Abstract: Catalytic methods for the production of saturated hydrocarbons with 2 to 5 carbon atoms per molecule by conversion of small hydrocarbon halides and/or hydrogenation of carbonaceous material are disclosed that result in high yield of saturated C2 to C5 hydrocarbons at reduced corrosion of the reactors and in good lifetime of the catalyst. The methods are performed in the presence of a Lewis acid comprising catalyst and in the absence of oxygen or oxygen containing compounds, whereby an upper limit of at most 50 parts per million mass of oxygen or oxygen containing compounds can be tolerated.

Abstract: A method for monitoring a container or the contents in a volume (39, 47), including allowing at least one of a beta, gamma, neutron, and proton radiation emerging from said container or volume (39, 47), and/or secondary particles or radiation brought forth by said radiation, to pass through a measuring volume (12, 12?) of at least one radiation detector (10, 10?, 10?), said measuring volume (12, 12?) containing a noble gas and/or a noble gas isotope, or a mixture of noble gases and/or noble gas isotopes and detecting the photons generated within said measuring volume (12, 12?) by an interaction (18, W1, . . . , W4) of the radiation with the noble gas or noble gases and/or their isotopes of the measuring volume (12, 12?). The output of said photon detecting means (15, 16, 53) is then used to derive information about the container or the contents in said volume (39, 47), whereby this information is used to discriminate protons, neutrons, beta and gamma rays respectively.

Abstract: The present relates to the field of dental and bone surgery. In particular, the invention relates to fibrous pharmaceutical compositions; fibrous webs, yarns and woven fabrics of such pharmaceutical compositions; to implant material essentially consisting of fibrous pharmaceutical compositions; to the manufacturing and use of such fibers/webs/implant materials.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a turbo-charged reciprocating piston engine having a combustion chamber, and to a method for operating said engine. The combustion chamber has at least one inlet valve (10), one outlet valve (13) and at least one additional charging valve (11), for the additional feed of compressed air to bridge the turbo lag. All the valves (10, 11, 13) are operatively connected to the crankshaft via a camshaft and the operative connection of the charging valves to the crankshaft can be deactivated, with the result that the at least one charging valve (11) remains closed. The correct metering of the air for a stoichiometric or approximately stoichiometric combustion mixture is additionally achieved by a turbocharger (4) and a throttle valve (8). By displacement of the opening instant of the charging valves (11), air can be pumped from the cylindrical combustion chambers into the compressed air tank (14), instead of removing said air from the latter.

Abstract: Using photographic flash for candid shots often results in an unevenly lit scene, in which objects in the back appear dark. A spatially adaptive photographic flash (100) is disclosed, in which the intensity of illumination (21, 23) varies depending on the depth and reflectivity (30, 101) of features in the scene. Adaption to changes in depth are used in a single-shot method. Adaption to changes in reflectivity are used in a multishot method. The single-shot method requires only a depth image (30), whereas the multi-shot method requires at least one color image (40) in addition to the depth data (30).

Abstract: The present invention relates the manufacture of metal powders, non-oxidic ceramic powders and reduced metal oxide powders using an improved flame spray pyrolysis (“FSP”) process. The invention further relates to an apparatus specifically adapted to said process, to powders/naoncomposites obtained by said process and to the use of said powders/nanocompsites.

Abstract: A process for the preparation of a polymer nanoparticle by a photoinduced emulsion polymerization includes preparing an emulsion comprising at least one surfactant, a dispersed phase and a continuous phase. The dispersed phase comprises at least one polymerizable monomer and the continuous phase comprises water and at least one photoinitiator. The at least one polymerizable monomer is polymerized by exposing the emulsion to an electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength so as to induce a generation of radicals from the at least one photoinitiator.

Abstract: A switching device for switching a current between a first terminal (1) and a second terminal (2) comprises a cascode circuit having a series connection of a first semiconductor switch (M) and a second semiconductor switch (J), wherein the two semiconductor switches (M, J) are connected to each other by a common point (13), and the first semiconductor switch (M) is controlled by way of a first control input in accordance with a voltage between the first control input and the first terminal (1), and the second semiconductor switch (J) is controlled by way of a second control input (4) in accordance with a voltage between the second control input (4) and the common point (13). To this end, a control circuit having a specifiable capacitance (C) is connected between the second terminal (2) and at least one of the control input.

Abstract: The present invention relates to new galactosyltransferases, nucleic acids encoding them, as well as recombinant vectors, host cells, antibodies, uses and methods relating thereto.

Abstract: A method for coordination of concurrent processes or for control of the transport of mobile units within a network, wherein a) the control of the network occurs in a decentralized and self-organizing manner in the controllers of node points or local defined sub-networks, whereby the control units of adjacent node points or sub-networks are connected to each other for data exchange of, b1) data from prediction models for local process sequences at each node and/or data from prediction models for the local process sequences of adjacent nodes and/or b2) data from data recording elements of each node or the boundaries associated therewith and/or data from data recording elements of adjacent nodes or the boundaries associated therewith, c) local simulation and optimization of switching the controller to establish the performance of the nodes or sub-networks with regard to the buffer capacity of the boundaries based on models for short-term predictions with fixed switch states for adjacent nodes, are applied.

