Microfluidic integration of substantially round glass capillaries for lateral patch clamping on chip

High-throughput screening of drug candidates for channelopathies can greatly benefit from an automated patch-clamping assay. Automation of the patch clamping through microfluidics ideally requires on-chip integration of glass capillaries with substantially round cross section. Such round capillaries, if they can only be integrated to connect isolated reservoirs on a substrate surface, will lead to a "lateral" configuration which is simple yet powerful for the patch clamping. We demonstrate here "lateral" patch clamping through microfluidic integration of substantially round glass capillaries in a novel process. The process adopts two well-known phenomena from microelectronics: keyhole-void formation and thermal-reflow of phosphosilicate glass in silicon trenches. The process relies on the same physical principle as the preparation of conventional micropipette electrodes by heat-pulling and fire-polishing glass tubes. The optimized process forms capillaries with a diameter approximately 1.5 microm and variation <10%. Functionality of the integrated glass capillaries for the patch-clamp recording has been verified by statistical test results from a sample of one hundred capillaries on mammalian cells (RBL-1) in suspension: 61% formed gigaseals (>1 GOmega) and of those approximately 48% (29% of all) achieved whole-cell recordings. Pharmacological blockade of ion channel activity and longevity of a whole-cell mode on these capillaries have also been presented.     

Optimization of a high-performance liquid chromatography method for the separation and identification of six different classes of phenolics

Flavonoids are chemical moieties widely distributed in certain plants that are important biologically active constituents of a daily human diet, with significant pharmacological potential (anti-hepatotoxic, anti-allergic, anti-inflammatory, anti-osteoporotic, and anti-tumor activities). Thus keeping in view the importance of this class of compounds, a rapid method for the separation and identification of fifteen phenols belonging to six different types of phenolics in a sole analysis has been developed and validated using selectivity, precision, recovery, and robustness as parameters. The method developed, which is rapid, accurate, and robust for the analysis of different classes of phenols, can be used in the quality control and standardization of plant extracts as well as herbal drugs, including compound herbal formulations.     

Temperature-Dependent Dielectric Relaxation of 2-Ethoxyethanol, Ethanol, and 1-Propanol in Dimethylformamide Solution Using the Time-Domain Technique

Complex reflection coefficients for 2-ethoxyethanol–dimethylformamide (DMF), ethanol–DMF, and 1-propanol–DMF mixtures at several temperatures from 20 to 50° and the frequency range 10 MHz to 10 GHz were determined by time-domain spectroscopy in reflection mode. Fourier transforms and least-squares fitting were used to obtain complex permittivity, static dielectric constant, and relaxation time. The excess dielectric parameters, Kirkwood correlation factors, and thermodynamic properties for the binary mixtures were also determined. The static dielectric constant for the mixtures was fitted well with the modified Bruggeman model.     

Bilayer exchange coupling and neel temperature of YBa2Cu3O6.2

The present paper attempts to study the Neel temperature of bilayer antiferromagnetic cuprate YBa₂Cu₃O_6.2 within anisotropic Heisenberg model. The double time Green’s function formalism within random phase approximation (RPA) has been used to obtain various correlation functions. The magnetization and the Neel temperature (T _N) are evaluated. It is observed that the ratio of intrabilayer to inplane exchange coupling (r=J⊥/J‖) plays an important role in the magnetic dynamics of bilayer systems. The recent experimental data of bilayer system YBa₂Cu₃O_6.2 have been used to estimate the ratio r from the expression for Neel temperature. The estimated values of spin gap and the ratio of hopping matrix elements t⊥/t‖ are found to be in fairly good agreement with the existing experimental results.     

Morphology of polyethylene–carbon black composites

Carbon black is a common polymer additive that is used for reinforcement and for its ability to enhance physical properties, such as conductivity. This article pertains to an X‐ray scattering (SAXS) study of a conductive grade of carbon black and carbon black–polymer composites. The scattering pattern for such blacks displays a surface‐fractal‐like power‐law decay over many decades in scattering vector q. It is often assumed that small‐angle scattering from carbon black aggregates can be described in terms of surface‐fractal models, related to particles with fractally rough surfaces. Such self‐similar surface roughness is usually easy to identify by microscopy; however, electron microscopy from these blacks fails to support this assumption. It is proposed here that this apparent surface‐fractal scattering actually represents a more complicated morphology, including overlapping structural features and a power‐law scaling of polydispersity. One use of conductive black–polyethylene composites is in circuit protection devices where resistive heating leads to a reversible association of carbon black aggregates that controls switching between a conductive and a nonconductive state. Scattering can be used as an in situ tool to observe the morphological signature of this reversible structural change. Scattering patterns support a model for this switching based on local enhancement of concentration and the formation of linear agglomerates associated with the matrix polymer's semicrystalline morphology. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 37: 1105–1119, 1999