Environmentally-friendly, aqueous concentrated reagent compositions are provided for dilution and use in suitable hematology analyzers for analyzing blood cells including for enumeration and sizing of blood cells, determination of hemoglobin parameters and differentiation of leukocyte subpopulations in a single blood cell sample.

Provided herein are adipose mimic compositions for use in MRI. The compositions of the invention mimic the MRI properties of human adipose tissue, including T1 relaxation kinetics, T2 relaxation kinetics, magnetic susceptibility, and chemical shift artifact. The compositions of the invention are readily manufactured from inexpensive materials. The compositions of the invention may be used in MRI system calibration or for implementing image correction techniques such as fat suppression.

Environmentally-friendly, aqueous concentrated reagent compositions are provided for dilution and use in suitable hematology analyzers for analyzing blood cells including for enumeration and sizing of blood cells, determination of hemoglobin parameters and differentiation of leukocyte subpopulations in a single blood cell sample.

Artificial blood for a bloodstain pattern analysis includes water, an amino acid solution, bovine serum albumin, hemoglobin from bovine blood, potassium ferricyanide, sodium hyaluronate, sodium chloride, and tar color.

This invention is in the field of medical devices. Specifically, the present invention provides fluidic systems having a plurality of reaction sites surrounded by optical barriers to reduce the amount of optical cross-talk between signals detected from various reaction sites. The invention also provides a method of manufacturing fluidic systems and methods of using the systems.

Provided are methods of detecting the presence or amount of a dihydroxyvitamin D metabolite in a sample using mass spectrometry. The methods generally comprise ionizing a dihydorxyvitamin D metabolite in a sample and detecting the amount of the ion to determine the presence or amount of the vitamin D metabolite in the sample. In certain preferred embodiments the methods include immunopurifying the dihydroxyvitamin D metabolites prior to mass spectrometry. Also provided are methods to detect the presence or amount of two or more dihydroxyvitamin D metabolites in a single assay.

Provided are synthetic dendrimer calibrants for mass spectrometry. The calibrants are distinguished by their relative case and rapidity of synthesis, comparatively low cost, long shelf life, high purity, and amenability to batch synthesis as mixtures. The latter characteristic enables parallel preparation of higher molecular weight compounds displaying useful distributions of discrete molecular weights, thereby providing multi-point mass spectrometry calibration standards. Methods of making, tuning and using said calibrants are provided.

Provided herein are adipose mimic compositions for use in MRI. The compositions of the invention mimic the MRI properties of human adipose tissue, including T1 relaxation kinetics, T2 relaxation kinetics, magnetic susceptibility, and chemical shift artifact. The compositions of the invention are readily manufactured from inexpensive materials. The compositions of the invention may be used in MRI system calibration or for implementing image correction techniques such as fat suppression.

A non-detonable source of at least one of an explosive or explosive vapor is disclosed, as well as a method of preparing the explosive or explosive vapor that includes the step of mixing the explosive with at least 50% inert material which retains the explosive vapor until heat is applied.

A parallel preceding system for processing samples is described. In one embodiment, the parallel processing system includes an instrument interface parallel controller to control a tray motor driving system, a close-loop heater control and detection system, a magnetic particle transfer system, a reagent release system, a reagent pre-mix pumping system and a wash buffer pumping system.