http://www.hindawi.comThe latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/321065A new optical sensor for the continuous monitoring of the dew formation inside organ pipes was designed. This aspect is particularly critical for the conservation of organs in unheated churches since the dew formation or the condensation on the pipe surfaces can contribute to many kinds of physical and chemical disruptive mechanisms. The working principle is based on the change in the reflectivity which is observed on the surface of the fibre tip, when a water layer is formed on its distal end. Intensity changes of the order of 35% were measured, following the formation of the water layer on the distal end of a 400/430 μm optical fibre. Long-term tests carried out placing the fibre tip inside the base of an in-house-made metallic foot of an organ pipe located in an external environment revealed the consistency of the proposed system.Francesco Baldini, Riccardo Falciai, Andrea Azelio Mencaglia, Folco Senesi, Dario Camuffo, Antonio della Valle, and Carl Johan Bergsten© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/936074In this contribution, a review of the development of high-performance optochemical nanosensors based on the integration of carbon nanotubes with the optical fiber technology is presented. The paper first provide an overview of the amazing features of carbon nanotubes and their exploitation as highly adsorbent nanoscale materials for gas sensing applications. Successively, the attention is focused on the operating principle, fabrication, and characterization of fiber optic chemosensors in the Fabry-Perot type reflectometric configuration, realized by means of the deposition of a thin layer of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) upon the distal end of standard silica optical fibers. This is followed by an extensive review of the excellent sensing capabilities of the realized SWCNTs-based chemical nanosensors against volatile organic compounds and other pollutants in different environments (air and water) and operating conditions (room temperature and cryogenic temperatures). The experimental results reported here reveal that ppm and sub-ppm chemical detection limits, low response times, as well as fast and complete recovery of the sensor responses have been obtained in most of the investigated cases. This evidences the great potentialities of the proposed photonic nanosensors based on SWCNTs to be successfully employed for practical environmental monitoring applications both in liquid and vapor phase as well as for space. Furthermore, the use of novel SWCNTs-based composites as sensitive fiber coatings is proposed to enhance the sensing performance and to improve the adhesion of carbon nanotubes to the fiber surface. Finally, new advanced sensing configurations based on the use of hollow-core optical fibers coated and partially filled by carbon nanotubes are also presented.M. Consales, A. Cutolo, M. Penza, P. Aversa, M. Giordano, and A. Cusano© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/346016Fluorescence-based sensing systems offer potential for noninvasive monitoring with implantable devices, but require carrier technologies that provide suitable immobilization, accessibility, and biocompatibility. Recent developments towards this goal include a competitive binding assay for glucose that has been encapsulated in semipermeable microcapsule carriers. This paper describes an extension of this work to increase the applicability to in vivo monitoring, wherein two significant developments are described: (1) a near-infrared resonance energy transfer system for transducing glucose concentration, and (2) novel hybrid organic-inorganic crosslinked microcapsules as carriers. The quenching-based assay is a competitive binding (CB) system based on apo-glucose oxidase (AG) as the receptor and dextran as the competitive ligand. The encapsulated quencher-labeled dextran and near infrared donor-labeled glucose receptor showed a stable and reversible response with tunable sensitivity of 1–5%/mM over the physiological range, making these transducers attractive for continuous monitoring for biomedical applications.Swetha Chinnayelka, Huiguang Zhu, and Mike McShane© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/262501This paper introduces autoregressive (AR) modeling as a novel method to classify outputs from gas chromatography (GC). The inverse Fourier transformation was applied to the original sensor data, and then an AR model was applied to transform data to generate AR model complex coefficients. This series of coefficients effectively contains a compressed version of all of the information in the original GC signal output. We applied this method to chromatograms resulting from proliferating bacteria species grown in culture. Three types of neural networks were used to classify the AR coefficients: backward propagating neural network (BPNN), radial basis function-principal component analysis (RBF-PCA) approach, and radial basis function-partial least squares regression (RBF-PLSR) approach. This exploratory study demonstrates the feasibility of using complex root coefficient patterns to distinguish various classes of experimental data, such as those from the different bacteria species. This cognition approach also proved to be robust and potentially useful for freeing us from time alignment of GC signals.Weixiang Zhao, Joshua T. Morgan, and Cristina E. Davis© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/270475A reliable, fast, and low-cost biosensor for medical diagnostics using DNA sequence detection has been developed and tested for the detection of the bacterium “Bacillus anthracis.” In this sensor, Poly [9,9-di (6,6′- N, N′ trimethylammonium) hexylfluorenyl-2, 7-diyl)-alt-co- (1,4-phenylene)] dibromide salt (PFP) has been taken as cationic conjugated polymer (CCP) and PNA attached with fluorescein dye (PNAC∗) as a probe. The basic principle of this sensor is that when a PNAC∗ probe is hybridized with a single strand DNA (ssDNA) having complementary sequence, Forster resonance energy transfer (FRET) may take place from PFP to the PNAC∗/DNA complex. If the FRET is efficient, the photoluminescence