The speckFINDER HD from Dazor (St. Louis, MO) is a digital computer microscope designed with a flat panel digital display for training, instructing, or supervising. With three USB outputs and a video output, users can output files to a Flash drive or project live images to an overhead screen. The high-resolution,...

As a potential source of food for long-duration space missions, space-grown plants could give astronauts an important psychological boost, as fresh vegetables could serve as a welcomed change from reconstituted foods in plastic bags. Even more, these plants could likely aid in the recycling of air and...

Digital radiography makes use of Xray detectors that yield a radiographic image of the object or patient between the X-ray source and the detector. Tools have been developed to assess the image quality characteristics of radiation images. One tool is an edge phantom, placed between source and...

Oral mucosal drug delivery is an alternative method of systemic drug delivery that offers several advantages over both injectable and enteral methods. Since the oral mucosa is highly vascularised, drugs that are absorbed through the oral mucosa directly enter the systemic circulation,...

A novel analytical technology characterizes liquids for healthcare applications. As a drop of liquid evaporates on a vibrating quartz sensor, it undergoes distinctive phase changes representing the unique chemical and physical characteristics of the sample. This unique “fingerprint”...

A constant-force resistive exercise unit (CFREU) has been invented for use in both normal gravitational and microgravitational environments. In comparison with a typical conventional exercise machine, this CFREU weighs less and is less bulky: Whereas weight plates and associated bulky supporting structures...

Fluorogenic cell-based sensor systems for detecting microbes (especially pathogenic ones) and some toxins and allergens are undergoing development. These systems harness the natural signal-transduction and amplification cascades that occur in mast cells upon activation with antigens. These...

As the number of investigational and approved vaccines continues to increase, the frequency of vaccinations will soon reach a practical limit. The development of combination vaccines is a common practice that addresses the concern of repeated visits to the clinic by reducing the total number of...

A graphical-user-interface (GUI) computer program has been developed to facilitate research on the damage caused by highly energetic particles and photons impinging on living organisms. The program brings together, into one computational workspace, computer codes that have been...

A lab-on-a-chip was developed that is capable of extracting biochemical indicators from urine samples and generating their surface-enhanced Raman spectra (SERS) so that the indicators can be quantified and identified. The development was motivated by the need to monitor and assess the effects of extended weightlessness,...

This design of the liquid-cooling garment for NASA spacesuits allows the suit to remove metabolic heat from the human body more effectively, thereby increasing comfort and performance while reducing system mass. The garment is also more flexible, with fewer restrictions on...

A MATLAB computer program has been written to enable improved (relative to an older program) modeling of a human body for purposes of designing space suits and other hardware with which an astronaut must interact. The older program implements a kinematic model based on traditional anthropometric...

Plastics One (Roanoke, VA) custom designs, molds, and assembles medical connector/cable systems for applications in areas such as body-worn diagnostic testing and monitoring components. Standard connector component products also are available.

Instron (Norwood, MA) has released the ElectroPuls E10000 and E10000 Linear-Torsion allelectric dynamic test instruments capable of running slow-speed static tests through to highfrequency dynamic tests at over 100 Hz. Tests include evaluation of tensile strength of soft tissues and fracture mechanics. They feature no oil...

IDEX Health & Science (Oak Harbor, WA) has introduced a controlled delivery module (CDM) that provides precise liquid flow control through feedback from an integrated flow sensor. It can be integrated into an equipment manufacturer’s instrument. It has been applied to applications ranging from mass spectrometry calibration to in...

Johns Hopkins University researchers have developed biodegradable nanosized particles that can bypass the body's mucus secretions to deliver a sustained-release medication cargo. The nanoparticles, which degrade over time into harmless components, could someday be used to carry life-saving drugs to individuals suffering...

Ophthalmic surgeons at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas are the first in the Defense Department to employ a state-of-the-art laser that will shorten recovery times for corneal transplantation. They are using a femtosecond laser to dissect human cornea tissue for cornea transplants or refractive surgery.

Johns Hopkins University biomedical engineers, working with colleagues at Seoul National Laboratory in Korea, have produced a laboratory chip with nanoscopic grooves and ridges capable of growing cardiac tissue that more closely resembles natural heart muscle. The scientists say this chip could be used to design new...

University of Florida urologists have used robot-assisted surgery to cut about 20 minutes off the average surgery time for conventional vasectomy reversal using a microscope.

University of Florida engineers have designed and tested versions of a sensor that can diagnose and treat a variety of diseases, for example, by monitoring diabetics' glucose levels via their breath or detecting possible indicators of breast cancer in saliva. The sensor can be mass-produced inexpensively with technology currently used...