Disposable Integrated Microfluidic Biochip for Blood Typing by Plastic Microinjection Moulding

Blood typing is the most important test for both transfusion recipients and blood donors. In this paper, a low cost disposable blood typing integrated microfluidic biochip has been designed, fabricated and characterized. In the biochip, flow splitting microchannels, chaotic micromixers, reaction microchambers and detection microfilters are fully integrated. The loaded sample blood can be divided by 2 or 4 equal volumes through the flow splitting microchannel so that one can perform 2 or 4 blood agglutination tests in parallel. For the purpose of obtaining efficient reaction of agglutinogens on red blood cells (RBCs) and agglutinins in serum, we incorporated a serpentine laminating micromixer into the biochip, which combines two chaotic mixing mechanisms of splitting/recombination and chaotic advection. Relatively large area reaction microchambers were also introduced for the sake of keeping the mixture of the sample blood and serum during the reaction time before filtering. The gradually decreasing multi-step detection microfilters were designed in order to effectively filter the reacted agglutinated RBCs, which show the corresponding blood group. To achieve the cost-effectiveness of the microfluidic biochip for disposability, the biochip was realized by the microinjection moulding of COC (cyclic olefin copolymer) and thermal bonding of two injection moulded COC substrates in mass production with a total fabrication time of less than 20 min. Mould inserts of the biochip for the microinjection moulding were fabricated by SU-8 photolithography and the subsequent nickel electroplating process. Human blood groups of A, B and AB have been successfully determined with the naked eye, with 3 mu l of the whole sample bloods, by means of the fabricated biochip within 3 min.X11100104sciescopu

A serpentine laminating micromixer combining splitting/recombination and advection

Mixing enhancement has drawn great attention from designers of micromixers, since the flow in a microchannel is usually characterized by a low Reynolds number ( Re) which makes the mixing quite a difficult task to accomplish. In this paper, a novel integrated efficient micromixer named serpentine laminating micromixer (SLM) has been designed, simulated, fabricated and fully characterized. In the SLM, a high level of efficient mixing can be achieved by combining two general chaotic mixing mechanisms: splitting/recombination and chaotic advection. The splitting and recombination ( in other terms, lamination) mechanism is obtained by the successive arrangement of "F''-shape mixing units in two layers. The advection is induced by the overall three-dimensional serpentine path of the microchannel. The SLM was realized by SU-8 photolithography, nickel electroplating, injection molding and thermal bonding. Mixing performance of the SLM was fully characterized numerically and experimentally. The numerical mixing simulations show that the advection acts favorably to realize the ideal vertical lamination of fluid flow. The mixing experiments based on an average mixing color intensity change of phenolphthalein show a high level of mixing performance was obtained with the SLM. Numerical and experimental results confirm that efficient mixing is successfully achieved from the SLM over the wide range of Re. Due to the simple and mass producible geometry of the efficient micromixer, SLM proposed in this study, the SLM can be easily applied to integrated microfluidic systems, such as micro-total-analysis-systems or lab-on-a-chip systems.X11159165sciescopu

Studies on the Density of Soybean Aphids in Different Cultivars, Planting Dates and Spacings

In order to evaluate the fluctuation of the soybean aphid (Aphis glycines Matsumura) population, six leading soybean cultivars were planted on five different planting dates with different plant densities. The survey of aphid population and climate condition was made from June through September in 1978. According to the differences of planting dates and plant density the soybean aphid populations were varied, and varietal response to the aphid was significantly different. Counting of aphid infestation on the top third trifoliate leaf seemed to be efficient for the estimation of soybean aphid population.Originating text in Korean.Citation: Chung, K. H., Kwon, S. H., Lee, Y. I. (1980). Studies on the Density of Soybean Aphids in Different Cultivars, Planting Dates and Spacings. Journal of the Korean Society for Crop Science, 25(3), 35-40

Orthogonality of linear combinations of two orthogonal polynomial sequences

14 pages, no figures.-- MSC2000 code: 33C45.MR#: MR1865881 (2002j:33009)Zbl#: Zbl 0990.42007We find necessary and sufficient conditions for some linear combinations of two sequences of orthogonal polynomials to be again orthogonal.The first author (K.H.K.) was partially supported by KOSEF(99-2-101-001-5). The work of the third author (F.M.) was supported by Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior (DGES) of Spain under grant PB96-0120-C03-01.Publicad

