Investigation of Interactions between Two Monoclonal Antibodies and SARS Virus with a Label-Free Protein Array

The investigation of interactions between two kinds of monoclonal antibodies and SARS virus with a label-free protein array technique were presented in this paper. The performance consists of three parts: a surface modification for ligand immobilization/surface, a protein array fabrication with an integrated microfluidic system for patterning, packaging and liquid handling, and a protein array reader of imaging ellipsometer. This revealed the technique could be used as an immunoassay for qualitative and quantitative detection as wen as kinetic analysis of biomolecule interaction.

Assessing the accessibility of everyday products

If a product is being designed to be genuinely inclusive, then the designers need to be able to assess the level of exclusion of the product that they are working on and to identify possible areas of improvement. To be of practical use, the assessments need to be quick, consistent and repeatable. The aim of this workshop is to invite attendees to participate in the evaluation of a number of everyday objects using an assessment technique being considered by the workshop organisers. The objectives of the workshop include evaluating the effectiveness of the assessment method, evaluating the accessibility of the products being assessed and to suggest revisions to the assessment scales being used. The assessment technique is to be based on the ONS capability measures [1]. This source recognises fourteen capability scales of which seven are particularly pertinent to product evaluation, namely: motion, dexterity, reach and stretch, vision, hearing, communication, and intellectual functioning. Each of these scales ranges from 0 (fully able) through 1 (minimal impairment) to 10 (severe impairment). The attendees will be asked to rate the products on these scales. Clearly the assessed accessibility of the product depends on the assumptions made about the context of use. The attendees will be asked to clearly note the assumptions that they are making about the context in which the product is being assessed. For instance, with a hot water bottle, assumptions have to be made about the availability of hot water and these can affect the overall accessibility rating. The workshop organisers will not specify the context of use as the aim is to identify how assessors would use the assessment method in the real world. The objects being assessed will include items such as remote controls, pill bottles, food packaging, hot water bottles and mobile telephones. the attendees will be encouraged to assess two or more products in detail. Helpers will be on hand to assist and observe the assessments. The assessments will be collated and compared and feedback about the assessment method sought from the attendees. Drawing on a preliminary review of the assessment results, initial conclusions will be presented at the end of the workshop. More detailed analyses will be made available in subsequent proceedings. It is intended that the workshop will provide workshop attendees with an opportunity to perform hands-on assessment of a number everyday products and identify features which are inclusive and those that are not. It is also intended to encourage an appreciation of the capabilities to be considered when evaluating accessibility.

Strategies for transfer of aquaculture technology to small-scale fish farmers in Nigeria

There is increasing awareness of aquaculture in Nigeria today for a number of reasons namely: water pollution, declining catch and the awareness of the attractiveness of aquaculture as an investment area and a pivotal point for national development. The development of aquaculture in Nigeria, requires the building up of institutions at the grassroot level and the formulation of policies and programmes for the small fishfarmer. This of course would be backed up by a sound technology generation, verification and packaging, dissemination and use programme

Artisanal containers and transportation for smoke-dried fish in Nigeria

The packaging containers and means of transportation for Nigerian smoke-dried fish from harvesting all through the post-harvest chain were described. Sacks, paper cartons, wooden rackets, cane and bamboo baskets were predominantly used packaging containers. Means of transportation ranged from wheelbarrows, motorcycle, lorries, to pick-up vehicles and trucks. The major area of improvement is seen in packaging at the wholesale level. To overcome the constraints within the system, both the public and private sectors must provide effective services that benefit fishermen, processors, wholesalers, retailers, organisation and other key participants that make the work. Suggestions for reducing post harvest losses and improving the efficiency of the existing distribution system, based on the various need of the stake holders and the socio-cultural settings of the application were proffered

Coupled plasmonic systems and devices : applications in visible metamaterials, nanophotonic circuits, and CMOS imaging

With the size of transistors approaching the sub-nanometer scale and Si-based photonics pinned at the micrometer scale due to the diffraction limit of light, we are unable to easily integrate the high transfer speeds of this comparably bulky technology with the increasingly smaller architecture of state-of-the-art processors. However, we find that we can bridge the gap between these two technologies by directly coupling electrons to photons through the use of dispersive metals in optics. Doing so allows us to access the surface electromagnetic wave excitations that arise at a metal/dielectric interface, a feature which both confines and enhances light in subwavelength dimensions - two promising characteristics for the development of integrated chip technology. This platform is known as plasmonics, and it allows us to design a broad range of complex metal/dielectric systems, all having different nanophotonic responses, but all originating from our ability to engineer the system surface plasmon resonances and interactions. In this thesis, we demonstrate how plasmonics can be used to develop coupled metal-dielectric systems to function as tunable plasmonic hole array color filters for CMOS image sensing, visible metamaterials composed of coupled negative-index plasmonic coaxial waveguides, and programmable plasmonic waveguide network systems to serve as color routers and logic devices at telecommunication wavelengths.