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The Technical Committee on Biological and Medical Measurements (TC-25) aims at establishing, developing, promoting and supporting cooperation among researchers in the different fields of biological and medical measurements. Sensors for the measurement of clinical and/ or biological parameters, instrument and procedure characterization, instrument interoperability and interconnection, and data processing are some of the topics of interest to the TC-25. To those aims, the technical committee designs and realizes joint activities, like study groups aimed at standardization, such as the Subcommittee on Blood Pressure Measurement (SCOBPM); conferences or special sessions, such as the IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications (MeMeA); and several special sessions during the annual IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technical Conferences. TC-25 is also continuously engaged to maintain liaisons with other committees, groups, societies and organizations working on topics related to the TC scope. This paper presents the latest updates about the main activities of the TC-25. Some information about the TC-25 activities and targets is briefly presented, then the objectives and the efforts of the SCOBPM are summarized, and finally, the history and latest updates of our main conference, the MeMeA Symposium, are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a portable low-cost device for performing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements, which is based on an off-the-shelf TeensyDuino. The instrument does not make use of other components, such as operational amplifiers, so it can be readily set up by anyone having a Teensy device and some resistors. Teensy 3.2, Teensy 3.5, and Teensy 3.6 can be used to realize the EIS system. The instrument can measure the impedance in the frequency range from 0.01 to 50 000 Hz, and by selecting the shunt resistor, it can be adapted to different impedance values. No special instrumentation is required for the system calibration. The proposed system uncertainty is less than 5% for an impedance of up to $50 {~\mathrm {k\Omega }}$ , a value which is lower than the usual intrinsic uncertainty of most corrosion experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a simple though extremely effective sensor for acetone monitoring in the breath. The sensor is capable of monitoring the presence of acetone at parts per million (ppm) concentrations, thus being suitable for a diabetes diagnosis. It has a dimension of $3 {\,\,\mathrm {mm}} \times 6 {\,\,\mathrm {mm}}$ and a cost of less than one dollar. The small dimensions allow one to greatly limit the power required to increase its temperature, and its high selectivity with respect to other gases present in the breath reduces the risk of false-positive responses. The sensor is based on a thin alumina substrate on which platinum strips are deposited on both faces. A thin Nb2O5 layer with a nanometric thickness provides the required sensitivity and selectivity. Sensor prototypes have been characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and proved an inherent linear response up to a few ppm of acetone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 15th edition of the IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications was held from June 1, 2020, to July 1, 2020. The symposium, whose first edition was held at Benevento, Italy, in 2006, has by now become an annual meeting for researchers from academia and industry, working in the field of medical measurements and instrumentation. The symposium offers them the opportunity to work together toward the development of feasible and effective solutions for data processing, medical diagnosis, and patient healthcare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atmospheric particulate matter is considered one of the most dangerous pollutants because of its effects on the climate and human health. Particulate concentration changes largely with spatial position and time, and thus, a distributed real-time monitoring would be mandatory, especially in densely populated areas. The proposed optical sampling system has a negligible cost with respect to the already available instruments and can be used for deploying a capillary particulate monitoring network thanks to its wireless capability based on the LoRa protocol. The proposed solution employs an optical method for the atmospheric particulate detection and the estimation of its concentration and size distribution. The air is sampled by a small pump which forces a known flux through a commercial glass-fiber filter, where the particulate is captured. A low-cost digital camera coupled with a multi-wavelength lighting system takes periodical photographs of the filter surface, and a small PC-on-single-board processes the acquired images in order to identify the particles and to estimate their size. The system can work unattended for a long time and transmit remotely measurement data with a typical range of few kilometers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Materials corrosion in the presence of bacteria [microbiologically influenced corrosion, (MIC)] is an important issue for components deployed in industrial applications and marine environments, where unexpected and fast degradation is often observed. For these reasons, finding new testing methodologies to assess the behavior of different materials in these conditions is a topic of clear interest. This paper describes a new approach based on the use of microbial fuel cells, which are exploited to have known and controlled conditions during the test. The sample is immersed in an environment where the presence and activity of electroactive bacteria are easily monitored measuring the currents flowing between the electrodes of the cell. Then, after connecting the sample of the material under study, reactions occurring on its surface can be monitored and its corrosion resistance can be assessed. This novel methodology is simple, easy to deploy, and can be proposed to assess microbial corrosion resistance of metals and alloys, monitoring, at the same time, the biofilm grown on the metals surface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Technical Committee on Biological and Medical Measurements (TC-25) aims at establishing, developing, promoting and supporting the cooperation among researchers in the different fields of biological and medical measurements. Sensors for the measurement of clinical and/or biological parameters, instrument and procedure characterization, instrument interoperability and interconnection, and data processing are some of the topics of interest to the TC-25. To those aims, the technical committee designs and realizes joint activities, like study groups aimed at standardization, such as the Subcommittee on Blood Pressure Measurement (SCOBPM), conferences or special sessions, such as the IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications, and several special sessions during the annual IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technical Conferences. The TC-25 is also continuously engaged to maintain liaisons with other committees, groups, societies and organizations working on topics related to the TC's scope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]