Micro filtration membrane sieve with silicon micro machining for industrial and biomedical applications
With the use of silicon micromachining an inorganic membrane sieve for microfiltration is constructed, having a siliconnitride membrane layer with thickness typically 1 pm and perforations typically between 0.5 pm and 10 pm ::: in diameter. As a support a -silicon wafer with openings of loo0 pm in diameter is used. The thin siliconnitride layer is deposited on an initial dense support by means of a suitable Chemical Vapour Deposition method ::: (LPCVD). Perforations in the membrane layer are obtained through the use of standard microlithography and reactive ion etching (RIE). The flow rate behaviour and the pressure strength of the membrane sieve are calculated in a first approximation. A process for manufacturing is presented and some industrial and biomedical applications are discussed.
The establishment of reliable serological methods for cysticercosis in pigs is important for the surveillance, control and prevention of taeniosis/cysticercosis in humans as well as in pigs to prevent economic loss. Both ELISA and immunoblot using glycoproteins (GPs) purified by a single step of preparative iso-electric focusing, which are highly useful for human cysticercosis, have been applied for a serological study in pigs naturally infected with Taenia solium . All sera from pigs showed similar responses to those in human cysticercosis. Therefore, it is expected that both ELISA and immunoblots using GPs would be useful in differentiating infected pigs from uninfected ones.