A monomial-based method for solving systems of non-linear algebraic equations

A monomial-based method for solving systems of algebraic non-linear equations is presented. The method uses the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality to construct a system of monomial equations that approximates the system of non-linear equations. A change of variables transforms the monomial system into a system of linear equations, which is readily solved. Special properties of the monomial method are identified and their significance is discussed. Invariance properties of the monomial method produce a built-in, self-adjusting scaling of the variables and equilibration of the equations of the linear system. Other special properties can lead to useful bounds on, and invariances of, the conditioning of the linear system. An invariance to uniform scaling is responsible for extremely rapid convergence to the equation surfaces in the initial iterations. An invariance to multiplication of the algebraic equations by a certain class of functions leads to a useful insensitivity to form of the algebraic system. Insensitivity of the monomial method to solutions with negative components avoids meaningless solutiuons of the algebraic system that appear as undesirable by-products of the formulation. A practical engineering design problem is solved to demonstrate the special properties of the monomial method.     

Working memory in mild Alzheimer's disease and early Parkinson's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) impair working memory (WM). It is unclear, however, whether the deficits seen early in the course of these diseases are similar. To address this issue, the authors compared the performance of 22 patients with mild AD, 20 patients with early PD and without dementia, and 112 control participants on tests of inhibition, short-term memory, and 2 commonly administered tests of WM. The results suggest that although mild AD and early PD both impair WM, the deficits may be related to the interruption of different processes that contribute to WM performance. Early PD disrupted inhibitory processes, whereas mild AD did not. The WM deficits seen in patients with AD may be secondary to deficits in other cognitive capacities, including semantic memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Plastic microfluidic devices modified with polyelectrolyte multilayers

Control of the polymer surface chemistry is a crucial aspect of development of plastic microfluidic devices. When commercially available plastic substrates are used to fabricate microchannels, differences in the EOF mobility from plastic to plastic can be very high. Therefore, we have used polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) to alter the surface of microchannels fabricated in plastics. Optimal modification of the microchannel surfaces was obtained by coating the channels with alternating layers of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and poly(styrene sulfonate). Polystyrene (PS) and poly(ethylene terephthalate) glycol (PETG) were chosen as substrate materials because of the significant differences in the polymer chemistries and in the EOF of channels fabricated in these two plastic materials. The efficacy of the surface modification has been evaluated using XPS and by measuring the EOF mobility. When microchannels prepared in both PS and PETG are modified with PEMs, they demonstrate very similar electroosmotic mobilities. The PEMs are easily fabricated and provide a means for controlling the flow direction and the electroosmotic mobility in the channels. The PEM-coated microchannels have excellent wettability, allowing facile filling of the channels. In addition, the PEMs produce reproducible results and are robust enough to withstand long-term storage.     

Detection of viable Cryptosporidium parvum using DNA-modified liposomes in a microfluidic chip

This paper describes a microfluidic chip that enables the detection of viable Cryptosporidium parvum by detecting RNA amplified by nucleic-acid-sequence-based amplification (NASBA). The mRNA serving as the template for NASBA is produced by viable C. parvum as a response to heat shock. The chip utilizes sandwich hybridization by hybridizing the NASBA-generated amplicon between capture probes and reporter probes in a microfluidic channel. The reporter probes are tagged with carboxyfluorescein-filled liposomes. These liposomes, which generate fluorescence intensities not obtainable from single fluorophores, allow the detection of very low concentrations of targets. The limit of detection of the chip is 5 fmol of amplicon in 12.5 microL of sample solution. Samples of C. parvum that underwent heat shock, extraction, and amplification by NASBA were successfully detected and clearly distinguishable from controls. This was accomplished without having to separate the amplified RNA from the NASBA mixture. The microfluidic chip can easily be modified to detect other pathogens. We envision its use in mu-total analysis systems (mu-TAS) and in DNA-array chips utilized for environmental monitoring of pathogens.     

Fabrication of plastic microfluid channels by imprinting methods

Microfluidic devices have been fabricated on poly(methyl methacrylate) substrates by two independent imprinting techniques. First-generation devices were fabricated using a small-diameter wire to create an impression in plastics softened by low-temperature heating. The resulting devices are limited to only simple linear channel designs but are readily produced at low cost. Second-generation devices with more complex microchannel arrangements were fabricated by imprinting the plastic substrates using an inverse three-dimensional image of the device micromachined on a silicon wafer. This micromachined template may be used repeatedly to generate devices reproducibly. Fluorescent analtyes were used to demonstrate reproducible electrophoretic injections. An immunoassay was also performed in an imprinted device as a demonstration of future applications.     

