3D Printing of Inertial Microfluidic Devices.

Inertial microfluidics has been broadly investigated, resulting in the development of various applications, mainly for particle or cell separation. Lateral migrations of these particles within a microchannel strictly depend on the channel design and its cross-section. Nonetheless, the fabrication of these microchannels is a continuous challenging issue for the microfluidic community, where the most studied channel cross-sections are limited to only rectangular and more recently trapezoidal microchannels. As a result, a huge amount of potential remains intact for other geometries with cross-sections difficult to fabricate with standard microfabrication techniques. In this study, by leveraging on benefits of additive manufacturing, we have proposed a new method for the fabrication of inertial microfluidic devices. In our proposed workflow, parts are first printed via a high-resolution DLP/SLA 3D printer and then bonded to a transparent PMMA sheet using a double-coated pressure-sensitive adhesive tape. Using this method, we have fabricated and tested a plethora of existing inertial microfluidic devices, whether in a single or multiplexed manner, such as straight, spiral, serpentine, curvilinear, and contraction-expansion arrays. Our characterizations using both particles and cells revealed that the produced chips could withstand a pressure up to 150 psi with minimum interference of the tape to the total functionality of the device and viability of cells. As a showcase of the versatility of our method, we have proposed a new spiral microchannel with right-angled triangular cross-section which is technically impossible to fabricate using the standard lithography. We are of the opinion that the method proposed in this study will open the door for more complex geometries with the bespoke passive internal flow. Furthermore, the proposed fabrication workflow can be adopted at the production level, enabling large-scale manufacturing of inertial microfluidic devices

How To Quantify the Efficiency Potential of Neat Perovskite Films: Perovskite Semiconductors with an Implied Efficiency Exceeding 28.

Perovskite photovoltaic (PV) cells have demonstrated power conversion efficiencies (PCE) that are close to those of monocrystalline silicon cells; however, in contrast to silicon PV, perovskites are not limited by Auger recombination under 1-sun illumination. Nevertheless, compared to GaAs and monocrystalline silicon PV, perovskite cells have significantly lower fill factors due to a combination of resistive and non-radiative recombination losses. This necessitates a deeper understanding of the underlying loss mechanisms and in particular the ideality factor of the cell. By measuring the intensity dependence of the external open-circuit voltage and the internal quasi-Fermi level splitting (QFLS), the transport resistance-free efficiency of the complete cell as well as the efficiency potential of any neat perovskite film with or without attached transport layers are quantified. Moreover, intensity-dependent QFLS measurements on different perovskite compositions allows for disentangling of the impact of the interfaces and the perovskite surface on the non-radiative fill factor and open-circuit voltage loss. It is found that potassium-passivated triple cation perovskite films stand out by their exceptionally high implied PCEs > 28%, which could be achieved with ideal transport layers. Finally, strategies are presented to reduce both the ideality factor and transport losses to push the efficiency to the thermodynamic limit

Fractal analysis of the surface of indium–tin-oxide

In this study, indium-tin-oxide thin films in different thickness ranges were prepared by electron beam evaporation method on the glass substrate at room temperature. The thicknesses of films were 100, 150 and 250nm. Using fractal analysis, morphological characteristics of surface films thickness in amorphous state were investigated. The results showed that by increasing thickness, surface roughness (RMS) and lateral correlation length ( x ) were decreased. Also, the roughness exponent a and growth exponent b were determined to be 0.72 ± 0.01 and 0.11, respectively. Based on these results, we understand that the growth films can be described by the combination of the Edwards-Wilkinson equation and Mullins diffusion equation

Lutein and lutein esters in wheat during grain development and post-harvest storage

I R Soriano, H Y Law, N Raoufi-Rad and D J Mareshttp://meeting.aaccnet.org/cerealchem08/default.ht

Template-assisted extrusion of biopolymer nanofibers under physiological conditions

Biomedical applications ranging from tissue engineering to drug delivery systems require versatile biomaterials based on the scalable and tunable production of biopolymer nanofibers under physiological conditions. These requirements can be successfully met by a novel extrusion process through nanoporous aluminum oxide templates, which is presented in this study. With this simple method we are able to control the nanofiber diameter by chosing the size of the nanopores and the concentration of the biopolymer feed solution. Nanofiber assembly into different hierarchical fiber arrangements can be achieved with a wide variety of different proteins ranging from the intracellular proteins actin, α-actinin and myosin to the extracellular matrix components collagen, fibronectin, fibrinogen, elastin and laminin. The extrusion of nanofibers can even be applied to the polysaccharides hyaluronan, chitosan and chondroitin sulphate. Moreover, blends of different proteins or proteins and polysaccharides can be extruded into composite nanofibers. With these features our template-assisted extrusion process will lead to new avenues in the development of nanofibrous biomaterials

Nanopore Diameters Tune Strain in Extruded Fibronectin Fibers

Fibronectin is present in the extracellular matrix and can be assembled into nanofibers in vivo by undergoing conformational changes. Here, we present a novel approach to prepare fibronectin nanofibers under physiological conditions using an extrusion approach through nanoporous aluminum oxide membranes. This one-step process can prepare nanofiber bundles up to a millimeter in length and with uniform fiber diameters in the nanometer range. Most importantly, by using different pore diameters and protein concentrations in the extrusion process, we could induce varying lasting structural changes in the fibers, which were monitored by Förster resonance energy transfer and should impose different physiological functions

Status of alfalfa witches’ broom phytoplasma disease in Iran

Alfalfa witches’ broom (AWB) is one of the most important and destructive diseases of alfalfa in Iran. Based on characteristic disease symptoms and direct and nested polymerase chain reactions, the status of AWB disease was evaluated in different growing areas of Iran. Restriction fragment length polymorphism was used to identify AWB disease associated phytoplasmas. Furthermore, infection rate, disease severity, death rate of infected plant in the summer and winter and overwintering of disease vector were assessed. Based on the results, AWB disease was reported on different alfalfa cultivars in Yazd, Fars, Sistan-Va-Baluchestan, Kerman, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Esfahan, Chaharmahal-Va-Bakthiari, South Khorasan and Khuzestan provinces of Iran. Phytoplasmas associated with AWB in these areas were identified as ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma aurantifolia’, belonging to peanut witches’ broom (16SrII) group. In Abarkooh and Ashkezar (Yazd province) and Bondarooz (Bushehr province) the recorded disease incidence was up to 100%. The highest disease severity was found in Rezvan Shahr (Ashkezar, Yazd province) in 3 years old alfalfa fields. The highest death rate of infected plants in summer and winter were recorded as 26% and 13% in Ashkezar and Abarkooh in Yazd province, respectively. Different nymph stages of the insect vector, Orosius albicinctus, were identified on tamarisk (Tamarix aphylla) and saxaul (Haloxylon persicum and H. aphyllum) in the winter. The highest population ofO. albicinctus, observed on tamarisk plants adjacent to the infected alfalfa fields in Milleshbar (Ardakan, Yazd province), suggested this as a possible source of natural spread of AWB