Abstract: The invention relates to a method of determining the dissociation rate constant (koff) of a receptor molecule R on a target cell using a combination of reversible and irreversible cell labeling. The invention further relates to a cell comprising such a receptor molecule R, wherein the cell has bound to it such a combination of cell labeling. The invention further relates to a kit and an apparatus useful in performing the methods of the invention. The invention further relates to a method of isolation a high-avidity T cell.

Abstract: A ligand-SiFA conjugate compound represented by formula (1) wherein: RL is a ligand moiety which is capable of binding to prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA); RSiFA is a silicon-fluoride acceptor (SiFA) moiety which can be labeled with 18F or which is labeled with 18F; L is a linking moiety; RH is a hydrophilic moiety which comprises (i) a linear or branched sequence of 2 to 10 hydrophilic amino acid units AH, each of which is independently derived from a natural or non-natural amino acid carrying a hydrophilic side chain, and optionally one amino acid unit AN derived from a natural or non-natural amino acid which is devoid of a hydrophilic side chain, wherein the hydrophilic amino acid units and, if present, the unit AN, are bound to each other via a direct covalent bond or via a coupling unit; and which optionally further comprises (ii) one or more hydrophilic residues RT, each of which may be bound to an amino group, a carboxylic acid group, or to a hydrophilic side chain of an amino acid unit; or a

Abstract: A device and a method for detecting deposits in a membrane module which produces a permeate and which comprises at least one permeable or semipermeable membrane layer. At least one polymer optical fiber for detecting deposits on the membrane layer is integrated in the membrane module such that the polymer optical fiber is in contact with at least one membrane layer. A method of detecting deposits in a membrane module producing a permeate and to a membrane module for producing a permeate from a feed stream of a fluid, in particular an aqueous solution, with the membrane module comprising a plurality of adjacently disposed or stacked sheets of a permeable or semipermeable membrane layer and with at least one polymer optical fiber being embedded or integrated in the membrane module, which polymer optical fiber is in contact with at least one sheet of the membrane layer.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an ion guide for guiding an ion beam along an ion path, said ion guide having a longitudinal axis which corresponds to said ion path. Said ion guide comprises a plurality of electrode plates which are arranged perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis, each electrode plate having an opening and being arranged such that said longitudinal axis extends through its respective opening, wherein said openings collectively define an ion guide volume. The ion guide extends or is configured to extend through a separation wall separating adjacent first and second pumping chambers. The ion guide has a first portion, in which gaps are formed between at least some of said electrode plates such that uncharged gas can escape from said ion guide volume, wherein said first portion is completely located in said first pumping chamber.

Abstract: The invention relates to a speed-changing shearing or forming active element insert which is designed to be detachably connected to an active element receptacle of a machine tool, the speed-changing shearing or forming active element insert having a speed-changing unit which is in the form of a hydraulic force/distance transducer, the force/distance transducer comprising a housing, the housing interior of which is supplied with a hydraulic fluid, and the force/distance transducer comprising a first piston which is in oo contact with the hydraulic fluid via one piston end and a second piston which is in contact with the hydraulic fluid via one piston end and the cross-sectional area of which is smaller than the cross-sectional area of the first piston. The invention also relates to the use of the speed-changing changing shearing or forming active element insert in a machine tool.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is an ion guide for guiding an ion beam along an ion path, said ion guide having a longitudinal axis corresponding to said ion path, said ion guide-comprising a plurality of elongate electrodes arranged around and extending along said longitudinal axis wherein an inner envelope of the plurality of electrodes defines an ion guide volume. Said elongate electrodes are formed by electrode wires, wherein adjacent electrode wires are arranged at an inter-wire distance. The ion guide comprises holding structures for supporting and for straightening the electrode wires by applying a tension or maintaining a tension applied to them. Any portion of said holding structures which is separated from said ion guide volume by less than the local inter-wire distance is made from a material having a resistivity of less than 1012 Ohm·cm, preferably of less than 109 Ohm·cm, or has a sheet resistivity of less than 1014 Ohm, preferably of less than 1010 Ohm on a surface facing said ion guide volume.

