Understanding the interaction between soluble factors and cells in the cellular microenvironment is critical to understanding a wide range of diseases. Microchannel culture systems provide a tool for separating diffusion and convection based transport making possible controlled studies of the effects of soluble factors in the cellular microenvironment. In this paper we compare the proliferation...

Accumulation of particles in a high concentration on a microchannel wall is a common phenomenon in a colloidal fluid. Gradual accumulation/deposition of particles can eventually obstruct the fluid flow and lead to clogging, which seriously affects the accuracy and reliability of nozzle-based printing and causes damage to the nozzle. Particle accumulation in a 100 μm microchannel was investigate...

Riparian areas link streams with their terrestrial catchments and decrease water pollution by trapping sediments from upland sources before they reach streams or lakes. Livestock grazing in riparian areas is a controversial practice. If not properly managed, cattle can cause degradation to both the riparian zone and adjacent water body. Vegetative, soil microtopographical, microchannel and hydr...

The present article reports the numerical and experimental investigations on the laser-assisted photothermal heating of a nanoliter-sized droplet in a microchannel when plasmonic particles are suspended in the droplet. Plasmonic nanoparticles exhibit strong light absorption and scattering upon the excitation of localized surface plasmons (LSPs), resulting in intense and rapid photothermal heati...

In this study, an iron oxide magnetic microparticles and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (MMPs-PDMS) composite material was employed to demonstrate a simple high-strength reversible magnetic bonding method. This paper presents the casting of opaque-view (where optical inspection through the microchannels was impossible) and clear-view (where optical inspection through the microchannel was possible) MMPs...

While the importance of autocrine-paracrine signaling in vivo is clear, the ability to study the effects of secreted endogenous factors in vitro is hampered by canonical culture platforms. In multi-well plates, the large air-liquid interface gives rise to convective flows that continually mix the fluid disrupting the local diffusion-based accumulation. Simple microchannels provide a more contro...

Temperature-dependent phase-vanishing processes between perfluorohexane (FC-72) and n-heptane (C7H16, volume ratio of 1:1 and phase-vanishing temperature>41 degrees C), were studied in a glass microchannel-microheater chip under solution-flow conditions. Without applying a voltage to the heater at 21 degrees C, the two liquids in the microchannel were separated into two streams at a solution fl...

Due to the high performance of electronic components, the heat generated is increasing dramatically and cooling system for such components becomes one of the most important issues to dissipate heat that generated in electronic component. In the present analysis, a microchannel heat sink configuration is simulated by modelling the stacked microchannel heat sinks in macroscopic scale as if it is ...