An apparatus detects a material within a sample and includes signal generation circuitry that generates a first light beam having at least one orbital angular momentum applied thereto and applies the first beam to the sample. The orbital angular momentum imparts a phase factor of exp(im), where m is at least one of an integer value or fractional value and is the azimuth angle, to the first light beam. A detector receives the first light beam after the first light beam passes through the sample and detects the material responsive to a detection of a predetermined phase factor within the first light beam received from the sample.

A method and system for providing an article of manufacture with increased longevity of hyperpolarized .sup.1H signals (and other species) for NMR spectroscopy and MRI. The method involves providing a material including a molecular species susceptible of NMR spectroscopy, by providing parahydrogen (and other appropriate species) to disperse within the material/solvent to establish increased longevity of the NMR signals. The material can be in a solution with a surfactant and catalysts added to enhance the persistence of parahydrogen (or other species) in the form of enhanced solubility, microbubbles or micelles and resultant hydrogenation (or other species) of the material.

The instant invention provides an economical flow-through method for determining amount of target proteins in a sample. An antibody preparation (whether polyclonal or monoclonal, or any equivalent specific binding agent) is used to capture and thus enrich a specific monitor peptide (a specific peptide fragment of a protein to be quantitated in a proteolytic digest of a complex protein sample) and an internal standard peptide (the same chemical structure but including stable isotope labels). Upon elution into a suitable mass spectrometer, the natural (sample derived) and internal standard (isotope labeled) peptides are quantitated, and their measured abundance ratio used to calculate the abundance of the monitor peptide, and its parent protein, in the initial sample.

The invention relates to a method for the quantitative determination of a chemical substance S from a sample using a mass spectrometer having at least one detector. In line with the invention, a sample which may contain the substance S of interest, or a conversion product of the sample, is analyzed in the mass spectrometer. For the analysis the mass spectrometer is alternately set at least for masses SM1, SM2, so that each of the masses is detected multiple times and all of said masses are detected by the same detector. The masses SM1 and SM2 are fictitious neighboring masses for a mass CM of the substance S with a particular isotope content. The quantity of the mass CM is ascertained by means of calculation from the measured values for the masses SM1, SM2.

An apparatus for measuring a presence of predetermined material within a sample, comprises signal generation circuitry for generating a first signal having an applied first orbital angular momentum signature and applying the first signal to the sample. A detector receives the first signal after the first signal passes through the sample and determines the presence of the predetermined material within the sample based on a detected second orbital angular momentum signature within the first signal received from the sample. The detector provides an output of an indication of the presence of the predetermined material responsive to the determination.

An apparatus for measuring a presence of predetermined material within a sample, comprises signal generation circuitry for generating a first signal having an applied first orbital angular momentum signature and applying the first signal to the sample. A detector receives the first signal after the first signal passes through the sample and determines the presence of the predetermined material within the sample based on a detected second orbital angular momentum signature within the first signal received from the sample. The detector provides an output of an indication of the presence of the predetermined material responsive to the determination.

A method for determining the concentration ratio in a sample of a target peptide to a reference peptide that is chemically identical with the target peptide, but labeled by isotopes, acquires mass spectra of the target and reference peptides. One of a plurality of families of superimposed bell-shaped curves which is a best fit to ion current peak groups of the target and reference peptides in the mass spectra is determined by varying parameters of the families. In each family, each bell-shaped curve has a predetermined height, the curves have fixed distances from each other and the relative curve heights and curve distances in the families are individually calculated from an elemental composition of the peptides and an isotope abundance distribution of elements composing the peptides, taking into account purity of the isotopes. The concentration ratio is then determined from the parameters of the best fit.

The invention relates to the use of substances for the production of anions suitable for charge transfer reactions in mass spectrometers, particularly for the fragmentation of multiply positively charged biopolymer ions by electron transfer or for charge reduction by proton transfer. Diketones, particularly -diketones, are proposed as a newly found class of substances which can be used both for the production of radical anions for electron transfer dissociations (ETD) with a high yield of fragment ions and also for the production of non-radical anions for the charge reduction of multiply charged analyte ions by proton transfer reactions (PTR). These substances have favorable properties in terms of their handling and the associated analytical methods: they are largely nontoxic, cover a favorable range of molecular masses, and their volatility means that they can be stored in unheated containers outside of the vacuum system, which facilitates the refilling of the containers.

Systems and methods of quantum sensing include depositing a sample volume onto an ensemble of quantum defects, hyperpolarizing spins in the sample volume, performing a sensing sequence, and reading out information regarding electronic spin states of the quantum defects in the ensemble of quantum defects, which sense the hyperpolarized spins in the sample volume.

A device for analyzing a liquid or pasty sample, which is provided in the form of drops, using nuclear spin resonances of the sample includes: a first plate and a second plate; a mechanism via which a measuring position and a recording position can be set, wherein the first plate and the second plate are arranged substantially parallel to each other in the measuring position, wherein a spacer sets a defined spacing between the first plate and the second plate; a sensor unit with a sensor component, which forms at least one sub-region of the first plate and/or the second plate and at least partly contacts the sample, wherein the sensor unit is designed to detect a variable which is influenced by the nuclear magnetic resonances of the sample; and an analysis unit.