The present invention relates to a method for the optical measurement of at least the stability and the aggregation of particles in a liquid sample which is located in a sample container, wherein the method comprises the following steps: irradiating the sample with light of at least one first wavelength in order to fluorescently excite the particles, irradiating the sample with light of at least one second wavelength in order to examine the scattering of the particles, measuring the fluorescence light which is emitted by the sample; and measuring the extinction light at the second wavelength, wherein the irradiated light of the second wavelength runs through the sample container, is reflected back, runs again through the sample container in the opposite direction and exits as extinction light, wherein the stability is determined based on the measured fluorescence light and the aggregation is measured based on the measured extinction light. The invention further relates to a corresponding apparatus.

Microfluidic structures and methods for manipulating fluids, fluid components, and reactions are provided. In one aspect, such structures and methods can allow production of droplets of a precise volume, which can be stored/maintained at precise regions of the device. In another aspect, microfluidic structures and methods described herein are designed for containing and positioning components in an arrangement such that the components can be manipulated and then tracked even after manipulation. For example, cells may be constrained in an arrangement in microfluidic structures described herein to facilitate tracking during their growth and/or after they multiply.

According to an aspect of the invention, a specimen information detection apparatus includes, an image capture device configured to capture an image of a specimen container that contains a specimen, an illumination device configured to irradiate the specimen container with light sideways with respect to an image capturing direction when the image is captured, and an information processing portion configured to detect a state in the specimen container through image processing based on image information of the specimen container acquired by capturing the image of the specimen container.

Herein provided are methods for evaluating cellulose nanofiber dispersions, comprising the steps of: (1) preparing a cellulose nanofiber dispersion; (2) adding a color material into the cellulose nanofiber dispersion; and (3) observing the cellulose nanofiber dispersion to which a colored pigment has been added with a light microscope. The methods allow for easy evaluation of whether or not agglomerates of cellulose nanofibers exist in cellulose nanofiber dispersions, which cannot be visually determined.

A sample analysis system and method, a sample image analysis system, and a hematology analyzer, the sample analysis system including at least one hematology analyzer, a controller, a first transport device, a sample slide preparation device and a sample image capturing device, wherein one of the hematology analyzers is configured to analyze a first test blood sample of a subject so as to obtain a sample analysis result; the controller is configured to control the first transport device to transport the first blood sample to the sample slide preparation device when the sample analysis result meets a preset condition; the sample slide preparation device is configured to prepare a sample slide of the first blood sample; the sample image capturing device is configured to image a sample region in the sample slide so as to obtain a sample image; and the controller is further configured to generate a retest instruction when the sample image includes information indicating that the first blood sample is an abnormal sample, and to send the retest instruction to one of the hematology analyzers. The foregoing systems and methods enable controlling the hematology analyzers according to the sample image.

A slurry analysis system (14) for estimating a first characteristic of a slurry (12) having a plurality of particles (18) suspended in a dispersion medium (20) can include a flow restriction assembly (40); a sensor assembly (43) that senses a sensed condition of the slurry (12) as it flows through the flow restriction assembly (40); and a control and analysis system (26) that estimates the first characteristic of the slurry (12) based on the sensed condition. Further, the control and analysis system (26) can select a selected clogging behavior using the sensed condition, and estimate the first characteristic based on the selected clogging behavior.

The present invention relates to a method for measuring characteristics of particles in solution and to a device for performing the same, wherein said method comprises the steps of providing a vessel comprising a sample of said particles in solution, wherein the sample has preferably a volume between 0.1 μL and 15 μL, providing a monochromatic light source and a light detector, transmitting light from the monochromatic light source to the vessel comprising the sample, detecting light emitted from the vessel with the light detector, and determining characteristics of said particles in solution comprised in the sample based on a dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurement.

A method of monitoring one or more cell aggregates, comprising providing a flow path in which the one or more cell aggregates are in a medium and the flow path being configured to pass through a collective sensing zone of a set of electrodes, obtaining impedance-related signals corresponding to each of the medium and one of the one or more cell aggregates in the medium, determining one or more electrical signatures for a cell aggregate, in which the one or more electrical signatures are based on impedance-related signals obtained from the set of electrodes. The method is one of dynamic testing at single-particle resolution. The electrical signatures may be an opacity and/or electrical size of the one or more cell aggregates, or electrical impedance spectroscopy-based electrical signatures. The cell aggregate is a spheroid, an encapsulated microcarrier, or a cell-adhered microcarrier. It is also to provide a microfluidic chip comprising a channel and electrodes for obtaining impedance- related signals.

The present disclosure provides a technique for separating and identifying an abnormal cell in a cell sample derived from a subject. The present disclosure provides a method for analyzing cells using a cell analyzer by utilizing the functions, either alone or in combination, of the cell analyzer, said cell analyzer having a function of continuously concentrating cells, a function of successively arranging the cells in a specific region of a flow channel continuously, a function of simultaneously recognizing the shape of each cell, in a single cell unit on an image base, in the bright field and the shape of fluorescence, and a function of separating and purifying the cells having been recognized on the basis of the shape thereof obtained by correcting the aforesaid shape in accordance with the flow rate of the cells and the light emission data of the fluorescence.

The present invention discloses a pollutant generation system. The pollutant generation system includes a pollution source and a pollutant emitter. The pollutant emitter is connected to the pollution source. The pollution source is composed of two gases including air and methane. The flows of the gases are strictly controlled. Then, the gases enter a magnetic bead glass bottle. Due to the disturbance of magnetic beads to the flowing of the gases, the gases are sufficiently disordered, and the two gases are sufficiently mixed by using a spiral tube to generate a uniform and stable pollution source.