Abstract: The invention relates to an X-ray CT method and in particular a registration-based dark-field tensor tomography method for testing a sample (60) by means of X-rays, with which method a sample (60) is consecutively scanned by means of X-rays in at least two fixed orientations differing from one another while rotating about a fixed rotation axis, in every orientation of the sample (60) on the basis of dark-field signals a plurality of scatter data sets is recorded, and the scatter data sets for different orientations are matched to one another by registration and combined into a common scatter data set reflecting a possible angular dependence of the scatter present due to the sample (60).

Abstract: According to the present invention there is provided a method for enantiomeric enrichment of a mixture of two enantiomers of a chiral compound, the method comprises the application of the mixture of two enantiomers of a chiral compound onto a surface of a support material for producing a coated support, the determination a first value of an optical activity (OA0) of the coated support, the irradiation of the coated support with a light beam having an intensity at least higher than a desorption threshold of one of the enantiomers from the coated support, wherein, if the support material is achiral, the light beam is circularly polarized and, if the support material is chiral, the light beam is unpolarized, linearly polarized or circularly polarized, and the determination of a second value of the optical activity (OAe) of the coated support after said irradiation, wherein the second value of the optical activity (OAe) differs from the first value of the optical activity (OA0).

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a method of automated noninvasive determining the sex of an embryo of a bird's egg (14) as well as a corresponding apparatus.

Abstract: Shown herein is a method of automated noninvasive determining the fertility of a bird's egg (14), comprising the following steps: conveying a plurality of bird eggs (14) sequentially or in parallel into an NMR apparatus (18), subjecting the bird eggs (14) to an NMR measurement, such as to generate a 3-D NMR image of at least a part of each of said eggs (14), said 3-D NMR image having a spatial resolution in at least one dimension of 1.0 mm or less, preferably of 0.

Abstract: An encoding apparatus for encoding a vibrotactile signal includes a first transforming unit configured to perform a discrete wavelet transform of the signal, a second transforming unit configured to generate a frequency domain representation of the signal, a psychohaptic model unit configured to generate at least one quantization control signal based on the generated frequency domain representation of the sampled signal and on a predetermined perceptual model based on human haptic perception, a quantization unit configured to quantize wavelet coefficients resulting from the performed discrete wavelet transform and adapted by the quantization control signal, a compression unit configured to compress the quantized wavelet coefficients, and a bitstream generating unit configured to generate a bitstream corresponding to the encoded signal based on the compressed quantized wavelet coefficients.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a porcine sodium taurocholate cotransporter polypeptide (NTCP) mutein, which has been modified at sequence positions 157-167 with the human sequence. This NTCP mutein renders a host cell and a transgenic animal susceptible for an infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis D virus (HDV). The present invention further relates to a nucleic acid and a vector comprising the NTCP mutein of the invention. Also presented are methods for producing cells and transgenic animals, which are susceptible to HBV and/or HDV as well as uses of the NTCP mutein screening for compounds or rendering a cell susceptible for an infection with HBV and/or HDV. Additionally provided is a method for identifying a compound, which is useful in the prevention and/or treatment of HBV and/or HDV infection.

Abstract: The present application concerns an encoding device comprising a FC 11 configured to generate m FC-output-bit-sequences by executing m polar encoding steps upon m FC-input-bit-sequences that comprise frozen and unfrozen bits, wherein m?2. In an i-th polar encoding step of the m polar encoding steps at least one frozen bit is based on at least one unfrozen bit. The present application also concerns a decoding device comprising a processor configured to decode successively a polar-coded-bitstream comprising m-polar decoding steps, wherein m?2. In an i-th polar decoding step of the m polar decoding steps at least one frozen bit is based on at least one unfrozen bit. Further, the present application concerns also correspondingly arranged encoding and decoding methods.