Integrated microfluidic system enabling protein digestion, peptide separation, and protein identification

An integrated platform is presented for rapid and sensitive protein identification by on-line protein digestion and analysis of digested proteins using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry or transient capillary isotachophoresis/capillary zone electrophoresis with mass spectrometry detection. A miniaturized membrane reactor is constructed by fabricating the microfluidic channels on a poly(dimethylsiloxane) substrate and coupling the microfluidics to a poly(vinylidene fluoride) porous membrane with the adsorbed trypsin. On the basis of he large surface area-to-volume ratio of porous membrane media, adsorbed trypsin onto the poly(vinylidene fluoride) membrane is employed for achieving ultrahigh catalytic turnover. The extent of protein digestion in a miniaturized membrane reactor can be directly controlled by the residence time of protein analytes inside the trypsin-adsorbed membrane, the reaction temperature, and the protein concentration. The resulting peptide mixtures can either be directly analyzed using electrospray ionization mass spectrometry or further concentrated and resolved by electrophoretic separations prior to the mass spectrometric analysis. This microfluidic system enables rapid identification of proteins in minutes instead of hours, consumes very little sample (nanogram or less), and provides on-line interface with upstream protein separation schemes for the analysis of complex protein mixtures such as cell lysates.     

Manufacturing Cost Modeling for Product Design

The process of product design is driven toward achieving design specifications while meeting cost targets. Designers typically have models and tools to aid in functional and performance analysis of the design but few tools and little quantitative information to aid in cost analysis. Estimates of the cost of manufacture often are made through a cost multiplier based on material cost. Manufacturing supplies guidelines to aid in design, but these guidelines often lack the detail needed to make sound design decisions.A need was identified for a quantitative way for modeling manufacturing costs at Motorola. After benchmarking cost modeling efforts around the company, an activity-based costing method was developed to model manufacturing cycle time and cost. Models for 12 key manufacturing steps were developed. The factory operating costs are broken down by time, and cost is allocated to each product according to the processing it requires. The process models were combined into a system-level model, capturing subtle yet realistic operational detail.The framework was implemented in a software program to aid designers in calculating manufacturing costs from limited design information. Since the information tool provides an estimate of manufacturing costs at the design prototype stage, the development engineer can identify and eliminate expensive components and reduce the need for costly manufacturing processing. Using this methodology to make quantitative trade-offs between material and manufacturing costs, significant savings in overall product costs are achieved.     

Fabrication techniques to realize CMOS-compatible microfluidicmicrochannels

With microfluidic systems becoming more prominent, fabrication techniques for microfluidic systems are increasingly more important. An interesting alternative to existing fabrication techniques is to embed fluidic systems within an integrated circuit by micromachining materials in the integrated circuit itself. This paper describes novel methods for fabricating one component in the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) microfluidic system, the microchannel. These techniques allow direct integration of sensors, actuators, or other electronics with the microchannel. This method expands the functional applications for microfluidic systems beyond their current abilities. By utilizing the methods described within this paper, a complete “smart” microfluidic system could be batch fabricated on a single integrated circuit (IC) chip     

Microfluidic temperature gradient focusing

A new technique is described for the concentration and separation of ionic species in solution within microchannels or capillaries. Concentration is achieved by balancing the electrophoretic velocity of an analyte against the bulk flow of solution in the presence of a temperature gradient. With an appropriate buffer, the temperature gradient can generate a corresponding gradient in the electrophoretic velocity, so that the electrophoretic and bulk velocities sum to zero at a unique point, and the analyte will be focused at that point. The technique is demonstrated for a variety of analytes, including fluorescent dyes, amino acids, DNA, proteins, and particles, and is shown to be capable of greater than 10,000-fold concentration of a dilute analyte.     

Effect of caged fluorescent dye on the electroosmotic mobility in microchannels

We report on measurements of electroosmotic mobility in polymer microchannels and silica capillaries with and without the addition of a caged fluorescein dye to the buffer. For PMMA microchannels, the mobility was found to increase from (2.6 +/- 0.1) x 10(-4) cm2 V(-1) s(-1) to (4.6 +/- 0.1) x 10(-4) cm2 V(-1) s(-1) upon addition of 1.2 mmol/L of caged dye. For PC microchannels, the mobility increased from (4.3 +/- 0.2) x 10(-4) cm2 V(-1) s(-1) to (5.4 +/- 0.1) x 10(-4) cm2 V(-1) s(-1) upon addition of caged dye. For PDMS microchannels, the mobility increased from (4.3 +/- 0.2) x 10(-4) cm2 V(-1) s(-1) to (6.4 +/- 0.5) x 10(-4) cm2 V(-1) s(-1) upon addition of caged dye. For fused-silica capillaries, the mobility ((5.5 +/- 0.2) x 10(-4) cm2 V(-1) s(-1)) was unaffected by the addition of the caged dye.