Gonadotrophins are injected daily over several days in follicular stimulation protocols. To facilitate self-injection, various injection or reconstitution devices are available. It was investigated whether injection training enabled patients to choose their preferred device. Patients and their partners received nurse-led training about: powdered urofollitropin (Bravelle) with needle-free recons...

Some countries have introduced mandatory folic acid fortification, whereas others support periconceptional supplementation of women in childbearing age. Several European countries are considering whether to adopt a fortification policy. Projections of the possible beneficial effects of increased folic acid intake assume that the measure will result in a considerable reduction in neural-tube def...

The radiofrequency quadrupole linear ion trap is a widely used device in physics and chemistry. When used for trapping of large ion clouds, the presence of anharmonic terms in the radiofrequency potential limits the total number of stored ions. In this paper, we have studied the anharmonic content of the trapping potential for different implementations of a quadrupole trap, searching for the ge...

The transient properties of single grain–thin film transistors SG-TFTs with high electron mobility have been studied. Overshoot current induced by trap states has been observed in most of the devices. A method of ac measurements has been used to investigate the trap processes. Both transient and ac measurements show that the response of some SG-TFTs with high field effect mobility is dominated ...

Trapping and manipulation of microscale and nanoscale particles is demonstrated using the sole action of hydrodynamic forces. We developed an automated particle trap based on a stagnation point flow generated in a microfluidic device. The hydrodynamic trap enables confinement and manipulation of single particles in low viscosity (1-10 cP) aqueous solution. Using this method, we trapped microsca...

Cell ‘trap and release’ in microfluidic devices is critical for on-chip concentration purposes and dynamic microarrays. However, most existing mechanical trapping modalities lack release capabilities and some employ very complex or abrasive trapping mechanisms. Here we describe a novel cell ‘trap and release’ device, which employs principles similar to the ‘hydraulic jump’ phenomenon in nature....

An image overlay system is presented to assist needle placement in conventional CT scanners. The device consists of a flat LCD display and a half mirror and is mounted on the gantry. Looking at the patient through the mirror, the CT image appears to be floating inside the patient with correct size and position, thereby providing the physician with two-dimensional “X-ray vision” to guide needle ...

Several validated sham acupuncture devices have recently become available. While some debate exists on whether such needles are the best placebo control for an RCT of acupuncture, practical advice based on research experience is missing from the literature. This paper shares our concrete experience using the most commonly used such sham needle (the ‘Streitberger needle’ and its paired verum nee...

AIM To compare the flow rates of readily available intravenous infusion devices and to compare the effect of the addition of pressure or a needle-free intravenous connector device. METHODS Several intravenous devices with different characteristics had their flow rates determined under a standard set of conditions. The flow rates were then measured with the addition of a pressure bag to the sy...

The lateral ribosomal stalk is responsible for the kingdom-specific binding of translation factors and activation of GTP hydrolysis during protein synthesis. The eukaryotic stalk is composed of three acidic ribosomal proteins P0, P1 and P2. P0 binds two copies of P1/P2 hetero-dimers to form a pentameric P-complex. The structure of the eukaryotic stalk is currently not known. To provide a better...