Abstract: Nucleic acid molecule selected from the group consisting of (a) a nucleic acid molecule having a nucleotide sequence shown in SEQ ID: NO 1, (b) a nucleic acid molecule which encodes a peptide having an amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID: NO 2, (c) a nucleic acid molecule whose complementary strand hybridizes to a nucleic acid molecule according to (a) or (b) and which codes for a peptide which binds to ciliary neurotrophic factor receptor (CNTFR), the peptide binding with lower affinity than ciliary neurotrophic factor to the interleukin-6 receptor (IL-6R), (d) a nucleic acid molecule whose nucleotide sequence differs from the nucleotide sequence of a nucleic acid molecule according to (c) due to the degenerated genetic code, the codon at positions 82-84 of the nucleic acid molecule according to (a) coding for a non-positively charged amino acid, and the peptide at position 28 shown in SEQ ID: NO 2 having a non-positively charged amino acid residue.

Abstract: A sub-harmonic electronic mixer has at least one field effect transistor (FET) having a gate, source, and drain; and a useful signal input at a useful frequency; and a local oscillator input. The input receives the oscillator signal at a frequency being an integral fraction of the useful frequency, plus or minus a mixing frequency to provide a signal output. A gate of the FET and/or the drain and/or the source receives the useful signal to generate a gate-source voltage and/or a drain-source voltage whereby the gate receives the local oscillator signal to generate a gate-source voltage, and the drain or a source receives the local oscillator signal to generate a drain-source voltage. A phase shift is introduced between the signal received at the gate and the signal received at the drain or source of the FET.

Abstract: The invention relates to an apparatus (1) for unloading a user's body weight during a physical activity of said user (4), particularly for gait training of said user (4), comprising: a plurality of ropes (41, 42, 43, 44), wherein each rope (41, 42, 43, 44) extends from an associated drive unit (510, 520, 530, 540), is deflected by a passively displaceable deflection device, e.g.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device and a method for checking human vision, comprising an image-generating module for generating any test images, an imaging module, used to image the test image provided by the image-generating module on the retina of the eye as a stimulus, the imaging module containing at least one optical component having variable focal length, such that the test image of the image-generating module is perceptible to the eye from virtually simulated and variable distances, an accommodation measuring apparatus, a viewing direction measuring apparatus, and a control and evaluation module, which records and/or further processes the information. The accommodation of the eye can be stimulated by means of the particular test image, and the viewing direction of the eye can be measured simultaneously or in alternation, and fed to a control and evaluation module. Both eyes can be checked simultaneously by generating virtual binocular images.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a non-invasive method for predicting the responsiveness of a human subject suffering from inflammatory disease to a treatment with a therapy against said inflammatory disease using brain imaging techniques. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an active ingredient for the treatment of human subjects suffering from inflammatory disease and being identified as responders to therapy against the inflammatory disease according to the method of the invention. Preferably, this invention relates to a non-invasive method for predicting the responsiveness of a human subject suffering from rheumatoid arthritis to a treatment with TNF-antagonists comprising at least one step of brain imaging, preferably with an fMRI apparatus. The present invention shows that response to TNFi depends on the gestalt of brain activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for the virtualization of a hardware resource associated with a computer system by an executable piece of code adapted for being injected into a process belonging to an application that is executed on an operating system comprising at least one API that is executed on the computer system. The method comprises: intercepting a call from the process to an API service related with the management of the data flow produced between the process and the hardware resource; and managing the data flow produced between the process and the hardware resource by the piece of code on the basis of the interception of the call from the process to the API service related with the management of the data flow produced between the process and the hardware resource.

Abstract: In a clarification method for a beverage liquid, in particular for producing beer, the beverage liquid, after it passes through a fermentation stage, is subjected to a clarification which serves for removing active haze components from the beverage liquid, and fed to a maturation vessel in which the beverage liquid is stored for a maturation time. In a further method step, the beverage liquid is charged with at least one pectin-containing clarification agent for increasing a filtration performance. In this case it is provided that the pectin-containing clarification agent is introduced into the beverage liquid on the path from the fermentation stage to the maturation vessel and the pectin present therein, before the feed to the maturation vessel, is at least for the most part removed again from the beverage liquid.

