The present invention relates to a method for diagnosing a disease using an analysis of oligomer of an abnormal aggregated protein includes: (1) preparing a body fluid sample including at least one of blood, blood plasma, blood serum, saliva, urine, tear, and mucus; (2) making a dilution of the body fluid sample; (3) using a biosensor to measure and detect an aggregated protein in the diluted body fluid sample; (4) analyzing a signal change of the biosensor caused by the dilution of the aggregated protein to determine a slope according to the dilution from the measurements; and (5) analyzing a proportion of the oligomer from the slope according to the dilution to make a diagnosis. The method uses a biosensor to measure the impedance and the protein concentration of blood and detects the slope according to the numerical value of the monomer and the oligomer to diagnose normal or abnormal protein aggregation or the associated diseases with more accuracy.

Methods of characterizing a test subject's risk of having or developing cardiovascular disease are provided. The methods include using an analytic device to determine levels of choline-related trimethylamine-containing compounds such as trimethylamine N-oxide, choline, or betaine in a biological sample obtained from the subject and comparing the levels of the choline-related trimethylamine-containing compound in the subject's biological sample to a control value. The test subject's risk of having cardiovascular disease is then characterized as higher if the levels of the choline-related trimethylamine-containing compound are higher than the control value. Also provided are methods of identifying a subject at risk of experiencing a complication of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and methods of evaluating the efficacy of a cardiovascular therapeutic agent in a subject with cardiovascular disease using levels of choline-related trimethylamine-containing compounds.

In some embodiments, phonon based temperature measuring apparatuses include a light source positioned to direct a light toward a prism-resonant cavity interface of an optical resonant cavity inducing an evanescent wave that is guided into the resonant cavity having surface phonon polariton properties; a detector positioned proximate the resonant cavity and configured to detect reflected light from the prism-resonant cavity interface; and a temperature calculator coupled with the detector and configured to determine evanescent light coupling to one or more phonon polariton modes from the resonant cavity, calculate a quality factor as a function of a frequency spectrum of at least one of the one or more phonon polariton modes, and determine a temperature of a dielectric material within the resonant cavity as a function of the quality factor.

The invention concerns a method for the hyperpolarisation of .sup.13C nuclear spin in a diamond, comprising an optical pumping step, in which colour centre electron spins in the diamond are optically pumped. The method further comprises a transfer step in which the polarisation of a long-lived state of the colour centre electron spins is transferred to .sup.13C nuclear spins in the diamond via a long-range interaction.

Systems and methods of quantum sensing include obtaining information regarding a target signal in electronic spin states of quantum defects in an ensemble of quantum defects, mapping the information regarding the target signal from the electronic spin states of the quantum defects to corresponding nuclear spin states associated with the quantum defects, applying a light pulse to the ensemble of quantum defects to reset the electronic spin states of the quantum defects, and repeating a readout stage a plurality of times within a readout duration. The readout stage includes mapping the information regarding the target signal back from the nuclear spin states to the corresponding electronic spin states and applying a data acquisition readout pulse to optically measure the electronic spin states of the quantum defects.

Magnetic cold storage material particles with a low breakage rate in the case of being subjected to long-term vibration caused by operation of a refrigerator under a cryogenic temperature are provided. A cold storage device and a refrigerator, each of which includes the above-described magnetic cold storage material particles and does not degrade refrigeration performance under long-term operation, are provided. Apparatuses provided with this refrigerator, such as a superconducting magnet, are provided.

Each magnetic cold storage material particle of the embodiment is composed of an intermetallic compound containing a rare earth element, and an area percentage of voids present in its cross-section is 0.0001% or more and 15% or less. Each of the cold storage device of the embodiment, the refrigerator of the embodiment, and the apparatuses provided with this refrigerator, such as a superconducting magnet, includes the magnetic cold storage material particles of the embodiment.

The present disclosure relates to a pH-sensor for determining and/or monitoring a pH value of a medium, having a sensor unit with a wall in contact with the medium, and at least one pH-sensitive material, which has at least one spin state that changes as a function of a pH value. The at least one pH-sensitive material is arranged in or on a region of the wall in such a way that the at least one spin state is subjected to a change in the pH value of the medium. The pH-sensor also includes a spin-sensitive unit, which is configured to detect a variable associated with the at least one spin state, wherein the spin-sensitive unit is arranged in an environment of the at least one pH-sensitive material such that the spin-sensitive unit is subjected to a change in the spin state of the at least one pH-sensitive material.

Various embodiments include a method for configuring and generating a non-adiabatic saturation pulse for use in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging. One such method configures the pulse by adjusting one or more of pulse amplitude modulation or phase cycling. The modified pulse is transmitted into a fluid such that a substantially uniform nuclear spin saturation or nuclear spin inversion echo response is received from the fluid. A wait time between the pulse transmission and the echo response that indicates that spin equilibrium has been achieved is substantially equal to a T.sub.1 time. The wait time is an indication of the characteristics of the fluid.

Provided herein are Mycobacterium smegmatis porin nanopores, systems that comprise these nanopores, and methods of using and making these nanopores. Such nanopores may be wild-type MspA porins, mutant MspA porins, wild-type MspA paralog porins, wild-type MspA homolog porins, mutant MspA paralog porins, mutant MspA homolog porins, or single-chain Msp porins. Also provided are bacterial strains capable of inducible Msp porin expression.

Disclosed herein are methods of preparing a composition comprising crystalline biomolecules, for example, crystalline antibodies. In exemplary embodiments, the method comprises forming a fluidized bed of crystalline biomolecules using, for example, a counter-flow centrifuge to exchange buffer and/or to concentrate the crystalline biomolecules in a solution. Also provided are methods of detecting crystalline biomolecules and/or amorphous biomolecules in a sample.