Abstract: The present invention provides improved methods that allow accurate monitoring and/or control of temperature changes in a microfluidic environment. An advantage of the present invention is that the temperature can be monitored and/or controlled at any location within a microfluidic device, especially where a preparation step, an amplification step and/or a detection step is performed. The invention further provides improved microfluidic devices for practicing the methods disclosed and claimed herein.

Abstract: The present invention generally relates to microfluidics, and, in particular, to systems and methods for coalescing or fusing droplets. In certain aspects, two or more droplets within a microfluidic channel are brought together and caused to coalesce without using electric fields or charges. For example, in certain embodiments, droplets stabilized with a surfactant may be disrupted, e.g., by exposing the droplets to a solvent able to alter the surfactant, which may partially destabilize the droplets and allow them to coalesce. In some instances, the droplets may also be physically disrupted to facilitate coalesce. In addition, in some cases, the positions of one or more droplets may be controlled within a channel using a groove in a wall of the channel. For example, a droplet may at least partially enter the groove such that the position of the droplet is at least partially controlled by the groove.

Abstract: Methods are provided for correcting an analyte concentration measurement that may be influenced by hematocrit (HCT), especially a glucose concentration measurement. The methods include determining by means of a reference instrument a HCT reference value of a reference blood sample taken from a specific user, applying a fresh blood sample of the user on a disposable analytical test element, measuring the glucose value of the fresh blood sample by single use of the test element in a glucose meter, determining a HCT correction value using at least the HCT reference value, and adjusting the measured glucose value using the HCT correction value to receive an adjusted glucose value. Also provided are devices and system incorporating or for performing the methods.

Abstract: The invention relates to a cartridge of a fluidic device. The fluidic device includes a fluidic chip, a body having a first surface and an opposite, second surface, one or more channels formed in the body in fluidic communications with input ports and output ports for transferring one or more fluids between the input ports and the output ports, and a fluidic chip registration means formed on the first surface for aligning the fluidic chip with a support structure; and an actuator configured to engage with the one or more channels at the second surface of the body for selectively and individually transferring the one or more fluids through the one or more channels from at least one of the input ports to at least one of the output ports at desired flowrates.

Abstract: A target analyte is extracted out of a sample fluid in a sample fluid passage by diffusing the target analyte through a supported liquid membrane to a product fluid passage. Extraction of the target analyte is accelerated by applying an electric field across and perpendicular to the supported liquid membrane with electrodes. Passage of selected ions across an exchange membrane extending between one of the electrodes and the supported liquid membrane is inhibited.

Abstract: A palladium selective chemosensor based on a fluorescein-allyloxy benzene scaffold and a method of detecting palladium ions in a fluid sample with the chemosensor, whereby the fluid sample is contacted with a solution that includes water and the chemosensor to form a mixture. An ultraviolet visible absorption profile and/or a fluorescence emission profile of the mixture is measured to determine a presence or absence of palladium ions in the fluid sample, wherein the chemosensor has an ultraviolet visible absorption peak at 315 to 325 nm and a fluorescence emissions peak at 380 to 400 nm in the solution, and wherein a bathochromic shift in the ultraviolet visible absorption peak to 338 to 342 nm in the mixture and/or a bathochromic shift in the fluorescence emissions peak to 530 to 550 nm in the mixture indicates the presence of palladium ions in the fluid sample.

Abstract: A device includes a microfluidic channel structure on a substrate with a first fluid actuator and a second fluid actuator within the microfluidic channel structure. One of the fluid actuators is selectively employable to at least partially reverse fluid flow within at least a portion of the microfluidic channel structure in response to a blockage or to prevent a blockage.

Abstract: A microfluidic device includes: a base plate allowing an electromagnetic wave to pass therethrough and having no autofluorescence; a microwell array formed on the base plate and including a wall layer in which a plurality of through-holes are formed in a thickness direction; and a lid member disposed opposite to the base plate in a state of being separated from the wall layer, wherein microwells are formed by the base plate and the through-holes formed in the wall layer, and wherein the wall layer is formed of a material containing a colored component that absorbs an electromagnetic wave of a predetermined wavelength.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to the determination of pesticides, e.g., polar pesticides, in a sample using chromatography. The present disclosure can provide direct analysis of polar pesticides, including anionic polar pesticides, using high performance liquid chromatography. The polar pesticides are sufficiently retained and resolved to allow for multiple polar pesticide determinations in a single analysis.

Abstract: Described are compounds and methods useful in measuring membrane permeability and efflux transporter activity in bacteria, including multidrug resistance Gram negative bacteria.

