Odor Discrimination by Similarity Measures of Abstract Odor Factor Maps from Electronic Noses.

The aim of this study is to improve the discrimination performance of electronic noses by introducing a new method for measuring the similarity of the signals obtained from the electronic nose. We constructed abstract odor factor maps (AOFMs) as the characteristic maps of odor samples by decomposition of three-way signal data array of an electronic nose. A similarity measure for two-way data was introduced to evaluate the similarities and differences of AOFMs from different samples.

Characterization of particle size distribution of mainstream cigarette smoke generated by smoking machine with an electrical low pressure impactor.

Cigarette smoking is a particle-related exposure. Studying the characteristics of the particle size distribution of cigarette smoke can aid in providing knowledge of smoke aerosol attributes. We used an electrical low pressure impactor (ELPI) to measure the particle size distribution of mainstream cigarette smoke generated by a smoking machine and provided a continuum of particle sizes of cigarette smoke from a whole cigarette.

Resolving batch chromatographic overlapping peaks of flavoring essence using stepwise key spectrum selection.

Stepwise key spectrum selection (SKSS) was introduced to resolve batch overlapping peaks from gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis of ten batch tobacco flavoring samples in different storage times. Resolution was implemented on a software platform that embedded the SKSS method. The data from GC-MS analysis of the samples were saved and prepared in ASCII files and then were inputted into the software platform for visual inspections.