Biological Particle Control and Separation using Active Forces in Microfluidic Environments

Exploration of active manipulation of bioparticles has been impacted by the development of micro-/nanofluidic technologies, enabling evident observation of particle responses by means of applied tunable external force field, namely, dielectrophoresis (DEP), magnetophoresis (MAG), acoustophoresis (ACT), thermophoresis (THM), and optical tweezing or trapping (OPT). In this chapter, each mechanism is presented in brief yet concise, for broad range of readers, as strong foundation for amateur as well as brainstorming source for experts. The discussion covers the fundamental mechanism that underlying the phenomenon, presenting the theoretical and schematic description; how the response being tuned; and utmost practical, the understanding by specific implementation into bioparticles manipulation engaging from micron-sized material down to molecular level particles

Приклади завдань для позакласної роботи з інформатики у початковій школі

У статті коротко описана методика проведення позакласної роботи з інформатики у початковій школі

Performance of OFDM in the Variation of the Branch Lengths in Power Line Communications

Power line communication provides an attractive alternative to traditional networks both to the user and the public utilities companies as it offers broadband internet access, telephone service, cable television and home automation all of them collectively known as in-home services using the existing power delivery network. However, problems affecting power line communication transmission such as multipath noise, interference, frequency selective fading due to multipath, attenuation delays, and the presence of echoes, impulsive and coloured noise create the need to employ a suitable modulation scheme such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to counter its adverse effects on signal transmission. This paper analyzes the effects of variation of the branch lengths in the multipath in terms of bit error rate (BER)

Performance of OFDM in the variation of the path quantity in power line communications

Power line communication is an attractive alternative to traditional networks due to its ability to offer broadband internet access, telephone service, cable television and home automation. These are collectively known as in-home services using the existing power delivery network. However, the problems affecting power line communication transmission (e.g. multipath noise, interference, frequency selective fading due to multipath, attenuation delays, presence of echoes, impulsive and coloured noise) create the needs to employ a suitable modulation scheme such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to counter its adverse effects on signal transmission. This paper analyzes the effects of variation of the path quantity in the multipath in terms of bit error rate (BER). From the results, it is shown that in terms of bit error rate (BER), we notice that at 8dB, OFDM shows a better performance with reduced BER while the single carrier modulation counterpart exhibits a slow improvement in BER

Optimization of vehicle actuation and multiplan algorithms for urban traffic control systems

—The exponential growth of vehicular volume causes inevitable traffic congestions particularly in urban road networks. Road expansion to accommodate such situations can be very difficult especially when demolishing adjacent residential and commercial buildings is not possible. Effective traffic control systems are pivotal in ensuring progressive throughput of traffic by controlling the volume and sequence of vehicles traveling through intersections and avoiding motional conflicts. Relying on conventional fixed time plan systems deteriorates level of service and increases congestion due to adaptability deprivation to put up with random and continuous variation of traffic flows. The system can be too rigid, lacks the intelligence, not real-time adaptable and does not possess tunable decision-making capabilities. In this work, novel algorithms which transform simple vehicle actuation and multiplan algorithms into highly adaptable, flexible and intelligent systems are presented. These optimizations exhibit continuous learning of the flow variation using vehicle sensing data, making traffic control systems more resilient to random traffic patterns and potential sensor failures. Result when Auto-Revised VA Maximum Time plan in place is presented and discussed. It has shown an improvement in overall of 11.5% in green time allocation at an intersection while ensuring total waiting time is within the limits, thus increasing the efficiency of traffic flow offering road users potential travel time reductio

The impact of monitoring and business assistance intensity on Malaysian ICT incubatees’ performance

Business incubation has been known in the literature as an economic development tool. Around the world, and in the developing countries particularly, business incubation is deployed to stimulate the growth of small-to-medium sized enterprises or SMEs, which are the lifeblood for many countries. Malaysia’s business incubation system has been established since the 1980s and in line with the country’s aspirations to become a developed nation by year 2020, much has been done by the government to catalyse the growth of SMEs, particularly, ICT SMEs. Despite establishing numerous ICT incubators over the two decades, the process involved in assisting new entrepreneurs in the incubators remains fragmented. This paper examines a component critical to the business incubation process: monitoring and business assistance intensity and its impact on the performance of incubates. Quantitative method was deployed with a total of 118 incubatees from ICT incubators in Malaysia responding to an online survey questionnaire. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that monitoring and business assistance intensity is statistically significant in predicting incubatee performance. The findings will provide valuable information for entrepreneurs, business incubator managers, and policy-makers on best practices of incubation management and benchmarking towards fourth-generation incubators. This paper fills the gap in the current incubation literature, contributing in several aspects including empirical data, methodology, and noteworthy findings regarding the Malaysian incubation phenomenon

The impact of monitoring and business assistance intensity on Malaysian ICT incubatees’ performance

