The idea of passive euthanasia has recently been attacked in a particularly clear and explicit way by an ‘‘Ethics Task Force’’ established by the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) in February 2001. It claims that the expression ‘‘passive euthanasia’’ is a contradiction in terms and hence that there can be no such thing. This paper critically assesses the main arguments for the Task...

In this paper, for the first time, an on-chip optofluidic imaging system is innovated to measure the biophysical signature of single waterborne bacterium, including both the refractive index and morphology (size and shape), based on immersion refractometry. The key features of the proposed optofluidic imaging platform include (1) multiple sites for single bacterium trapping, which enable parall...

In this paper, for the first time, an on-chip optofluidic imaging system is innovated to measure the biophysical signatures of single waterborne bacteria, including both their refractive indices and morphologies (size and shape), based on immersion refractometry. The key features of the proposed optofluidic imaging platform include (1) multiple sites for single-bacterium trapping, which enable ...

Dynamically stable biped robots mimicking human locomotion have received significant attention over the last few decades. Formerly, the existence of stable periodic gaits for straight walking of passive biped walkers was well known and investigated as the notion of passive dynamic walking. This study is aimed to elaborate this notion in the case of three dimensional (3D) walking and extend it f...

Secondary flow plays a critical function in a microchannel, such as a micromixer, because it can enhance heat and mass transfer. However, there is no experimental method to visualize the secondary flow and the associated mixing pattern in a microchannel because of difficulties in high-resolution, non-invasive, cross-sectional imaging. Here, we simultaneously imaged and quantified the secondary ...

We present a novel electroosmotic micromixer that consists of arrays of direct current (DC) asymmetric electrode and asymmetric lateral structures. By embedding asymmetric electrode arrays on the top and bottom walls of a rectangular microchannel appropriately, the flow perturbations and vortexes can be induced when a DC electric field is imposed. An efficient lateral structure is then sequenti...

Micromixers have important applications in various pharmaceutical and medical fields. In the present study, enhancement of mixing index electroosmotic micromixer with different geometries is investigated. The commercial software COMSOL Multiphysics 5.4 employed to solve mathematical models. SIMPLEC
 algorithm for coupling velocity pressure A second-order upwind scheme used reduce artificia...

A fully automated microfluidic-based detection system for the rapid determination of insulin concentration through a chemiluminescence immunoassay has been developed. The microfluidic chip used in the system is a double-layered polydimethylsiloxane device embedded with interconnecting micropumps, microvalves, and a micromixer. At a high injection rate of the developing solution, the chemilumine...

This paper demonstrates a methodology for micromixing that is sufficiently simple that it can be used in portable microfluidic devices. It illustrates the use of the micromixer by incorporating it into an elementary, portable microfluidic system that includes sample introduction, sample filtration, and valving. This system has the following characteristics: (i) it is powered with a single hand-...