Abstract: A hole cleaning apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises an elongated member, a looped member, a hook type fastener member and a plurality of cleaning members. The looped member extends from the elongated member and the hook type fastener member extends from the looped member. The looped member comprises a loop to detachably receive at least one of a plurality of cleaning members and the hook type fastener member fastens the looped member to the elongated member. The looped member and the hook type fastener member are configured to securely hold the cleaning member in place. The elongated member, looped member and hook type fastener member form a unitary body. The hole cleaning apparatus is configured to detachably couple with a rotary drive member to provide rotational motion. The rotary drive member is configured to rotate the plurality of cleaning members to clean a hollow object. The rotary drive member could be any device configured to provide rotational motion.

Abstract: High throughput compound profiling systems, and related devices and sub-systems that can be used to perform various compound profiling processes are provided. These systems typically include work perimeters that are organized for optimum efficiency and processing accuracy. Further, these systems are readily adaptable for performing a wide array of assays, as many different system components are easily incorporated or interchangeable in a particular system. System components that are provided by the invention include cell culture dissociators, which can be used, e.g., to effect cell wetting, dissociation, and/or agitation applications. In some embodiments, these cell culture dissociators are included as components of automated cell culture passaging stations. Dispensing devices that permit on-the-fly fluid temperature regulation are also provided. In addition, various compound profiling methods, cell dissociation methods, uniform cell concentration dispensing methods, among other processes, are also provided.

Abstract: A particle imaging system and a method provided for analyzing particles in a fluid; the system comprising a means for capturing image data of the fluid within a sample cell, and a means for flow control, a valve and a pump, wherein the fluid within the sample cell is periodically stopped, or slowed down, for image capturing and moved rapidly between image capturing events. Advantageously, the present invention allows to increase exposure times, which is particularly significant for fluorescent imaging at low illumination levels.

Abstract: The present invention relates to the automatic analysis and identification of different species of particles in a liquid sample using both fluorescent tagging and magnification techniques. A light source at a first wavelength is used to induce the tagged particles to emit light at a second wavelength, while the image thereof is captured on a pixel array of a digital camera. A second camera can be used to capture an image of the particles illuminated at the first wavelength, which is separated from the second wavelength by an optical filter.

Abstract: A system and method for measuring small particles suspended in a fluid are disclosed. The system employs optical imaging using diffraction enlargement. A sample of small particles illuminated by a light source is imaged onto a pixel array of detector elements using an imaging optical system having a reduced magnification not sufficient for forming a large enough image of a smallest particle of interest. A low-aperture imaging optics with NA<0.05 is used to add diffraction enlargement to the image corresponding to at least 5 pixels to enable accurate measurement of images of smallest particles of interest, and to increase an optical sampling volume. Suitably programmed processor is used for determining at least a pixel count for each of the diffraction-enlarged images, and for generating a number, size or distribution of particles accounting for pre-determined diffraction enlargement of particle images of different sizes. The method enables analysis of large samples of small particles in one measurement.

Abstract: A method for determining a distribution of a parameter of a particle population is disclosed whereby the following steps are performed: a) detecting on a pixel array of elements a plurality of images of the particles; b) determining a number of pixels in the form of a pixel count corresponding to each of the plurality of images of particles; c) obtaining a plurality of weighting factors which relate values of the parameter to different pixel counts; and, d) utilizing the plurality of pixel counts and the weighting factors to determine the distribution for the parameter of the particle population. The method depends on the facts that the total population to be analyzed contains many particles and is uniformly distributed, over many frames, throughout the optical sampling volume, and that even when substantial uncertainty exists on the parameter value corresponding any individual image, the statistical information which is obtained from many images may be used to provide accurate distributions.