A method and apparatus for establishing product items unique identity for purpose of anti-counterfeiting or anti-theft is disclosed. It employs a fluorescent taggant embedded in product item, template, digitally based Encoder and Decoder. The taggant comprising plurality of fluorescent entities which in turn may comprise such distinct geometric and spectral optical characteristics-attributes as relative locations, emission/absorption spectra, polarization degrees and post luminanc delay and duration times. Such uniqueness is determined by the presence of a combination of a wide variety of fluorescent materials used during the application. The set of fluorescent entities are result of a random process and form a product item's fingerprint. The said template is a particular digitized representation of a taggant. The Encoder may comprise a camera, LED array based activator, configured to follow a particular illumination sequence and computation unit. The said camera further comprises at least two polarizing filters and template generator and the respective controllers. The Decoder may comprise at least one camera identical to the of the Encoder, at least one template/taggant readers and a computation unit, which may be shared with the said Encoder. Product item identity is based on the fluorescent taggant uniqueness, with the later embedded into the product in a non separable way. After the extracted attribute values assiciated with the taggant, are digitized. Digitazing comprises mixing with chaff (spurious) patterns of the same format, error correction, transformation in a non invertible and compression and encryption. This forms a template, embedded in the product in a readable form. The decoding comprises feature extraction of taggant, reading template and decrypting, its content, error correction, decompression. Then the extracted and the decoding results are cross-matched in order to identify the product item. Irreproducibility of a plurality of fluorescent entities and high degree of security of its digital representation due to encryption, high variability of LED patterns and non-invertible transformation is a basis of a chaosmetric anti-counterfeiting solution disclosed in the present invention.

Analyte collection and testing systems and methods, and more particularly to disposable oral fluid collection and testing systems and methods. Described herein are methods and apparatuses to achieve significant improvements in the detection of fluorescence signals in the reader.

A system for analysis of a fluid sample has a carrier with a channel. A plug with a sensor can be inserted into a socket arranged on the carrier in such a way that the sensor is in contact with an interior volume of the channel. The sensor can be an optical sensor, in particular based on fluorescence. Optical fibres may be connected to the plug. A camera (8) may be provided to record an image of the plug. The carrier may in particular be a microfluidic chip and the channel a microfluidic channel.

A method for analyzing the crystal structure of a polycrystalline semiconductor material is described. According to one embodiment, the method includes exciting the material to make the material emit a luminescent signal, detecting, at each point of a mesh in a preset spatial region of the material, the luminescent signal at a variable polarization angle, in a frequency band of width greater than or equal to the width of the bandgap of the material, estimating, at each point of the mesh in the preset spatial region of the material, from the signal detected for said point of the mesh, a data characteristic of the modulation of the luminescent signal, modelled by a sum of sine waves, as a function of the polarization angle, and representing the characteristic data over all of the points of the mesh in the preset spatial region.

At least one embodiment relates to an apparatus for super-resolution fluorescence-microscopy imaging of a sample. The apparatus includes an objective lens having a forward field of view, the objective lens being configured to collect light. The apparatus may also include a processing arrangement configured to perform super-resolution fluorescence-microscopy imaging of the sample with the collected light. Further, the apparatus includes a waveguide component located forward of the objective lens and configured to (i) receive light from outside the forward field of view, and (ii) use total internal reflection within the waveguide component to direct excitation light. In addition, the apparatus includes an electronic optical-path control system configured to cause input light of a first wavelength to follow a first optical path corresponding to a first optical mode and also configured to cause input light of the first wavelength to follow a second optical path corresponding to a second optical mode.

The invention generally relates to methods for quantifying an amount of enzyme molecules. Systems and methods of the invention are provided for measuring an amount of target by forming a plurality of fluid partitions, a subset of which include the target, performing an enzyme-catalyzed reaction in the subset, and detecting the number of partitions in the subset. The amount of target can be determined based on the detected number.

A inspection system includes an illumination source to generate an illumination beam, focusing elements to direct the illumination beam to a sample, a detector, collection elements configured to direct radiation emanating from the sample to the detector, a detection mode control device to image the sample in two or more detection modes such that the detector generates two or more collection signals based on the two or more detection modes, and a controller. Radiation emanating from the sample includes at least radiation specularly reflected by the sample and radiation scattered by the sample. The controller determines defect scattering characteristics associated with radiation scattered by defects on the sample based on the two or more collection signals. The controller also classifies the one or more particles according to a set of predetermined defect classifications based on the one or more defect scattering characteristics.

The invention generally relates to methods for quantifying an amount of enzyme molecules. Systems and methods of the invention are provided for measuring an amount of target by forming a plurality of fluid partitions, a subset of which include the target, performing an enzyme-catalyzed reaction in the subset, and detecting the number of partitions in the subset. The amount of target can be determined based on the detected number.

A multiphoton fluorescence anisotropy microscopy live cell imaging system and method to measure and map drug-target interaction in real time at subcellular resolution. Proposed modality enables a direct measurement of drug/target binding in vivo, high-resolution spatial and temporal mapping of bound and unbound drug distribution, and presents an versatile tool to enhance understanding of drug activity. Application of the system to measurement of intracellular target engagement of the chemotherapeutic Olaparib, a poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor, in live cells and within a tumor in vivo.

A super-resolution observation device includes an illumination optical system collecting a first illuminating light having a first optical frequency .sub.1 on a first region of an observation object, collecting a second illuminating light having a second optical frequency .sub.2 on a second region partially overlapping the first region, and collecting a third illuminating light having a third optical frequency .sub.2 on a third region containing a non-overlap region which is a region of the first region and does not overlap the second region; and an extraction unit extracting a signal light generated in accordance with a change in an energy level of a substance in the non-overlap region from a light generated in all of the first region, the second region, and the third region.