The rules concerning translations in the European patent grant procedure

This is a synopsis of the provisions of the European Patent Convention (EPC) and national law of the Contracting States regarding the stipulation of written translations in the European patent grant procedure. A distinction is drawn between translations which have to be filed with the European Patent Office itself and those which may be required at certain stages of procedure by the national patent authorities of Contracting States to the EPC.     

A fast implementation of a multidimensional storage into a tree storage

Every multidimensional Turing machine can be simulated on-line by a tree machine in nearly the same amount of time.     

Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic analysis of an amylopullulanase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus woesei

The thermostable amylopullulanase from Pyrococcus woesei was crystallized. Crystals, suitable for a crystallographic analysis up to a size of 0.6 mm in their longest dimension, have been obtained by the vapor diffusion method in a solution containing polyethyleneglycol 4000 (PEG 4000), isopropanol, and Tris/Cl- buffer pH 7.5. Crystals grown under these conditions form hexagonal rods and diffract to a maximum resolution of 3 A. The crystals belong to the trigonal lattice type with the spacegroup P3(1)21 or P3(2)21, respectively, have the cell dimensions a = b = 96.8 A, c = 196.2 A, alpha = beta = 90 degrees, gamma = 120 degrees. The crystals have a theoretical packing density of 2.7 A3/Da, assuming one molecule with a molecule weight of 88.8 kDa in the asymmetric unit. Furthermore the self-rotation analysis of the dataset revealed only crystallographic symmetries. The merged native data of two crystals resulted in a 88% complete dataset.     

Phase transformations during tempering of the Fe-15Cr-1Mo martensites containing nitrogen or carbon

Hardness measurements, dilatometry, internal friction measurements, Mössbauer spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy are utilized in order to study the effect of tempering on the microstructure of a stainless martensitic steel containing 15% Cr, 1% Mo and 0.6% N. A similar carbon steel containing 15% Cr, 1% Mo and 0.6% C is used for comparison. Tempering of alloy Fe-15Cr-1Mo-0.6N in the low temperature range of 353-473 K leads to formation of hexagonal ?-nitride (Fe,Cr)₂N, which is followed by precipitation of the orthorombic ?-nitride (Fe,Cr)₂N at temperatures of 573-773 K. The hexagonal nitride Cr₂N is precipitated at 923 K and preferably formed at grain boundaries. The alloy Fe-15Cr-1Mo-0.6C shows the expected tempering behaviour. ?-carbide (Fe,Cr)₂C and cementite (Fe,Cr)₃C are precipitated during low temperature ageing, followed by the formation of Cr₇C₃ carbides after the temperature has risen to 873 K. With a similar interstitial content the amount of retained austenite in the nitrogen martensite is nearly twice as high as in the carbon one. Furthermore, the thermal stability of the retained austenite of the nitrogen alloy is substantially higher than that of the carbon steel.     

Recognizing polygons,or how to spy

A new class of so-called pseudo-starshaped polygons is introduced. A polygon is pseudo-star-shaped if there exists a point from which the whole interior of the polygon can be seen, provided it is possible to see through single edges. We show that the class of pseudo-star-shaped polygons unifies and generalizes the well-known classes of convex, monotone and pseudostar-sphaped polygons. We give algorithms for testing whether a polygon is pseudostar-shaped from a given point in linear time, and for constructing all regions from which the polygon is pseudo-star-shaped in quadratic time. We show the latter algorithm to be worst-case optimal. Also, we give efficient algorithms solving standard geometrical problems such as point-location and triangulation for pseudo-starshaped polygons.A preliminary version of this paper has been presented at the 24 th Allerton Conference on Communication, Control and Computing, Monticello, Ill, October 1986Research for this paper was done while the author was at Carleton UniversityResearch for this paper was done in part while the author was visiting Carleton UniversityThis research was supported in part by NSERC and by Carleton University     

Enhanced Osteoblast Adhesion to Epoxide‐Functionalized Surfaces

As an alternative to expensive extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins generally applied as coatings in Petri dishes used for cell binding, an innovative system based on epoxide‐functionalized monolayers capable of protein binding is proposed. Since cells bind to material surfaces through proteins, protein‐binding surfaces should also promote cell binding. Here we investigate how the cell‐binding properties of an epoxide‐functionalized surface compares with ECM protein gel coated surfaces and tissue culture polystyrene control surfaces. Glass surfaces are functionalized with glycidoxypropyltriethoxysilane (GOPS), which results in an epoxide‐functionalized surface capable of binding proteins through an epoxide–amine reaction. Advancing contact angle measurements and atomic force microscopy measurements confirm the formation of a homogeneous GOPS monolayer. This monolayer is micropatterned with fluorescein‐labeled ECM protein gel by microcontact printing (µCP). Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) shows accurately transferred ECM protein gel micropatterns. Osteoblasts that are seeded on these micropatterned substrates show a clear preference for adhering to the epoxide‐functionalized areas. The morphology of these cultured osteoblasts is needle‐like with high aspect ratios. As controls, osteoblasts are cultured on GOPS‐functionalized surfaces, unstructured ECM protein gel surfaces, and tissue culture polystyrene (TCPS). The GOPS surfaces demonstrate a drastic increase in cell adhesion after 2 h, whilst the other tests show no adverse effects of this surface on the osteoblasts as compared to ECM and TCPS. CLSM shows healthy cell morphologies on each surface. It is demonstrated for the first time that epoxide groups outperform ECM protein gel in cell adhesion, thereby providing new routes for cost‐effective coatings that improve biocompatibility as well as exciting, new methodologies to control and direct cell adhesion.     

Determination of epoxidized soy bean oil (ESBO) in oily foods by GC–FID or GC–MS analysis of the methyl diepoxy linoleate

A simplified method is presented for determining epoxidized soy bean oil (ESBO) in food or food simulants, such as olive oil. ESBO is transesterified with methoxide/methanol directly in the homogenated food, i.e. without prior extraction, and analyzed on a cyanopropyl or phenyl polysiloxane stationary phase without formation of dioxolanes. For most foods, flame ionization detection (FID) was appropriate, but for samples with interfering components, GC–MS was needed. Chemical ionization (CI) with ammonia is more sensitive and more selective than electron impact ionization (EI). In CI, positive and negative ion monitoring (PCI and NCI) are similar in sensitivity, but different in selectivity, i.e. the combination of the two is well suited for confirmation. Results are shown to be in agreement with on-line LC–GC–FID.