Controller for microfluidic large-scale integration.

Microfluidic devices with integrated valves provide precise, programmable fluid handling platforms for high-throughput biological or chemical assays. However, setting up the infrastructure to control such platforms often requires specific engineering expertise or expensive commercial solutions. To address these obstacles, we present a Kit for Arduino-based Transistor Array Actuation (KATARA), an open-source and low-cost Arduino-based controller that can drive 70 solenoid valves to pneumatically actuate integrated microfluidic valves. We include a python package with a GUI to control the KATARA from a personal computer. No programming experience is required

To transduce a zebra finch: interrogating behavioral mechanisms in a model system for speech.

The ability to alter neuronal gene expression, either to affect levels of endogenous molecules or to express exogenous ones, is a powerful tool for linking brain and behavior. Scientists continue to finesse genetic manipulation in mice. Yet mice do not exhibit every behavior of interest. For example, Mus musculus do not readily imitate sounds, a trait known as vocal learning and a feature of speech. In contrast, thousands of bird species exhibit this ability. The circuits and underlying molecular mechanisms appear similar between disparate avian orders and are shared with humans. An advantage of studying vocal learning birds is that the neurons dedicated to this trait are nested within the surrounding brain regions, providing anatomical targets for relating brain and behavior. In songbirds, these nuclei are known as the song control system. Molecular function can be interrogated in non-traditional model organisms by exploiting the ability of viruses to insert genetic material into neurons to drive expression of experimenter-defined genes. To date, the use of viruses in the song control system is limited. Here, we review prior successes and test additional viruses for their capacity to transduce basal ganglia song control neurons. These findings provide a roadmap for troubleshooting the use of viruses in animal champions of fascinating behaviors-nowhere better featured than at the 12th International Congress

Theoretical Estimates of Intrinsic Galaxy Alignment

It has recently been argued that the observed ellipticities of galaxies may be determined at least in part by the primordial tidal gravitational field in which the galaxy formed. Long-range correlations in the tidal field could thus lead to an ellipticity-ellipticity correlation for widely separated galaxies. We present a new model relating ellipticity to angular momentum, which can be calculated in linear theory. We use this model to calculate the angular power spectrum of intrinsic galaxy shape correlations. We show that for low redshift galaxy surveys, our model predicts that intrinsic correlations will dominate correlations induced by weak lensing, in good agreement with previous theoretical work and observations. We find that our model produces `E-mode' correlations enhanced by a factor of 3.5 over B-modes on small scales, making it harder to disentangle intrinsic correlations from those induced by weak gravitational lensing.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, MNRAS in press. Error corrected in lensing calculation; revised versio

Pseudopolymorphism in Brucine: Brucine-Water (1/2), The Third Crystal Hydrate of Brucine

The structure of the third pseudopolymorphic hydrate of brucine, brucine-water (1/2) [systematic name 2,3-dimethoxystrychnidin-10-one-water (1/2)], C23H26N2O4 . 2H2O, has been determined at 130 K. The asymmetric unit comprises two independent brucine molecules and four water molecules of solvation. The four water molecules form uncommon cyclic hydrogen-bonded homomolecular R2/2(8) tetramer rings, which then form primary hydrogen-bonded chain substructures, extending down the 21 screw axis in the unit cell. The two brucine molecules are linked peripherally to these substructures by either single O-H...O(brucine) or O-H...N(brucine) hydrogen bonds

The Bernstein Memorial Lecture: The First Six Years

CICLOPs, the Center for International & Comparative Law Occasional Papers, could not be launched with a better issue than one dedicated to Duke Law\u27s named lecture series in the field, the Annual Herbert L. Bernstein Memorial Lecture in Comparative Law. Herbert Bernstein was Duke\u27s much-beloved professor of comparative law. The lecture series, established in Prof. Bernstein’s honor after his sudden death in 2001, has drawn leading scholars from all around the world to speak at Duke Law School on comparative law. This first issue of CICLOPs contains the text of the first six lectures, some of them previously published in hard-to-access venues and some not at all. As such, it serves as a tribute not only to Herbert Bernstein, but also to Duke Law\u27s vibrant and active comparative law community, which encompasses both numerous faculty members and also students pursuing Duke\u27s JD/LLM degree in international and comparative law as well as other student groups. The issue contains all lectures in the order in which they were delivered