According to one aspect, the invention relates to an aquatic sample analysis system adapted for in situ use. The system includes an incubation chamber having an optically clear portion and forming an opening for receiving a fluidic sample and apparatus for sealing the opening. The system also includes a sensor for sensing at least one parameter associated with the sample inside the chamber, a control module in communication with the sensor, and a power source.

The present invention relates to a screen-printed electrode (1) for detecting a pollutant in a water sample, comprising: a substrate (2); a plurality of conductive tracks (3); an electrochemical cell (4), further comprising a working electrode (5), a pseudo-reference electrode (6) and an auxiliary electrode (7); and an insulating layer (8). Advantageously, said electrode comprises a filtering element (9) impregnated with an electrolyte, which not only filters the water sample received by the electrochemical cell (4), but also preconditions the sample without any user intervention. Therefore, the screen-printed electrode of the invention saves time in pre-processing samples for water pollution analysis while avoiding any possible contamination thereof by user manipulation.

Method and systems for measuring growth rate in plant or aquatic animal species such as embryonic or adult fish. The methods and systems utilize the measurement of NADH.sub.2 production by detecting a colorimetric and fluorescent shift when a redox indicator such as resazurin is added to a sample. The colorimetric/fluorescent shift is indicative of the reduction of the redox indicator by NADH.sub.2. The methods and systems of the present invention may be used to predict growth potential of a plant or animal, and measuring the growth rate of said plant or animal may be helpful for identifying and selecting individuals within a group that have greater growth potential. The methods and systems of the present invention may help eliminate the need for special equipment (e.g., for measuring oxygen consumption), decrease variability of measures, and minimize the effects of external factors (feeding/hormonal status).

A method for determining a parameter includes forming a reaction mixture by adding a volume of a solution to a sample. The solution contains a substance acting as a reaction partner for the analyte, where the reaction partner enters into a chemical reaction with the analyte, forming a reaction product of the analyte. The volume of the solution is adjusted, based on measured values of a physical or chemical measurand which are detected during the addition of the solution in the reaction mixture and whose value depends on the concentration of the analyte or of the substance in the reaction mixture. A titration of the solution to be titrated is subsequently performed from which a quantity of the substance present in the reaction mixture after addition of the volume of the solution is determinable, and a value of the parameter is ascertained using the titration.

A computer-implemented method includes controlling an instrument to measure a fluorescence emission spectrum of a sample including a first peak emission wavelength and at least a second peak emission wavelength, emitted in response to an excitation wavelength and controlling the instrument to measure an absorbance obtained at the excitation wavelength of the sample. The method may include determining, using the computer, a ratio of the measurements at either the second peak emission wavelength, or a sum of measurements at a plurality of peak emission wavelengths including at least the first peak emission wavelength and the second peak emission wavelength, to the first peak emission wavelength, and calculating, using the computer, a value for a quality parameter based on a combination of at least the ratio and the absorbance measurement. The method may include controlling an associated process based on the quality parameter.

This method determines the amount of extracellular fluid surrounding a surface disposed inside a plant, the ion population in that fluid and the identity of the dominant ion in that fluid. The method has four parts: 1) Providing an electrochemical circuit between the surface and external electronics 2) Executing two electrochemical procedures which result in a sequence of measured charge transfer values, 3) Processing the measured charge transfer values into a value proportional to the of extracellular fluid surrounding the surface, a value proportional to the total ion population in the fluid and a value that identifies the dominant ion in the fluid, 4) Generating a set of time/quiescent potential pairs of values which are used to identify the dominant ion type in the extracellular fluid during different time ranges.

Disclosed is a wastewater monitoring device comprising, a selectively sealable chamber; a first oxygen sensor, operable to measure the level of oxygen dissolved in a liquid; said first oxygen sensor being locatable inside of the sealed sealable chamber; and a second oxygen sensor, operable to measure the level of oxygen dissolved in the wastewater being tested. The selectively sealable chamber may be defined by a shell member and a piston member, the piston being locatable inside the shell member so as to define said chamber. At least one of the shell member and piston member may be actuatable linearly relative to the other so as to selectively seal the chamber.

Under conventional techniques, wastewater treatment has many problems such as poor production conditions, serious random interference, strong nonlinear behavior, large time-varying, and serious lagging. These problem cause difficult detection of various wastewater treatment parameter such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) values that are used to monitor water quality. To solve problems associated with monitoring BOD values in real-time, the present disclosure utilizes a self-organizing recurrent RBF neural network designed for intelligent detecting of BOD values. Implementations of the present disclosure build a computing model of BOD values based on the self-organizing recurrent RBF neural network to achieve real-time and more accurate detection of the BOD values (e.g., a BOD concentration). The implementations herein quickly and accurately obtain BOD concentrations and improve the quality and efficiency of wastewater treatment.

A computer-implemented method for determining a water treatment parameter includes receiving, by a computer, measurements of a fluorescence emission spectrum of a water sample including a first peak emission wavelength and at least a second peak emission wavelength, emitted in response to an excitation wavelength, receiving, by the computer, an absorbance measurement obtained at the excitation wavelength of the water sample, determining, using the computer, a ratio of the measurements at either the second peak emission wavelength, or a sum of measurements at a plurality of peak emission wavelengths including at least the first peak emission wavelength and the second peak emission wavelength, to the first peak emission wavelength, and calculating, using the computer, a value for the water treatment parameter based on a combination of at least the ratio and the absorbance measurement.

The present invention provides a method of determining chemical oxygen demand (COD) for a sample with a high concentration of chloride. The method includes obtaining the sample, determining a concentration of chloride in the sample to obtain a known concentration of chloride in the sample, dosing an amount of the sample, an acid and an oxidizing agent into a container to obtain an analyte, heating the container containing the analyte, photometrically determining a preliminary chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the analyte in an analytic device, and correcting for the high concentration of chloride using a chloride correction to obtain the chemical oxygen demand (COD).