector System for Site-Specific Integration - The integration system comprises at least one vector capable of expressing at least one exogenous gene, the vector comprising a coding sequence for an attP gene region and a coding sequence for at least one therapeutic molecule and an integrase. The integration system has an application in bacterial metabolic engineering and in gene therapy. | 12-09-2010 |
20100305050 | PROTEIN PRODUCT WITH MODIFIED ANTIGENICITY - A bovine casein protein hydrolysate prepared using an enzyme having broad spectrum endopeptidase activity has low residual antigenicity properties in mammals compared to intact casein protein, The composition is useful as an ingredient in foods, beverages, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. A hydrolysate prepared using Alcalase™ with a degree of hydrolysis of 19.88% has very desirably low antigenicity characteristics. | 12-02-2010 |
20100157736 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETERMINING THE TOPOGRAPHY OF A SEAFLOOR AND A VESSEL COMPRISING THE APPARATUS - A method and apparatus for determining the topography of a seafloor comprises providing a vessel ( | 06-24-2010 |
20090145584 | Cooling Device - A cooling device ( | 06-11-2009 |