from the PFP will be highly quenched and that from PNAC∗ will be enhanced. On the other hand, if the DNA sequence is noncomplementary to PNA, FRET will not occur.Nidhi Mathur, Anamika Aneja, P. K. Bhatnagar, and P. C. Mathur© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/797436We have previously utilized hybrid semiconductor quantum dot- (QD-) peptide substrates for monitoring of enzymatic proteolysis. In this report, we expand on this sensing strategy to further monitor protein-protease interactions. We utilize QDs self-assembled with multiple copies of dye-labeled proteins as substrates for the sensing of protease activity. Detection of proteolysis is based on changes in the rate of fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the QDs and the proximal dye-labeled proteins following protein digestion by added enzyme. Our study focused on two representative proteolytic enzymes: the cysteine protease papain and the serine protease endoproteinase K. Analysis of the enzymatic digestion allowed us to estimate minimal values for the enzymatic activities of each enzyme used. Mechanisms of enzymatic inhibition were also inferred from the FRET data collected in the presence of inhibitors. Potential applications of this technology include drug discovery assays and in vivo cellular monitoring of enzymatic activity.Aaron R. Clapp, Ellen R. Goldman, H. Tetsuo Uyeda, Eddie L. Chang, Jessica L. Whitley, and Igor L. Medintz© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/254283Amorphous titanium dioxide (TiO2) and gold (Au) doped TiO2-based surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensors have been investigated as hydrogen gas detectors. The nanocrystal-doped TiO2 films were synthesized through a sol-gel route, mixing a Ti-butoxide-based solution with diluted colloidal gold nanoparticles. The films were deposited via spin coating onto 64∘ YX LiNbO3 SAW transducers in a helium atmosphere. The SAW gas sensors were operated at various temperatures between 150 and 310∘C. It was found that gold doping on TiO2 increased the device sensitivity and reduced the optimum operating temperature.A. Z. Sadek, D. Buso, A. Martucci, P. Mulvaney, W. Wlodarski, and K. Kalantar-zadeh© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/782764This paper presents a novel hybrid CMOS/MEMS tilt sensor with a 5∘ resolution over a 300∘ range. The device uses a MEMS-based semicircular mass suspended from a rigid body, projecting a shadow onto the CMOS-based optical sensor surface. A one-dimensional photodiode array arranged as a uniformly segmented ring is then used to determine the tilt angle by detecting the position of the semicircular mass. The complete sensor occupies an area of under 2.5 mm × 2.5 mm.Timothy G. Constandinou and Julius Georgiou© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/628585Fish species identification and automated fish freshness assessment play important roles in fishery industry applications. This paper describes a method based on support vector machines (SVMs) to improve the performance of fish identification systems. The result is used for the assessment of fish freshness using artificial neural network (ANN). Identification of the fish species involves processing of the images of fish. The most efficient features were extracted and combined with the down-sampled version of the images to create a 1D input vector. Max-Win algorithm applied to the SVM-based classifiers has enhanced the reliability of sorting to 96.46%. The realisation of Cyranose 320 Electronic nose (E-nose), in order to evaluate the fish freshness in real-time, is experimented. Intelligent processing of the sensor patterns involves the use of a dedicated ANN for each species under study. The best estimation of freshness was provided by the most sensitive sensors. Data was collected from four selected species of fishes over a period of ten days. It was concluded that the performance can be increased using individual trained ANN for each specie. The proposed system has been successful in identifying the number of days after catching the fish with an accuracy of up to 91%.Hamid Gholam Hosseini, Dehan Luo, Guanggui Xu, Hongxiu Liu, and Deena Benjamin© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/890293A spin-valve giant magneto-resistive (SV-GMR) sensor of needle-type configuration is reported to estimate the volume density of magnetic fluid inside human body. The magnetic fluid is usually injected into human body to kill cancerous cell using hyperthermia-based treatment. To control the heat treatment, a good knowledge of temperature is very much essential. The SV-GMR-based needle-type sensor is used to measure the magnetic flux density of the magnetic fluid inside the human body from which the temperature is estimated. The needle-type sensor provides a semi-invasive approach of temperature determination.C. P. Gooneratne, S. C. Mukhopadhyay, and S. Yamada© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/142854The characterization of nanostructured thin films is critical in the design and fabrication of optical sensors. Particularly, this work is a detailed study of the properties of layer-by-layer electrostatic self-assembled multilayer (LbL) structures fabricated using poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and Neutral Red (NR) as cations, and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) as polyanion. These LbL films, due to the colorimetric properties of the NR, are suitable for sensor applications such as pH sensing in the physiological range. In the (PAH+NR/PAA) LbL structure, it has been observed a very important influence of the pH of the solutions in the properties of the resultant films. Different techniques such as spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are combined to characterize the films, and the results are analyzed showing coherence with previous works. The LbL structure is finally optimized and dramatically improved nanostructured films were fabricated, showing good sensing properties, short response times, and good stability.Javier Goicoechea, Francisco J. Arregui, Jesus M. Corres, and Ignacio R. Matias© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.