A method is provided for obtaining a characteristic of a homeopathic preparation, particularly its potency. In particular aspects, solvatochromic dyes may be used for detection of a homeopathic preparation.

An optical cell comprises first and second opposed reflecting elements, an entrance aperture in the first reflecting element and an exit aperture in the second reflecting element, wherein the entrance and exit apertures are configured such that, in operation, light introduced into the cell via the entrance aperture is reflected at least once by the second reflecting element and at least once by the first reflecting element before leaving the cell via the exit aperture.

The invention relates to a method for determining concentrations of absorbing gases by means of a spectroscopic measuring device, wherein wavelength-dependent measurement values for a light intensity are obtained and a wavelength-dependent measurement value function is represented based on these values. A wavelength-dependent theoretical function is defined, which includes as parameters a calibration parameter and the concentrations. The calibration parameter is defined as a function of a device parameter and a correction parameter that depends on the concentrations. A cycle comprising a sequence of steps is performed several times in a row, wherein in a first step a numerical value for the correction factor is calculated from stipulated assumed values of the concentrations, wherein in a second step the theoretical function is determined using the calculated numerical value, wherein in a third step values for the concentrations are obtained by a curve adjustment calculation between the theoretical function determined in the second step and the measurement value functions and are stipulated as new assumed values. The assumed values obtained in the third step of the last cycle are output as new measured values.

Tracer gas sensing device comprising a gas discharge cell having cell walls defining a discharge volume and a tracer gas inlet into the discharge volume, an optical spectrometer arrangement having a radiation source on a first side of the discharge cell for emitting radiation into the discharge cell and a radiation detector on a second side of the discharge cell opposite to the first side for detecting radiation which was emitted by the radiation source through the discharge volume, and electrodes on opposing sides of the discharge cell for generating a plasma within the discharge cell, said electrodes being unexposed plasma electrodes. The discharge cell may be a dielectric barrier discharge cell and the electrodes may be powered by an AC power source.

A laser vibrometer for measurement of ambient chemical species includes a laser that produces a beam that is split into a reference readout beam and a signal readout beam. A probe laser beam is tuned to an absorption feature of a molecular transition, and generates acoustic signals when incident on a gaseous species via the photo acoustic effect. The scattered acoustic signals are incident on a thin membrane that vibrates. The readout laser beam reflected from the vibrating membrane is mixed with the reference beam at the surface of a photo-EMF detector. Interferrometric fringes are generated at the surface of the photo-EMF detector. Electric current is generated in the photo-EMF detector when the fringes are in motion due to undulations in the signal readout beam imparted by the vibrating membrane. A highly sensitive photo-EMF detector is capable of detecting picoJoules or less laser energy generated by vibrating processes.

A laser vibrometer for measurement of ambient chemical species includes a laser that produces a beam that is split into a reference readout beam and a signal readout beam. A probe laser beam is tuned to an absorption feature of a molecular transition, and generates acoustic signals when incident on a gaseous species via the photo acoustic effect. The scattered acoustic signals are incident on a thin membrane that vibrates. The readout laser beam reflected from the vibrating membrane is mixed with the reference beam at the surface of a photo-EMF detector. Interferrometric fringes are generated at the surface of the photo-EMF detector. Electric current is generated in the photo-EMF detector when the fringes are in motion due to undulations in the signal readout beam imparted by the vibrating membrane. A highly sensitive photo-EMF detector is capable of detecting picoJoules or less laser energy generated by vibrating processes.

Disclosed is a residual toxicant detection device for detecting the amount of residual toxicants in an aqueous solution to be measured. The residual toxicant detection device includes an accommodation space formed from a shell, a water inlet and a water outlet positioned on the shell for the aqueous solution to flow therein and thereout, respectively, a sensing chamber in the accommodation space, a light source emitter and a light sensor positioned near the sensing chamber, the light source emitter emitting light of a wavelength range, the light sensor receiving the light passing through the sensing chamber, and a circuit board receiving sensing signals sensed by the light sensor, such that absorbance and a change of the absorbance of residual toxicants in the aqueous solution to be measured are calculated.

A capillary absorption spectrometer and process are described that provide highly sensitive and accurate stable absorption measurements of analytes in a sample gas that may include isotopologues of carbon and oxygen obtained from gas and biological samples. It further provides isotopic images of microbial communities that allow tracking of nutrients at the single cell level. It further targets naturally occurring variations in carbon and oxygen isotopes that avoids need for expensive isotopically labeled mixtures which allows study of samples taken from the field without modification. The process also permits sampling in vivo permitting real-time ambient studies of microbial communities.

A laser vibrometer for measurement of ambient chemical species includes a laser that produces a beam that is split into a reference readout beam and a signal readout beam. A probe laser beam is tuned to an absorption feature of a molecular transition, and generates acoustic signals when incident on a gaseous species via the photo acoustic effect. The scattered acoustic signals are incident on a thin membrane that vibrates. The readout laser beam reflected from the vibrating membrane is mixed with the reference beam at the surface of a photo-EMF detector. Interferrometric fringes are generated at the surface of the photo-EMF detector. Electric current is generated in the photo-EMF detector when the fringes are in motion due to undulations in the signal readout beam imparted by the vibrating membrane. A highly sensitive photo-EMF detector is capable of detecting picoJoules or less laser energy generated by vibrating processes.

A gas analysis device includes: a measurement part configured to measure an absorption amount of a laser light including an absorption wavelength corresponding to at least two electronic level transitions having the same component contained in the combustion gas, by emitting the laser light on a plurality of measurement paths disposed to pass through the combustion gas; a standard setting part configured to set a standard gas concentration distribution and a standard temperature distribution on the basis of a measurement result of the measurement part; and an analysis part configured to obtain the gas concentration distribution and the temperature distribution by solving a function including the gas concentration distribution and the temperature distribution as variables so as to minimize a difference between the absorption amount measured by the measurement part and a standard absorption amount obtained on the basis of the standard gas concentration distribution and the standard temperature distribution.