Abstract: A method in which the cleavage profile and size distribution of von Willebrand factor (VWF) multimers is analyzed, includes: providing a sample medium of human body fluids comprising a plurality of VWF multimers of different size; enrichment or purification of the VWF multimers by cryoprecipitation or chromatography to obtain a separated preparation of the VWF multimers from said sample medium; exposing the separated preparation of VWF multimers to a light source to produce signals obtained by vibrational spectroscopy; detecting said signals; transformation by mathematical alogrithms; generation of patterns based on computing of data of original resonance spectra and determining the cleavage profile and the size distribution of said separated VWF multimers by chemometrics; and acquisition of a databank obtained from healthy individuals for identifying subjects at risk of developing at least one of the following diseases: sepsis, coagulopathy, thrombotic disease, infection, and inflammation.

Abstract: An apparatus for measuring the concentration of a substance in a specimen. The apparatus includes a housing that defines a chamber for the specimen. A radiation source mounted to the housing emits radiation at a wavelength at which the radiation is absorbed by the substance. Two spaced apart receivers are mounted to the housing. Both receivers detect radiation at the wavelength at which it is absorbed by the specimen. Two concave mirrors are disposed in the housing. The mirrors are positioned to split the radiation emitted by the source into two beams, each of the beams being directed to a separate one of the receivers and so that the paths of travel of the beams from the source to the separate receivers are of different lengths. The concentration of the substance is determined by based on the difference in radiation detected by the receivers.

Abstract: The invention relates to a Hadamard spectrometer which enables the detection of a range of polyatomic gases or liquids for example using infrared absorption. The aim of the invention is to produce a spectrometer of this type which provides higher resolution, improved wavelength precision and an improved signal-to-noise ratio using conventional detector lines and which allows a small and compact design. To this end, a detector line (30) with a set interval (a) between the individual detector areas (31) is used for a detector unit (3), and a linear assembly (10) is also used for a light-emitting respective reflective assembly (1). The linear assembly includes (n) adjoining identical light sources (11, 12, 13, 14), n always remaining ≧3, which can be activated individually according to the Hadamard Principle.