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School of Physical Sciences
Representation of microfluidic cell chromatography from a recent paper in 'Lab on a Chip'

School Research Update

The last few months of 2013 have been busy at the School of Physical Sciences. Here's a brief update on the research work that has been taking place. Jens Ducree's group has had several papers published as outlined below, and they have received significant funding towards further research under the EU FP7 project 'DECATHLON'

Journal Papers

  • Macdara Glynn, David Kinahan, and Jens Ducrée. CD4 counting technologies for HIV therapy monitoring in resource-poor settings: State-of-the-art and emerging microtechnologies. Lab on a Chip, 13(14):2731-2748, 2013.  [ DOI ]
  • Charles Nwankire, Di sien S. Chan, Jennifer Gaughran, Tríona O'Connell, Robert Burger, Robert Gorkin III, and Jens Ducrée. Fluidic automation of nitrate and nitrite bioassays in whole blood by dissolvable-film based centrifugo-pneumatic actuation. Sensors, 13(9):11336-11349, 2013.  [ DOI ]
  • Maria Kitsara and Jens Ducrée. Integration of functional materials and surface modification methods for polymeric microfluidic systems. Journal of Micromechanics & Microengineering, 23(3):033001, 2013.  [ DOI ]
  • Macdara Glynn, Daniel Kirby, Danielle Chung, David J. Kinahan, Gregor Kijanka, and Jens Ducrée. Centrifugo-magnetophoretic purification of CD4+ cells from whole blood towards future HIV/AIDS point-of-care applications. Journal of Laboratory Automation, 2013. status: published online 2013-09-20.  [ DOI ]
  • Robert Burger, Nuno Reis, João Garcia da Fonseca, and Jens Ducrée. Plasma extraction by centrifugo-pneumatically induced gating of flow. Journal of Micromechanics & Microengineering, 23(3):035035, 2013.  [ DOI ]

Conference Papers

  • D. J. Kinahan, S. M. Kearney, M. T. Glynn, and J. Ducrée. Imbibition-modulated event-triggering of centrifugo-pneumatic cascading for multi-stage dilution series. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (μTAS 2013), October 27-31, Freiburg, Germany, pages 317-319, 2013.
  • David J. Kinahan, Sinéad M. Kearney, and Jens Ducrée. Efficient leukocyte isolation by density-gradient centrifugation via dual-chamber pneumatic siphoning. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (μTAS 2013), October 27-31, Freiburg, Germany, pages 1610-1612, 2013.
  • Charles E. Nwankire, Monika Czugala, Robert Burger, Dermot Diamond, and Jens Ducrée. Single-step, multi-parameter monitoring of liver function on a portable centrifugal analyzer. In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences (μTAS 2013), October 27-31, Freiburg, Germany, pages 1147-1149, 2013.

Elsewhere the Physics Education group have had a paper published in the American Journal of Physics, focusing on undergraduate students' understanding of some of the basic concepts in electromagnetism. The details are as follows:

Probing university students' understanding of electromotive force in electricity

Isabel Garzón, Mieke De Cock, Kristina Zuza, Paul van Kampen, and Jenaro Guisasola

Citation: American Journal of Physics 82, 72 (2014); doi: 10.1119/1.4833637

Finally the astronomy group's paper:  "Multi-wavelength Observations of PSR B1259-63 around the 2010-2011 Periastron Passage" has just been accepted for a publication in the Monthly Notes of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Tomorrow it will appear on astro-ph, let me know if you need a number.

Authors: M. Chernyakova, A. A. Abdo, A. Neronov, M. V. McSwain, J. Moldón, M. Ribó, J.M. Paredes, I. Sushch, M. de Naurois, U. Schwanke, Y. Uchiyama, K. Wood, S. Johnston, S. Chaty, A. Coleiro, D. Malyshev, Iu. Babyk

Abstract:    We report on broad multi-wavelength observations of the 2010-2011 periastron passage of the gamma-ray loud binary system PSR B1259-63. High resolution interferometric radio observations establish extended radio emission trailing the position of the pulsar. Observations with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveal GeV gamma-ray flaring activity of the system, reaching the spin-down luminosity of the pulsar, around 30 days after periastron. There are no clear signatures of variability at radio, X-ray and TeV energies at the time of the GeV flare. Variability around periastron in the Hα emission line, can be interpreted as the gravitational interaction between the pulsar and the circumstellar disk. The equivalent width of the Hα grows from a few days before periastron until a few days later, and decreases again between 18 and 46 days after periastron. In near infrared we observe the similar decrease of the equivalent width of Brγ line between the 40th and 117th day after the periastron. For the idealized disk, the variability of the Hα line represents the variability of the mass and size of the disk. We discuss possible physical relations between the state of the disk and GeV emission under assumption that GeV flare is directly related to the decrease of the disk size.".

 

 2014 is off to a busy start and hopefully it will continue as such. Happy new year from all at the School of Physical Sciences.