The calibration of optical tissue-simulating phantoms remains an open question in spite of the many techniques proposed for accurate measurements of optical properties. As a consequence, a reference phantom with well known optical properties is still missing. As a first step towards a reference phantom we have recently proposed to use dilutions of Intralipid 20%. In this paper we discuss a matt...

Pharmacists use various sources for obtaining the active pharmaceutical ingredient for compounding medications. In many cases, it is the pure drug (United States Pharmacopeia, National Formulary, or similar grade); in some cases, it can be a commercial dosage form; and, in some cases, it may be a dilution or concentrate. If the drug is not present at full strength, then adjustments may be neces...

The infiltration of urban runoff always implies an entrance of pollutants into the soil and ground water. Due to legal regulations in many communes there is no longer any permission needed for stormwater infiltration, if administrative regulations and the requirements of standards are observed. The results of a research project carried out under the heading "Development of an assessment procedu...

BACKGROUND The concurrency hypothesis asserts that high prevalence of overlapping sexual partnerships explains extraordinarily high HIV levels in sub-Saharan Africa. Earlier simulation models show that the network effect of concurrency can increase HIV incidence, but those models do not account for the coital dilution effect (non-primary partnerships have lower coital frequency than primary par...

THE remarkable claims made in Nature (333,816; 1988) by Dr Jacques Benveniste and his associates are based chiefly on an extensive series of experiments which are statistically ill-controlled, from which no substantial effort has been made to exclude systematic error, including observer bias, and whose interpretation has been clouded by the exclusion of measurements in conflict with the claim t...