A method of embedding a sample material in a mounting medium with reduced cycle times and a mounting medium for embedding a sample material. The method includes the steps of: preparing a granular mounting medium by blending a granular resin and a granular filler, placing a sample material and said granular mounting medium in a moulding cavity, followed by the steps of: heating, for a first period of time, said moulding cavity including said granular mounting medium thereby producing a sintering mounting medium, cooling, for a second period of time, said moulding cavity including said mounting medium thereby producing a solid mounting medium embedding said sample material.

Provided is a method for fixing particles on a two-dimensional filter medium with open pores. The particles are to be fixed on the upper side of the filter medium. The method involves contacting the particles with an adhesive solution from the lower side of the filter medium through the pores. The method makes it possible to fix particles in a simple and inexpensive manner to the filter medium, such that subsequent microscopic or SEM/EDX investigation is impaired as little as possible.

The disclosure provides improved materials and methods for optically clearing biological tissue that is subsequently used for deep tissue imaging analysis. Also provided is a description of a microscopic image acquisition methodology in which imagery of intact tissues are acquired to rapidly acquire microscopy data on a whole-organ scale to maximize cost effectiveness for biological microscopy and minimize time spent performing such analysis.

The invention relates to a method for embedding a tissue sample into an embedding medium. In a first step the tissue sample is held in an intended orientation in a container by means of a holding element that presses the tissue sample against a base of the container. In a further step a liquid embedding medium that has a temperature above 64 degrees Celsius, in particular in the range from 65 degrees Celsius to 67 degrees Celsius, or a temperature of 66 degrees Celsius, is poured into the container, and the base of the container is cooled. In a further step a separating motion is executed by way of which the tissue sample and the holding element move away from each other, those layers of the embedding medium through which the holding element moves during the separating motion having, during the separating motion, temperatures in the range from 54 degrees Celsius to 64 degrees Celsius, in particular of 60 degrees Celsius, and/or those portions of the embedding medium which are directly adjacent to the holding element having, during the separating motion, a temperature in the range from 54 degrees Celsius to 64 degrees Celsius, in particular of 60 degrees Celsius.

An epoxy resin-based embedding media doped with a non-conductive dopant to a predetermined w/w % such that the media is non-charging at 1.8 keV. A preferred dopant is polyethylene glycol at a molecular weight of at least 3350, and having a predetermined w/w % is at least 2% and up to 20%, most preferably from 2% to 10%. Another preferred dopant is polyethylene glycol at a molecular weight of 7000-8000 and a predetermined w/w % of up to ?40% and more preferably of up to ?30%.

A thermoplastic mounting medium (25) configured for embedding and subsequently fixating a sample material (10) in a moulding cavity (11) by means of sintering or melting the thermoplastic mounting medium (25) to become a monolithic bulk material at least partially accommodating said sample material (10) The thermoplastic mounting medium (25) includes a mixture of: polymer mixed with organic fibres, and thermally conductive filler having a thermal conductivity of minimum 5 W/(mK) wherein the thermally conductive filler is mixed homogeneously with the composite material and wherein that the thermally conductive filler represents at least 30% w. of the thermoplastic mounting medium.

Test fixture grips for testing quasibrittle materials, such as fiber-polymer composites are provided having increased mass and stiffness relative to standard test grips to provide for obtaining postpeak measurements. The design is based on static analysis (using the second law of thermodynamics), confirmed by dynamic analysis of the test setup as an open system. Dynamic analysis of the test setup as a closed system with PID controlled input further indicates that the controllability of postpeak softening under CMOD control is improved not only by increasing the grip stiffness but also by increasing the grip mass.

The present invention relates to a porous material for inclusion of cytological preparations such as for example the material taken from procedures of fine needle aspiration with high effectiveness level. The effectiveness consists in quantitative and qualitative advantages: the proposed porous material has a high affinity for the cellular material which is captured and kept in the meshes by forming a kind of tissue without losing cellular elements thus with a quantitative advantage with respect to the traditional methods. Moreover, the material proposed in the patent is provided with wide cells delimited by thin meshes, this allows a wide diffusion of the fixative by optimizing the morphology preservation of the cytological sample; such qualitative advantage translates into optimum yield of the ancillary methods for studying the pathology.

In a first aspect, the invention relates to the use of a UV-polymerizable composition as an embedding medium for biological samples. The UV-polymerizable composition is a composition with a refractive index ranging from n=1.45 to n=1.6 after a polymerization process. In another aspect, the invention relates to a method for producing embedded biological samples using said UV-polymerizable composition and to the embedded biological samples themselves. The biological samples can be used in a wide variety of areas, such as diagnostics among others, and are suitable in particular for RNA-based diagnostics.

Improved methods for treating cancer are provided herein by determining if a cancer patient, particularly a colon cancer patient or a gastric cancer patient, will clinically respond in a favorable manner to a therapeutic strategy comprising the FOLFOX regimen (fluorouracil, leucovorin, and oxaliplatin) or a combination of capecitabine and cisplatin. Diagnostic methods for measuring the OPRT, TYMP, and/or UCK2 proteins in a tissue sample, such as a tumor sample, from the patient are provided.