SPH Simulations of Galactic Gaseous Disk with Bar: Distribution and Kinematic Structure of Molecular Clouds toward the Galactic Center

We have performed Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations to study the response of molecular clouds in the Galactic disk to a rotating bar and their subsequent evolution in the Galactic Center (GC) region. The Galactic potential in our models is contributed by three axisymmetric components (massive halo, exponential disk, compact bulge) and a non-axisymmetric bar. These components are assumed to be invariant in time in the frame corotating with the bar. Some noticeable features such as an elliptical outer ring, spiral arms, a gas-depletion region, and a central concentration have been developed due to the influence of the bar. The rotating bar induces non-circular motions of the SPH particles, but hydrodynamic collisions tend to suppress the random components of the velocity. The velocity field of the SPH particles is consistent with the kinematics of molecular clouds observed in HCN (1-0) transition; these clouds are thought to be very dense clouds. However, the l-v diagram of the clouds traced by CO is quite different from that of our SPH simulation, being more similar to that obtained from simulations using collisionless particles. The $l-v$ diagram of a mixture of collisional and collisionless particles gives better reproduction of the kinematic structures of the GC clouds observed in the CO line. The fact that the kinematics of HCN clouds can be reproduced by the SPH particles suggests that the dense clouds in the GC are formed via cloud collisions induced by rotating bar.Comment: 31 pages, 10 pigures, accepted for publication in Ap

Implication of the cluster analysis using greenhouse gas emissions of Asian countries to climate change mitigation

Climate change caused by excessive emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere has gained serious attention from the global community for a long time. More and more countries have decided to propose their goals such as Paris agreements, to reduce emitting these heat trapping compounds for sustainability. The Asian region houses dramatic changes with diverse religions and cultures, large populations as well as a rapidly changing socio-economic situations all of which are contributing to generating a mammoth amount of GHGs; hence, they require calls for related studies on climate change strategies. After pre-filtering of GHG emission information, 24 Asian countries have been selected as primary target countries. Hierarchical cluster analysis method using complete linkage technique was successfully applied for appropriate grouping. Six groups were categorized through GHG emission properties with major and minor emission sectors based on the GHG inventory covering energy, industrial processes, agriculture, waste, land use change, and forestry and bunker fuels. Assigning six groups using cluster analysis finally implied that the approach to establish GHG emission boundaries was meaningful to develop further mitigation strategies. Following the outcome of this study, calculating amount of reduction potential in suitable sectors as well as determining best practice, technology, and regulatory framework can be improved by policy makers, environmental scientists, and planners at the different levels. Therefore, this work on reviewing a wide range of GHG emission history and establishing boundaries of emission characteristics would provide further direction of effective climate change mitigation for sustainability and resilience in Asia

A survey of beam-combining technologies for laser space power transmission

The combination of laser beams holds much promise for obtaining powerful beams. Methods are surveyed for beam combination (coherent and incoherent) and two of them are identified as the most effective means for achieving high power transmission in space. The two methods as applied to laser diode arrays are analyzed, and potentially productive work areas for the advancement of technology are delineated

Winter Crop Evaluation for Silage and Forage Quality in Korea

Winter crops of rye, barley, oats and Italian ryegrass are used alone or combined as silage crops or green forage in autumn and spring in Korea. The production and utilization of winter crops have been increasing since 2000, because of high yield and double cropping potential in the rice field after harvesting rice. An advantage of these winter crops is that they are produced in the cool season. However, a main problem in making silage with these winter crops is that they are sometimes poor in quality for various reasons. Therefore we conducted a survey of farms and forage selling cooperatives, on forage and silage quality for the last five years

Compatible pairs of orthogonal polynomials

19 pages, no figures.-- MSC1991 code: 33C45.MR#: MR1736624 (2001a:33009)Zbl#: Zbl 0944.33012We find necessary and sufficient conditions for an orthogonal polynomial system to be compatible with another orthogonal polynomial system. As applications, we find new characterizations of semi-classical and classical orthogonal polynomials.The work of D. H. Kim and K. H. Kwon was partially supported by KOSEF (98-0701-03-01-5) and GARC at Seoul National University. The work of F. Marcellán was partially supported by Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior (DGES) of Spain under grant PB96-0120-C03-0l.Publicad