Report of RILEM TC 281-CCC: outcomes of a round robin on the resistance to accelerated carbonation of Portland, Portland-fly ash and blast-furnace blended cements.

Unlabelled: Many (inter)national standards exist to evaluate the resistance of mortar and concrete to carbonation. When a carbonation coefficient is used for performance comparison of mixtures or service life prediction, the applied boundary conditions during curing, preconditioning and carbonation play a crucial role, specifically when using latent hydraulic or pozzolanic supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). An extensive interlaboratory test (ILT) with twenty two participating laboratories was set up in the framework of RILEM TC 281-CCC 'Carbonation of Concrete with SCMs'.

FDA Perspectives on the Regulation of Neuromodulation Devices.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ensures that patients in the United States have access to safe and effective medical devices. The division of neurological and physical medicine devices reviews medical technologies that interface with the nervous system, including many neuromodulation devices. This article focuses on neuromodulation devices and addresses how to navigate the FDA's regulatory landscape to successfully bring devices to patients.

FDA Regulation of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices: Access to Safe and Effective Neurotechnologies for All Americans.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ensures that patients in the U.S. have access to safe and effective medical devices.

Utilizing microfluidics to synthesize polyethylene glycol microbeads for Förster resonance energy transfer based glucose sensing.

Here, we utilize microfluidic droplet technology to generate photopolymerizeable polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogel microbeads incorporating a fluorescence-based glucose bioassay. A microfluidic T-junction and multiphase flow of fluorescein isothiocyanate dextran, tetramethyl rhodamine isothiocyanate concanavalin A, and PEG in water were used to generate microdroplets in a continuous stream of hexadecane. The microdroplets were photopolymerized mid-stream with ultraviolet light exposure to form PEG microbeads and were collected at the outlet for further analysis.

A 'microfluidic pinball' for on-chip generation of Layer-by-Layer polyelectrolyte microcapsules.

Inspired by the game of "pinball" where rolling metal balls are guided by obstacles, here we describe a novel microfluidic technique which utilizes micropillars in a flow channel to continuously generate, encapsulate and guide Layer-by-Layer (LbL) polyelectrolyte microcapsules. Droplet-based microfluidic techniques were exploited to generate oil droplets which were smoothly guided along a row of micropillars to repeatedly travel through three parallel laminar streams consisting of two polymers and a washing solution. Devices were prototyped in PDMS and generated highly monodisperse and stable 45±2 µm sized polyelectrolyte microcapsules.

Patterned delivery and expression of gene constructs into zebrafish embryos using microfabricated interfaces.

We demonstrate a method which uses simple microfabrication and microfluidics to produce custom, shaped electroporators for the patterned delivery of foreign molecules into developing embryos. We show how these electroporators can be used to 'draw' two-dimensional patterns of tracer molecules, DNA and mRNA into the yolk and cells of zebrafish embryos (Danio rerio) at different stages of development. We demonstrate the successful delivery of patterns of Trypan Blue (normal dye), Texas Red (fluorescent dye), GFP-expressing DNA plasmids and GFP expressing mRNA constructs into both chorionated and dechorionated embryos.

A class of low voltage, elastomer-metal 'wet' actuators for use in high-density microfluidics.

We report a class of 'wet' MEMS elastomer-metal electrostatic actuators which can actuate in air, oil or water environments with no external fluidic connections, has actuation voltages lower than 15 V and is compatible with widespread PDMS microfluidics.

A microsystem for sensing and patterning oxidative microgradients during cell culture.

We present the design, modeling, fabrication and testing of a microsystem for the electrolytic patterning and sensing of oxidative microgradients within 1 x 1 mm2 area during cell culture. The system employs an array of microfabricated electrodes (3-40 microm in width) embedded in gas-permeable microchannels to generate precise doses of dissolved oxygen (ranging from 10 fmol O2 mm(-2) s(-1) to 100 nmol O2 mm(-2) s(-1)) via electrolysis. The microgradients generated by different microelectrodes in the array can be superimposed to pattern multi-dimensional oxygen profiles not possible with other methods.