A colored particle comprising an organic solid component and a coloring agent is produced by eluting a water-soluble auxiliary component comprising at least an oligosaccharide from a composition having a disperse system, in which a particulate dispersed phase comprising the organic solid component and the coloring agent is dispersed in a matrix comprising the auxiliary component. The polling interval assigned to a given node may be optimized to minimize andor achieve user-preferred thresholds for energy consumption and latency associated with each network node in the sensor network. The gas flow generator generates gas flow in the measurement passage.