Effect of Guizhifulingwan (Keishibukuryogan) on climacteric syndrome: study protocol for a randomized controlled pilot trial

SPIRIT 2013 checklist. (DOCX 51 kb

Simulation and Experimental Study of Ion Concentration Polarization Induced Electroconvective Vortex and Particle Movement

Ion concentration polarization (ICP) has been widely applied in microfluidic systems in pre-concentration, particle separation, and desalination applications. General ICP microfluidic systems have three components (i.e., source, ion-exchange, and buffer), which allow selective ion transport. Recently developed trials to eliminate one of the three components to simplify the system have suffered from decreased performance by the accumulation of unwanted ions. In this paper, we presented a new ICP microfluidic system with only an ion-exchange membrane-coated channel. Numerical investigation on hydrodynamic flow and electric fields with a series of coupled governing equations enabled a strong correlation to experimental investigations on electroconvective vortices and the trajectory of charged particles. This study has significant implications for the development and optimization of ICP microfluidic and electrochemical systems for biomarker concentration and separation to improve sensing reliability and detection limits in analytic chemistry

Engineering a deformation-free plastic spiral inertial microfluidic system for CHO cell clarification in biomanufacturing

A deformation-free and mass-producible plastic spiral inertial microfluidic device was developed, which provides continuous, clogging-free, and industry-level-throughput cell manipulation

Transmission Scheduling Schemes of Industrial Wireless Sensors for Heterogeneous Multiple Control Systems

The transmission scheduling scheme of wireless networks for industrial control systems is a crucial design component since it directly affects the stability of networked control systems. In this paper, we propose a novel transmission scheduling framework to guarantee the stability of heterogeneous multiple control systems over unreliable wireless channels. Based on the explicit control stability conditions, a constrained optimization problem is proposed to maximize the minimum slack of the stability constraint for the heterogeneous control systems. We propose three transmission scheduling schemes, namely centralized stationary random access, distributed random access, and Lyapunov-based scheduling scheme, to solve the constrained optimization problem with a low computation cost. The three proposed transmission scheduling schemes were evaluated on heterogeneous multiple control systems with different link conditions. One interesting finding is that the proposed centralized Lyapunov-based approach provides almost ideal performance in the context of control stability. Furthermore, the distributed random access is still useful for the small number of links since it also reduces the operational overhead without significantly sacrificing the control performance

Robust Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks for Networked Control Systems

The stability guarantee of wireless networked control systems is still challenging due to the complex interaction among the layers and the vulnerability to network faults, such as link and node failures. In this paper, we propose a robust wireless sensor and actuator network (R-WSAN) to maintain the control stability of multiple plants over the spatial-temporal changes of wireless networks. The proposed joint design protocol combines the distributed controller of control systems and the clustering, resource scheduling, and control task sharing scheme of wireless networks over a hierarchical cluster-based network. In particular, R-WSAN decouples the tasks from the inherently unreliable nodes and allows control tasks to share between nodes of wireless networks. Our simulations demonstrate that R-WSAN provides the enhanced resilience to the network faults for sensing and actuation without significantly disrupting the control performance

Integration of an Aptamer-Based Signal-On Probe and a Paper-Based Origami Preconcentrator for Small Molecule Biomarkers Detection

Point-of-care testing using paper-based lateral flow assays (LFAs) has emerged as an attractive diagnostic platform. However, detecting small molecules such as cortisol using LFAs is challenging due to limited binding sites and weak signal generation. Here, we report the development of cortisol-specific aptamer-based probes and a paper-based origami preconcentrator (POP) to amplify the probe signal. The cortisol-specific aptamers were conjugated onto gold nanoparticles and hybridized with signal probes to create the cortisol-specific signal-on probe. POP, consisting of patterned layers with convergent wicking zones, induces electrokinetic preconcentration of the released signaling probes. By integrating cortisol-selective aptamer-based probes and POP, we accurately diagnosed cortisol levels within 30 min of signal probe incubation, followed by 10 min of preconcentration. Our sensor was able to detect cortisol levels in the range of 25–1000 ng/mL, with typical cortisol levels in plasma ranging from 40 to 250 ng/mL falling within this range. The successful detection of the wide range of cortisol samples using this approach highlights the potential of this platform as a point-of-care testing tool, particularly for lateral flow assay-based detection of small molecules like cortisol. Our approach offers a convenient and reliable method of cortisol level testing with a portable and accessible diagnosis device

Nano-Interstice Driven Powerless Blood Plasma Extraction in a Membrane Filter Integrated Microfluidic Device

Blood plasma is a source of biomarkers in blood and a simple, fast, and easy extraction method is highly required for point-of-care testing (POCT) applications. This paper proposes a membrane filter integrated microfluidic device to extract blood plasma from whole blood, without any external instrumentation. A commercially available membrane filter was integrated with a newly designed dual-cover microfluidic device to avoid leakage of the extracted plasma and remaining blood cells. Nano-interstices installed on both sides of the microfluidic channels actively draw the extracted plasma from the membrane. The developed device successfully supplied 20 μL of extracted plasma with a high extraction yield (~45%) in 16 min

On-Chip Lipid Extraction Using Superabsorbent Polymers for Mass Spectrometry

Pretreatment of samples is one of the most important steps in analytical methods for efficient and accurate results. Typically, an extraction method used for lipid analysis with mass spectrometry is accompanied by complex liquid–liquid extraction. We have devised a simple, rapid, and efficient lipid extraction method using superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) and developed a high-throughput lipid extraction platform based on a microfluidic system. Since SAPs can rapidly absorb an aqueous solution from a raw sample and convert it into the gel, the lipid extraction process can be remarkably simplified. The hydrophobic lipid components were captured into the fibrous SAP gel and then solubilized and eluted directly into the organic solvent without significant interference by this polymer. The small-scale lipid extraction process minimizes the liquid handling and unnecessary centrifugation steps, thereby enabling the implementation of a SAP-integrated microfluidic lipid extraction platform. The SAP method successfully induced reproducible extraction and high recovery rates (95–100%) compared to the conventional Folch method in several lipid classes. We also demonstrated the feasibility of the SAP method for the analysis of lipids in complex biological samples, such as the brain and liver, as well as <i>Escherichia coli</i>. This small-scale SAP method and its microfluidic platform will open up new possibilities in high-throughput lipidomic research for diagnosing diseases because this new technique saves time, labor, and cost