Abstract: Embodiments described herein include a satellite cover panel for covering a satellite, particularly a payload bay of a satellite comprising an energy storage module, at least one energy generating module defining, at least partially, a first outer surface of the satellite cover panel, and a logic board defining, at least partially, a second outer surface of the satellite cover panel, wherein the first outer surface and the second outer surface face away from each other and from the energy storage module.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a peptide comprising a reversible affinity tag (A); and a functionalization tag (F), wherein the peptide is linked to a target of interest (T). The peptide is useful as a versatile protein tag. The invention further provides structures comprising the peptide, nucleic acids, vectors, and host cells. Further, the invention provides methods of producing or using the peptide.

Abstract: Encoders and decoders for encoding and decoding data according to a coding scheme. The encoder converts N bits of input data into M voltage signals for transmission over M parallel wires to a decoder having one or two decoding stages that recover the N bits of data from the M voltage signals. The coding scheme is an N-bit, M-wire PAM-Q code in which each voltage signal wi has one of Q voltage levels I1-IQ, where I1<I2< . . . <IQ, and the different sets of M voltage signals for the different N-bit input values are permutations of a single set of M voltage signals. The decoder has a comparator stage. For the decoder having one other decoding stage, the other decoding stage is a computation stage or a logic stage that is before or after the comparator stage.

Abstract: A medical imaging apparatus for combined X-ray and optical visualization is provided. It comprises: an X-ray detector positioned above a patient; an X-ray source positioned below a patient; a control device; and a camera setup adapted to deliver an optical stereoscopic or 3D image. Thereby, the camera setup is positioned adjacent to the X-ray detector above the patient, and the control device is adapted to calculate an optical 2D image or a 3D surface from the data delivered by the camera setup, that optical 2D image or 3D surface having a virtual viewpoint similar to the viewpoint of the X-ray source. It is further adapted to superimpose an X-ray image acquired by the X-ray detector and the optical 2D image or 3D surface in order to achieve an augmented optical/X-ray image.

Abstract: A method (C) for converting a data signal (U), comprising (i) providing an input symbol stream (B) representative of the data signal (U), (ii) demultiplexing (DMX) the input symbol stream (B) to consecutively decompose the input symbol stream (B) into a number m of decomposed partial symbol streams (B_1, . . . , B_m), (iii) applying on each of the decomposed partial symbol streams (B_1, . . . , B_m) an assigned distribution matching process (DM_1, . . . , DM_m), thereby generating and outputting for each decomposed partial symbol stream (B_1, . . . , B_m) a respective pre-sequence (bn_1, . . . , bn_m) or n_j symbols as an intermediate output symbol sequence, and (iv) supplying the pre-sequences (bn_1, . . . , bn_m) to at least one symbol mapping process (BM) to generate and output a signal representative for a final output symbol sequence (S) as a converted data signal. Each of the distribution matching processes (DM_1, . . .

Abstract: A communication method (S) for communication between mobile units (10, 20), and in particular between vehicles, in which information transmitted between the mobile units (10, 20) is encoded on the transmitter side by means of an encoder (12-1, 22-1) and is decoded on the receiver side by means of a decoder (12-2, 22-2), and the mobile units (10, 20) are synchronized in communication (S3) with an external interface unit (30) outside the mobile units (10, 20) prior to communication (S5) with one another in that a codebook (Cj) defining or specifying an encoder (12-1, 22-1) and/or a decoder (12-2, 22-2) is determined (S2) by the external interface unit (30) and is communicated (S3) to the mobile units (10, 20).

Abstract: The present invention relates to a light-switchable polypeptide. In particular, the present invention relates to a polypeptide comprising a light-responsive element, wherein the configuration (i.e. the configurational state) of the light-responsive element can be switched between a trans and cis isomer by irradiating the polypeptide with (a) particular wavelength(s) of light, and wherein the switch of said configuration alters the conformation and binding activity of said polypeptide to a ligand (e.g. molecule of interest). Also, the present invention comprises using said light-switchable polypeptide for isolating and/or purifying a molecule of interest. The present invention further provides an affinity matrix, an affinity chromatography column, and an affinity chromatography apparatus comprising the light-switchable polypeptide of the invention.