Abstract: The release by trichomonads of a hydrolase that hydrolyzes a narrowly defined class of substrates at a low pH without interference from hydrolases that are unrelated to trichomoniasis is the basis for a selective diagnostic assay for trichomoniasis that measures hydrolysis of any of these substrates by vaginal fluid at a low pH. Selective assays for trichomoniasis are also obtained by removing particulate matter from a sample of vaginal fluid to extract a fraction devoid of particles greater than a selected size, and where desired, combining the extracted fraction with any of certain specified hydrolase inhibitors, then testing the fraction for enzymatic hydrolase activity. These qualities of trichomoniasis are the basis for a series of diagnostic tests and test devices that produce results that are detectable by visual and other means with a high degree of accuracy.

Abstract: The release by trichomonads of a hydrolase that hydrolyzes a narrowly defined class of substrates at a low pH without interference from hydrolases that are unrelated to trichomoniasis is the basis for a selective diagnostic assay for trichomoniasis that measures hydrolysis of any of these substrates by vaginal fluid at a low pH. Selective assays for trichomoniasis are also obtained by removing particulate matter from a sample of vaginal fluid to extract a fraction devoid of particles greater than a selected size, and where desired, combining the extracted fraction with any of certain specified hydrolase inhibitors, then testing the fraction for enzymatic hydrolase activity. These qualities of trichomoniasis are the basis for a series of diagnostic tests and test devices that produce results that are detectable by visual and other means with a high degree of accuracy.

Abstract: A quality check of the photoconductive belt of an electrographic print engine may be performed by writing a toner image on each of the virtual image frames of the loop and printing out those images. The printer user interface may provide a test screen to prompt a user to perform such a quality check. To facilitate the printing of sample receivers for each frame of a printer's film loop a user button is provided at the user interface. When selected, this signals the marking engine to schedule for print an appropriate number of receivers such that each frame on the film belt will be printed on. Each receiver may be a duplicate copy of a particular receiver in the currently printing job.

Abstract: A strap tension retaining device is configured for a use with a bulk unit secured by a strap under tension. Such a bulk unit load has a corner and defines a bulk unit perimeter. The strap tension retaining device includes a fixed base element, fixed relative to the bulk unit load, a floating element movable relative to the fixed base element, a biasing element mounted between the floating element and the fixed base element and a guide element mounting the floating element to the fixed base element to guide movement of the floating element relative to the fixed base element. The strap tension retaining device is positioned at about the corner of the bulk unit load with the strap positioned around the bulk unit perimeter of the bulk unit load, over the strap tension retaining device floating element. When the strap is tensioned a force is exerted by the strap on the floating element to force the biasing element against the bias direction.

Abstract: A fixing plug adapted for permanent anchoring within a bore in a wall, said plug comprising a first elongate hollow member (1) having an internal bore (2) containing a flowable adhesive medium, the first hollow member being provided with outwardly projecting fin means (6) for engagement with the bore sidewall so as to define, in use, a gap between the first elongate hollow member (1) and the bore sidewall, at least one fluid port adapted to provide fluid communication betwenn said internal bore of the first elongate hollow member (1) and said gap, a second elongate hollow plunger member (10) adapted to be inserted into said internal bore (2) of the first hollow member (1) to a fully inserted position in order to cause said adhesive medium to flow through said at least one fluid port and into said gap, said second member (10) having an internal bore (15) adapted to receive a screw (14) and having at least one fluid port (11) adapted to provide fluid communication between the internal bore (15) of the second el

Abstract: A fixing plug for anchoring in an irregular hole in a substrate, the plug having an elongate body with an internal bore for receiving a screw, closure means adapted to close the opening of said hole, at least one opening in said closure means, and a plurality of support fingers extending radially outwardly from said body, said support fingers being resiliently detected by contact with walls of the hole on insertion of the plug into the hole, the fingers sensing to hold the plug substantially centrally within the hole.

Abstract: In a stack of network units each includes a multiplicity of ports for receiving and forwarding addressed data packets and a forwarding engine which in response to address data selects at least one port for the forwarding of a data packet. A cascade connects the units and allows the transmission of a packet placed on said cascade by a unit to all the other units. Each unit is responsive to a packet received from the cascade to forward or discard the received packet according to predetermined forwarding rules. A trunk includes a respective port of each of some but not necessarily all the units. Each unit includes a ‘trunk box member’ register indicating which of the units has at least one port connected in the trunk When a first unit in the stack receives, at a port connected neither to the trunk nor the cascade, a packet destined for the trunk, the first unit directs that packet to a port connected to the trunk if the first unit has such a port and otherwise sends that packet to the cascade.

