French language instruction as a national issue

Conclusion In this brief look at French-language instruction in Canada, I have tried to consider a number of possible approaches to the problem. My emphasis has been on the pragmatic and the practical because I believe that Canadians need to look at the matter in this way and not in overblown emotional terms.Providing solid French language programs throughout our school system is not a frill. It is the basic option that we must offer our children if we want them to have the fullest opportunity to participate in Canadian life.     

Hand-powered microfluidics: A membrane pump with a patient-to-chip syringe interface

In this paper, we present an on-chip hand-powered membrane pump using a robust patient-to-chip syringe interface. This approach enables safe sample collection, sample containment, integrated sharps disposal, high sample volume capacity, and controlled downstream flow with no electrical power requirements. Sample is manually injected into the device via a syringe and needle. The membrane pump inflates upon injection and subsequently deflates, delivering fluid to downstream components in a controlled manner. The device is fabricated from poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and silicone, using CO₂ laser micromachining, with a total material cost of ∼0.20 USD/device. We experimentally demonstrate pump performance for both deionized (DI) water and undiluted, anticoagulated mouse whole blood, and characterize the behavior with reference to a resistor-capacitor electrical circuit analogy. Downstream output of the membrane pump is regulated, and scaled, by connecting multiple pumps in parallel. In contrast to existing on-chip pumping mechanisms that typically have low volume capacity (∼5 μL) and sample volume throughput (∼1–10 μl/min), the membrane pump offers high volume capacity (up to 240 μl) and sample volume throughput (up to 125 μl/min).