Sensing mechanisms

Media publicity has emphasized the introduction of robotic devices for mass production, including the automation of automotive assembly lines and the production of rubber goods, such as belts eind hose. Instrumentation for sensing mechanical motion and the subsequent control of robotic devices provides for challenging applications of numerical control strategies. 

Approximately 15 per cent of osteoblasts become entrapped in their own matrix to become osteocytes. Osteocytes have a vast three-dimensional network of cell processes (canaliculi), providing nourishment and cell-cell interactions. Because they are located throughout bone tissue and have an extensive canalicular network, osteocytes are assumed to be a vital component of sensing mechanical signals. Nutrients are essential for the vitality of bone tissue and are obtained from the blood supply, limiting most osteocytes to lie within 150 p.m of a blood vessel, resulting in a high cellular density 25000 osteocytes within a square millimetre of bone... 

Slow dyes that respond via a redistribution across the entire membrane (sometimes called Nemstain dyes) do so because of a change in the transmembrane electrical potential. As such, they can only be used as probes of the transmembrane potential and not as probes of the surface potential or the dipole potential. Dyes whose electric field sensing mechanism involves a movement between the aqueous medium and its adjacent membrane interface on one side of the membrane can, in principle, respond to changes in both the transmembrane electrical potential and the surface potential. Fast dyes that remain totally in the membrane phase (e.g., styrylpyridinium, annellated hemicyanine, and 3-hydroxyflavone dyes) respond to their local electric field strength, whatever its origin. Therefore, these dyes can, in principle, be used as probes of the transmembrane electrical potential, the surface potential, or the dipole potential. 

The principle of pH electrode sensing mechanisms which are based on glass or polymer membranes is well investigated and understood. Common to all potentiometric ion selective sensors, a pH sensitive membrane is the key component for a sensing mechanism. When the pH sensitive membrane separates the internal standard solution with a constant pH from the test solution, the potential difference E across the membrane is determined by the Nemst equation ... 

Although the redox reaction mechanisms of iridium oxide are still not clear, most researchers believe that the proton exchange associated with oxidation states of metal oxides is one of the possible pH sensing mechanisms [41, 87, 100, 105], During electrochemical reactions, oxidation state changes in the hydrated iridium oxide layer are... 

Considering the H+ dependent redox reaction between two oxidation states of the iridium oxide as the basis of the pH sensing mechanism, the electrode potential changes to the hydrogen ion concentration are expressed by Nemstian equation ... 

Metal/metal oxides are the materials of choice for construction of all-solid-state pH microelectrodes. A further understanding of pH sensing mechanisms for metal/metal oxide electrodes will have a significant impact on sensor development. This will help in understanding which factors control Nemstian responses and how to reduce interference of the potentiometric detection of pH by redox reactions at the metal-metal oxide interface. While glass pH electrodes will remain as a gold standard for many applications, all-solid-state pH sensors, especially those that are metal/metal oxide-based microelectrodes, will continue to make potentiometric in-vivo pH determination an attractive analytical method in the future. 

A piezoelectric-sound-resonance cavity (PSRC) has been used as a sensing element for hydrogen [39]. The sensing mechanism was based on the acoustic property differences... 

RNAi and ribozymes represent two additional approaches to gene silencing/down-regulation with therapeutic potential. RNAi is an innate cellular process that achieves silencing of selected genes via an anti-sense mechanism. It shares many characteristics with the antisense-based approach described above, but also some important differences, e.g. in the exact mechanism by which the antisense effect is achieved. 

Haddad, G. G. and Jiang, C. 02-sensing mechanisms in excitable cells role of plasma membrane K+ channels. Anna. Rev. Physiol. 59 23-42,1997. 

In household heating systems running on gas or oil the presence of the flame has to be surveyed. If the flame extinguishes, a burner control system has to reignite the flame or the fuel supply has to be stopped. Several flame-sensing mechanisms are used in the control systems. 

It is worth to stress that in contrast to bare LPGs, where the basic sensing principle is the evanescent interaction with the surrounding environment, here the sensing mechanism relies on a guided wave interaction with the overlay. 

Table 8.1 Overall sensitivity S of a microring sensor is listed based on two sensing mechanisms and two transducing schemes...

Other sensors are mostly grouped towards the triethylamine. In the case of porphyrins 6-8, 13 the coordinated metal is no longer able to drive the selectivity pattern and the presence of the peripheral alkyl chains completely shadows the coordination interactions. This result can explain the failure to observe the coordination interaction in the sensing mechanism of the metal complexes of the closely related alkyl chains functionalized phthalocyanines reported in the past by Gopel and coworkers [22]. 

This effect is complete in the case of porphyrins 6-8,13, which behave in the same way, independent of metal present in the inner core of the macrocycle. In conclusion, the introduction of these alkyl chains from one side gives a higher porosity to the molecular film and, as a consequence, both a speed up of the response and an increase of the sensor response. On the other hand there is a significant decrease of the importance of the selective interactions in the sensing mechanism of the organic material and, as a consequence, a lowering of the selectivity of the sensor. 

Fig. 36 Sensing mechanism of the TBA probe for the detection of Pb2+ and Hg2+ through enhanced RET-type quenching. (Reprinted with permission from [212]. Copyright 2009 American Chemical Society)...

Few chemical sensing mechanisms (other than bulk quenching) have been described for neutral molecules nevertheless, many small analytes of interest are uncharged glucose, for example. Of course, most carbohydrates are neither fluorescent nor are they fluorescence quenchers novel signal transduction mechanisms are required. 

---