The Limits of Expanding Patent Claim Scope to Provoke an Interference with a Competitor

Businesses that launch new products or services generally understand the risk of suits for patent infringement from competitors and other patent holders. Such risks are especially high when the first business (“challenger,”) holds no patents on the product or service. However, commercializers that do have patents or patent applications covering their new product or service may be less aware of another lurking risk: a competitor or other party (“challenger,”) owning a separate patent application. In such a scenario, a challenger may provoke a patent interference proceeding to challenge the date of invention for the commercializer’s patent or patent application. This Article explores these potential scenarios and analyzes limitations to a challenger’s ability to aggressively provoke an interference proceeding

Evidence confirms an anthropic origin of Amazonian Dark Earths.

Arising from: Silva et al. Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-20184-2 (2021

Deconvolving Single-Molecule Intensity Distributions for Quantitative Microscopy Measurements

In fluorescence microscopy, images often contain puncta in which the fluorescent molecules are spatially clustered. This article describes a method that uses single-molecule intensity distributions to deconvolve the number of fluorophores present in fluorescent puncta as a way to “count” protein number. This method requires a determination of the correct statistical relationship between the single-molecule and single-puncta intensity distributions. Once the correct relationship has been determined, basis histograms can be generated from the single-molecule intensity distribution to fit the puncta distribution. Simulated data were used to demonstrate procedures to determine this relationship, and to test the methodology. This method has the advantages of single-molecule measurements, providing both the mean and variation in molecules per puncta. This methodology has been tested with the avidin-biocytin binding system for which the best-fit distribution of biocytins in the sample puncta was in good agreement with a bulk determination of the avidin-biocytin binding ratio

A Fixed-Charge Model for Alcohol Polarization in the Condensed Phase, and Its Role in Small Molecule Hydration

We present a simple optimization strategy for incorporating experimental dielectric response information on neat liquids in classical molecular models of alcohol. Using this strategy, we determine simple and transferable hydroxyl modulation rules that, when applied to an existing molecular parameter set, result in a newly dielectric corrected (DC) parameter set. We applied these rules to the general Amber force field (GAFF) to form an initial set of GAFF-DC parameters, and we found this to lead to significant improvement in the calculated dielectric constant and hydration free energy values for a wide variety of small molecule alcohol models. Tests of the GAFF-DC parameters in the SAMPL4 blind prediction event for hydration show these changes improve agreement with experiment. Surprisingly, these simple modifications also outperform detailed quantum mechanical electric field calculations using a self-consistent reaction field environment coupling term. This work provides a potential benchmark for future developments in methods for representing condensed-phase environments in electronic structure calculations

Correlation of Genomic and Physiological Traits of Thermoanaerobacter Species with Biofuel Yields▿†

Thermophilic anaerobic noncellulolytic Thermoanaerobacter species are of great biotechnological importance in cellulosic ethanol production due to their ability to produce high ethanol yields by simultaneous fermentation of hexose and pentose. Understanding the genome structure of these species is critical to improving and implementing these bacteria for possible biotechnological use in consolidated bioprocessing schemes (CBP) for cellulosic ethanol production. Here we describe a comparative genome analysis of two ethanologenic bacteria, Thermoanaerobacter sp. X514 and Thermoanaerobacter pseudethanolicus 39E. Compared to 39E, X514 has several unique key characteristics important to cellulosic biotechnology, including additional alcohol dehydrogenases and xylose transporters, modifications to pentose metabolism, and a complete vitamin B12 biosynthesis pathway. Experimental results from growth, metabolic flux, and microarray gene expression analyses support genome sequencing-based predictions which help to explain the distinct differences in ethanol production between these strains. The availability of whole-genome sequence and comparative genomic analyses will aid in engineering and optimizing Thermoanaerobacter strains for viable CBP strategies