Minimal Input Selection for Robust Control

This paper studies the problem of selecting a minimum-size set of input nodes to guarantee stability of a networked system in the presence of uncertainties and time delays. Current approaches to input selection in networked dynamical systems focus on nominal systems with known parameter values in the absence of delays. We derive sufficient conditions for existence of a stabilizing controller for an uncertain system that are based on a subset of system modes lying within the controllability subspace induced by the set of inputs. We then formulate the minimum input selection problem and prove that it is equivalent to a discrete optimization problem with bounded submodularity ratio, leading to polynomial-time algorithms with provable optimality bounds. We show that our approach is applicable to different types of uncertainties, including additive and multiplicative uncertainties in the system matrices as well as uncertain time delays. We demonstrate our approach in a numerical case study on the IEEE 39-bus test power system.Comment: This is a revised version of the paper that appeared in the proceedings of the 56th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), Melbourne, Australia, December, 201

Lightweight Estimation of Hand Mesh and Biomechanically Feasible Kinematic Parameters

3D hand pose estimation is a long-standing challenge in both robotics and computer vision communities due to its implicit depth ambiguity and often strong self-occlusion. Recently, in addition to the hand skeleton, jointly estimating hand pose and shape has gained more attraction. State-of-the-art methods adopt a model-free approach, estimating the vertices of the hand mesh directly and providing superior accuracy compared to traditional model-based methods directly regressing the parameters of the parametric hand mesh. However, with the large number of mesh vertices to estimate, these methods are often slow in inference. We propose an efficient variation of the previously proposed image-to-lixel approach to efficiently estimate hand meshes from the images. Leveraging recent developments in efficient neural architectures, we significantly reduce the computation complexity without sacrificing the estimation accuracy. Furthermore, we introduce an inverted kinematic(IK) network to translate the estimated hand mesh to a biomechanically feasible set of joint rotation parameters, which is necessary for applications that leverage pose estimation for controlling robotic hands. Finally, an optional post-processing module is proposed to refine the rotation and shape parameters to compensate for the error introduced by the IK net. Our Lite I2L Mesh Net achieves state-of-the-art joint and mesh estimation accuracy with less than $13\%$ of the total computational complexity of the original I2L hand mesh estimator. Adding the IK net and post-optimization modules can improve the accuracy slightly at a small computation cost, but more importantly, provide the kinematic parameters required for robotic applications

Effect of mesenchymal stem cell-incorporated hydroxyapatite-collagen scaffold on tissue repair in acute spinal cord injury, and the mechanism involved

Purpose: To study the effect of hydroxyapatite-collagen (HC) scaffold with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on tissue repair in acute spinal cord  injury (SCI).Method: Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 200 - 230 g were randomly divided into two groups implanted either with bone marrow-MSCs (experimental group) or HC scaffold alone (control group). Spinal cord injury was induced using laminectomy, resulting in a 2.0-mm gap at T10 of the spinal cord. The gap was filled in both groups with 2-mm HC scaffold at day 10 of culture. Cellular development, viability, and proliferation inside the scaffold were determined. Angiogenesis was determined by measuring fibronectin (FN) immunofluorescence, von Willebrand factor (vWF), hypoxiainducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).Results: HC scaffold strengthened MSCs. Bone marrow MSCs exhibited no statistically significant difference when compared with cells in culture at day 10 (47.03 ± 3.135 %, p > 0.05). Moreover, on days 5 and 10, FN deposition was higher in MSCs with scaffold than in scaffold-free MSCs. The expressions of FN, vWF, HIF-1α and VEGF were positively correlated, indicating that incorporation of HC scaffold into MSCs significantly improved tissue repair by improving angiogenesis via a differentiation process (p < 0.001).Conclusion: These findings suggest that HC scaffold with MSCs is a potential therapeutic procedure for spinal cord injury. Keywords: Mesenchymal stem cells, Hydroxyapatite-collagen, Spinal cord injury, HC scaffol

Research on the influence mechanism of rural tourism gentrification based on rural revitalization

