Abstract: A method of carrying out an amplification reaction, said method comprising supplying to a well in a disposable unit (a) a sample which contains or is suspected of containing a target nucleic acid sequence (b) primers, nucleotides and enzymes required to effect said amplification reaction and (c) a buffer system, and subjecting the unit to thermal cycling conditions such that any target nucleic acid present within the sample is amplified; wherein the disposable unit comprises a thermally conducting layer and a facing layer having one or more reagent wells of up to 1000 microns in depth defined therebetween; and the reaction mixture comprises at least one of the following: A) a buffer system wherein the pH is above 8.3; B) a detergent; and/or C) a blocking agent. Apparatus for effecting the method as well as disposable units for use in the method are described. The method is particularly suitable for rapid PCR reactions.

Abstract: Detailed is radar imaging apparatus including a single transmit antenna and at least one receive antenna, scanning apparatus (e.g. a pantograph) for mechanically scanning the antennas over a surface of interest, position providing apparatus (e.g. a computer driving the pantograph via an X-Y drive and a stepper motor) providing a position signal indicative of the instantaneous position of the transceiver and a control system for operating the transmit antenna in a stepped frequency continuous wave mode. The amplitude and phase components of the receive antenna signal are analysed and the output combined with the position signal as in a synthetic aperture array to provide a radar image signal of the surface and underlying features. The scan is two-dimensional (random or boustrophedral).

Abstract: A method for maintaining a human hookworm strain is provided by infecting a non-human primate with a non-adapted or non-passaged human hookworm and maintaining the non-human primate. Methods of obtaining human hookworm materials and compositions, such as for use as a vaccine, are also provided, along with a model for maintaining and investigating human hookworm.

Abstract: A method for detecting the presence of a lysed eukaryotic cell in a sample, said method comprising: (i) adding adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to said sample under conditions which allows the conversion of ADP to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by cellular adenylate kinase, (ii) detecting ATP in said sample and relating that to the presence of adenylate kinase and thus to the presence of lysed cells. The method is useful in detecting the cell lysis, for example when screening for drugs which are required to cause lysis, for example for use in tumor therapy. However, in addition, cells may, in a preliminary step, be lysed and the contents quantitated in order to establish for example the health of condition of the cells or to detect the presence of cells in sample such as milk or urine, for diagnostic purposes.

Abstract: The use of an assay for adenylate kinase in an in vitro test for the effect of external conditions on the growth characteristics of bacterial cells. Such tests in particular include tests for the sensivity of a bacteria to an antibiotic or a biostatic agent, and tests to assess the growth stage and health of the bacteria. Methods of carrying out these tests and kits for effecting them are also described and claimed.

Abstract: An air sampler for use in analyzing biological or other analytes, comprizes an airflow chamber having an air inlet and an air outlet. An extract from an air mover draws ambient air in through the inlet, and then through the chamber, to discharge it back to atmosphere by way of an outlet. The airflow chamber houses a cyclone air/liquid separator through which the inflowing air is caused to pass. An injector introduces liquid into air flowing through the air inlet. The cyclone separator extracts this liquid and any entrained particles therein and discharges it from the airflow chamber, initially by way of a duct, where it is then conveyed to a collection vessel, by way of a three channel peristaltic pump, and a duct. The collection vessel is housed within a Peltier-cooled holder to maintain the contents of the vessel within the 2-8 degree Celsius range.

Abstract: With reference to FIG. (2), a helmet (2) for an aircraft crew member (1) is provided with a device (10) for forming an eye-shielding curtain (11) of air in front of the crew members eyes. The air exhausts to the ambient atmosphere (9) by way of an escape path (12) beneath the lower edge of the visor (4), as indicated by arrow (13).

Abstract: A corona discharge ionization source is disclosed in which neutral species are removed by directing a flow of oxygen containing gas in a direction substantially different to that of the ion flow. The ion profiles produced are similar in many respects to those produced by a 63Ni source, thus an alternative, non-radioactive, ion source is offered.

Abstract: A personal respirator has a face mask and is provided with a filter unit comprising a canister housing contiguous layers of novel filter material. The filter material is suitable for both particulate and vapor filtration, and comprises a composite of first and second groups of chopped fibres, the fibres of the first group having a relatively large diameter (about 7×10−6 m) and the second group having a relatively small diameter (about 0.5×10−6 m).

