Abstract: The invention relates to a method of using a phase plate, having a thin film, in a transmission electron microscope (TEM), comprising: introducing the phase plate in the TEM; preparing the phase plate by irradiating the film with a focused electron beam; introducing a sample in the TEM; and forming an image of the sample using the prepared phase plate, wherein preparing the phase plate involves locally building up a vacuum potential resulting from a change in the electronic structure of the thin film by irradiating the phase plate with a focused beam of electrons, the vacuum potential leading to an absolute phase shift |?| with a smaller value than at the non-irradiated thin film. Preferably the phase plate is heated to avoid contamination. The phase shift achieved with this phase plate can be tuned by varying the diameter of the irradiated spot.

Abstract: The present invention relates to the field of synthesizing and biologically evaluating of a novel class of carbohydrate-based vaccines. The new vaccines consist of a multi-modular structure which allows applying the vaccine to a whole variety of pathogenes. This method allows preparing vaccines against all pathogens expressing immunogenic carbohydrate antigens. As conjugation of antigenic carbohydrates to proteins is not required the conjugate vaccine is particularly heat stable. No refrigeration is required, a major drawback of protein-based vaccines.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a novel class of gene trap vector (enhanced gene trap vectors, eGTV) for efficiently identifying silent or weakly expressed target genes in mammalian genomes, methods of their production and methods for identifying and mutating target genes by using the enhanced gene trap vectors. The gene trap vectors of the present invention can also be used for inducing the expression of silent genes and enhancing the expression of weakly expressed genes. The use of the enhanced gene trap vectors for creating transgenic organisms to identify gene function and to validate pharmaceutical compounds prior to clinical applications is a further aspect of the present invention.

Abstract: This invention relates to a method of determining the absolute amount of a target polypeptide in a sample using mass spectrometry.

Abstract: The invention refers to a method for diagnosing an individual who is to be subjected to or is being subjected to an anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF? or TNF) treatment to assess the responsiveness to an anti-TNF treatment which comprises the detection of immunoglobulin(s) against one or more biomarker proteins in a bodily fluid or an excrement of said patient, and sorting the individual into one of two categories based on detection of said immunoglobulin(s), wherein individuals are classified as NON-responder or responder. The invention refers to diagnostic kits comprising said one or more biomarker proteins and the use of these kits for assessing the responsiveness to an anti-TNF treatment of an individual who is to be subjected to or is being subjected to an anti-TNF? treatment.

Abstract: A method for forecasting an environmental event/a type of environmental event includes acquiring at least one test data set of at least one behavioural and/or physiological parameter of a population of animals; generating a test profile based on said at least one test data set, representing behaviour and/or physiological status of the population of animals; calculating a ratio between the test profile and a first reference profile; and setting an alert, if said ratio reaches a predefined threshold value.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods for replication of nucleic acid molecules distributed on a surface or within a layer by transferring them to a target surface covered with oligonucleotides, and fixation of transferred molecules by hybridization to complementary sequences.

Abstract: Approaches presented herein enable to the interactive exploration of digital videos. The videos can include digital videos that have casually been captured by consumer devices, such as mobile phone cameras, tablets, and the like. Robust methods and systems are presented that enable such digital videos to be explored in interesting and advantageous ways, including transitions and other such features.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a Drosophila in vitro system which was used to demonstrate that dsRNA is processed to RNA segments 21-23 nucleotides (nt) in length. Furthermore, when these 21-23 nt fragments are purified and added back to Drosophila extracts, they mediate RNA interference in the absence of long dsRNA. Thus, these 21-23 nt fragments are the sequence-specific mediators of RNA degradation. A molecular signal, which may be their specific length, must be present in these 21-23 nt fragments to recruit cellular factors involved in RNAi. This present invention encompasses these 21-23 nt fragments and their use for specifically inactivating gene function. The use of these fragments (or chemically synthesized oligonucleotides of the same or similar nature) enables the targeting of specific mRNAs for degradation in mammalian cells, where the use of long dsRNAs to elicit RNAi is usually not practical, presumably because of the deleterious effects of the interferon response.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a Drosophila in vitro system which was used to demonstrate that dsRNA is processed to RNA segments 21-23 nucleotides (nt) in length. Furthermore, when these 21-23 nt fragments are purified and added back to Drosophila extracts, they mediate RNA interference in the absence of long dsRNA. Thus, these 21-23 nt fragments are the sequence-specific mediators of RNA degradation. A molecular signal, which may be their specific length, must be present in these 21-23 nt fragments to recruit cellular factors involved in RNAi. This present invention encompasses these 21-23 nt fragments and their use for specifically inactivating gene function. The use of these fragments (or chemically synthesized oligonucleotides of the same or similar nature) enables the targeting of specific mRNAs for degradation in mammalian cells, where the use of long dsRNAs to elicit RNAi is usually not practical, presumably because of the deleterious effects of the interferon response.