Abstract: A network switch comprises a multiplicity of ports for receiving and forwarding addressed data packets, a forwarding engine for directing packets received at the ports to at least one other port, a register for storing unit identifications of a set of units including the network unit, and hashing logic for selecting one of the unit identifications in response to address data in a packet. The forwarding engine makes a determination whether the one of the unit identifications corresponds to the network unit and is operative to direct the packet in accordance with that determination. The use of the register enables a substantial increase in the number of ports that can be members of a stack-wide trunk.

Abstract: A trie searching technique employs entries each including a pointer to the next block in the search and a status indication and also including start and end indexes which define a selected section of the trie key identifying an entry within the block identified by the pointer. Thereby the program for selection of the search key is defined by the trie entries themselves, enabling a general variety of search selections and jumps to avoid any unnecessary parts of the trie search key.

Abstract: Shear-thinning ethylene/&agr;-olefin and ethylene/&agr;-olefin/diene monomer interpolymers that do not include a traditional branch-inducing monomer such as norbornadiene are prepared at an elevated temperature in an atmosphere that has little or no hydrogen using a constrained geometry complex catalyst and an activating cocatalyst.

Abstract: The release by trichomonads of a hydrolase that hydrolyzes a narrowly defined class of substrates at a low pH without interference from hydrolases that are unrelated to trichomoniasis is the basis for a selective diagnostic assay for trichomoniasis that measures hydrolysis of any of these substrates by vaginal fluid at a low pH. Selective assays for trichomoniasis are also obtained by removing particulate matter from a sample of vaginal fluid to extract a fraction devoid of particles greater than a selected size, and where desired, combining the extracted fraction with any of certain specified hydrolase inhibitors, then testing the fraction for enzymatic hydrolase activity. These qualities of trichomoniasis are the basis for a series of diagnostic tests and test devices that produce results that are detectable by visual and other means with a high degree of accuracy.

Abstract: A hand held device (2) comprising a handle (4), an operational member (6) which folds into and out of a side (8) of the handle (4), a control member (10) for controlling the folding of the operational member (6), an arm (12) which connects the control member (10) to the operational member (6), a guide groove (14) which is in the handle (4) and which guides the control member (10) over a path which causes the folding of the operational member (6), a first connecting formation (16) which connects the arm (12) to the operational member (6), and a second connecting formation (18) which connects the operational member (6) to the handle (4), the device (2) being such that movement of the control member (10) along the guide groove (14) causes the folding of the operational member (6) via the arm (12), the device (2) being such that in its closed condition the operational member (6) is folded into the handle (4) and the first connecting formation (16) is further away than the second connecting formation (18) from a f

Abstract: Shear-thinning ethylene/&agr;-olefin and ethylene/&agr;-olefin/diene monomer interpolymers that do not include a traditional branch-inducing monomer such as norbornadiene are prepared at an elevated temperature in an atmosphere that has little or no hydrogen using a constrained geometry complex catalyst and an activating cocatalyst.

Abstract: Electronically conductive composites of electronically conductive polymers and carbon nanotubes are formed by electrochemical or gel polymerisation of monomer in a carbon nanotube suspension. Electrical energy storage devices are produced from carbon nanotube/electronically conductive polymer composites.

Abstract: A last-in first-out data stack is able to store a plurality (n) of elements wherein the plurality is greater than two. For each of n storage locations in the stack a selector is adapted to receive n elements read out from the stack and a new element. The selector is arranged to make a controllable selection of its received elements. Combinational logic capable of performing logic manipulations on the selection of elements provides a resultant for pushing onto the stack.

Abstract: An application specific integrated circuit includes a clock recovery circuit which recovers from an input signal a repetitive sequence of data values wherein no two consecutive values are the same and a recovered clock. An address generator responds to the recovered clock to cause storage of the data values in said memory in a set of locations having addresses generated by the address generator, so that the address generated by the generator increments in response to a repetitive transition in the recovered clock. The existence of a clock glitch is found by reading the data values from the set of locations to determine whether any two consecutive locations contain the same data value.

Abstract: This invention provides an image-forming system having automatic finish output chaining, where an imaging job can switch to an alternate destination when a default destination is no longer usable.

Abstract: A high speed link between chips and comprising a multiplicity of synchronous serial data channels includes an onboard detector for detecting an error rate for each channel. The transmitter and the receiver chips are configured in response to the detector to select the channel having the lowest error rate as the control channel and optionally to render at least the channel with the highest error rate inactive.

Abstract: A method and switch for controlling the allocation of priority of TCP packets, more particularly for distinguishing between data and control packets and assigning an increased priority to control packets. The layer 4 information in the form of the flag bits of the header are snooped in the switch to determine whether any flag other than PSH is set and if so to allocate a priority to that packet, which will usually be a higher priority than data packets.

Abstract: A trie searching technique employs entries each including a pointer to the next block in the search and a status indication and also including start and end indexes which define a selected section of the trie key identifying an entry within the block identified by the pointer. Thereby the program for selection of the search key is defined by the trie entries themselves enabling a general variety of search selections and jumps to avoid any unnecessary parts of the trie search key.