FlowCam - Flow Imaging Microscopy Blog

Did you know that we have all-inclusive service plans available to ensure that your FlowCam is operating at its best?

Our service plans include an extended warranty, and with the Gold Plan, we perform annual preventative maintenance and services directly in your lab. The Silver Service Plan includes the annual maintenance and services in our factory. Additionally, our service plans offer software upgrade benefits, access to FlowCam University, and discounts on on-site training and consulting.

Each year, companies in Maine vie to be listed among the "Best Places to Work". Yokogawa Fluid Imaging Technologies has been honored to receive this designation five times in the past six years.

Employees voluntarily complete a survey providing thorough and honest feedback to company management and to the Best Places to Work organization about their experience, including workplace culture, benefits, compensation, and mission. "It is wonderful to be recognized. We greatly value the feedback from our employees and the opportunity to make positive changes to continually improve our business," says Ross Bryant, President, and CEO.

Geometry can play a crucial role in the performance of fibers in different applications. Shape factors that influence performance include length (i.e. size of the longest dimension of the fiber), width (i.e. size of the shortest dimension), and curl. Despite the importance of fiber geometry, many conventional particle sizing measurements struggle to accurately capture the morphology of these particles.

IFPAC, the International Forum for Process Analytical Chemistry, holds an annual conference that brings together scientists working in Process Analytical Technologies, QbD, Process Understanding & Control, and Real-Time Analytics. Professionals in these fields meet in person to discuss the latest trends and get ideas for the future of the industry. Research is presented in applications ranging from biopharmaceuticals to chemicals to food and beverage.

Excessive nutrients in Nantucket’s harbors cause several negative impacts on existing habitats. These impacts include eelgrass loss, decreased shellfish populations, and harmful algal blooms (HABs). HABs can result in the closure of recreational waters for activities like swimming and boating. HABs also cause fishery closures and negatively impact plants and organisms living in the harbor.

In May 2022 our FlowCam Aquatic Team attended the Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting (JASM) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This historic meeting brought together scientists from nine different societies to form the largest gathering of its kind in history. It was a welcome change after two years of virtual meetings and limited in-person collaboration. 

After a two-year break, the American Water Works Association's ACE Conference will be hosted in-person in San Antonio, Texas, from June 12th - 15th. The conference brings together water sector professionals from around the country to learn about new technologies and techniques in water quality monitoring, mitigation strategies, and overcoming engineering challenges. 

FlowCam user, Jochen Wollschläger, of Germany's University of Oldenburg, recently returned from a research trip aboard the RV METEOR as part of the FjordFlux Cruise in the Beagle Channel, at the southernmost tip of Chile and Argentina. The goal of the expedition was to utilize the fjords of Patagonia to better understand how climate change will affect similar environments in Antarctica. Carried out in the context of the DYNAMO Project, the cruise was a cooperation between Germany, Chile, and Argentina. 

Zooplankton are an essential part of the aquatic food web. They are the thread that connects the primary producers (phytoplankton) to high trophic organisms, and due to their small size are easily affected by changes in their environment. This makes them a good indicator of water quality and the effects of climate change on the health of water systems.

The Xiangxi Bay of the Three Gorges Reservoir in the Yichang region of China recently served as a place to observe these effects. The bay exhibits high spatial heterogeneity (or an uneven concentration of zooplankton species between different areas of the reservoir). It is this characteristic, likely resulting from variable nutrient levels, that made it a good place to study differences in zooplankton size spectrum and diversity as they relate to environmental factors.

In a recent paper from Rostock University Medical Center, authors Anja Kurzhals et al. summarize a study they performed to determine the relevant morphological characteristics of particulates shed by a commercially available coronary stent delivery system. Flow Imaging Microscopy (FIM), also called Dynamic Image Analysis (DIA), was used to image and analyze particles produced during a simulated implantation of the cardiovascular device.