A device to extract a near continuous stream of sample water from a high solids content source for the purpose of delivery to a liquid analyzer or sensor for test or measurement. The device includes a source of compressed air and a source of chemical cleaning agent that are used in a coordinated effort to purge and clean the sampling system to ensure the water stream is maintained over long periods of time without significant human intervention. The device includes a valve to allow compressed air to intermittently be sent backwards through the sampling line to purge to drain an inline strainer of solids that have built up since the previous air purge. Downstream of the air valve another valve is used to introduce cleaning chemical into the sampling system to clean residual buildup downstream of the inline strainer. A debubbler unit is placed between the air valve and the cleaning chemical valve to remove air from the sampling system after it was introduced during the air purge event.

A calibrated aerosol source (CAS) and related methods for parameterizing, testing, troubleshooting and/or calibrating an instrument (e.g., photometers) or a system. Preferably, the CAS allows for generation of multiple concentrations while maintaining constant particle size distribution (PSD) for all aerosol concentrations, so that the aerosol response at other points in a particular range can be verified and linearity that was previously assumed can be proved.

A system for calibration and testing an optical particulate sensor is provided. The system includes a carrier having at least one microtarget that is configured to emulate a particle; a frame, configured to receive the carrier, the frame further configured to position the at least one microtarget to pass through a measurement volume of the optical particulate sensor; a drive, coupled to the frame, that is configured to move the frame such that the at least one microtarget on the carrier moves through three dimensions of the measurement volume, such that a light beam from the optical particulate sensor is reflected/scattered toward the optical particulate sensor; and at least one processor configured to determine one or more characteristics of the at least one microtarget on the carrier based on the reflected/scattered light.

The present disclosure provides methods of determining an alignment adjustment for a light scatter detector system of a flow cytometer. Methods of interest include: generating control data by the flow cytometer; determining a quantitative metric of the alignment for the light scatter detector system based on the control data; and determining the alignment adjustment for the light scatter detector system based on the quantitative alignment metric. In some embodiments, the subject methods further include adjusting the light scatter detector system based at least in part on the alignment adjustment by performing, e.g., a hardware or software alignment adjustment. The subject methods may be implemented automatically via computer. Systems, non-transitory computer-readable storage media, and kits for carrying out the subject methods are also provided.

A method for analyzing flow matrix data includes: acquiring and sampling a forward-scattered light pulse signal outputted by a flow matrix analyzer and a plurality of fluorescence pulse signals; performing fluorescence compensation on three pieces of fluorescence pulse data after the sampling, and mapping true data of two classification fluorescence pulses to a scatter plot so as to form a two-dimensional array; converting the two-dimensional array into a binary image, and constructing an ellipse gate related to the gathering region; obtaining intrinsic characteristics and movement characteristics of the ellipse gate; and obtaining coordinates of two focuses on the ellipse gate; calculating a distance between each microsphere particle and the two focuses on each ellipse gate; and calculating a median value of true data of calibration fluorescence pulses on all microsphere particles.

Systems and methods are provided for identification and discrimination of subpopulations within a mixture of particles. The systems and methods implement continuous calibration of the classification of particles within the mixture to provide consistency in operation and to reduce inter- and intra-batch processing variation. The systems and methods produce advantageously sorted particle products.