Design automation of microfluidic droplet sorting platforms

Both basic research and biological design require high throughput screening to parse through the massive amounts of variants generated in experiments. However, the cost and expertise needed for use of such technology limit accessibility. Simple and reproducible designs of a sorting platform would reduce the barrier for implementation of affordable bench-top screening platforms. Droplet microfluidics present a promising approach for automating biology, reducing reaction volumes to picoliter droplets and allowing for deterministic manipulation of samples. Droplet microfluidics have been used extensively for high throughput screening and directed evolution, yet limitations in fabrication have prevented the characterization needed for a design tool and subsequent widespread adoption. Here, we present a finite element analysis (FEA) model-based design framework for dielectrophoretic droplet microfluidic sorters and its preliminary experimental validation. This framework extends previous work from our group creating microfluidic designs tools, increasing their usability in the lab

Supply Chains Linking Food SMEs in Lagging Rural Regions in Ireland

End of project reportThis report reflects the Irish contribution to a 3-year EU-funded research project, SUPPLIERS, which was concerned with the development, innovation, competitiveness and sustainability of food SMEs in lagging rural regions(LRRs) of the EU and Poland. It summarises the results of the research conducted in Ireland, evaluates these findings and makes recommendations to benefit food SMEs located in Ireland’s LRRs. Two regions were selected for study in Ireland. These were the West, comprising counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, and the Northwest, comprising counties Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim. Both are classified as Objective 1 regions reflecting their predominantly rural character, economic disadvantage and relative remoteness from urban centres. Three food products were selected for detailed study in each region. Products selected in the West were mushrooms, farmed salmon and speciality foods and, in the Northwest, organic produce, farmed shellfish and prepared consumer foods. This product range encompassed a range of chains from local to international, integrated to fragmented, direct to indirect, providing a basis for comparison and evaluation of different chain structures. This summary report concentrates on the results of four surveys carried out over the course of the study. Producers, intermediaries, commercial customers and support institutions were surveyed.This publication derives from the EU funded project on ‘Supply chains linking food SMEs in Europe’s lagging rural regions’ (SUPPLIERS, QLK5-CT-2000- 00841

On Cardiovascular Affection in Pulmonary Tuberculosis

The subject of the functional and pathological changes, to which the cardiovascular system is exposed in pulmonary tuberculosis, has attracted the interest of observers for many years. The very lack, however, of uniformity of findings and conclusions, denotes that herein lies a field worthy of further investigation. Such investigation is, moreover, justifiable in view of its possible importance in relation to modern therapeutics, and in light of the more recent knowledge of the mechanism of the cardiovascular system, and of the technique of its examination.To the clinician all information regarding the effect of pulmonary tuberculosis on other systems must be of assistance in his estimation of the patient. To the thoracic surgeon, who is daily becoming a more essential link in the therapeutic chain in pulmonary disease generally, a more precise knowledge of the significance of cardiovascular phenomena is of prime importance. The actual relationship between pathological findings in the cardiovascular system, and thoracic surgery, will be outwith the scope of this thesis; but the study has been made, quite apart from its interest as a purely academic problem, with a desire to crystalise the present knowledge of those factors which do affect the heart in pulmonary tuberculosis, A complete study must eventually embrace all intrathoracic disease in this relationship, but it has been necessary to limit the field of investigation in the first instance, in order to render the problem and its solution more clear

Key observations of flexed-leg urination in the free-ranging Gray Wolf (Canis lupus)

Flexed-leg urination (FLU) in female Gray Wolves (Canis lupus) has been little studied in the wild. Captive females in packs do not exhibit FLU unless they are both mature and dominant to an associate female, but these characteristics have not been confirmed in free-ranging wolves. We present observations of wolves in Yellowstone National Park that accord with those of wolves in captivity, extend our knowledge of FLU in Gray Wolf, pose additional questions about it, and suggest new areas of study to better understand it

The V_H repertoire and clonal diversification of B cells in inflammatory myopathies

The contribution of antigen-driven B-cell adaptive immune responses within the inflamed muscle of inflammatory myopathies (IMs) is largely unknown. In this study, we investigated the immunoglobulin VH gene repertoire, somatic hypermutation, clonal diversification, and selection of infiltrating B cells in muscle biopsies from IM patients (dermatomyositis and polymyositis), to determine whether B cells and/or plasma cells contribute to the associated pathologies of these diseases. The data reveal that Ig V<sub>H</sub> gene repertoires of muscle-infiltrating B cells deviate from the normal VH gene repertoire in individual patients, and differ between different types of IMs. Analysis of somatic mutations revealed clonal diversification of muscle-infiltrating B cells and evidence for a chronic B-cell response within the inflamed muscle. We conclude that muscle-infiltrating B cells undergo selection, somatic hypermutation and clonal diversification in situ during antigen-driven immune responses in patients with IMs, providing insight into the contribution of B cells to the pathological mechanisms of these disorders

British Policy in West Africa, the Malay Peninsula and the South Pacific During the Colonial Secretaryships of Lord Kimberley and Lord Carnarvon, 1870-1876.

Three experiments in Britain's tropical empire were begun in 1874. The forts on the Gold Coast were added to the island of Lagos to form a crown colony which was given legislative power in the Gold Coast Protectorate, the first Residents were appointed in the Malay States and the Fiji Islands were annexed. As it has "been suggested that these developments formed part of a new forward colonial policy inaugurated by Disraeli, and since the three experiments were sometimes mentioned together, an examination of the background of the changes and a consideration of their place in the history of British policy may be useful. Local events in each area reached a crisis during Gladstone's first ministry at a time when changes in personnel gave the Colonial Office a different bias. The separatist Sir Frederic Rogers gave way as Permanent Under-secretary in 1871 to Robert Herbert, a former Premier of Queensland; Lord Kimberley, a conscientious Colonial Secretary, who gave close attention to the local crises, took office in 1870, and Edward Knatchbull-Hugessen, who became Parliamentary Under-secretary in 1871, showed himself to be an eager expansionist. Between 1870 and 1873 they conducted a careful reappraisal of Britain's role in the three tropical regions, and between February and August 1873 Kimberley decided to intervene in the Gold Coast against Ashanti invaders, he suggested the appointment of Residents in Malaya, and he urged Gladstone to annex Fiji. As the Liberal Government fell in February 1874 before future policy had been determined, the final decisions fell to Lord Carnarvon, Disraeli's Colonial Secretary. He decided to follow Kimberley's policy in each case, but he announced strictly limited aims. Instead of initiating a period of colonial expansion he saw himself conducting three experiments in the administration of tropical dependencies