• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.157-164
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• 2021

Smart agriculture requires sensing systems which are fundamental for precision agriculture. Adequate and appropriate water and nutrient supply not only improves crop productivity but also benefit to environment. However, there is no available soil sensor to continuously monitor nutrient status in soil. Electrical conductivity (EC) of soil is affected by ion contents in soil and can be used to evaluate nutrient contents in soil. Comparison of various commercial EC sensors showed similar water content and EC values at water content less than 20%. Soil EC values measured by sensors decreased with decreasing soil water content and linearly correlated with soil water content. EC values measured by soil sensor were highly correlated with water soluble nutrient contents such as Ca, K, Mg and N in soil indicating that the soil EC sensor can be used for monitoring changes in plant available nutrients in soil.

• Journal of Internet of Things and Convergence
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.125-129
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• 2023

Age of Information (AoI) has been introduced in wireless networked control systems (WNCSs) to guarantee timely status updates. In addition, as the edge computing (EC) architecture has been deployed in NCS, EC close to sensors can be exploited to collect status updates from sensors and provide control decisions to actuators. However, when lots of sensors simultaneously deliver status updates, EC can be overloaded, which cannot satisfy the AoI requirement. To mitigate this problem, this paper uses actuators with computing capability that can directly receive the status updates from sensors and determine the control decision without the help of EC. To analyze the AoI of the actuation update via EC or directly using actuators, this paper developed an analytic model based on timing diagrams. Extensive simulation results are included to verify the analytic model and to show the AoI with various settings.

• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-57
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• 2022

Fertilizers have long been used to increase crop yields; however, farmers are still having difficulties in managing fertilizers for growing crops as well as economic problems. The conventional method of soil sampling and laboratory analysis to determine soil pH is time consuming and costly; therefore, a portable pH sensor is developed to characterize spatial or temporal variability within fields via rapid and dense data acquisition. The portable pH sensor comprises an electrode unit, a portable console, and a USB connector. The soil water content (SWC) and electrical conductivity (EC) affect the electrical resistance of soil. An artificial test soil is performed to evaluate the effect of SWC and EC on soil pH. The test results show that stable pH measurements are achieved at SWCs greater than 20 mL (16.3%). Regardless of the SWC, the electric potential difference (EPD) remains at 2.5 g of NaCl. As the EC increases in the soil samples, the EPD increases.

• The Journal of Korea Institute of Information, Electronics, and Communication Technology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.130-137
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• 2023

Smart farms, which have been receiving attention as a solution to recent rural problems, refer to technologies that optimize the growing environment of crops and increase the productivity and quality of crops through efficient management. If the relationships between environmental data in smart farms are analyzed, additional productivity enhancement and crop management will be possible. In this paper, we propose a method for acquiring and analyzing nine environmental data, including temperature, humidity, CO2, soil temperature, soil moisture, insolation, soil EC, EC, and pH. Data acquisition is done through RS-485 communication between the main board and the sensor board and stored in the database after acquisition. The stored data is downloaded in Excel sheet format and analyzed through histograms, data charts, and correlation heatmaps. First, we analyze the distribution of total, day, and night data through histogram analysis, and identifiy the average, median, minimum, and maximum values by month through data chart analysis separating day and night to see how the data changes by month. Finally, we analyze the correlation of the data through a correlation heatmap analysis separating day and night. The results show a very strong positive correlation between temperature and soil temperature and soil EC and EC during the day, and a very strong positive correlation between temperature and soil temperature and soil EC and EC at night, and a strong negative correlation between temperature and soil EC.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.412-417
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• 2023

There is increasing interest in the rapid and highly sensitive monitoring of cell viability in biological and toxicological research. Conventional methods depend on optical assays using Water Soluble Tetrazolium-8 (WST-8) or 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, which requires a large volume of samples and special instruments, necessitating shipment of clinical samples to laboratories. This paper reports on the development of a rapid and sensitive electrochemical (EC) sensor using screen printed electrode (SPE) and surface modification using 4'-mercapto-N-phenylquinone diamine (4'-NPQD), as double electron mediators, for monitoring cell viability via the measurement of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH). We used the sensor to observe the viability of MCF-7 and doxorubicin (Dox)-treated cells. The oxidation current of NADH was measured via chronoamperometry (CA), and the EC results showed a good linear relationship when compared with NADH quantification using WST-8 assay. The analysis time was only 10 s and limit of detection (LOD) of NADH was 1.78 µM. Our EC method has the potential to replace conventional WST assays for cell viability and cytotoxicity experiments.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.149-156
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• 2016