Abstract: This invention relates to an optical system and method for performing turbidity assay, e.g. coagulation of blood or plasma, comprising a standard optical reference, a sample handling structure, a light source and an optical detection unit. The standard optical reference, such as a fluorophore-doped glass, provides constant optical signal under controlled optical conditions. The sample handling structure, such as a microfluidic system with reaction chamber, can be placed beneath or above the standard optical reference. During operation, the coagulating plasma/blood changes its optical absorbance and reflection properties, which results in changes in optical signal that reaches the optical reading unit. The variation of the optical signal, such as fluorescence signal indicates the kinetics of the turbidity varying process, such as plasma/blood coagulation process.

Abstract: The structures of very long chain dicarboxylic acids from blood samples may be validated through chemical derivatization of the dicarboxylic functionality with 2-picolylamine before positive ESI mass spectroscopy analysis. Laboratory standards may be used to quantify the concentration of the selected very long chain dicarboxylic acid in a blood sample.

Abstract: A flow passage design for multi-reaction biological detection includes a first temporary tank, a second temporary tank, a first microchannel, and a second microchannel. The first temporary tank is configured to temporarily store a first liquid in an initial state. The second temporary tank is configured to temporarily store a second liquid in the initial state. The first microchannel is located upstream of the first temporary tank. The first microchannel has an outlet end and an inlet end, respectively connecting to the first temporary tank and the second temporary tank. The second microchannel is located downstream of the first temporary tank and connects to the first temporary tank. In the initial state, a portion of the first liquid enters the second microchannel, the outlet end of the first microchannel is covered by the first liquid, and the inlet end of the first microchannel is covered by the second liquid.

Abstract: Transport of a vaporizable liquid containing at least one solute through a material containing nanochannels is performed by contacting material with at least one vaporizable liquid component and inducing liquid transport along nanochannel interior wall surfaces, wherein the material contains nanochannels having an average diameter up to about 300 nm, preferably up to about 100 nm, and liquid transport is induced by partial liquid vaporization. A film of solid material is deposited onto an interior nanochannel wall surface by removing the transport liquid.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for elemental analysis, in particular for determining carbon and nitrogen in a sample, an apparatus suitable for said method, and the use of a catalyst suitable for said method, the catalyst being a metal oxide catalyst comprising oxides of Ce, Cu and Mn.

Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a fluorogenic pH-sensitive dye and a film for detecting pH using the fluorogenic pH-sensitive dye on a polymer film. The fluorogenic pH-sensitive dye includes an aryl compound having a sulfonyl group (—SO2) and an agarose compound covalently bonded to the sulfonyl group (—SO2) of the aryl compound.

Abstract: A method is disclosed comprising obtaining physical or other non-mass spectrometric data from one or more regions of a target using a probe. The physical or other non-mass spectrometric data may be used to determine one or more regions of interest of the target. An ambient ionisation ion source may then used to generate an aerosol, smoke or vapour from one or more regions of the target.

Abstract: The invention generally relates to methods for analyzing a tissue sample. In certain aspects, the invention provides methods that involve obtaining a tissue sample including an unsaturated compound, conducting a radical reaction on the tissue sample that targets a carbon-carbon double bond within the unsaturated compound to thereby produce a plurality of compound isomers, subjecting the plurality of compound isomers to mass spectrometry analysis to identify a location of the carbon-carbon double bond within the unsaturated compound, and quantifying the plurality of compound isomers in order to distinguish normal tissue from diseased tissue.

Abstract: A microfluidic device (1) comprising, a pallet, having a first surface (4a) and second, opposite, surface (4b); the first surface (4a) having defined therein, a main channel (5), and one or more inlet subsidiary channels (6a,6b) each of which is in fluid communication with the main channel (5) at a first junction (7) which is located at one end of the main channel (5), and corresponding one or more outlet subsidiary channels (8a,8b) each of which is in fluid communication with the main channel (5) at a second junction (9) which is located an second, opposite, end of the main channel (5); wherein the depth (‘d’) of the one or more inlet subsidiary channels (6a,6b) and the depth (‘?’) of the one or more outlet subsidiary channels (8a,8b) is less than the depth (‘f) of the main channel (5) so that there is step (106a,106b, 108a, 108b) defined at the first junction (7) and at the second junction (9); the second, opposite, surface (4b) having defined therein a groove (15) which can receive a means for generating a

Abstract: A device for collecting a liquid sample by capillarity includes distinct first and second elements having respective male and female parts. The male part comprises a channel having a transverse section. The female part comprises a peripheral wall that transversely delimits a cavity to house the male part. A part of the peripheral wall forms a cap to close the transverse section when the female part houses the male part.