Plug-in tubes allow tunable oil removal,droplet packing,and reaction incubation for time-controlled droplet-based assays

Here, we report a unique microfluidic technique that utilizes a membrane filter and plug-in tubes to remove oil and pack water-in-oil droplets for controlled incubation of droplet-based assays. This technique could be modularly incorporated into most droplet-generation devices without a need to alter the original designs. Our results show that removing excess oil to form tightly packed droplets allows for extended and controllable incubation for droplets traveling in microchannels. The efficiency of this technique was evaluated and confirmed using a time-dependent enzyme assay with a fluorometric readout. The system is also readily generalizable to control inter-droplet distance, crucial for studying droplet communication and pattern formation.     

The Relationship Between Institutional Expenditures and Degree Attainment at Baccalaureate Colleges

Enhancing student persistence and effectively managing financial resources present important challenges to higher education. Surprisingly, existing student persistence and attrition models offer little insight into the potential links between institutional expenditures and student persistence. This study examines the impact of institutional expenditures on 6-year cohort graduation rates at 363 Carnegie-classified Baccalaureate I and II institutions. The results suggest a positive and significant relationship between instructional and academic support expenditures and cohort graduation rates. As a result, researchers might consider ways to integrate expenditure variables into student persistence models. Institutions also might seek out ways to shift financial resources to areas that enhance student persistence and degree attainment. Additional research may serve to strengthen student persistence frameworks and improve links between persistence research and financial decisionmaking in colleges and universities.     

Manufacturing and wetting low-cost microfluidic cell separation devices

Deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) is a microfluidic size-based particle separation or filter technology with applications in cell separation and enrichment. Currently, there are no cost-effective manufacturing methods for this promising microfluidic technology. In this fabrication paper, however, we develop a simple, yet robust protocol for thermoplastic DLD devices using regulatory-approved materials and biocompatible methods. The final standalone device allowed for volumetric flow rates of 660 μl min⁻¹ while reducing the manufacturing time to <1 h. Optical profilometry and image analysis were employed to assess manufacturing accuracy and precision; the average replicated post height was 0.48% less than the average post height on the master mold and the average replicated array pitch was 1.1% less than the original design with replicated posts heights of 62.1 ± 5.1 μm (mean ± 6 standard deviations) and replicated array pitches of 35.6 ± 0.31 μm.     

Understanding patterns of food insecurity and family well-being amid the COVID-19 pandemic using daily surveys

This paper investigates economic and psychological hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic among a diverse sample (61% Latinx; 16% White; 9% Black; 14% mixed/other race) of socioeconomically disadvantaged parents (90% mothers; mean age = 35 years) and their elementary school-aged children (ages 4–11; 49% female) in rural Pennsylvania (N = 272). Families participating in a local food assistance program reported on food insecurity (FI) and parent and child mood and behavior daily from January to May 2020. Longitudinal models revealed that FI, negative parent and child mood, and child misbehavior significantly increased when schools closed; only FI and parent depression later decreased. FI decreased most among those who received the local food assistance program; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program receipt uniquely predicted decreases in child FI.     

ECVET and ECTS credit equivalency in higher education – A bridge too far?

The implementation within Europe of a credit system for vocational education and training known as ECVET is a European Commission priority. The potential for permeability between the ECVET and European Credit Transfer and accumulation System (ECTS) was foreseen in the Recommendation to establish ECVET in 2009, while the Bruges Communique of 2010 called for the promotion of flexible links between vocational and higher education and increased coherence between ECVET and ECTS. To this end a significant number of EU-funded projects were undertaken to explore compatibility between ECVET and ECTS. This article reviews the findings of these projects and reflects on their success in terms of achieving this policy goal. These bridging projects identified several points of compatibility between the two credit systems and produced valuable tools and frameworks to facilitate such permeability. Achieving credit equivalency between ECVET and ECTS does not appear feasible, rather the evidence points to using a learning outcomes-based equivalency framework. However, this article calls into question the sustainability of these project results with regard to the lack of success in translating these findings into practice and the lack of co-ordinated efforts to implement these findings at a national or pan European level.