Robust H∞ feedback control for uncertain stochastic delayed genetic regulatory networks with additive and multiplicative noise

The official published version can found at the link below.Noises are ubiquitous in genetic regulatory networks (GRNs). Gene regulation is inherently a stochastic process because of intrinsic and extrinsic noises that cause kinetic parameter variations and basal rate disturbance. Time delays are usually inevitable due to different biochemical reactions in such GRNs. In this paper, a delayed stochastic model with additive and multiplicative noises is utilized to describe stochastic GRNs. A feedback gene controller design scheme is proposed to guarantee that the GRN is mean-square asymptotically stable with noise attenuation, where the structure of the controllers can be specified according to engineering requirements. By applying control theory and mathematical tools, the analytical solution to the control design problem is given, which helps to provide some insight into synthetic biology and systems biology. The control scheme is employed in a three-gene network to illustrate the applicability and usefulness of the design.This work was funded by Royal Society of the U.K.; Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China. Grant Number: 2007E4; Heilongjiang Outstanding Youth Science Fund of China. Grant Number: JC200809; Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation. Grant Number: 111064; International Science and Technology Cooperation Project of China. Grant Number: 2009DFA32050; University of Science and Technology of China Graduate Innovative Foundation

Science diplomacy with swissnex China: A Swiss nation brand initiative

Switzerland has a long tradition of expertise in the fields of science, research and education, with “science diplomacy” (SD) now assuming an important role for innovation economies. Past experience shows that international scientific cooperation can have valuable outcomes for the involved countries and complements traditional foreign policy and diplomacy. In Switzerland, a worldwide network of science and technology outposts under the auspices of the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER) in cooperation with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) was established in 2000. The very swissnex network around the world defines one of those established science diplomacy instruments. In this article, we discuss the swissnex office in China, which acts both as a physical and virtual environment to foster closer ties between Switzerland and China in science and technology, innovation and culture. This case study examines the history and mission of swissnex China, its role and organizational structure, and reviews other nations’ comparable branding initiatives. The paper analyzes clients and partners as well as the main challenges for swissnex China during its three years of operation

Social Networks and Academic Failure: A Case Study of Rural Students in China

This study aims to explain how local contextual factors shape network influences on students’ schooling. Many studies demonstrate how network members support students to achieve academic success by providing different kinds of resources. However, literature also shows that sometimes network members refuse to provide the assistance students need. Why are there these variations in network effects? This thesis argues that social structural factors within local communities may influence the effects that social networks have on the academic performance of students. This study employs a case study method to explore how the social structure of a local community influences network effects on students’ educational pathways. The research is focused on a group of youth who dropped out of school before completing their junior high school education in a coastal rural community in Fujian, China. Data are drawn from interviews with eight former students and two teachers in the community, as well as documents and other contextual information from the study site. Participants’ stories demonstrate how social structural factors in the local community shape the impact of social networks on students’ schooling. Due to globalisation, an increasing number of manufacturers are moving their production lines or assembly lines to China, creating extensive employment opportunities in factories and service industries, especially in the Coastal region. This labour market structure shapes the network influences on students in two ways. Firstly, the lack of a middle class in the community constrains local residents from aspiring to middle class life. Secondly, because the community has few highly skilled jobs that require advanced educational credentials, local people devalue education and have no motivation to mobilise resources to support students’ schooling. Since education is perceived to have limited value in this community, members of the networks with which these eight students associate discourage them from studying hard and do not offer resources they need to sustain their schooling; instead, they encourage respondents to get a job before completing their compulsory education. In this case, the labour market structure in the local community has a powerful impact on the ways in which network members influence academic performance of students

Thoughts on Constructing Online Education Course of Constitution in China

As a compulsory course of law specialty in China s online higher diploma education online education course of constitution has the features that meet the necessity of distance education in the Internet age as well as the basic requirements of constitutional course teaching to be a vital way to perfect the constitutional course teaching The springing up of various network media technology and the lower demands for the software and hardware in learning the course provides the indispensable components for the realization of constitutional online education course The design of teaching technique environment teaching structure teaching contents and the evaluation of teaching quality is the elemental path for constructing constitutional online education cours

Protein Evolution in Yeast Transcription Factor Subnetworks

When averaged over the full yeast protein–protein interaction and transcriptional regulatory networks, protein hubs with many interaction partners or regulators tend to evolve significantly more slowly due to increased negative selection. However, genome-wide analysis of protein evolution in the subnetworks of associations involving yeast transcription factors (TFs) reveals that TF hubs do not tend to evolve significantly more slowly than TF non-hubs. This result holds for all four major types of TF hubs: interaction hubs, regulatory in-degree and out-degree hubs, as well as co-regulatory hubs that jointly regulate target genes with many TFs. Furthermore, TF regulatory in-degree hubs tend to evolve significantly more quickly than TF non-hubs. Most importantly, the correlations between evolutionary rate (KA/KS) and degrees for TFs are significantly more positive than those for generic proteins within the same global protein–protein interaction and transcriptional regulatory networks. Compared to generic protein hubs, TF hubs operate at a higher level in the hierarchical structure of cellular networks, and hence experience additional evolutionary forces (relaxed negative selection or positive selection through network rewiring). The striking difference between the evolution of TF hubs and generic protein hubs demonstrates that components within the same global network can be governed by distinct organizational and evolutionary principles.National Natural Science Foundation of China (10801131, 10631070); National Science Foundation (DGE-0654108); Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Foundation (Research Starter Grant in Informatics); K. C. Wong Education Foundatio

Relationships between consecutive long-term and mid-term mobility decisions over the life course: a bayesian network approach

