Abstract: The invention provides an agent comprising: a cyclic peptide comprising a T cell antigen peptide; wherein in cyclised form the T cell antigen peptide is not capable of eliciting a T cell response; and wherein the T cell antigen peptide is rendered capable of eliciting a T cell response by selective cleavage of one or more cleavage sites in the cyclic peptide. The agent may be used to prevent or treat a condition characterised by the presence of unwanted cells.

Abstract: A method for transmitting data over an optical super-channel partitions the data unequally into a set of data streams for transmission over the set of sub-channels of the super-channel, such that a size of a first data stream for transmission over a first sub-channel is different than a size of a second data stream of the data for transmission over a second sub-channel. The method encodes each data stream of the data with an error correction code (ECC) having different ECC rates to produce a set of encoded data streams and transmits concurrently the set of encoded data streams over the set of sub-channels of the super-channel. Accordingly, the method uses an adaptive ECC for optical super-channels, such that a first ECC rate for encoding the first data stream is different than a second ECC rate for encoding the second data stream.

Abstract: The invention provides an agent for preventing or treating a condition characterized by the presence of unwanted cells, the agent comprising: (i) a targeting moiety that is capable of targeting to the unwanted cells; and (ii) a T cell antigen, wherein the T cell antigen can be released from the targeting moiety by selective cleavage of a cleavage site in the agent in the vicinity of the unwanted cells.

Abstract: The invention provides an agent for preventing or treating a condition characterised by the presence of unwanted cells, the agent comprising: (i) a targeting moiety that is capable of targeting to the unwanted cells; and (ii) a T cell antigen, wherein the T cell antigen can be released from the targeting moiety by selective cleavage of a cleavage site in the agent in the vicinity of the unwanted cells.

Abstract: The embodiments of the invention provide methods to deal with problems of cycle slips, angular skew, and residual phase noise for high-speed optical communications employing any arbitrary high-order multi-dimensional modulation formats. The embodiments use a slip process analyzer, a skew angle estimator, and a phase noise variance estimator to provide feedforward soft-decision information of a carrier phase recovery (CPE) for more accurate likelihood calculation based on a high-order hidden Markov model (HMM). The log-likelihood calculation can be done jointly in dual polarization with joint Markov state transition. Some embodiments use a kernel filter or a particle filter for log-likelihood calculation.

Abstract: The invention provides molecule comprising: (i) a targeting moiety capable of directly or indirectly targeting to unwanted cells, and (ii) a further moiety that has a masked immune cell binding region so as to prevent binding of the further moiety to an immune cell, wherein the masked immune cell binding region is capable of being selectively unmasked when the molecule is in the vicinity of the unwanted cells so as to allow binding of the further moiety to an immune cell.

Abstract: A method generates constant modulus multi-dimensional modulations for coherent optical communications by first projecting points in a constellation of the code onto a Poincare sphere or its higher-dimensional hyper-sphere. By using meta-heuristic procedures, nonlinear programming and gradient search methods, constellation points in the hyper-sphere are optimized in certain criteria, such as maximizing the minimum Euclidean distance, minimizing the union bound, minimizing the bit-error rate, minimizing the required signal-to-noise ratio, maximizing the nonlinear fiber reach, maximizing the phase noise tolerance, and maximizing the mutual information. Some methods use parametric unitary space-time block codes such as Grassmannian packing, and filter impulse response as well as unitary rotation over adjacent code blocks to generate near-constant modulus waveform, not only at the symbol timing, but also over the entire time.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a new polymorphic form of the compound diosgenyl ?-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1->2)-?-D-glucopyranoside (compound I) and pharmaceutical compositions containing this polymorph

Abstract: The invention provides an agent comprising: (i) a T cell antigen, and (ii) a binding partner for any of CD22, CD23, CD30, CD74, CD70, CD43, CD44, CD47, CD54, CD58, CD62L, CD95, HLA-DR, CD59, CD55, wherein, following binding of the agent to a cell that expresses any of CD22, CD23, CD30, CD74, CD70, CD43, CD44, CD47, CD54, CD58, CD62L, CD95, HLA-DR, CD59, CD55, the agent is internalised and the T cell antigen is presented on the surface of the cell in a form that can be recognised by a T cell.

Abstract: The invention provides an agent for preventing or treating a condition characterised by the presence of unwanted cells, the agent comprising: (i) a targeting moiety that is capable of targeting to the unwanted cells; and (ii) a T cell antigen, wherein the T cell antigen can be released from the targeting moiety by selective cleavage of a cleavage site in the agent in the vicinity of the unwanted cells.

