The Roles of Digital Exhibition in Enhancing Immersive Experience and Purchase Intention

Museums in modern society serve to a broader public than their early predecessors. In response to such transition, many art museums now open digital exhibitions to provide immersive experience and maximize user interaction. This paper focuses on two such features – animated image and storytelling description – and their effect on museum visitors’ immersive experience, which in turn influences willingness-to-pay price premium (WTP). Our results indicate that animated images and storytelling description have both individual and interaction effects on immersive experience as well as WTP. This paper contributes to both the IS literature and practice by providing a systematic understanding of how digital exhibition features enhance museum visitors’ immersive experience and purchase intention

Grand challenges for biological engineering

Biological engineering will play a significant role in solving many of the world's problems in medicine, agriculture, and the environment. Recently the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) released a document "Grand Challenges in Engineering," covering broad realms of human concern from sustainability, health, vulnerability and the joy of living. Biological engineers, having tools and techniques at the interface between living and non-living entities, will play a prominent role in forging a better future. The 2010 Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) conference in Cambridge, MA, USA will address, in part, the roles of biological engineering in solving the challenges presented by the NAE. This letter presents a brief outline of how biological engineers are working to solve these large scale and integrated problems of our society

Backscattering particle immunoassays in wire-guide droplet manipulations

A simpler way for manipulating droplets on a flat surface was demonstrated, eliminating the complications in the existing methods of open-surface digital microfluidics. Programmed and motorized movements of 10 μL droplets were demonstrated using stepper motors and microcontrollers, including merging, complicated movement along the programmed path, and rapid mixing. Latex immunoagglutination assays for mouse immunoglobulin G, bovine viral diarrhea virus and Escherichia coli were demonstrated by merging two droplets on a superhydrophobic surface (contact angle = 155 ± 2°) and using subsequent back light scattering detection, with detection limits of 50 pg mL-1, 2.5 TCID50 mL-1 and 85 CFU mL-1, respectively, all significantly lower than the other immunoassay demonstrations in conventional microfluidics (~1 ng mL-1 for proteins, ~100 TCID50 mL-1 for viruses and ~100 CFU mL-1 for bacteria). Advantages of this system over conventional microfluidics or microwell plate assays include: (1) minimized biofouling and repeated use (>100 times) of a platform; (2) possibility of nanoliter droplet manipulation; (3) reprogrammability with a computer or a game pad interface

Reusable, polyethylene glycol-structured microfluidic channel for particle immunoassays

A microfluidic channel made entirely out of polyethylene glycol (PEG), not PEG coating to silicon or polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface, was fabricated and tested for its reusability in particle immunoassays and passive protein fouling, at relatively high target concentrations (1 mg ml-1). The PEG devices were reusable up to ten times while the oxygen-plasma-treated polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) device could be reused up to four times and plain PDMS were not reusable. Liquid was delivered spontaneously via capillary action and complicated bonding procedure was not necessary. The contact angle analysis revealed that the water contact angle on microchannel surface should be lower than ~60°, which are comparable to those on dried protein films, to be reusable for particle immunoassays and passive protein fouling

Design of a Pultruded GFRP Deck for Highway Bridges

This paper deals with the design and analysis of a GFRP deck for the highway bridges. Several cellular tube sections are assessed to obtain a viable cross-sectional profile of the deck. Two GFRP patterns are proposed and tested. Using the proposed deck profile and GFRP patterns, a GFRP deck for a prototype steel I-girder bridge is designed and presented in this paper

Optimum Design of a Pultruded FRP Bridge Deck.

In this paper, an optimum design of GFRP bridge deck having a pultruded cellular cross-section is presented. The optimization process utilizes a modified genetic algorithm with the index technique. Based on the optimum design, viable cross-sectional dimension, volumes of fibers and matrix, fiber orientation, and stacking sequence for GFRP decks suitable for the pultrusion process are proposed