A handheld aerosol-generating device may include an emitter configured to emit light, a sensor configured to receive light, and an aerosol chamber configured to hold an aerosol. The emitter may emit light into the aerosol chamber. The sensor may receive light from the aerosol chamber and measure at least one wavelength of the spectrum of the received light. Direct measurement of parameters, and/or the presence, of the aerosol in the aerosol chamber may be enabled, where the direct measurement of parameters of the aerosol in the aerosol chamber may enable optimal operation of an aerosol-generating system that may be the handheld aerosol-generating device.

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided devices, systems and methods for capturing images of one or more substances in a scene, such as toilets using an illumination module and an imaging module included in a housing wherein the housing is configured to be inserted to devices such as toilet cleaning devices and receive the one or more substances. The imaging module comprising one or more high quality imagers configured to capture one or more images or an image video of the substances and a processor for analyzing the captured images to identify the characteristic and/or type of the substances.

Disclosed is a sampling device, a sampling system and a method of collecting samples of particulates. Also disclosed a sampling device, a sampling system and a method of generating data associated with the collection of the samples of particulates. Also disclosed is a system and method for analysing the sample data to identify the particulates in the collected samples and their one or more characteristics which may be correlated with the surrounding environment.

Disclosed are devices and methods for performing biological and chemical assays, such as immunoassays and nucleic acid assays, more particularly a homogeneous assay that does not use a wash step by using the aggregation and de-aggregation processes of microparticles or nanoparticles.

Methods for determining a radius of gyration of a particle in solution using a light scattering detector are provided. The method may include passing the solution through a flowpath in a sample cell, determining respective angular normalization factors for first and second angles of the detector, obtaining a first scattering intensity of the particle in solution at the first angle, obtaining a second scattering intensity of the particle in solution at the second angle, obtaining a 10° scattering intensity of the particle in solution at an angle of about 10°, determining a first particle scattering factor, determining a second particle scattering factor, plotting an angular dissymmetry plot, fitting a line to the angular dissymmetry plot, determining a slope of the line at a selected location on the line, determining the radius of gyration of the particle in solution from the slope of the line, and outputting the radius of gyration.

Disclosed is a sampling device, a sampling system and a method of collecting samples of particulates. Also disclosed a sampling device, a sampling system and a method of generating data associated with the collection of the samples of particulates. Also disclosed is a system and method for analysing the sample data to identify the particulates in the collected samples and their one or more characteristics which may be correlated with the surrounding environment.

Systems and methods for uniquely identifying fluid-phase products by endowing them with fingerprints composed of dispersed colloidal particles, and by reading out those fingerprints on demand using Total Holographic Characterization. A library of chemically inert colloidal particles is developed that can be dispersed into soft materials, the stoichiometry of the mixture encoding user-specified information, including information about the host material. Encoded information then can be recovered by high-speed analysis of holographic microscopy images of the dispersed particles. Specifically, holograms of individual colloidal spheres are analyzed with predictions of the theory of light scattering to measure each sphere's radius and refractive index, thereby building up the distribution of particle properties one particle at a time. A complete analysis of a colloidal fingerprint requires several thousand single-particle holograms and can be completed in ten minutes.

A method for abrasion testing of a material sample includes abrading a surface of the sample with a tribometer, then characterizing particles in a portion of the flowing air that is received in an airborne particle collector. The testing may be done in an enclosure or container, such as an enclosure in or simulating a clean room environment. The drawing of air into the enclosure may be done by a fan pushing in air through a filter, such as a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter. The enclosure may have vents (or louvers) through which some of the outflow of air may be directed, to help maintain an even flow, for example a laminar flow, of air through the container, and in particular past where the tribometer abrades the test material. The method may allow for real-time characterization of the particles produced by the testing.

A method for detecting and typing rare tumor cells having high metabolic activity in a body fluid sample, comprising the following steps: incubating nucleated cells in a body fluid sample with a first metabolic marker and a second metabolic marker capable of producing fluorescence signals; detecting, by means of high-throughput imaging, uptake of all the fluorescence signals of the metabolic markers by cells, so as to determine the energy metabolism mode and intensity of the cells; and identifying and typing, according to the fluorescence signals of the metabolic marker combination, tumor cells having high metabolic activity in the body fluid sample. Further provided is a kit used for the detecting and typing method, comprising a microwell array chip, a first metabolic marker and a second metabolic marker capable of producing fluorescence signals, and fluorescence-labeled antibodies specific to leukocyte common antigen. The method and the kit identify and type energy metabolism modes of rare tumor cells in a body fluid sample based on fluorescence signal characteristics, and the operation is simple and fast, reducing the possibility of losing rare tumor cells.

Various control systems for controlling a surgical system according to detected airborne particulate characteristics are disclosed.