Abstract: An immobilizing device for immobilizing a body part includes a bag which is filled with a granular material and is placed over the body part, an outer shell in which the bag is mounted and a hollow space formed between the outer shell and the bag for receiving pressured air in order to produce a force on the bag for immobilizing the body part. The device provides combined advantages over conventional devices, such as almost no absorption of x-rays, a perfect fit for every kind of body part, comfort for a patient, reusability, low cost, neutral smell, very light weight and easy application.

Abstract: The invention is directed to different optical active elements (1, 20, 22) such as tunable diffraction gratings and tunable phase shifters having in general a similar setup. The optical active elements (1, 20, 22) comprise an intermediate layer (4) made out of a deformable material which is mechanically interconnected to a driving means. The driving means comprises a first and a second driving plate (2, 3) arranged in general opposite to each other on opposite sides of and at least partially covering the intermediate layer (4) such that a local compression of the intermediate layer (4) by the driving plates (2, 3) causes a local reduction of the thickness in a first direction. This reduction in a first direction causes a secondary deformation of the intermediate layer in a second direction which results in a change of the optical behavior of the optical active element.

Abstract: For generating a 3D geometric model (44) and/or a definition of the 3D geometric model from a single digital image of a building facade (4), a facade structure is detected from the digital image by dividing the facade (4) along horizontal lines into horizontal layers representative of floors (41), and by dividing the horizontal layers along vertical lines into tiles (42). The tiles (42) are further subdivided into a hierarchy of rectangular image regions (43). 3D architectural objects (45) corresponding to the image regions (43) are determined in an architectural element library. The 3D geometric model (44) or the definition of the 3D geometric model is generated based on the facade structure, the hierarchy and the 3D architectural objects (45). The library-based generation of the 3D geometric model makes it possible to enhance simple textured building models constructed from aerial images and/or ground-based photographs.

Abstract: State-of-the-art synthesis of carbon nanostructures (25) by chemical vapor deposition involve heating a catalyst material to high temperatures up 700-1000° C. in a furnace and flowing hydrocarbon gases through the reactor over a period of time. In order to enable a self assembly of nanostructures (25) on microchips (10) without damaging the microchip (10) by high temperatures the proposed manufacturing method comprises: A layer (1) contains indentations (3) on which nanostructures (25) are to be integrated and the indentations (3) are heated up by a current (I) conducted to the layer (1) via contact pads (2).

Abstract: A capacitive transducer a first part containing a first set of capacitor plates and a second part relatively movable in a plane to the first part. The second part contains a second set of capacitor plates. Both sets of capacitor plates are built on a substrate, wherein the capacitor plates form a plurality of capacitors. The second part is relatively movable in all six degrees of freedom. One set of the plurality of capacitors measures displacements in a plane and a second set of the plurality capacitors measures displacements perpendicular to the plane.

Abstract: A method for making an organic field-effect device (e.g. TFT or SC-FET device) is proposed, comprising the Steps of (a) depositing an polymeric dielectric with a repellency to detrimental molecules from Solution or from the vapor phase to form an insulating layer and (b) depositing an oligomer layer which is grown from the vapor phase, the oligomer layer being adjacent to the insulating layer in the completed device. Furthermore the correspondingly produced organic field effect devices are disclosed.

Abstract: The performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, employing coding with multiple antennas depends heavily on the demapper algorithm which is used for MIMO detection. Soft-output demappers lead to better bit error rate (BER) performance compared to hard-decision demappers, but have a higher implementation complexity. The algorithm, proposed in this paper, relies on low-complexity harddecision MIMO detection. The reliability information for the received bits used to compute log-likelihood ratios is based on an estimate of the average bit error rate which is for example derived from the corresponding channel state information only. The algorithm is applicable to any hard-decision MIMO detector. As an example, we describe the application of the scheme to a linear MMSE detector and to sphere decoding with early termination.

Abstract: A device has a source for emitting near infrared radiation into cerebral tissue, a sensor for detecting radiation exiting from the tissue, and an evaluation unit which detects the exiting radiation as an input signal having pulsatile and non-pulsatile components and is programmed to determine the concentration of an injected indicator in the tissue from the non-pulsatile signal component, iteratively determine an inflow function characterizing cerebral blood flow by varying a mean transit time until reaching a stop criterion, determine indicator concentration relative to cerebral blood volume from the inflow function and the pulsatile signal component, calculate cerebral blood volume by dividing indicator concentration in the tissue by indicator concentration relative to cerebral blood volume, calculate cerebral blood flow by dividing the cerebral blood volume by the mean transit time when the stop criterion has been reached, and scale the inflow function using values determined from the pulsatile signal comp

Abstract: A capacitive transducer a first part containing a first set of capacitor plates and a second part relatively movable in a plane to the first part. The second part contains a second set of capacitor plates. Both sets of capacitor plates are built on a substrate, wherein the capacitor plates form a plurality of capacitors. The second part is relatively movable in all six degrees of freedom. One set of the plurality of capacitors measures displacements in a plane and a second set of the plurality capacitors measures displacements perpendicular to the plane.

Abstract: A novel magnetic resonance imaging method is described, wherein undersampled magnetic resonance signals are acquired by a receiver antenna system having spatial sensitivity profiles and the image being reconstructed from the undersampled magnetic resonance signals and the spatial sensitivity profiles. The reconstruction of the image is provided by an optimization of a cost function which accounts for any of noise statistics, signal statistics, and the spatial response function, the latter of which is defined by the spatial signal response from the object to be imaged, separately for each individual pixel.