Wider use and adaptation of microfluidics is hindered by the infrastructure, knowledge, and time required to build prototype systems, especially when multiple fluid operations and measurements are required. As a result, 3D printing of microfluidics is attracting interest, yet cannot readily achieve the feature size, smoothness, and optical transparency needed for many standard microfluidic systems. Herein we present a new approach to the design and construction of high-precision modular microfluidics, using standard injection-molded blocks that are modified using micromilling and assembled via elastically averaged contacts. Desktop micromilling achieves channel dimensions as small as 50 μm depth and 150 μm width and adhesive films seal channels to allow internal fluid pressure of >400 kPa. Elastically averaged connections between bricks result in a mechanical locating repeatability of ∼1 μm, enabling fluid to pass between bricks via an O-ring seal with >99.9% reliability. We demonstrated and tested block-based systems for generating droplets at rates above 9000 min and COV <3%, and integrated optical sensors. We also show how blocks can be used to build easily reconfigurable interfaces with glass microfluidic devices and imaging hardware. Microfluidic bricks fabricated by FDM and SLA 3D printing cannot achieve the dimensional quality of molded bricks, yet 3D printing allows customized bricks to be integrated with standard LEGOs. Our approach enables a wide variety of modular microfluidic units to be built using a widely available, cost-effective platform, encouraging use in both research and education.

The precise arrangement of microscopic objects is critical to the development of functional materials and ornately patterned surfaces. Here, we present an acoustics-based method for the rapid arrangement of microscopic particles into organized and programmable architectures, which are periodically spaced within a square assembly chamber. This macroscale device employs two-dimensional bulk acoustic standing waves to propel particles along the base of the chamber toward pressure nodes or antinodes, depending on the acoustic contrast factor of the particle, and is capable of simultaneously creating thousands of size-limited, isotropic and anisotropic assemblies within minutes. We pair experiments with Brownian dynamics simulations to model the migration kinetics and assembly patterns of spherical microparticles. We use these insights to predict and subsequently validate the onset of buckling of the assemblies into three-dimensional clusters by experiments upon increasing the acoustic pressure amplitude and the particle concentration. The simulations are also used to inform our experiments for the assembly of non-spherical particles, which are then recovered via fluid evaporation and directly inspected by electron microscopy. This method for assembly of particles offers several notable advantages over other approaches (e.g., magnetics, electrokinetics and optical tweezing) including simplicity, speed and scalability and can also be used in concert with other such approaches for enhancing the types of assemblies achievable.

Published regression equations relating digestibility of starch to fecal starch concentration have slopes that differ by over 5-fold. Hence, nutritionists have questioned their legitimacy. Total-tract starch digestibility and concentration of starch in feces are interlocked mathematically by 2 factors-starch content of the diet and digestibility of diet DM. Digestibility data compiled from the published literature including 201 diets fed to lactating dairy cows and 191 diets fed to feedlot cattle were employed to reexamine the relationships of digestibility to fecal concentrations of starch and NDF. Regression analyses and plots clearly illustrated imprecision of this relationship when diet starch content and digestibility of diet DM were ignored. Furthermore, because fecal starch and diet digestibility are related inversely, mathematics implies that starch digestibility is related curvilinearly to fecal starch concentration. Effects of site of starch digestion on extent of digestion and energetic efficiency also were examined. Direct digestibility measurements for nutrients and energy can preclude errors involved with in vitro availability assays, prove more economical than laboratory procedures to predict nutrient digestibility, and provide more applicable data concerning energy availability when compared with summing tabular means for feedstuffs from publications or from computerized diet formulation programs. When combined with DMI, direct digestibility measurements should markedly improve precision for quantifying amounts of nutrients and energy available for maintenance and performance by productive ruminants in dairies or feedlots. As with all analytical procedures, accurate digestibility measurement requires representative sampling and proper analysis of diets and feces.