Characteristics of the Chiba environmental challenge chamber.

Background: An environmental challenge chamber (ECC), which we refer to as the α-chamber, was built at Chiba University in 2008. The aim of this study was to validate the functionality of the ECC.

Methods: The stability of the pollen distribution and concentration in the ECC and symptoms of patients with Japanese cedar pollinosis induced by cedar pollen exposure were examined.

Side-by-side comparison of automatic pollen counters for use in pollen information systems.

Background: Recent effort to build an unmanned pollen monitoring network in Japan has led to new developments in automatic pollen counters. In-the-field performance tests of these automatic counters have not been reported.

Objective: To characterize recently developed automatic pollen counters, with a view of using their data in pollen information systems.

Application of revised version of neural independent component analysis to classification problems of confiscated methamphetamine.

Recently, profiling the chemical substances in illegally distributed drugs has been needed in order to reveal the drug channels. However, this kind of profiling is often difficult because such drugs contain various kinds of impurities and the quantity of these impurities changes. Due to these circumstances, several methods, including a slightly revised ICA (Independent Component Analysis) by a Hebbian learning artificial neural network, were applied for profiling illegally distributed methamphetamine.