Venturing outside the laboratory

Diagnostic equipment outside the laboratory.

A questionnaire was circulated to clinical biochemistry laboratories in the North West Thames region of the United Kingdom requesting information on extralaboratory equipment. Data on the types and numbers of instruments in use, their relationship with the laboratory, and quality assurance procedures were obtained. Laboratories were prepared to maintain equipment over which they had no responsi...

SSADH deficiency in an adult: Venturing outside of the diagnostic box and inside of the registry.

Laboratory rodent welfare: thinking outside the cage.

This commentary presents the case against housing rats and mice in laboratory cages; the commentary bases its case on their sentience, natural history, and the varied detriments of laboratory conditions. The commentary gives 5 arguments to support this position: (a) rats and mice have a high degree of sentience and can suffer, (b) laboratory environments cause suffering, (c) rats and mice in th...

Venturing into the storm.

Estimates of the incidence of electrical storm (ES) range from 4% over 20.6 months of follow-up in patients with primary prophylactic implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs)1 to 20% over 31 months of follow-up in a population with secondary prophylactic ICDs.2 Although smaller observational series have not identified a clear mortality risk associated with ES,3,4 larger and more recent se...

Benchmarking Brain-Computer Interfaces Outside the Laboratory: The Cybathlon 2016

This paper presents a new approach to benchmarking brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) outside the lab. A computer game was created that mimics a real-world application of assistive BCIs, with the main outcome metric being the time needed to complete the game. This approach was used at the Cybathlon 2016, a competition for people with disabilities who use assistive technology to achieve tasks. The...