An air quality indicator for indicating high fine particle levels in an environment of interest. The indicator includes a frame maintaining first and second air filter media. The first air filter medium differs from the second air filter medium at least in terms of a change in visual appearance (e.g., color) when subjected to air flow containing fine particles.

The present invention provides a system and a method for determining the particulate matter mass in vehicle emissions tests, seeking to improve weighing resolution and reduce experimental uncertainties. The invention presents two embodiments, in which in the first embodiment there is a branch in the vehicle emissions collection equipment that allows to integrate the particulate matter generated during the entire test into a single filter. In the second embodiment, there are two branches in which one branch has a filter for the accumulation of the particulates produced in phases 1 and 2 of the test and the other branch has another filter for the accumulation of the particulates in phases 2 and 3.

An exhaust gas analysis system is adapted to include an exhaust gas circulation line through which exhaust gas flows, an exhaust gas collection line adapted to collect the exhaust gas from the exhaust gas circulation line and introduce the collected exhaust gas into an exhaust gas analysis device, a continuous analysis line adapted to, separately from the diluted exhaust gas collection line, collect the exhaust gas from the exhaust gas circulation line for continuous analysis, a continuous analyzer provided in the continuous analysis line, and an information processing unit adapted to, on the basis of an analysis result by the continuous analyzer at the time of the collection into the exhaust gas analysis device, determine whether a measurement result of the exhaust gas introduced into the exhaust gas analysis device falls within a preset range, or determine a measurement range used to measure the exhaust gas introduced into the exhaust gas analysis device.

A particulate matter detection sensor has an accumulation section for accumulating a part of particulate matter particles contained in exhaust gas emitted from an internal combustion engine, and a pair of a first detection electrode and a second detection electrode formed on the accumulation section. The second detection electrode is formed separated from the first detection electrode. The first detection electrode has projecting parts which project toward the second detection electrode. Because a separation between the first and second detection electrodes is locally reduced at the projecting parts, the projecting parts attract and accumulate more particulate matter, and this structure makes it possible to allow the particulate matter detection sensor to have improved detection sensitivity.

A method is provided for diagnosing the operation of a photometric particle analyzer. The method may determine when the operation is degraded from normal operating conditions, automatically, and the result displayed locally as well as being transmitted to a remote observer. The present invention may be used by optical photometric particle analyzers, or by analyzers that measure other properties of particles collected on filters.

A particulate matter sensor unit is configured to sense particulate matter included in exhaust gas of a vehicle. The particulate matter sensor unit includes: a sensing unit sensing the particulate matter in the exhaust gas; a holding unit including a plurality of holders covering an exterior of the sensing unit, a front outer surface of each holder being formed by a tapered inclination outer surface; a shell having a hollow portion therein so that the holding unit is inserted and fitted into the shell, an inclination inner surface being formed in the hollow portion to correspond to the inclination outer surface; a cap unit installed in front of the shell to cover a sensing body of the sensing unit and guiding a flow of the exhaust gas to go through the sensing body; and a cover fixed to a rear end of the shell to support the holding unit.

A concentrator that is operable to concentrate particles of target material from a high flow rate sampled airflow into a low flow rate secondary airflow. The concentrator may have an array of radially arranged blades. Each blade may have a sampled airflow inlet that uses centrifugal force to concentrate the particles into a central portion of the sampled airflow passing through it. Downstream, the blade may also have primary airflow outlets and knife-edged secondary airflow inlets that divide the sampled airflow into a pair of lateral, high flow rate primary airflows from which the particles have been depleted, and a central, low flow rate secondary airflow which carries the concentrated particles.

A method and system for diagnosing a condition of an air-breathing aircraft engine are described. The method comprises obtaining a sample of lubricating fluid from the engine, filtering the sample to obtain a plurality of particles from the lubricating fluid, obtaining chemical composition data for the plurality of particles, determining a quantity of volcanic ash in the lubricating fluid by considering each one of the particles as composed partially of volcanic ash and partially of at least one other material and determining a first percentage of surface area of the particles covered by the volcanic ash and a second percentage of the surface area of the particles covered by the at least one other material, the volcanic ash having associated thereto a predetermined chemical composition, and diagnosing a condition of the engine based on the quantity of volcanic ash found in the lubricating fluid.

Devices, systems, and methods for detecting molecules of interest within a collected sample are described herein. In certain embodiments, self-contained sample analysis systems are disclosed, which include a reusable reader component, a disposable cartridge component, and a disposable sample collection component. In some embodiments, the reader component communicates with a remote computing device for the digital transmission of test protocols and test results. In various disclosed embodiments, the systems, components, and methods are configured to identify the presence, absence, and/or quantity of particular nucleic acids, proteins, or other analytes of interest, for example, in order to test for the presence of one or more pathogens or contaminants in a sample.

A slurry analysis system (14) for estimating a first characteristic of a slurry (12) having a plurality of particles (18) suspended in a dispersion medium (20) can include a slurry filter (40) that filters the slurry (12); and a control system (26) that estimates the first characteristic of the slurry (12) using a flow rate of a filtrate (50) through the slurry filter (40) and a slurry filtration pressure of the slurry (12).