Abstract: The surface plasmon resonance apparatus (1) for detecting a soluble and/or particulate analyte comprises a prism sensor (2) providing a metallised sensor surface (3) capable of binding the analyte, and a laser (10) providing a beam (4) for direction at the sensor surface (3). A detector (5) is provided which is capable of detecting light (6), which is internally reflected from the sensor surface (3). Displacement means (7) comprising a vibrator (8) and mirror (9), is operable whereby the excitation beam (4) is displaced over an angular range (A) relative to the sensor surface (3). An analyte sample (15) is disposed on the metallic sensor (3). The detector (5) is used to interpret the light signals (6) internally reflected from the sensor surface (3) so that the sample (15) is analysed. A video camera system (16), which includes a mirror (17), microscope objective (18) and CCD (charge-coupled device) array (19), is used to detect the scattered light emitted from the upper face of the sensor surface (3).

Abstract: A method for monitoring the temperature of a biochemical reaction is disclosed. The method effects the reaction in the presence of a fluorescently labeled DNA probe which comprises a double stranded region which dentures at a predetermined temperature. The fluorescent label is arranged so that a detectable signal is generated upon denaturation of the probe.

Abstract: A frequency to frequency de-randomizer circuit having means for smoothing a current which comprises a diode filter configured so as to have a time constant which changes in response to changes in the current thus providing a rapidly responding, real time, fluctuation free signal which is optimised for measurement and display from a very low power circuit.

Abstract: Many of today's weapons systems use surveillance and target acquisition (STA) devices which can exploit the infrared and millimeter wavebands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Designing obscurant devices which can provide screening against such systems often results in complicated or costly solutions. A device capable of mitigating these problems is described wherein an obscurant device (10), and more particularly a device capable of providing screening against the visual, infrared and millimeter wave regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, comprises an obscurant payload, a burster charge capable, when detonated by a detonator, of disseminating said payload and a payload casing wherein some or all of the payload casing is configured to disintegrate upon actuation of the burster charge and to act thereafter as an obscurant.

Abstract: The use of incubation means for the controlled heating of biological materials, said means comprising an electrically conducting polymer connectable to a power supply, said polymer being either contiguous or integral with an incubation vessel, or adapted to be in thermal contact with an incubation vessel. Incubation apparatus including such means and a method for culturing biological materials using them are also described and claimed.

Abstract: On a transparent substrate, a photosensitive resin layer, which is made of an acrylic positive photosensitive resin layer, is formed so as to cover stripe-shaped conductive wires and a portion between the conductive wires. In this case, at least a part of the photosensitive resin layer, that covers the conductive wire, is removed. And then, a transparent conductive film is formed on the photosensitive resin layer and the conductive wire, and the transparent conductive film is patterned so as to form transparent electrodes. Such an electrode substrate can obtain high evenness when a height difference is at 0.11 &mgr;m or less between a projecting portion, which appears on the photosensitive resin layer around the ends of the conductive wires after the photosensitive resin layer has been removed so as to expose the conductive wire, and the virtually even surface of the resin film at a portion where the conductive wire is not formed, and a height difference is 0.

Abstract: An adenovirus which encodes a polypeptide which produces a protective immune response against an alpha-virus such as a Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus, in a mammal to which it is administered, said nucleic acid lacking a competant nuclear targeting signal in the capsid gene.

Abstract: In the manufacture of a ferroelectric liquid crystal cell, alignment layers provided on the inside surfaces of the substrate structures for imparting a preferred alignment to the molecules of the liquid crystal layer in the vicinity of the layers are formed by deposition of two different alignment solutions, such as LQT120 and JALS212 for example, on the substrate structures. A mixture of the alignment solutions was applied by spin coating and subsequently the solvent was evaporated by prebaking prior to a further baking step and a rubbing step to impart a preferred alignment direction. The resulting alignment layers have a speckled structure in which areas of one type are interspersed within areas of another type. The different areas have different alignment properties which serve to control switching of molecules of the liquid crystal material between alignment states in response to an applied electric field.

Abstract: A method of coating a surface with a polymer layer, which method comprises exposing said surface to a plasma comprising a monomeric unsaturated organic compound which comprises a chain of carbon atoms, which are optionally substituted by halogen; provided that where the compound is a perhalogenated alkene, it has a chain of at least 5 carbon atoms; so as to form an oil or water repellent coating on said substrate.

Abstract: A flame photometer detector is described which uses flame emission spectroscopy as the detection method, computer control and data acquisition, pulsed sampling and a rotating reference filter wheel to eliminate the effects of background chemical species. The detector is particularly suited to the testing of respirator equipment.