Proposal for alternative, convertible and flexible types of Research Paper

Proposal for alternative, convertible and flexible types of accommodations for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games - Research Paper Example mated that the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil could provide ample accommodation for 33,000 visitors, this being the number of the hotel beds that are available (Berg, n.d.). The Olympic Games will definitely require more than this, considering that the number of visitors is expected to be much higher, estimated at a figure well above 50,000. Worse still is the fact that; the economic implication of the city would be even dire, if it engages in the erection of permanent facilities that are only to be used for accommodating the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games of 2016, and then fall short of business later. However, while uptight efforts are being made to avail the necessary accommodation through the construction of more hotels and accommodation facilities, it would even be more comfortable and innovative of the city, if it could devise other means of providing temporary accommodation, which still meets the required standards. One of the viable considerations for the temporary, yet quality accommodation provision for the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during the Olympic Games of 2016, is the use of Cruise Ship (Honeywell, n.d.). There are various reasons that make this option viable. First, the city of Rio de Janeiro is surrounded by water, which makes the use of cruise ship possible, as the visitors and the athletic members will only be sleeping in the regions surrounding the city. The advantage of this option is that; it will allow for the provision of ample accommodation in areas of close proximity to the city, thus allowing for the desired convenience. The second advantage is the fact that, the use of cruise ship will allow for the temporary provision of accommodation, thus eliminating the need for construction of permanent accommodation facilities, which may then lack sufficient business thereafter, thus resulting to unnecessary tying up of substantial resources in the substantial constructions (Honeywell, n .d.). The validity of this option is the fact that, the same

Development of a microfluidic device for extraction Essay

Development of a microfluidic device for extraction - Essay Example This newly microfluidic device for protein extraction may find an application in the area of proteomic research. Keywords: Microfluidic device; Sol-gel; Silica monolith; Protein extraction; Octadecyl (C18) 1. Introduction It is becoming increasingly important in the development of new medicines to use important a microfluidic tool for identifying proteins implicated in disease pathways. As the search for novel molecules to tackle diseases increases, the need to identify proteins on biological targets also increases. Efficient extraction of proteins is the most critical step for proteomics by removing the interfering materials and improving the detection sensitivity (Ahn & Wang, 2008). The recently invented silica monolithic materials are highly permeable to liquid flow and have high mass transport compared with the packed beds. Moreover, the monolithic stationary phase does not need frits, which can cause air bubbles to form and the proteins can be adsorbed into the frits and remain trapped (Cabrera et al., 2002 ). Fabrication silica monolith inside the microfluidic devices can decrease the volume of the sample and the reagents, and reduce the time of the analysis (Girault et al., 2004). Bienvenue et al. (2006) have observed that the negative aspect of the sol-gel monolith in microfluidic device is the fact that it shrinks while the monolith is formed. They further explain that this is can then cause the creation of an opening between the silica network and the microchip wall resulting in reduced surface area for protein adsoption. The aim of this contribution is to investigate the fabrication of a simple microfluidic device contained in a crack-free silica monolith to decrease sample handling, reduce contamination, be truly portable, and decrease analysis time. Moreover, its aim is to modify the surface of the silica monolith to Octadecyl silica (ODS) to use it for pre-concentration and extraction of proteins. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. Chemicals and materi als Poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) MW=10,000 Da, trimethylchlorosilane, tetramethylorthosilicate 99 % (TMOS), chlorodimethyloctadecylsilane 95 %, 2,6-lutidine 99 %, NaCl, and trizma base were purchased from Sigma Aldrich (Poole, UK) and used as received without any further purification. Bovine pancreas insulin, bovine heart cytochrome C, chicken egg white lysozyme, ?-lactoglobulin from milk bovine, haemoglobin from human, and bovine serum albumin (BSA) were purchased from the same. Nitric acid, ammonia, toluene, HPLC grade acetonitrile (ACN), and trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was obtained from Fisher Scientific UK Ltd. (Loughborough, UK). MicroTight Adapter was purchased from Kinesis (Cambs, UK). Poly (ether ether ketone) (PEEK) tubing was purchased from Anachem (Luton, UK). 2.2. Instrumentation Baby bee syringe pump from Bioanalytical System Inc. (West Lafayette, USA). The instrument used for detection was HPLC-UV detection: 785A UV/Visible Detector from Perkin Elmer (California, USA). T he reversed-phase analytical column was Symmetry C8 column, 4.6 mm ? 250 mm packed with silica particles (size 5 Â µm) from Thermo Fisher Scientific (Loughborough, UK). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) (EVO 60. Manufacturer: Carl Zeiss Ltd. (Welwyn Garden City, UK). SEMPREP 2 Sputter Coater from Nanotechnology Ltd. (Sandy, UK). 2.3. Fabrication of the silica-based