The invention relates to a method for detecting Serpula lacrymans contamination in an internal environment, taking into account the absence and presence of VOCs produced by the metabolism of Serpula lacrymans, especially by means of the calculation of a contamination index.

An optical system for determining the concentration of a metabolic gas in a container sealed to biological contamination and enclosing a biological material. The optical system has a broadly tunable coherent infrared light source, a detection module, and a control system connected to the light source and detection module and operates the light source, to receive and analyze the data provided by said detection module, and to process the data indicative of the concentration of said metabolic gas in said sealed container.

A method for diagnosing a subject with Clostridioides difficile infection (GDI) is described. The method includes obtaining a breath sample from the subject, obtaining a VOC profile of the breath sample using an analytic device wherein the VOC profile comprises one or more of the VOCs detected and its corresponding quantity, inputting one or more of the VOC quantities into a machine learning model stored in a non-transitory memory and implemented by a processor, and diagnosing the subject as having or not having GDI based on the output of the machine learning model.

A breath analyte device includes a breath volume in fluid communication with a sampling volume. The device also includes a sampling sensor configured to generate a breath signal that varies in response to changes in gas pressure (e.g., sound waves) in the breath volume and one or more analyte sensors configured to generate one or more analyte signals that vary in response to a concentration of one or more target analytes present in the sampling volume. A control unit is configured to determine a time at which to measure the concentration of target analytes in the sampling volume based on the breath signal and measure the concentration of the target analytes based on the analyte signals at the determined time. The device may also include a pump configured to motivate gas from the breath volume into the sampling volume prior to measuring the concentration of the target analytes.

A pathogen detection system includes a pathogen sensing adaptor that detect pathogens present in the breathing circuit associated with a ventilated patient. A pathogen sensing adaptor may include a conduit, removable cartridges with testing strips, an optical sensor, and communication circuitry. Upon detecting a colorimetric change on the testing strip, the optical sensor generates a signal indicative of the presence and/or level of pathogens.

The present invention provides a platform, system and devices for testing or screening individuals for symptoms of disease, exposure to chemicals or biohazards. The device may be configured similar to the appearance of familiar airport screening devices, but may be configured for use in a people moving device or a walkway. The present device assays volatile compounds, especially volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitting from a subject person, group or item. Different VOCs are produced dependent on metabolic changes in response to pathogenic, chemical, or biological stresses. Nanosensor elements within the device provide assessments of multiple VOCs to the platform with its integrated analysis capacities that rapidly compare instant data to a developed database. Each chamber may participate in an interconnected system sharing data for continuous improvement of assay procedures and comparison results.

A method is for determining the effect of a selected treatment administered to a patient. The method includes acquiring VOC-emission-data of pre-treatment-target-cells-cultures and producing a pre-treatment-target cells-VOC-profile from the VOC-emission of the pre-treatment-target-cells-cultures. An MCD-target-cells-VOC-profile can be produced by inducing MCD on non-treated target-cells-cultures thereby producing post-MCD-target-cells-cultures and acquiring VOC-emission-data of the post-MCD-target-cells-cultures. The selected treatment is applied to target-cells-cultures and VOC-emission-data of post-treatment-target-cells-cultures is acquired. The treatment is determined as effective when concentration values from VOC-emission-data of pre-treatment-target-cells-cultures, of VOCs associated with the pre-treatment-target-cells-VOC-profile, are greater than concentration values from the VOC-emission-data of post-treatment-target-cells-cultures, of VOCs associated with the pre-treatment-target-cells-VOC profile and (b) concentration values from VOC-emission-data of post-treatment-target-cells-cultures, of VOCs associated with the MCD-target-cells-VOC-profile, emitted by the post-treatment-target-cell-cultures, are greater than concentration values from the VOC-emission-data of pre-treatment-target-cells-cultures, of VOCs associated with the MCD-target-cells-VOC-profile, emitted by the pre-treatment-target-cell cultures.

A methodology of detecting pathogens captured respectively from the inhalation and the exhalation in human breathing is disclosed. More particularly, a method is described for simultaneously detecting pathogens captured on sensors placed respectively inside an inhalation channel and an exhalation channel of a nose respirator.

The present invention is directed to a sensing device including a plurality of capacitive sensors including carbon dots. Further provided is a method of using the sensing device of the invention, such as for determining the presence of an analyte or a specie of interest in a sample or at a target location.

The plant state detection system includes an odor detector including an odor detection unit configured to detect an odorant emitted from a plant, and a plant state detector configured to acquire odor information detected by the odor detection unit and detect a state of the plant based on the odor information.