Abstract: The floating structure for supporting a wind turbine comprises a SPAR-type hollow precast monolithic body made of concrete prestressed by active reinforcement members having a cylindrical lower section (13) closed at its lower end by a hemispheric cap (18) which contains ballast (14) and acts as a flotation element and an upper section (12) located above sea level, which acts as a support for the wind turbine or other element. One or more of the active reinforcement members have opposite ends anchored to a steel ring-shaped plate (17) attached to an upper end of the upper section (12) and an intermediate section which has continuity within the hemispheric cap (18). The structure is preferably moored to the seabed by means of cable lines (15), through heavy weight elements (16) or suction piles capable of counteracting vertical and horizontal force components induced by the mooring lines.

Abstract: It is described here a new method for improvement genotyping of a large number of inversions mediated by inverted repeats through a fast and high-throughput assay. The assay is based on Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification, adapted for the detection of genomic structural variants, particularly adapted to inversions detection (iMLPA). By comparison with other techniques used to genotype inversions one by one, like inverse PCR, iMLPA has shown a very high sensibility, reproducibility and accuracy. Besides, iMLPA is the fastest method to determine the inversion genotypes in large sets of samples.

Abstract: The invention relates to a composition which contains at least one anti-slan antibody and to its diagnostic and therapeutic use. The composition according to the invention comprises: a) at least one anti-slan antibody, b) at least one binding unit which binds to a co-stimulus binding to a co-stimulus-specific receptor on dendritic cells, thereby bringing about the modulation, preferably the activation, of said dendritic cells, and c) at least one antigen. The invention furthermore comprises anti-slan antibodies which include CDRs with the following sequences: variable region of the heavy chain: CDR1 (SEQ ID No. 1), CDR2 (SEQ ID No. 2), where Xaa is selected from among M, L, F, or I, preferably from among M or I, CDR3 (SEQ ID No. 5) and variable region of the light chain: CDR1 (SEQ ID No. 6), where Xaa is selected from among S, T, N, Q, H, K or R, preferably from among S or N,CDR2 (SEQ ID No. 9) and CDR3 (SEQ ID No. 10).

Abstract: An assembly comprising: two ceramic bodies, which are joined by means of a joint of an active hard solder, or braze, wherein the active hard solder, or braze, has a continuous core volume, which is spaced, in each case, from the ceramic bodies by at least 1 ?m, and an average composition CK with a liquidus temperature Tl(CK), wherein the composition CK has a coefficient of thermal expansion ?(CK), wherein ?(CK)=m·?(K), wherein m?1.5, especially m?1.3 and preferably m?1.2, wherein ?(K) is the average coefficient of thermal expansion of the ceramic material of the ceramic bodies, wherein the joint has boundary layers, which border on the ceramic body, wherein at least one of the boundary layers, which lies outside of the core volume, has an average composition CB with a liquidus temperature Tl(CB), which lies not less than 50 K, preferably not less than 100 K, and especially preferably not less than 200 K, under the liquidus temperature Tl(CK) of the average composition CK of the core volume.

Abstract: A floating platform is provided including the following: a covering element; at least three buoyant bodies, which are separated from each other, are fixedly mounted to the lower face of the covering element, are open toward the bottom, and are made of a gas-tight, pressure- and corrosion-resistant flexible material. The buoyant bodies enclose a closed hollow space when coming into contact with a liquid surface. At least one compressed-air generating device is also provided for generating an overpressure in the individual hollow spaces.

Abstract: A first plurality of images of a scene may be captured. Each image of the first plurality of images may be captured using a different TET. Based at least on the first plurality of images, a long TET, a short TET, and a TET sequence that includes the long TET and the short TET may be determined. A second plurality of images of the scene may be captured. The images in the second plurality of images may be captured sequentially in an image sequence using a sequence of TETs corresponding to the TET sequence. Based on one or more images in the image sequence, an output image may be constructed.