Abstract: The invention provides molecule comprising: (i) a targeting moiety capable of directly or indirectly targeting to unwanted cells, and (ii) a further moiety that has a masked immune cell binding region so as to prevent binding of the further moiety to an immune cell, wherein the masked immune cell binding region is capable of being selectively unmasked when the molecule is in the vicinity of the unwanted cells so as to allow binding of the further moiety to an immune cell.

Abstract: The present invention provides an improved synthesis of a class of steroid saponins. Furthermore, the present invention provides a method of selectively discriminating between the C2 and C3 hydroxyl groups of a mono-glycosylated steroid saponin—a key step in the preparation of this class of compounds. Additionally, the present invention provides a range of steroid saponin derivatives, and methods of making them.

Abstract: A device to shut-off a water supply to a toilet diverts water from a toilet fill valve to a shut-off valve that has a housing that includes a valve mechanism, a trip mechanism, and a trip circuit. The trip mechanism includes a rotational spring that urges closing of the valve mechanism. A trip latch is adapted to prevent closing of the valve mechanism except when withdrawn from the valve mechanism by a solenoid that is electrically connected to the trip circuit. The trip circuit includes at least one trip sensor input and a power source, such that when the trip circuit detects a fault condition on any of the trip sensors, the trip circuit connects power to the solenoid to withdraw the solenoid to close the valve mechanism. A rest knob may then be rotated to reset the valve mechanism into a valve-open position.

Abstract: Refractory cold start slag band including an admixture of partially stabilised zirconia and/or fully stabilised zirconia and monoclinic zirconia. The proportion of monoclinic relative to the total zirconia content is at least 50% by weight and the grain diameter of the monoclinic zirconia is from 0.25 to 0.5mm.

Abstract: The invention provides an agent for preventing or treating a condition characterised by the presence of unwanted cells, the agent comprising: (i) a targeting moiety that is capable of targeting to the unwanted cells; and (ii) a T cell antigen, wherein the T cell antigen can be released from the targeting moiety by selective cleavage of a cleavage site in the agent in the vicinity of the unwanted cells.

Abstract: A device to shut-off a water supply to a toilet diverts water from a toilet fill valve to a shut-off valve that has a housing that includes a valve mechanism, a trip mechanism, and a trip circuit. The trip mechanism includes a rotational spring that urges closing of the valve mechanism. A trip latch is adapted to prevent closing of the valve mechanism except when withdrawn from the valve mechanism by a solenoid that is electrically connected to the trip circuit. The trip circuit includes at least one trip sensor input and a power source, such that when the trip circuit detects a fault condition on any of the trip sensors, the trip circuit connects power to the solenoid to withdraw the solenoid to close the valve mechanism. A rest knob may then be rotated to reset the valve mechanism into a valve-open position.

Abstract: A shut-off valve for connecting between a water supply valve and a tank inlet port of a toilet tank includes a housing having an inlet port, an outlet port, a valve mechanism, a trip mechanism, and a trip circuit electrically connected with the trip mechanism. The valve mechanism includes a valve housing rotationally confining a first ceramic disk and a ceramic second disk, each disk having at least one aperture therethrough that, when mutually aligned, allow for fluid communication between the inlet and outlet ports. The trip mechanism includes a rotational spring that urges rotation of an axial shaft fixed coaxially with the second disk. A trip latch is adapted to prevent rotation of the axial shaft and second disk except when withdrawn from the axial shaft by a solenoid electrically connected to the trip circuit that is electrically connected with a toilet tank overflow sensor, a toilet bowl overflow sensor, or the like.

Abstract: A multifunction container-piercing tool is provided. The tool includes a base and a piercing element having a pointed tip and a triangle base. The triangle base is attached to the front of the base. A hook is connected to the bottom of the base. The hook base extends from the bottom of the tool base and the catch faces toward the pointed tip. The distance between the catch and the base is about equal to the length of the piercing element. A handle extends from the back of the base, where the handle has at least one fork element. The fork element is disposed to leverage a mass of turf, such as a divot in a putting green. The hook pivots about a container bottom, and the piercing element provides an opening in a beverage can sidewall to enable rapid delivery of the contents when the pull-tab is lifted.

Abstract: A method for testing a fluid supply system includes periodically preventing a fluid flow through the fluid supply system, and measuring a system pressure of the fluid flow subsequent to the step of preventing the fluid flow.