Abstract: In Caenorhabditis elegans, lin-4 and let-7 encode 22- and 21-nucleotide RNAs, respectively, that function as key regulators of developmental timing. Because the appearance of these short RNAs is regulated during development, they are also referred to as “small temporal RNAs” (stRNAs). We show that many more 21- and 22-nt expressed RNAs, termed microRNAs, (miRNAs), exist in invertebrates and vertebrates, and that some of these novel RNAs, similar to let-7 stRAN, are also highly conserved. This suggests that sequence-specific post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms mediated by small RNAs are more general than previously appreciated.

Abstract: Objective of the present invention is to provide a method for keeping of directional information in double-stranded DNA. We suggest to convert polynucleotide into a hybrid double-stranded DNA. One particular strand of this hybrid double-stranded DNA should be synthesized using at least one modified nucleotide. Thus, this particular strand would contain modified nucleotides along the whole length. Density of directional markers would not depend on the length of polynucleotides. Any internal fragments of the hybrid double-stranded DNA would have directional information. When it is necessary the modified strand may be easily degraded or separated from the other strand. It was found that such hybrid double-stranded DNA may be easily generated in a number of molecular biology tasks and may be used for molecular cloning, library preparation and strand separation.

Abstract: A method assigns importance ranks to documents within repositories or databases, such as any database of documents such as books or other printed material, electronic documentation, and pages within the world-wide web. The method uses a corpus of indexed documents that has been annotated to the terms of one or more ontologies in order to assign a semantic similarity score to queries based on terms taken from the ontologies. A statistical model is used to test the significance of matches between query terms and documents or categories. The method results in an acceleration of over 10,000-fold for realistic queries and ontologies, and makes it practicable to calculate P-values dynamically or to keep database annotations and the related P-value distributions up to date by frequent recalculation.

Abstract: The present invention relates to 1-nitrogen-heterocyclic-2-carboxamides and/or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof, the use of these derivatives as pharmaceutically active agents, especially for the treatment and/or prevention of Axl receptor tyrosine kinase subfamily induced disorders, including cancer and primary tumor metastases, and pharmaceutical compositions containing at least one of said 1-nitrogen-heterocyclic-2-carboxamide derivatives and/or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.

Abstract: Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) induces sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing in many organisms by a process known as RNA interference (RNAi). Using a Drosophila in vitro system, we demonstrate that 19-23 nt short RNA fragments are the sequence-specific mediators of RNAi. The short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) are generated by an RNase III-like processing reaction from long dsRNA. Chemically synthesized siRNA duplexes with overhanging 3? ends mediate efficient target RNA cleavage in the lysate, and the cleavage site is located near the center of the region spanned by the guiding siRNA. Furthermore, we provide evidence that the direction of dsRNA processing determines whether sense or antisense target RNA can be cleaved by the produced siRNP complex.

Abstract: A method for encoding high dynamic range (HDR) images involves providing a lower dynamic range (LDR) image, generating a prediction function for estimating the values for pixels in the HDR image based on the values of corresponding pixels in the LDR image, and obtaining a residual frame based on differences between the pixel values of the HDR image and estimated pixel values. The LDR image, prediction function and residual frame can all be encoded in data from which either the LDR image of HDR image can be recreated.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for genotyping DNA molecules contained in at least one DNA sample. The method includes: (a) digesting the DNA molecules contained in at least one DNA sample with a class IIB restriction endonuclease to generate DNA fragments; (b) optionally separating DNA fragments comprising the recognition site for the class IIB restriction endonuclease from the remaining DNA fragments; (c) attaching at least one adaptor DNA to the 5? and/or 3? end of one or both strands of the DNA fragments comprising the recognition site for the class IIB restriction endonuclease obtained in a) or separated in b) to form adaptor-fragment constructs; (d) determining the sequence of at least a fraction of the DNA fragments obtained in c); and (e) assigning genotypes to the at least one DNA sample analyzed based on the sequence data obtained in d).

Abstract: The present invention describes a method for identification of areas of a sample from which nucleic acid molecules originate using labeling of said nucleic acid molecules by two-dimensionally distributed oligonucleotide markers. Further analysis of hybrids between the nucleic acid molecules and the oligonucleotide markers allow identification of the original position of the labelled nucleic acid molecules in the sample.

Abstract: This invention relates to methods for the evaluation and/or quantification of the binding affinity of small molecules or other compounds to target components contained within an analyte, such as target proteins contained within the proteome of a cell or tissue.

Abstract: The present invention relates to novel peptides capable of binding to action. The peptides are useful in methods for detecting actin in vitro or in living cells.