The present invention relates to the methods, devices, and systems that make bio/chemical sensing (including, not limited to, immunoassay, nucleic assay, electrolyte analysis, etc.) faster, more sensitive, less steps, easy to perform, smaller amount of samples required, less or reduced (or no) needs for professional assistance, and/or lower cost, than many current sensing methods and devices. The present invention also allow a test performed by a smartphone.

The invention relates to an arrangement having a specimen plate (1) for freezing on a sample for processing in a microtome, which has an upper side (4) for freezing on the sample and a lower side (5), and having a transparent marking frame (6), having opaque regions forming a marking, which is arranged on the specimen plate (1); and to a method for assigning a sample after freezing onto that specimen plate; and to a method for identifying a sample that is frozen onto that specimen plate (1), the marking frame being arranged on the lower side (5) of the specimen plate (1) or so as to fit around the specimen plate (1).

Tools, methods and systems for filtering air, identifying contaminants in the air being filtered, collectivizing the contaminant data from a network of filtering systems to identify the source of the contaminant, allowing for real-time mapping of the flow of contaminants in the air and predictive location mapping. Filtration systems receive, analyze, identify, track and report the presence of contaminants in the air using one or more computing systems, or specialized air filtration systems which may be either a self-contained computing systems, connected to a computing system or connected to a computing network. Messaging services provide updates, alerts and reports regarding the presence of the contaminant to the general public and/or selective alerts to medically sensitive or endangered individuals whose medical information indicates the contaminant is harmful or dangerous to particular individuals present in the surrounding area.

Various methods and devices for spatial molecular analysis from tissue is provided. For example, a method of spatially mapping a tissue sample is provided with a microarray having a plurality of wells, wherein adjacent wells are separated by a shearing surface; overlaying said microarray with a tissue sample; applying a deformable substrate to an upper surface of said tissue sample; applying a force to the deformable substrate, thereby forcing underlying tissue sample into the plurality of wells; shearing the tissue sample along the shearing surface into a plurality of tissue sample islands, with each unique tissue sample island positioned in a unique well; and imaging or quantifying said plurality of tissue sample islands, thereby generating a spatial map of said tissue sample. The imaging and/or quantifying may use a nucleic acid amplification technique.

Disclosed is a device for controlling a volume of an analysis chamber of a micro chamber arrangement to which a region of interest of an object is exposed. The volume is controlled using a volume reducing element which is deposited on a surface of the micro chamber arrangement. The device comprises a deposition unit configured to determine a position and an extent of the volume reducing element depending on (a) the region of interest and further depending on (b) a predetermined level by which a volume of the analysis chamber is reduced using the volume reducing structure. The deposition unit is further configured to deposit the volume reducing element depending on the determined position and extent.

A method is disclosed for demonstrating the cleansing efficacy of a personal care product or a component thereof, the method comprising: (i) selecting a first portion of a porous article capable of allowing a gas to pass through its pores, wherein the porous article is connected to a source of said gas and immersed in a liquid while the source releases said gas which flows out of said pores to generate gas bubbles; (ii) treating the first portion of the porous article with contaminants; (iii) treating the first portion of the porous article with the personal care product or the component thereof, wherein a second portion of the porous article is selected in step (i); the second portion is also treated with contaminants in step (ii); and the second portion is treated with a comparative or placebo product in step (iii); and wherein following step (iii) the method comprises a step (iv) of assessing a change of the treated first portion relative to untreated article and/or relative to the treated second portion, the change is the amount of gas bubbles released from the porous article.

A device for cutting off one or more sample regions from a sample carrier that contains impregnated sample material, e.g. blood, is described. The device includes: a cutting unit (103) for cutting off the one or more sample regions from the sample carrier, an optical imaging unit (101) for producing an electronic image of the sample carrier, and a processor (102) for controlling a display screen (108) to display the image (104) and one or more indicators (105, 105) each expressing the location of one sample region to be cut off. Thus, an operator of the device is enabled to monitor, without direct visual communication to the sample carrier, what region or regions of the sample carrier is/are to be cut off. As no direct visual communication with the sample carrier is needed, the working ergonomics of the operator can be improved.

Systems and methods herein provide improved, high-throughput multiphoton imaging of thick samples with reduced emission scattering. The systems and methods use structured illumination to modify the excitation light. A reconstruction process can be applied to the resulting images to recover image information free of scattering. The disclosed systems and methods provide high throughput, high signal-to-noise ratio, and high resolution images that are depth selective.

An autonomous soil sampling device. The device including a vehicle for generally autonomously navigating a given area for sampling and adapted with systems to generally avoid obstacles during maneuvering. The device including a soil sampling system designed for placement on a platform of the vehicle and including an extraction arm having a probe and auger to probe into the soil for extracting a quantity of soil. The extraction arm rotationally received on a housing and movable to an inverted position for depositing the quantity of extracted soil into a packaging assembly for collection, labeling, and storage of the individual samples.

Systems and methods for automated laser microdissection are disclosed including automatic slide detection, position detection of cutting and capture lasers, focus optimization for cutting and capture lasers, energy and duration optimization for cutting and capture lasers, inspection and second phase capture and/or ablation in a quality control station and tracking information for linking substrate carrier or output microdissected regions with input sample or slide.