In this experiment, we proposed and implemented a disease forecasting system using a received signal strength indication ZigBee-based wireless network with a 3-axis acceleration sensor to detect illness at an early stage by monitoring movement of experimentally infected weaned piglets. Twenty seven piglets were divided into control, Salmonella enteritidis (SE) infection, and Escherichia coli (EC) infection group, and their movements were monitored for five days using wireless sensor nodes on their backs. Data generated showed the 3-axis movement of piglets (X-axis: left and right direction, Y-axis: anteroposterior direction, and Z-axis: up and down direction) at five different time periods. Piglets in both infected groups had lower weight gain and feed intake, as well as higher feed conversion ratios than the control group (p<0.05). Infection with SE and EC resulted in reduced body temperature of the piglets at day 2, 4, and 5 (p<0.05). The early morning X-axis movement did not differ between groups; however, the Y-axis movement was higher in the EC group (day 1 and 2), and the Z-axis movement was higher in the EC (day 1) and SE group (day 4) during different experimental periods (p<0.05). The morning X and Y-axis movement did not differ between treatment groups. However, the Z-axis movement was higher in both infected groups at day 1 and lower at day 4 compared to the control (p<0.05). The midday X-axis movement was significantly lower in both infected groups (day 4 and 5) compared to the control (p<0.05), whereas the Y-axis movement did not differ. The Z-axis movement was highest in the SE group at day 1 and 2 and lower at day 4 and 5 (p<0.05). Evening X-axis movement was highest in the control group throughout the experimental period. During day 1 and 2, the Z-axis movement was higher in both of the infected groups; whereas it was lower in the SE group during day 3 and 4 (p<0.05). During day 1 and 2, the night X-axis movement was lower and the Z-axis movement was higher in the infected piglets (p<0.05). Overall, the movement of infected piglets was altered, and the acceleration sensor could be successfully employed for monitoring pig activity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.39-40
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• 2006

AE sensor using lead-free ceramics should be developed for prohibiting environment protection. In this study, Langevin type AE sensor was manufactured as air backing structure. Here, the piezoelectic element was used as PZT(EC-65) and NKN, respectively. The resonant frequency of AE sensor using PZT was 143 kHz and the resonant frequency of AE sensor using NKN was 178 kHz. The waveform of AE sensor using NKN was responded more sensitively than that of AE sensor using PZT.

• Elastomers and Composites
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• v.58 no.4
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• pp.173-178
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• 2023

Recently, there has been a significant focus on the development of flexible and stretchable sensors, driven by advancements in electronic devices and the robotics industry. Among these sensors, tactile sensors stand out as the most actively researched, playing a crucial role in facilitating interaction between humans and electronic devices, particularly in robotics and medical applications. This study specifically involves the manufacturing of a capacitive tactile sensor using a relatively straightforward process and sensor structure. Natural rubber and Nitrile butadiene rubber, commonly employed in the rubber industry, were utilized. The dielectric material in the manufactured tactile sensor possesses a porous structure. Notably, the resulting tactile sensor demonstrated excellent sensitivity, approximately 1%/kPa, and exhibited the capability to detect pressures up to 212 kPa.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.524-528
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• 2016

Eddy current (EC) sensor works based on the electromagnetic induction principle and has been widely applied in the industrial testing and evaluation due to its robustness and environmental adaptability. Meanwhile, tilt angle measurement is mainly based on the laser or visual method, which is strict with the measurement environment and not suitable for the industrial applications. In this paper, a novel tilt angle measurement method based on arrayed EC sensors is proposed. Both the simulation and experiments indicate that the measured error is approximately linear with tilt angle and the accuracy after compensation is $0.25^{\circ}$. In conclusion, this research cannot only broaden the scope of EC application, but also overcome the shortcomings of existing angle measurement methods.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2019

The purpose of this study was to develop an environment field monitoring system to measure crop growth. The environment field monitoring system consisted of sensors, a data acquisition system, and GPS. The sensors used in the environment field monitoring system consisted of an ambient sensor, a soil sensor, and an intensity sensor. The temperature and humidity of the atmosphere were measured with the ambient sensor. The temperature, humidity, and EC of the soil were measured with the soil sensor. The data acquisition system was developed using the Arduino controller. The field monitoring data were collected before a rainy day, on a rainy day, and after the rainy day. The measured data using the environment field monitoring system were compared with the Daejeon regional meteorological office data. The correlation between the data from the environment field monitoring system and the data from the Daejeon regional meteorological office was analyzed for performance evaluation. The correlation of the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere was analyzed because the Daejeon regional meteorological office only provided data for the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere. The correlation coefficients were 0.86 and 0.90, respectively. The result showed a good correlation between the data from the environment field monitoring system and the data from the Daejeon regional meteorological office. Therefore, the developed system could be applied to monitoring the field environment of agricultural crops.