Microfluidic hydrodynamic trapping for single cell analysis: mechanisms, methods and applications

The development of hydrodynamic-based microfluidic biochips has been increasing over the years. In this technique, the cells or particles are trapped in a particular region for single cell analysis (SCA) usually without any application of external force fields such as optical, electrical, magnetic or acoustic. There is a need to explore the insights of SCA in the cell's natural state and development of these techniques is highly essential for that study. Researchers have highlighted the vast potential field that needs to be explored to develop biochip devices to suit market/researcher demands. Hydrodynamic microfluidics facilitates the development of passive lab-on-chip applications. This review gives an account of the recent advances in this field, along with their mechanisms, methods and applications

Development of Mobile Mapping System for 3D Road Asset Inventory

Asset Management is an important component of an infrastructure project. A significant cost is involved in maintaining and updating the asset information. Data collection is the most time-consuming task in the development of an asset management system. In order to reduce the time and cost involved in data collection, this paper proposes a low cost Mobile Mapping System using an equipped laser scanner and cameras. First, the feasibility of low cost sensors for 3D asset inventory is discussed by deriving appropriate sensor models. Then, through calibration procedures, respective alignments of the laser scanner, cameras, Inertial Measurement Unit and GPS (Global Positioning System) antenna are determined. The efficiency of this Mobile Mapping System is experimented by mounting it on a truck and golf cart. By using derived sensor models, geo-referenced images and 3D point clouds are derived. After validating the quality of the derived data, the paper provides a framework to extract road assets both automatically and manually using techniques implementing RANSAC plane fitting and edge extraction algorithms. Then the scope of such extraction techniques along with a sample GIS (Geographic Information System) database structure for unified 3D asset inventory are discussed

Early vs. Late Chemoradiation Therapy and the Postoperative Interval to Adjuvant Therapy Do Not Correspond to Local Recurrence in Resected Pancreatic Cancer

Objective: Standard postoperative therapy for pancreatic cancer consists of both chemotherapy alone and chemoradiation. We sought to investigate whether the sequence of chemotherapy and chemoradiation and overall time to initiation of adjuvant therapy would impact local vs. distant recurrence. Methods: After Institutional Review Board approval, resected pancreas cancer patient charts were evaluated for medical background, surgical, pathological, chemoradiation (CRT), and follow-up. Local recurrence (LR) was defined as failures occurring in the postoperative bed and regional lymph nodes. Early vs. late CRT was defined by whether CRT was given early (within 1–2 cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy) or late in the course of adjuvant chemotherapy (after the 3rd cycle of chemotherapy). The postoperative interval variance was compared to LR factors such as progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results: Of the 34 eligible patients, 47% (n=16) underwent early CRT and 41% (n=14) underwent late CRT. 12% (n=14) did not undergo any induction chemotherapy. At median follow-up of 22 months, 53% (n=18) had metastases, 24% (n=8) had LR, and 24% (n=8) were disease free. Kaplan-Meier curves revealed that early vs. late CRT did not appear to significantly impact OS (p=0.63), PFS (p=0.085) or LR (p=0.19). Postoperative interval did not affect PFS (p=0.42) or OS (p=0.93). Conclusions: Early vs. late CRT and the time to initiation of adjuvant therapy were not significantly associated with LR in patients with resected pancreatic cancer. Future prospective studies are required to determine if sequencing of chemotherapy, CRT, or the postoperative interval impact survival and patterns of recurrence