Business incubation has been known in the literature as an economic development tool. Around the world, and in the developing countries particularly, business incubation is deployed to stimulate the growth of small-to-medium sized enterprises or SMEs, which are the lifeblood for many countries. Malaysia’s business incubation system has been established since the 1980s and in line with the country’s aspirations to become a developed nation by year 2020, much has been done by the government to catalyse the growth of SMEs, particularly, ICT SMEs. Despite establishing numerous ICT incubators over the two decades, the process involved in assisting new entrepreneurs in the incubators remains fragmented. This paper examines a component critical to the business incubation process: monitoring and business assistance intensity and its impact on the performance of incubates. Quantitative method was deployed with a total of 118 incubatees from ICT incubators in Malaysia responding to an online survey questionnaire. Multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that monitoring and business assistance intensity is statistically significant in predicting incubatee performance. The findings will provide valuable information for entrepreneurs, business incubator managers, and policy-makers on best practices of incubation management and benchmarking towards fourth-generation incubators. This paper fills the gap in the current incubation literature, contributing in several aspects including empirical data, methodology, and noteworthy findings regarding the Malaysian incubation phenomenon

Dielectrophoresis Manipulation: Versatile Lateral and Vertical Mechanisms

Discussing the topic of the capability of dielectrophoresis (DEP) devices in terms of the selective detection and rapid manipulation of particles based on the DEP force (FDEP) via contactless methods is challenging in medical research, drug discovery and delivery. Nonetheless, the process of the selective detection and rapid manipulation of particles via contactless DEP based on dielectric particles and the surrounding medium can reduce the effects of major issues, including physical contact with the particles and medium contamination to overcome operational difficulties. In this review, DEP microelectromechanical system (MEMS) microelectrodes with a tapered profile for the selective detection and rapid manipulation of particles were studied and compared with those of conventional designs with a straight-cut profile. The main objective of this manuscript is to review the versatile mechanism of tapered DEP MEMS microelectrodes for the purpose of selective detection and rapid manipulation. Thus, this review provides a versatile filtration mechanism with the potential for a glomerular-based membrane in an artificial kidneys’ development solution for implementing engineered particles and cells by lateral attraction as well as vertical repulsion in the development of lab-on-a-chip applications. For tapered DEP MEMS microelectrodes, the scope of this study methodology involved the characterisation of DEP, modelling of the polarisation factor and the dynamic dielectric changes between the particles and medium. Comprehensive discussions are presented on the capability of tapered DEP microelectrodes to drive the selected particles and the simulation, fabrication and testing of the tapered profile. This study revealed an outstanding performance with the capability of producing two regions of high electric field intensity at the bottom and top edges of the side wall of tapered microelectrodes. Observations on particle separation mainly by the lateral attraction force of particles with positive DEP on the y-axis and vertical repulsion force of particles with negative DEP on the z-axis proved an efficient and uniform FDEP produced by tapered electrodes. In conclusion, this study confirmed the reliability and efficiency of the tapered DEP microelectrodes in the process of selective detection and rapid manipulation at a higher efficiency rate than straight-cut microelectrodes, which is significant in DEP technology applications

Exposure of MDA-MB-231 Cells to Dielectrophoretic Fields for Electroporation and Cancer Diagnostics

This paper presents the experimental analysis of exposing breast cancer cells (MDA-MB-231) to dielectrophoretic (DEP) fields on a curved microelectrode platform. The platform was composed of arrays of curved microelectrodes which were patterned onto a glass slide and samples containing MDA-MB-231 cells were pipetted onto the surface of the platform. The MDA-MB-231 cells were suspended in DMEM media to assess the cells behaviour and effects when exposed to DEP fields in different concentrations of DMEM media. Finite element method was utilised to characterise the electric field gradient and DEP field and numerical simulations were used to determine DEP response of the cells. We performed experimental work to observe DEP effects and confirmed the DEP responses obtained from the simulations

Lab-on-a-chip Dielectrophoretic Manipulation of Beta-2 microglobulin for Toxin Removal in An Artificial Kidney

Background: This paper presents a fundamental study of protein manipulation under the influence of dielectrophoretic (DEP) force for a lab-on-a-chip platform. Objective: Protein manipulation is dependent on the polarisation factor of protein when exposed to an electric field. Therefore the objective of this work is a microfluidic device and measurement system are used to characterise the human beta-2 microglobulin (β2M) protein via lateral attractive forces and vertical repulsive forces by means of DEP responses. Method: The manipulation of the β2M protein was conducted using a microfluidic platform with a tapered DEP microelectrode and the protein concentration was quantified based on a biochemical interaction using an Enzyme-Linked Immunosolvent Assay (ELISA). The protein distribution has been analysed based on the β2M concentration for each microfluidic outlet. Results: At 300 kHz, the protein experienced a negative DEP (nDEP) with of 83.3% protein distribution on the middle microchannel. In contrast, the protein experienced a positive DEP (pDEP) at 1.2 MHz with of 78.7% of protein on the left and right sides of the microchannel. Conclusion: This is concept proved that the tapered DEP microelectrode is capable of manipulating a β2M via particle polarisation, hence making it suitable to be utilised for purifying proteins in biomedical application