Abstract: Tests for elevated pH and volatile amines in aqueous fluids are disclosed, including tests useful in the diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis and in other biological conditions. By using formulated indicators and indicators held in matrices that are permeable to gas but not to liquid, the tests provide clear and sharp transitions detectable by visual or machine-readable device rather than by subjective judgments such as small gradations in color or olfactory determinations. The tests lend themselves readily to iconic readouts of the test indications and to the inclusion of positive and negative controls.

Abstract: Undesirable metal cation contaminants, including cadmium, can be removed from a solution containing Indium-111, on a bed of an anion exchange resin. The thus purified solution can be stored and transported in a polypropylene vial, to prevent the possibility of cadmium entering the solution from a glassware wall and of Indium from being lost from the solution by chemically reacting with a glassware wall. The vial can be sealed with a rubber stopper which has a polytetrafluroethylene coating facing the solution to prevent the possibility of contaminants which could interfere with later uses of the Indium-111 from leaching into the solution from the rubber stopper. Recipients of the Indium-111-containing vial can be provided with a prepackaged column of the anion exchange resin to enable such recipients to remove the cadmium which accumulated in the solution as a product of radioactive decay during shipment.

Abstract: A sample cup insert has a tubular wall and a flange extending inwardly at an acute angle from the tubular wall. When the sample cup, into which the sample cup insert is inserted, is filled with sample and sealed by a film that forms a window through which the sample is analyzed, air bubbles collect under the film. The air bubbles are transferred under the flange of the sample cup insert, and out of the portion of the sample to be analyzed, by rotating the sample cup, and allowing the air bubbles to flow up the side of the sample cup insert over the flange, and then returning the sample cup to its original position, thereby trapping the air bubbles under the flange. The flange of the sample cup insert retains these air bubbles outside of the portion of the sample to be analyzed.