Abstract: This invention provides methods and compositions for control of nematicidal damage to economically important plants by contacting the nematodes with cysteine proteinases. The cysteine proteinases may be provided as crude plant extracts or as refined enzyme extracts. In addition, the cysteine proteinases may be provided by the plants expressing these enzymes. Furthermore, the cysteine proteinase treatment according to this invention may be utilized to potentiate the anti-nematode effects of a non-enzymatic nematicide.

Abstract: A seismic source is provided that uses suitable low frequency acoustic transducers enabling a complex chirp to be used while increasing the effective power level and keeping the peak power down to a fraction of this effective power. The transducers can be driven using a pseudo-random coding of chirps that change frequency in each contiguous burst within the chirp and the interval between chirps varied to provide a pseudo-random duty cycle allowing multiple signals to be present in the water at the same time with a wider spectral coverage. By changing the timing of the drive signal for specific transducers, the direction of the source beam can be altered to steer the beam towards or away from certain objects or areas.

Abstract: The invention provides a method for the immobilisation of at least one type of carbohydrate molecule comprising contacting a surface with a plasma of at least one monomer to provide a plasma polymer coated surface and contacting said polymer surface with a carbohydrate molecule.

Abstract: A flexible elongate structure, such as a flexible riser (10), comprising at least one layer (20) of steel wires near the surface which extend at least partly along the length of the structure, can be monitored by inducing a small, alternating magnetic field in the steel wires using an electromagnetic coil, and monitoring the magnetic flux density near the surface of the structure so as to asses the stress and hence detect if any wires have broken. By using an array of stress-measuring electromagnetic probes (24) around the structure some spatial resolution can be provided as to the location of any break in the wires.

Abstract: In a railway line, thermally-induced stresses are a factor for both rail breaks and rail buckling. These stresses are in the longitudinal direction. A nondestructive measuring technique enables the residual stress in a rail to be determined, and hence the thermally-induced stress. An electromagnetic probe is used to measure the stresses in the rail web in the vertical direction, and in the direction parallel to the longitudinal axis. The residual stress in the longitudinal direction can be deduced from the measured stress in the vertical direction; hence the thermally-induced stress can be determined.

Abstract: Material properties such as stress in a ferromagnetic material may be measured using an electromagnetic probe. While generating al alternating magnetic field in the object, and sensing the resulting magnetic field with a sensor, the signals from the magnetic sensor may be resolved into in-phase and guadrature components. The signals are affected by both geomaterical parameters such as lift-off any by material properties, but these influences may be separated by mapping the in-phase and quadrature components directly into material property and lift-off components, and hence a material property and/or the lift-off may be determined. The mapping may be represented in the impedance plane as two sets of contours representing signal variation with lift-off (A) (for different values of stress) and signal variation with stress (B) (for different values of liftoff), the contours of both sets (A, B) being curved. The stress contours (B) at a constant angle.

Abstract: The inventive concept relates to the inactivation of allergens using inhibitors for hydrolytic enzymes, and preferably proteases. Embraced within the overall inventive concept is the use of hydrolytic enzyme inhibitors for manufacture of medicaments for the prophylactic treatment of allergic conditions, and formulations for their use. Also, there is included a method for the manufacture of air treatment devices with the enzyme inhibitor bound to the surface of the support material such as an air filter. There is also a formulation containing the enzyme inhibitors for inactivating allergenic residues on fabrics or carpets.