Long-term and mid-term mobility decision processes in different life trajectories generate complex dynamics, in which consecutive life events are interrelated and time dependent. This study uses the Bayesian network approach to study the dynamic relationships among residential events, household structure events, employment/education events, and car ownership events. Using retrospective data obtained from a web-based survey in Beijing, China, first structure learning is used to discover the direct and indirect relationships between these mobility decisions. Parameter learning is then applied to describe the conditional probabilities and predict the direct and indirect effects of actions and policies in the resulting network. The results confirm the interdependencies between these long-term and mid-term mobility decisions, and evidence the reactive and proactive behavior of individuals and households in the context of various life events over the course of their lives. In this regard, it is important to note that an increase in household size has a contemporaneous effect on car acquisition in the future; while residential events have a synergic relationship with employment/education events. Moreover, if people’s residential location or workplace/study location will move from an urban district to a suburban or outer suburban district, it has both lagged and concurrent effects on car acquisition

Innovation in China: A qualitative research

This study aims to examine the topic of innovation in China. The need for innovative development is of importance for the nation to keep the rapid development. A few evaluations of both Chinas indigenous innovation policy and the opportunities for the citizens to develop innovation has criticized the lack of creativity in human resources and the examination based education system to be harmful for the development of innovation. To question these critiques interviews were conducted with seven people, who are engaged working with innovation in China. The personal opinions based in experience in the field of innovation and their involvement in China as R&D consultant, professor of strategy and Innovation, director of research center, program director of R&D executive program, General Manager, program development manager and Engineering Manager. The results were compared and analyzed into themes. The findings indicated that there is a complex relationship of factors that promotes or hinders innovation in different organizations. The results were than analyzed through the sociological theory of agency and structure by Anthony Giddens. Social structures has impact of on creativity and innovation and how the network of people available influence the outcome of innovations to be available for implementation. The most important finding is the importance of creating incentives for the individual in different areas of society and different types of innovation is not necessarily hindered by the examination based education system or lack or creativity n human resources. Innovation can be nurtured by the right organizations

A comparative analysis of entrepreneurial initiatives and the draft of a financially sustainable business model for CHIP

CHIC is a pedagogic initiative providing a real interdisciplinary business experience for engineering, business and design students from Lausanne. In 2016, it was expanded as the pilot project – China Hardware Innovation Platform (CHIP) – to different regions in Switzerland. Thanks to the author’s participation in the pilot project as a representative of Geneva, extensive research of enterprise education and interviews with various stakeholders, this paper provides a thorough analysis of the pilot project and explores three financially sustainable business models. The personal engagement of the founder Marc Laperrouza with a wide network and CHIP’s focus on the engineering perspective emphasised due to the commitment of EPFL are the initiative’s key strengths. On the downside, it also represents weaknesses and inflexibilities, such as the focus on a connected device and the heavy cost structure due to the trip to China. Taking into consideration the value created by the pilot project for students, institutions, individuals within these institutions and the CHIC community, as well as the different external and internal funding possibilities, three sustainable business models are proposed. Each model prioritises different goals. The pedagogic model creates a clear separation of responsibilities between the CHIC administration and participating regions. Due to the add-on pricing strategy, the regions provide funding proportional to the service they receive. This model leaves the responsibility for financing with the institutions, which benefit the most from this constellation. The lean pedagogic model focuses on reducing the variable costs of the project by omitting the costly trip to China. For this fundamental change, the relevant goals are closely reassessed. Simultaneously, it maximises the pedagogic outcome for students and institutions. The value creation model proposes a profound change in the structure and nature of CHIP. It proposes an overreaching interdisciplinary centre with a focus on problem-solving for external stakeholders. This approach will increase the organisation’s complexity, but facilitate funding. It is in line with current research in enterprise education

Referencing and borrowing from other systems: the Hong Kong education reforms

BACKGROUND: This paper analyses the role of, and approach to, policy referencing and borrowing in Hong Kong’s recent reforms that culminated in the creation of its New Academic Structure and the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education. MAIN ARGUMENT: It argues that Hong Kong has gone further than most jurisdictions not just in responding to global influences on education reform, but in taking explicit steps to internationally benchmark its curriculum and assessment, and in involving the global community at multiple levels in the process of education policy planning and implementation. SOURCES OF EVIDENCE AND METHOD: The paper is based on the documentary analysis of policy documents in Hong Kong, and 23 interviews with key stakeholders in the policy network, including policy-makers, practitioners and community leaders. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: While policy referencing and borrowing in the Hong Kong context can, in part, be traced to a colonial legacy, the Special Administrative Region of China demonstrates a collaborative approach to education reform involving local and international engagement that may be relevant to other systems. Its approach was informed by a measured use of policy referencing that involved ‘horizon scanning’ of other systems’ policies and practices; international benchmarking; and engaging international expertise to facilitate implementation

The People of the PLA 2.0

The 27th annual People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Conference—“The People in the PLA” 2.0—revisited a theme first explored at the 2006 conference but understudied since. This volume examines how the structure, education, training, and recruitment of PLA personnel have changed in the last decade and in the Xi Jinping era. Structural changes in the PLA have centered around two poles: improving the warfighting readiness of the PLA and strengthening Communist Party of China (CPC) control of the PLA. Reforms to the political work system, the evolution of the Second Artillery into the Rocket Force, and expansion of the PLA’s foreign-based force posture all indicate that the PLA is accelerating its drive to become a world-class military. To succeed in future “informatized” wars, the PLA recognizes it must improve its members’ education level. It seeks to leverage better China’s civilian education system while also addressing legacy issues that frustrate professional military education and the care of its veterans. The PLA is also reforming joint education and seeking insight from its exchanges and interactions with other nations’ militaries. The revamping of its academic institutions to support better its most technical and advanced entities for network warfare and other operations is indicative of the PLA’s fast-paced evolution.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1940/thumbnail.jp