PATENT ABSTRACTS 163

5486476

LIPOPROTEIN (A) PEPTIDES AND THEIR USE

Bums Geoffrey; Engel Wolf-Deite; Seidel Christoph Munich, GERMANY assigned to Boehringer Mannheim GmbH

The invention concerns peptides which have a partial sequence of lipoprotein (a) as well as their use for the purification of antibodies by means of affinity chromatography, as an immunogen for the production of antibodies and as a standard in an immunological test or as a competitive hapten in an agglutination test.

5487258

WATER HYACINTH REMOVAL APPARATUS AND METHOD

McNabb Thomas J UNITED STATES

Lafayette, CA,

A system is disclosed for the harvest of water hyacinths. The floating hyacinths are conveyed from their surface disposed growing disposition to a grinder. Grinding occurs with liberation of large amount of the plant contained water and exposure of the hyacinths’ fibrous plant material which only becomes suitable for baling after grinding has occurred. Thereafter, the hyacinths’ fibrous material is placed into a conventional baler where the now ground plant material adheres when baled into a cohesive mass. The baled fibrous material is then disposed of. For example, the baled material can be attached to rope, and pushed into the water with bales being serially attached one to another via the rope. One end of the rope is led ashore. Thereafter, the serially tethered bales are pulled floating from harvesting barge to a shore location where conventional removal of the compacted and baled fibrous biomass can occur. In one embodiment, the

bales are further compacted on the shore before transport for fuel or other uses. In another embodiment,a shore mounted facility accumulates, grinds and bales the water hyacinth. Weighting of the bales for disposal by sinking is disclosed.

5487384

KINEMATIC ASSAY OF PLASMA GLUCOSE

CONCENTRATION WITHOUT BLOOD SAMPLING

Lee Jung J Albany, NY, UNITED STATES assigned to Blue Marble Research Inc

A method is described which can identify the plasma glucose optical signal from the high background in a total finger spectrum by causing changes in the signal upon altering glucose concentration by administering a glucose-specific drug such as insulin, and also determine the original concentration by measuring the rate of the change as a first order kinetic dependent on the initial concentration.

5487829

INTERNAL MEDIA CLEANING DEVICE FOR AEROBIC

FLUIDIZED BED REACTORS

Safferman Steven I; Bishop Paul L Cincinnati, OH, UNITED STATES assigned to The United States of America as represented by the Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency; The University of Cincinnati

An improved reactor for treatment of wastewater having an influent line for wastewater, and effluent line for treated