Abstract: A regulatory protein RS1 fragment or a nucleic acid molecule encoding the regulatory protein RS1 fragment for the preparation of a pharmaceutical composition, food and/or food supplements for the amelioration, prevention and/or treatment of a metabolic disease or a secondary disorder caused by a (pathological) modification of homeostasis, wherein the RS1 fragment is characterized in comprising at least the amino acid sequence Q-C-P Glutamine-Cysteine-Proline) or derivatives thereof, is provided. Also provided is a method for the amelioration, prevention and/or treatment of a metabolic disease or a secondary disorder caused by a (pathological) modification of homeostasis comprising administering a pharmaceutically active amount of a regulatory protein RS1 fragment or a nucleic acid molecule encoding a regulatory protein RS1 fragment, wherein the RS1 fragment comprises at least the amino acid sequence Q-C-P or derivatives thereof.

Abstract: The invention relates to a real time-capable analysis of a sequence of electronic images for estimating the pose of a movable object captured by means of the images. The invention further relates to implementing the invention in software and, in this connection, to a computer-readable medium that stores commands, the execution of which causes the method according to the invention to be carried out. The invention proceeds from a skeleton model, which is described by a small number of nodes in 3D space and permits a good data compression of the image information when the co-ordinates of the nodes describe at any time the position of predetermined parts of the moving object. The skeleton model simultaneously represents previous knowledge of the object, by defining e.g. node pairs and optionally also node triplets in the skeleton model that describe cohesive object parts or optionally object surfaces, which are contained in the measured 2½-D image information, i.e. are visible to the camera.

Abstract: Processing the pixel value of at least one image pixel contained in a current frame of a video sequence includes constructing an individual motion trajectory including motion-shifted versions of the at least one image pixel over a plurality of preceding and/or subsequent frames, and processing the pixel value based on the individual motion trajectory. Constructing the individual motion trajectory includes choosing the at least one image pixel of the current frame as a start pixel of the individual motion trajectory, and adding motion-shifted versions of the at least one image pixel of preceding and/or subsequent frames to the individual motion trajectory. For each of the plurality of preceding and/or subsequent frames, at least two motion-shifted versions of the at least one image pixel are determined, and one of the at least two motion-shifted versions of the at least one image pixel is selected and added to the individual motion trajectory.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for the treatment of organs which are degenerative and/or in the pathological state by means of the use of cells, which are phenotypically stably differentiating or differentiated but not necessarily ultimately predetermined with respect to development, from a donor organ selected according to the principles of the opposite cell differentiation program (OCDP) and also to the use of cells of this type for the treatment or for the production of a drug for treatment of the same. Furthermore, the present invention relates to pharmaceutical agents comprising suitable phenotypically stable cells, cells of a first organ which is different from the second organ with respect to organ type thereby being used, which, in the normal physiological state with respect to a predetermined set of expressed genes and/or phenotypical properties, have opposite properties to the second cells in the normal physiological state.

Abstract: This invention relates to a composition that comprises inositol phosphates and/or bisphosphonates, and to the use thereof to prevent the loss of substances of biological interest in the body of patients subjected to dialysis and to maintain sufficient physiological levels of said substances to regulate physiological and/or pathological processes, these substances being inhibitors of pathological crystallization.

Abstract: Method for compensating illumination deficiencies in microscopic “shape from focus (SFF)”, wherein firstly the reflectance of the scene is estimated by way of a projector-camera system and then microscopic “shape from focus (SFF)” is applied to a stack of reflectance maps rather than to the original image data.

Abstract: Panels of mammalian cell samples, kits and methods of use thereof. The panels comprise samples or sets of samples of immortalized primary cells, obtained from different tissues and organs of healthy and/or diseased donors. The cell panels are useful in assays for testing effects of drug candidates, e.g. for activity and toxicity.