Surface patterning techniques for proteins on nano- and micro-systems: A modulated aspect in hierarchical structures

The surface patterning of protein using fabrication or external functionalization of structures demonstrate advanced applications in fields of biomedical research for optics, bioengineering, biosensing and antifouling. Alteration of surface structures...

Microfluidic Systems for Cancer Diagnosis and Applications

Microfluidic devices have led to novel biological advances through the improvement of micro systems that can mimic and measure. Microsystems easily handle sub-microliter volumes, obviously with guidance presumably through laminated fluid flows. Microfluidic systems have production methods that do not need expert engineering, away from a centralized laboratory, and can implement basic and point of care analysis, and this has attracted attention to their widespread dissemination and adaptation to specific biological issues. The general use of microfluidic tools in clinical settings can be seen in pregnancy tests and diabetic control, but recently microfluidic platforms have become a key novel technology for cancer diagnostics. Cancer is a heterogeneous group of diseases that needs a multimodal paradigm to diagnose, manage, and treat. Using advanced technologies can enable this, providing better diagnosis and treatment for cancer patients. Microfluidic tools have evolved as a promising tool in the field of cancer such as detection of a single cancer cell, liquid biopsy, drug screening modeling angiogenesis, and metastasis detection. This review summarizes the need for the low-abundant blood and serum cancer diagnosis with microfluidic tools and the progress that has been followed to develop integrated microfluidic platforms for this application in the last few years.

The Fusion of Microfluidics and Optics for On-Chip Detection and Characterization of Microalgae

It has been demonstrated that microalgae play an important role in the food, agriculture and medicine industries. Additionally, the identification and counting of the microalgae are also a critical step in evaluating water quality, and some lipid-rich microalgae species even have the potential to be an alternative to fossil fuels. However, current technologies for the detection and analysis of microalgae are costly, labor-intensive, time-consuming and throughput limited. In the past few years, microfluidic chips integrating optical components have emerged as powerful tools that can be used for the analysis of microalgae with high specificity, sensitivity and throughput. In this paper, we review recent optofluidic lab-on-chip systems and techniques used for microalgal detection and characterization. We introduce three optofluidic technologies that are based on fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy and imaging-based flow cytometry, each of which can achieve the determination of cell viability, lipid content, metabolic heterogeneity and counting. We analyze and summarize the merits and drawbacks of these micro-systems and conclude the direction of the future development of the optofluidic platforms applied in microalgal research.

Effectiveness of Magnetized Flow on Nanofluid Containing Gyrotactic Micro-Organisms over an Inclined Stretching Sheet with Viscous Dissipation and Constant Heat Flux

The bioconvection phenomenon, through the utilization of nanomaterials, has recently encountered significant technical and manufacturing applications. Bioconvection has various applications in bio-micro-systems due to the improvement it brings in mixing and mass transformation, which are crucial problems in several micro-systems. The present investigation aims to explore the bioconvection phenomenon in magneto-nanofluid flow via free convection along an inclined stretching sheet with useful characteristics of viscous dissipation, constant heat flux, solutal, and motile micro-organisms boundary conditions. The flow analysis is addressed based on the Buongiorno model with the integration of Brownian motion and thermophoresis diffusion effects. The governing flow equations are changed into ordinary differential equations by means of appropriate transformation; they were solved numerically using the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg integration scheme shooting technique. The influence of all the sundry parameters is discussed for local skin friction coefficient, local Nusselt number, local Sherwood number, and local density of the motile micro-organisms number.

Jarzynski equality and Crooks relation for local models of air–sea interaction

We show that the most prominent of the work theorems, the Jarzynski equality and the Crooks relation, can be applied to the momentum transfer at the air–sea interface using a hierarchy of local models. In the more idealized models, with and without a Coriolis force, the variability is provided from Gaussian white noise which modifies the shear between the atmosphere and the ocean. The dynamics is Gaussian, and the Jarzynski equality and Crooks relation can be obtained analytically solving stochastic differential equations. The more involved model consists of interacting atmospheric and oceanic boundary layers, where only the dependence on the vertical direction is resolved, the turbulence is modeled through standard turbulent models and the stochasticity comes from a randomized drag coefficient. It is integrated numerically and can give rise to a non-Gaussian dynamics. Also in this case the Jarzynski equality allows for calculating a dynamic beta βD of the turbulent fluctuations (the equivalent of the thermodynamic beta β=(kBT)-1 in thermal fluctuations). The Crooks relation gives the βD as a function of the magnitude of the work fluctuations. It is well defined (constant) in the Gaussian models and can show a slight variation in the more involved models. This demonstrates that recent concepts of stochastic thermodynamics used to study micro-systems subject to thermal fluctuations can further the understanding of geophysical fluid dynamics with turbulent fluctuations.

Two-Dimensional MXene Based Materials for Micro-Supercapacitors

With the boom in the development of micro-electronics for wearable and flexible electronics, there is a growing demand for micro-batteries and micro-supercapacitors (MSCs). Micro-supercapacitors have garnered a considerable attention for the evolution of these energy storage micro-systems. The choice of electrode material plays a pivotal role in the fabrication and development of MSCs. Recently, a new emerging family of two-dimensional transition metal (M) carbides or nitrides (X) cited as 2D MXene has emerged as a novel material. Due to its exceptionally high electronic conductivity ̴10,000 S cm−1, high charge storage capacity and easy processing capability helps to use MXene as the promising candidate for micro-supercapacitors electrodes. Taking the advantage of such exceptional properties. MXenes have been explored enormously in stacked as well as in interdigital architecture for on-chip micro-supercapacitors (MSCs). This book chapter includes a recent advancement of MXene based MSCs, with a brief overview of synthesis and fabrication techniques.

Optomechanical Synchronization across Multi-Octaves Frequency Spans

Experimental exploration of synchronization in scalable oscillator micro systems has unfolded a deeper understanding of networks, collective phenomena, and signal processing. Cavity optomechanical devices have played an important role in this scenario, with the perspective of bridging optical and radio frequencies through nonlinear classical and quantum synchronization concepts. In its simplest form, synchronization occurs when an oscillator is entrained by a signal nearby the oscillator's tone, and becomes increasingly challenging as the frequency detuning increases. Here, we experimentally demonstrate entrainment of a silicon-nitride optomechanical oscillator driven several octaves away from its 32 MHz fundamental frequency. Exploring this effect, we perform a 4:1 frequency division from 128 MHz to 32 MHz. Further developments could harness these effects towards frequency synthesizers, phase-sensitive amplification and nonlinear sensing.

Timothy Noel is awarded the 2020 IUPAC-ThalesNano Prize for Flow Chemistry

The 2020 IUPAC-ThalesNano prize for Flow Chemistry has been awarded to Professor Timothy Noël of the University of Amsterdam’s Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences. The prize, consisting of an award of USD 7500, honours outstanding contributions in the field of flow chemistry, microfluidics, micro fabrication, and micro systems engineering.