A non-invasive NMR based apparatus for measuring a food attribute (moisture, sugar content) in food products comprises a magnetic chamber, an RF pulsing device attached to the magnetic chamber, a sensor receiver, and a data processing unit in communication with the sensor receiver. The pulsing device exposes the food ingredients/snacks to an RF field and produces an NMR response signal that is detected by the sensor receiver. The data processing unit quantitatively measures a food attribute of the food product based on the NMR response signal.

Disclosed herein is a method of automated noninvasive determining the sex of an embryo of a bird's egg (14) as well as a corresponding apparatus. The method comprises the following steps: conveying a plurality of bird eggs (14) sequentially or in parallel into an NMR apparatus (18), subjecting the bird eggs (14) to an NMR measurement, to thereby determine, for each of said eggs (14), one or more NMR parameters associated with the egg (14) selected from the group consisting of a Ti relaxation time, a T2 relaxation time and a diffusion coefficient, forwarding said one or more NMR parameters, or parameters derived therefrom, to a classification module (38), said classification module (38) configured for determining, based on said one or more NMR parameters or parameters derived therefrom, a prediction of the sex of the embryo of the associated egg (14), and conveying said plurality of bird eggs (14) out of said NMR apparatus (18) and sorting the eggs (14) according to the sex prediction provided by said classification module (38).

A magnetic resonance device for monitoring growth of tissue in one or more bioreactors. The device can include a first magnet and a second magnet that can form a uniform magnetic field of desired strength around at least one sample of effluent from at least one bioreactor. At the command of a controller, an RF signal can illuminate the at least one magnetized sample, and sensors can detect at least one echo signal from the at least one magnetized sample. The controller can characterize the at least one sample based on the at least one echo signal. A resonator can shape the at least one echo signal.

There is described a method for determining the relative quantities of the expected components in a multi-component mixture of solids. The proposed quantification method makes use of a time domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) spectrometer and requires that, for each of the expected components in the mixture, a T1 saturation recovery curve (SRCi) is measured and recorded. The saturation recovery curve for the mixture sample (SRCmix) is determined from a measurement of the sample with the spectrometer. The relative amounts of the expected components present in the mixture sample are determined by fitting a linear combination of the component SRCs (SRCi) to the SRCmix. The resulting value of each weighting coefficient in the fit provides the relative proportion of the corresponding component in the overall sample.

An NMR-based system (10) to analyze one or more of the following: (i) crude oil property, (ii) crude oil rheology of crude oil, comprising an NMR device (11) for providing time and/or batch resolved NMR analysis and/or crude oil rheological profile, said NMR having a crude oil inflow pipe (13), and is in a fluid connection (14) with a crude oil refinery facility (12); wherein said system further comprising a computer readable medium configured to store a retrievable crude oil NMR analysis and/or crude oil rheological profile of a desired crude oil product (standard crude oil product, SCOP), thereby providing said system means to compare NMR analysis and/or crude oil rheological profile of said SCOP with said time or batch resolved crude oil.

A magnetic resonance device for monitoring growth of tissue in one or more bioreactors. The device can include a first magnet and a second magnet that can form a uniform magnetic field of desired strength around at least one sample of effluent from at least one bioreactor. At the command of a controller, an RF signal can illuminate the at least one magnetized sample, and sensors can detect at least one echo signal from the at least one magnetized sample. The controller can characterize the at least one sample based on the at least one echo signal. A resonator can shape the at least one echo signal.

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.

A method of using the transverse relaxation rate (R.sub.2) of solvent NMR signal to noninvasively assess alum-containing products such as vaccines. This technique can be used for quality control in vaccine manufacturing (e.g., fill-finish step) to determine the evenness of alum filling level as well as extent of alum particle sedimentation in filled and sealed products.

A system for performing inline measurements of flow rate, density, and rheology of a flowing fluid is disclosed, comprising: (a) a rheology measurement subsystem comprising: a horizontal tube of internal radius r.sub.H; means for measuring a velocity profile of a test fluid flowing through said horizontal tube at a distance x.sub.0 from its upstream end; and means for determining wall shear stress at a boundary between said flowing fluid and an inner surface of said horizontal tube; (b) a density measurement subsystem comprising: a vertical tube of internal radius r.sub.V in fluid connection with said horizontal tube; a pressure sensor for measuring the pressure of said test fluid within said vertical tube at a location y.sub.1; and, (c) a pressure sensor for measuring the pressure of said test fluid within said vertical tube at a location y.sub.2 downstream from y.sub.1 and displaced vertically from y.sub.1 by a distance h.

Apparatus including an electrically conductive housing, an electrically non-conducting pipe carrying the slurry through the housing, one or more primary coils each encircling the pipe within the housing and having a capacitor unit coupled thereto with a capacitor unit value chosen so that a primary coil series resonance is formed close to the value of a target magnetic resonance frequency, and for each primary coil, a drive coil and associated electrical network positioned to magnetically couple the drive coil to that primary coil. An impedance monitor coupled to each electrical network measures a complex input impedance thereof. An RF transmitter transmits a signal to one or more of the electrical networks with a frequency approximately equal to the target magnetic resonance frequency, and an RF receiver receives from each electrical network magnetic resonance signals from the target and forms an output signal of detected signals.