Web 2.0 and Transfer: Trainers' Use of Technology to Support Employees' Learning Transfer on the Job

We steer transfer research in a new direction by examining the use of Web 2.0 technologies for supporting learning transfer resulting from formal training. We report survey results from training professionals (N = 83) on how their organization uses such methods to cue and support workers’ application of learned knowledge and skills on the job. Guided by the technology acceptance model (TAM) theory, we examined predictor variables found to influence technology use based on empirical and theoretical support in the information technology (IT) literature. Results indicate that trainers are influenced by several individual factors (computer experience, computer anxiety, and computer self‐efficacy), as well as their organization's learning climate, to use Web 2.0 tools to support transfer of learning. Trainers also prefer to use social media, networking applications, and visual media to support transfer among learners. We discuss implications for using Web 2.0 technologies in support of learning transfer and provide directions for future workplace learning research.     

High-throughput particle separation and concentration using spiral inertial filtration

A spiral inertial filtration (SIFT) device that is capable of high-throughput (1 ml/min), high-purity particle separation while concentrating recovered target particles by more than an order of magnitude is reported. This device is able to remove large fractions of sample fluid from a microchannel without disruption of concentrated particle streams by taking advantage of particle focusing in inertial spiral microfluidics, which is achieved by balancing inertial lift forces and Dean drag forces. To enable the calculation of channel geometries in the SIFT microsystem for specific concentration factors, an equivalent circuit model was developed and experimentally validated. Large particle concentration factors were then achieved by maintaining either the average fluid velocity or the Dean number throughout the entire length of the channel during the incremental removal of sample fluid. The SIFT device was able to separate MCF7 cells spiked into whole blood from the non-target white blood cells (WBC) with a recovery of nearly 100% while removing 93% of the sample volume, which resulted in a concentration enhancement of the MCF7 cancer cells by a factor of 14.     

Fabrication of rigid microstructures with thiol-ene-based soft lithography for continuous-flow cell lysis

In this work, we introduce a method for the soft-lithography-based fabrication of rigid microstructures and a new, simple bonding technique for use as a continuous-flow cell lysis device. While on-chip cell lysis techniques have been reported previously, these techniques generally require a long on-chip residence time, and thus cannot be performed in a rapid, continuous-flow manner. Microstructured microfluidic devices can perform mechanical lysis of cells, enabling continuous-flow lysis; however, rigid silicon-based devices require complex and expensive fabrication of each device, while polydimethylsiloxane (PMDS), the most common material used for soft lithography fabrication, is not rigid and expands under the pressures required, resulting in poor lysis performance. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of microfluidic microstructures from off-stoichiometry thiol-ene (OSTE) polymer using soft-lithography replica molding combined with a post-assembly cure for easy bonding. With finite element simulations, we show that the rigid microstructures generate an energy dissipation rate of nearly 10⁷, which is sufficient for continuous-flow cell lysis. Correspondingly, with the OSTE device we achieve lysis of highly deformable MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells at a rate of 85%, while a comparable PDMS device leads to a lysis rate of only 40%.     

Diary of a dream: A history of the national archives independence movement, 1980–1985 : Warner, Robert M. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1995. 211 pp. $32.50 (ISBN: 0-8108-2956-8)

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