Disclosed is a method for determining abnormality in a particle analyzer. The method includes: staining first control particles but not staining second control particles which emit fluorescence; irradiating with light the first control particles and the second control particles flowing in a flow cell, and detecting fluorescence from the first control particles and the second control particles; obtaining a first management value indicating a detection result of the fluorescence emitted from the first control particles and a second management value indicating a detection result of the fluorescence emitted from the second control particles; and determining abnormality in the staining step, based on a value calculated from the first management value and the second management value or a ratio between the first management value and the second management value.

The present set of embodiments relates to systems and methods for diagnosing a fluidics system and determining data processing settings for a flow cytometer. Systems and methods for diagnosing a fluidics system require accurate measurement and interpretation of fluctuations within the fluid delivery system. Systems and methods for determining data processing settings require an accurate measurement of peak times among various channels and being able to adjust time delay settings wherein peak time is the measurement of time elapsed from the beginning of the data collection time window to the highest peak in the window.

A particle manipulation system uses a MEMS-based, microfabricated particle manipulation device which has an inlet channel, output channels, and a movable member formed on a substrate. The movable member moves parallel to the fabrication plane, as does fluid flowing in the inlet channel. The movable member separates a target particle from the rest of the particles, diverting it into an output channel. However, at least one output channel is not parallel to the fabrication plane. The device may be used to separate a target particle from non-target material in a sample stream. In the event that the microfabricated particle manipulation device malfunctions as a result of a particle of debris becoming lodged in the microfabricated particle manipulation device, the system may invoke a recovery algorithm, that includes vibrating the microfabricated particle manipulation device using a pulse train at a frequency near its mechanical resonance.

A measuring method and a measuring system of a microbubble dispersion liquid for measuring characteristics of the microbubble dispersion liquid while distinguishing between fine particles and differentiating them into microbubbles and solid particles is disclosed. A measuring system measures characteristics of a microbubble dispersion liquid under test, and the system includes a microcapillary holding the liquid under test, a laser device irradiating the liquid under test inside the microcapillary with laser light, a magnetic device that applies a time-varying magnetic field to the liquid under test within the irradiation area with laser light, a digital microscope detecting scattered light generated from fine particles contained in the liquid under test by irradiation with laser light, and a measurement device that measures characteristics of the test liquid by distinguishing between the fine particles and differentiating them into microbubbles and solid particles based on the brightness of scattered light detected by the microscope.

Systems and methods batch calibrate environmental sensors. Candidate environmental sensors and a high-performance reference sensor are located in an enclosure with a particle excitation system that controls the particle concentration in the enclosure. The calibration process includes multiple phases with different particle concentrations, and the candidate and reference sensors continuously report their particle counts to a calibration server during these phases. Based on the collected data, the calibration server: (i) identifies for removal candidate sensors with outlying behavior through statistical analysis; and (ii) computes calibration values for the particle count estimation algorithms for the remaining candidate sensors that are optimized to minimize the error relative to the reference sensor(s).

A particle mass concentration in an aerosol volume can be detected by means of an optical particle sensor (1). In order to ensure that different degrees of contamination of the optical particle sensor (1) can be detected by means of said sensor and can be taken into consideration, the optical particle sensor (1) has a means (10) for identifying individual particles at low particle concentrations, for example up to 1000 particles/cm.sup.3.

A flow cytometer apparatus and methods for detecting and clearing a clog therein are disclosed. An example method for detecting a clog may include (i) detecting, via a fault detection system of a flow cytometer, a first plurality of events associated with a first aliquot from a first sample well, (ii) determining a count of the first plurality of events associated with the first aliquot, (iii) determining whether the count of the first plurality of events is below a minimum count tolerance and (iv) (a) if the count of the first plurality of events is below the minimum count tolerance, then determining that the flow cytometer has a clog, (b) if the count of the first plurality of events is equal to or above the minimum count tolerance, then detecting a second plurality of events associated with a second aliquot from a second sample well.

Aspects of the present disclosure include methods for detecting events in a flow cytometer. Also provided are methods of detecting cells in a flow cytometer. Other aspects of the present disclosure include methods for determining a level of contamination in a flow cell. Computer-readable media and systems, e.g., for practicing the methods summarized above, are also provided.

The present set of embodiments relates to systems and methods for diagnosing a fluidics system and determining data processing settings for a flow cytometer. Systems and methods for diagnosing a fluidics system require accurate measurement and interpretation of fluctuations within the fluid delivery system. Systems and methods for determining data processing settings require an accurate measurement of peak times among various channels and being able to adjust time delay settings wherein peak time is the measurement of time elapsed from the beginning of the data collection time window to the highest peak in the window.

Provided is a method for operating and cleaning a sample processing instrument comprising steps, performed by a control device, of: directing a first sample comprising first particles through a flow cell in the sample processing instrument; processing the first sample; cleaning the flow cell of the sample processing instrument with a cleaning agent; measuring a carryover amount in the flow cell after the cleaning, wherein the carryover amount comprises a measurement associated with an amount of the first particles remaining in a measurement region of the flow cell; comparing the measured carryover amount against a predetermined target value, wherein the target value corresponds to a value indicative of a cleaning requirement; and determining, based on the comparison, whether the cleaning requirement is met. Provided are further method for monitoring cleaning of a sample processing instrument, system for operating and cleaning a sample processing instrument, sample processing instrument and computer-readable medium.