Odor is a one of important sensing parameters for human life. However, odor has not been quantified by a measuring instrument because of its vagueness. In this paper, a measuring of odor with odor coding, which are vector quantities of plural odor molecular information, and its applications are described.

抄録全体を表示

It is effective to use both inherent and genuine properties for a reliable discrimination of notes. When the surface of the note is scanned with the tip of an optical fiber feeler, peculiar vibration waveform correlated to various surface properties is measured. In this paper, a novel method to discriminate the truth and denomination of notes is proposed by analyzing this. Two matters can be evaluated independently. The first is the roughness property extracted from the stick-slip component with an undulation of the intaglio print, which is inherent in only genuine notes. Truth can be discriminated by evaluating whether the stick-slip component exists on print part of vibration waveforms. The second is the variable-density property extracted from the low-frequency component with a print pattern. Denomination can be discriminated by comparing the variable-density pattern with the data-base of it for each denomination of notes. An improved discrimination method is constructed by integrating the proposed two property evaluation methods, and its effectiveness has been confirmed from experimental results for both circulated and counterfeit notes.

抄録全体を表示

We have developed a new railway signal control system, which controls railway signals, switches, track circuits based on IP protocol. In this system, much electronic devices are installed along harsh railway environment. Therefore, it is required that these electronic devices have environment resistance for lightning surge, temperature, vibration, waterproof and electromagnetic noise. As a countermeasure for the lightning surge, we utilize a protective device (cable arrester). However there is a case in which the electronic device is damaged by the degradation of the protective device. Therefore we develop a lightning surge sensor to detect the degradation of a protective device. In this paper, we describe details of the lightning surge sensor for railway.

抄録全体を表示

The harmonics of the electric current through yeast suspensions, the nonlinear dielectric properties of yeast cells, have particular patterns according to the biological activity of the cells and the measurement of these patterns is a technique for determining the activity of living cells. The concentration of glucose and oxygen in yeast culture medium influences the manifestation of fermentation or respiration of yeast cells. Measurements were made with yeast cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) cultured aerobically and anaerobically in sufficient glucose concentration, aerobic fermentation and anaerobic fermentation, and aerobically in limited glucose concentration, respiration. The results showed that the harmonics were barely apparent for yeast cells in aerobic fermentation and respiratory; however, cells in the anaerobic fermentation displayed substantial third and fifth harmonics. We can say that environmental condition affects the yeast cells' nonlinear properties, from another viewpoint, the measurements of the nonlinear properties are available to determine the activity of yeast cells adjusted to the conditions of their cultivation.

抄録全体を表示

This paper reports an electro-thermal analysis of two-element Micro Flow Sensor (MFS). The measurement principle is based on temperature difference between upstream and downstream part of electrically connected heating-sensing elements. The two-heater MFS, the thermal fluid flow around MFS and the electric circuit were modeled together using a commercial general-purpose circuit simulator based on SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis). The model has a partial three-dimensional lumped thermal network model involved in a two-dimensional one. Two-dimensional laminar Poiseuille channel flow was assumed as the flow field in the model, and the forced convective heat transfer was calculated by energy balance at each node in the fluid flow. The tendency on the sensor characteristics was in good agreement between the simulation and experiment.

抄録全体を表示

Studies pertaining cell chips require a cell positioning technique for the application of cell engineering such as single cell analysis, etc. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is one of the promising methods to realize simultaneous multi-cell positioning. Previously, several research groups performed DEP-based cell manipulation, for example, cell separation, sorting, and positioning. In this study, we verify cell viability after positioning by DEP. We have fabricated a saw-shaped electrode on a glass chip and demonstrated simultaneous multi-cell positioning wherein cells are arranged between electrodes using the negative DEP principle. We describe the designs of two types of electrodes as well as their electric field simulations. The test chips were fabricated by the standard microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology, and the experiments were performed for both polystyrene beads and living cells. To investigate the influence of DEP on the cell, the viability of the cells after the positioning was examined using a fluorescent dye. The results of this examination confirmed that no cytotoxicity was observed in the case of negative DEP positioning. Consequently, it was shown that the principle of negative DEP can be applied to achieve cell positioning without having a hazardous effect on living cells.

抄録全体を表示