An example device includes a defrothing portion to separate froth into a coalesced fluid and air, an air vent to vent the air from the defrothing portion, and a membrane on an outer surface of the defrothing portion, the membrane sealing the air vent. The membrane is formed of a material to prevent fluid from passing therethrough.

The present invention relates to a method for concentrating extracellular vesicles in a fluid sample, and specifically, a method for concentrating extracellular vesicles with high efficiency within a short period of time, by using a filter with a pore size of 20 nm to 100 nm and controlling the composition of the fluid sample and the usage of an elution buffer. The method of the present invention for concentrating extracellular vesicles can simplify the process of concentration, reduce the time of concentration, and concentrate extracellular vesicles with high efficiency. That is, the method of the present invention can reduce time and cost for a concentration process and increase concentration efficiency compared to conventional concentration methods, and is thus an economical concentration method suitable for extracellular vesicles.

Described herein are fluid treatment devices for use in tangential flow filtration, comprising a housing unit and a composite material, wherein the composite material comprises: a support member comprising a plurality of pores extending through the support member; and a non-self-supporting macroporous cross-linked gel comprising macropores having an average size of 10 nm to 3000 nm, said macroporous gel being located in the pores of the support member. The invention also relates to a method of separating a substance from a fluid, comprising the step of placing the fluid in contact with an inventive device, thereby adsorbing or absorbing the substance to the composite material contained therein.

Many hand-held diagnostics are limited in their functionality due to the challenging physics associated with small dimensional systems. An example of this is capillary forces in hydrophilic systems, such as the tight retention of liquid passing through a small pore filtration membrane, or capillary force driven microfluidics where, to keep liquid flowing the dimensions of the system become so small that the flow rates are too low to be useful, or the manufacturing of such devices becomes uneconomical. This disclosure details methods to ‘reset’ the capillary force condition to avoid the requirement of transient pressure spikes associated with the breakthrough pressure of small pore membranes, and avoid the necessity of extremely small microfluidic channels, which can be useful in applications such as filtration of whole blood to plasma using only suction pressure or passive capillary pressure.

The invention concerns a filtration assembly for microbiological testing and a method of using the filtration assembly for that purpose. The filtration assembly (1) comprises a ring-like membrane support (10) holding a filtration membrane (11), a cylindrical reservoir (20) of which opposite axial ends have openings and one axial opening is removably and fluid-tightly attachable to the membrane support (10) to define a sample volume adjacent to the filtration membrane (11) on one axial side of the membrane support (10); and a lid device (40) removably and fluid tightly attachable to the other axial opening of the reservoir (20) to close the opening. Further, the lid device (40) is removably and fluid tightly attachable to the membrane support (10) so as to seal the one axial side of the membrane support (10) from the environment.

A fuel supply system for an internal combustion engine includes a fuel tank and an air supply and venting device for the fuel tank. The air supply and venting device includes a hydrocarbon retention device and an air supply and venting path, structured and arranged to provide a gas exchange between the fuel tank and an environment. The hydrocarbon retention device includes at least one filter membrane that separates hydrocarbons from air. The at least one filter membrane is arranged in the air supply and venting path such that the air supply and venting path is covered by the at least one filter membrane to prevent hydrocarbons from escaping from the fuel tank into the environment through the air supply and venting path. The at least one filter membrane has hydrocarbon nanotubes.

Methods of treating an inert surface of a substrate to improve the adherence to the treated surface of micro-dimensioned particles including the steps of: contacting the inert surface with in an aqueous dispersion of a construct of the structure F-S-L; and then washing the surface with an aqueous vehicle to provide the treated surface, where F is a polyamine; S is —CO(CH.sub.2).sub.2CO—, —CO(CH.sub.2).sub.3CO—, —CO(CH.sub.2).sub.4CO— or —CO(CH.sub.2).sub.5CO—; and L is a diacyl- or dialkyl-glycerophospholipid.

A micro fluid filtration system (100) preferably for increasing the concentration of components contained in a fluid sample has a fluid circuitry (1). The fluid circuitry (1) comprises the following elements: A tangential flow filtration element (7) capable for separating the fluid sample into a retentate stream and a permeate stream upon passage of the fluid, an element for pumping (3) for creating and driving a fluid flow through the fluid circuitry (1) and at least one element for obtaining information about the properties of the fluid sample within the circuitry. The circuitry further comprises a plurality of conduits (24) connecting the elements of the fluid circuitry (1) through which a fluid stream of the fluid sample is conducted. The circuitry (1) has a minimal working volume of at most 5 ml, which is the minimal fluid volume retained in the elements and the conduits (24) of the circuitry (1) such that the fluid can be recirculated in the circuitry (1) without pumping air through the circuitry (1). An integrated microfluidic element (20) of the circuitry (1) contains the functionality of at least two elements of the group of elements of the circuitry (1).

A sample preparation device (1) comprising a first chamber (2) containing a membrane support (30) on which a membrane (9) is placed or can be placed, an inlet (20) to the first chamber (2) and an outlet (21) from the first chamber (2), at least one second chamber (3) provided with or adapted to be provided with an anaerobic generation means (23) and/or an anaerobic detection indicator, wherein the at least one second chamber (3) is connected to the first chamber (2) by a communication path (8), wherein the communication path (8) is liquid-tightly closed by a tap device (4) in a first position (A) of the tap device (4) and is adapted to be opened to allow fluid communication between the first chamber (2) and the at least one second chamber (3) in that the tap device (4) is moved to a second position (B) of the tap device (4).

A filtration base for vacuum membrane filtration applications comprises a membrane bearing area on the upper side of the filtration base, which has a bearing structure and a supporting contour surrounding the bearing structure for a membrane filter placed in the membrane bearing area. The supporting contour has at least one notch which is in flow connection with the bottom side of the membrane bearing area and which is arranged such that it is adapted to be selectively covered by a membrane filter placed in the membrane bearing area.