Based on the background of China’s social development in the new era and the realistic needs of rural revitalization and sustainable tourism development, this paper takes typical rural tourism destinations in Huzhou city, Zhejiang Province and Huangshan city, Anhui Province as examples, and discusses the influence mechanism of rural tourism gentrification using grounded theory. The results show that the driving mechanism of rural tourism gentrification acts on rural areas through different ways, promoting the development and evolution of rural tourism gentrification. The interactive influence mechanism of rural tourism gentrification advances the sustainable development of rural tourism and rural revitalization. This study enriches the research on rural tourism gentrification and provides theoretical support and practical reference for rural revitalization and the sustainable development of rural tourism

BPTF promotes tumor growth and predicts poor prognosis in lung adenocarcinomas.

BPTF, a subunit of NURF, is well known to be involved in the development of eukaryotic cell, but little is known about its roles in cancers, especially in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Here we showed that BPTF was specifically overexpressed in NSCLC cell lines and lung adenocarcinoma tissues. Knockdown of BPTF by siRNA significantly inhibited cell proliferation, induced cell apoptosis and arrested cell cycle progress from G1 to S phase. We also found that BPTF knockdown downregulated the expression of the phosphorylated Erk1/2, PI3K and Akt proteins and induced the cleavage of caspase-8, caspase-7 and PARP proteins, thereby inhibiting the MAPK and PI3K/AKT signaling and activating apoptotic pathway. BPTF knockdown by siRNA also upregulated the cell cycle inhibitors such as p21 and p18 but inhibited the expression of cyclin D, phospho-Rb and phospho-cdc2 in lung cancer cells. Moreover, BPTF knockdown by its specific shRNA inhibited lung cancer growth in vivo in the xenografts of A549 cells accompanied by the suppression of VEGF, p-Erk and p-Akt expression. Immunohistochemical assay for tumor tissue microarrays of lung tumor tissues showed that BPTF overexpression predicted a poor prognosis in the patients with lung adenocarcinomas. Therefore, our data indicate that BPTF plays an essential role in cell growth and survival by targeting multiply signaling pathways in human lung cancers

Detection of incoherent broadband terahertz light using antenna-coupled high-electron-mobility field-effect transistors

The sensitivity of direct terahertz detectors based on self-mixing of terahertz electromagnetic wave in field-effect transistors is being improved with noise-equivalent power close to that of Schottky-barrier-diode detectors. Here we report such detectors based on AlGaN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas at 77~K are able to sense broadband and incoherent terahertz radiation. The measured photocurrent as a function of the gate voltage agrees well with the self-mixing model and the spectral response is mainly determined by the antenna. A Fourier-transform spectrometer equipped with detectors designed for 340, 650 and 900~GHz bands allows for terahertz spectroscopy in a frequency range from 0.1 to 2.0~THz. The 900~GHz detector at 77~K offers an optical sensitivity about $1~\mathrm{pW/\sqrt{Hz}}$ being comparable to a commercial silicon bolometer at 4.2~K. By further improving the sensitivity, room-temperature detectors would find applications in active/passive terahertz imaging and terahertz spectroscopy.Comment: 4.5 pages, 5 figure

Analytical Solution of Poisson's Equation with Application to VLSI Global Placement

Poisson's equation has been used in VLSI global placement for describing the potential field caused by a given charge density distribution. Unlike previous global placement methods that solve Poisson's equation numerically, in this paper, we provide an analytical solution of the equation to calculate the potential energy of an electrostatic system. The analytical solution is derived based on the separation of variables method and an exact density function to model the block distribution in the placement region, which is an infinite series and converges absolutely. Using the analytical solution, we give a fast computation scheme of Poisson's equation and develop an effective and efficient global placement algorithm called Pplace. Experimental results show that our Pplace achieves smaller placement wirelength than ePlace and NTUplace3. With the pervasive applications of Poisson's equation in scientific fields, in particular, our effective, efficient, and robust computation scheme for its analytical solution can provide substantial impacts on these fields