Optofluidics offers a number of potentially transformative advantages for photonic systems. At present however there are a number of technological roadblocks that prevent the practical integration of liquid-state elements into traditional high-speed solid-state photonic systems. Two of the most important of these are the need for continuous resupply of liquids and the difficulty in shuttling li...

Liquid livestock waste can be managed by separating liquid and solid fractions then treating each separately by applying best available technology, such as anaerobic digestion for the solid fraction. There is an increasing use of polyacrylamide (PAM) as a flocculant agent to improve solid-liquid separation. In the present work, the anaerobic toxicity of PAM residues and the optimal range of tot...

RNA-protein (RNP) granules have been proposed to assemble by forming solid RNA/protein aggregates or through phase separation into a liquid RNA/protein phase. Which model describes RNP granules in living cells is still unclear. In this study, we analyze P bodies in budding yeast and find that they have liquid-like properties. Surprisingly, yeast stress granules adopt a different material state,...

The solidification behavior of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) solution during membrane preparation by thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) was investigated. Apparatus newly developed in our laboratory was used to quantitatively measure membrane stiffness during phase separation. In this apparatus, a cooling polymer solution, placed on a stage, is moved upwards and the surface of the poly...

Conventional batch chromatography is relatively inefficient in terms of adsorbent and solvent consumption and significant benefits can be achieved by performing separation of high-added value products, such as enantiomers produced in the pharmaceutical industry, with a simulated moving bed (SMB) process (Lehoucq et al., 2000). The SMB process allows a counter-current movement of the liquid and ...

This study was undertaken to evaluate the efficiency of a liquid-solids separation process and microwave pretreatment, as well as anaerobic biodegradability of microwave pretreated dairy manure. Liquid-solids separation of raw dairy manure resulted in solid and liquid fractions having different properties, with the solid fractions richer in total and volatile solids content and liquid fractions...

A hypothetical phase diagram of a crystalline polymer/photoreactive monomer mixture has been calculated on the basis of phase field (PF) free energy of crystal solidification in conjunction with Flory-Huggins (FH) free energy of liquid-liquid demixing to guide the morphology development during photopolymerization of poly(ethylene oxide)/triacrylate blend. The self-consistent solution of the com...