MEMS On/off and x2 Optical Switch with Integrated Fiber Alignment Capability

An on/off free space optical switch is described in this paper. The device consists of intersecting cantilevers and is electrostatically actuated. A fiber is put onto the cantilevers and by controlling the position of the flber through actuation, switching operation can be achieved. The device is also suitable for inpackage fiber alignment application, where the cantilevers can be used as passive or active fiber alignment microstructure

The properties of slag-silica fume ternary blended mortar with quarry dust

High carbon emissions of manufactured Portland cement in the concrete industry have incurred several interests in reducing the use of Portland cement by partially replacing it with supplementary cementitious materials. Most of which, are by-products from other manufacturing industries. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of different combinations of ternary blended mortars incorporating supplementary cementitious materials such as Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) and Densified Silica Fume (DSF). In this study, mortars were prepared with 100% quarry dust and GGBS was replaced with DSF at 2% step increments up to 16% at a w/b ratio of 0.24. At the same time OPC content was fixed at 50%. The compressive and flexural strength, drying shrinkage, and porosity of mortars were all tested. The results indicated that the increasing DSF content increases; GGBS reduces the superplasticizer dosage for the desired workability of the mortar. The utilization GGBS and DSF has improved the performances ternary blended mortar incorporating quarry dust as a fine aggregate in terms of mechanical strength, drying shrinkage and total porosity tested. The high strength ternary blended mortar incorporating GGBS and DSF exhibited optimum mechanical and durability performance at the OPC:GGBS:DSF ratio of 50:38:12

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Protective Effect of Ergothioneine against 7-Ketocholesterol-Induced Mitochondrial Damage in hCMEC/D3 Human Brain Endothelial Cells

10.3390/ijms24065498INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR SCIENCES24