Lamination And Microstructuring Technology for a Bio-Cell Multiwell array

Microtechnology becomes a versatile tool for biological and biomedical applications. Microwells have been established long but remained non-intelligent up to now. Merging new fabrication techniques and handling concepts with microelectronics enables to realize intelligent microwells suitable for future improved cancer treatment. The described technology depicts the basis for the fabrication of a elecronically enhanced microwell. Thin aluminium sheets are structured by laser micro machining and laminated successively to obtain registration tolerances of the respective layers of 5..10\^A$\mu$m. The microwells lasermachined into the laminate are with 50..80\^A$\mu$m diameter, allowing to hold individual cells within the well. The individual process steps are described and results on the microstructuring are given.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/EDA-Publishing

Impact on Prehospital Delay of a Stroke Preparedness Campaign: A SW-RCT (Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial)

Background and Purpose—Public campaigns to increase stroke preparedness have been tested in different contexts, showing contradictory results. We evaluated the effectiveness of a stroke campaign, designed specifically for the Italian population in reducing prehospital delay. Methods—According to an SW-RCT (Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial) design, the campaign was launched in 4 provinces in the northern part of the region Emilia Romagna at 3-month intervals in randomized sequence. The units of analysis were the patients admitted to hospital, with stroke and transient ischemic attack, over a time period of 15 months, beginning 3 months before the intervention was launched in the first province to allow for baseline data collection. The proportion of early arrivals (within 2 hours of symptom onset) was the primary outcome. Thrombolysis rate and some behavioral end points were the secondary outcomes. Data were analyzed using a fixed-effect model, adjusting for cluster and time trends. Results—We enrolled 1622 patients, 912 exposed and 710 nonexposed to the campaign. The proportion of early access was nonsignificantly lower in exposed patients (354 [38.8%] versus 315 [44.4%]; adjusted odds ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval, 0.60–1.08; P=0.15). As for secondary end points, an increase was found for stroke recognition, which approximated but did not reach statistical significance (P=0.07). Conclusions—Our campaign was not effective in reducing prehospital delay. Even if some limitations of the intervention, mainly in terms of duration, are taken into account, our study demonstrates that new communication strategies should be tested before large-scale implementation. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01881152

Modified Pati–Salam model from Z7 orbifolded AdS/CFT

AbstractWe consider models built on AdS5⊗S5/Γ orbifold compactifications of the type IIB superstring, where Γ is the Abelian group Zn. An attractive three family N=0 SUSY model is found for n=7 that is a modified Pati–Salam model which unifies at about 5 TeV and reduced to the Standard Model after symmetry breaking

An Integrated Electronic Meniscus Sensor for Measurement of Evaporative Flow

This paper presents an electronic sensor for evaporative flow measurements in open microfluidics Lab-on-Chips. It is based on a novel PCB technology especially developed for biomedical devices. The proposed technique takes advantage of the correlations between the height of the meniscus and the evaporation rate, which in turn allows to calculate the flow speed inside the channel, and that of the impedance between two electrodes on the top of a microwell with the meniscus height. The sensor can be integrated in devices composed of large arrays of microfluidic channels. Experimental measurements show that the device is sensible for flow speeds ranging from 0.4 to 0.8 µm/s at room temperature and atmospheric relative humidity