Ctrl-MORE: A Framework to Integrate Controllers of Multi-DoF Robot for Developers and Users

In recent years, many different feedback controllers for robotic applications have been proposed and implemented. However, the high coupling between the different software modules made their integration into one common architecture difficult. Consequently, this has hindered the ability of a user to employ the different controllers into a single, general and modular framework. To address this problem, we present Ctrl-MORE, a software architecture developed to fill the gap between control developers and other users in robotic applications. On one hand, Ctrl-MORE aims to provide developers with an opportunity to integrate easily and share their controllers with other roboticists working in different areas. For example, manipulation, locomotion, vision and so on. On the other hand, it provides to end-users a tool to apply the additional control strategies that guarantee the execution of desired behaviors in a transparent, yet efficient way. The proposed control architecture allows an easier integration of general purpose feedback controllers, such as stabilizers, with higher control layers such as trajectory planners, increasing the robustness of the overall system

Combinatorial Intracellular Delivery Screening of Anticancer Drugs

Conventional drug solubilization strategies limit the understanding of the full potential of poorly water-soluble drugs during drug screening. Here, we propose a screening approach in which poorly water-soluble drugs are entrapped in poly(2-(methacryloyloxyethyl phosphorylcholine)-poly(2-(diisopropylaminoethyl methacryate) (PMPC–PDPA) polymersomes (POs) to enhance drug solubility and facilitate intracellular delivery. By using a human pediatric glioma cell model, we demonstrated that PMPC–PDPA POs mediated intracellular delivery of cytotoxic and epigenetic drugs by receptor-mediated endocytosis. Additionally, when delivered in combination, drug-loaded PMPC–PDPA POs triggered both an enhanced drug efficacy and synergy compared to that of a conventional combinatorial screening. Hence, our comprehensive synergy analysis illustrates that our screening methodology, in which PMPC–PDPA POs are used for intracellular codelivery of drugs, allows us to identify potent synergistic profiles of anticancer drugs

Towards Onboard Orbital Tracking of Seasonal Polar Volatiles on Mars

Current conditions on Mars support both a residual polar cap, composed mainly of water ice, and a seasonal cap, composed of CO2, which appears and disappears each winter. Kieffer and Titus characterized the recession of the seasonal south polar cap using an arctangent curve fit based on data from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer on Mars Global Surveyor [1]. They also found significant interannual deviations, at the regional scale, in the recession rate [2]. Further observations will enable the refinement of our models of polar cap evolution in both hemispheres. We have developed the Bimodal Image Temperature (BIT) Histogram Analysis method for the automated detection and tracking of the seasonal polar ice caps on Mars. It is specifically tailored for possible use onboard a spacecraft. We have evaluated BIT on uncalibrated data collected by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) instrument [3] on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft. In this paper, we focus on the northern seasonal cap, but our approach is directly applicable to the future analysis of the southern seasonal ice cap as well

A method for colocating satellite X_(CO₂) data to ground-based data and its application to ACOS-GOSAT and TCCON

Satellite measurements are often compared with higher-precision ground-based measurements as part of validation efforts. The satellite soundings are rarely perfectly coincident in space and time with the ground-based measurements, so a colocation methodology is needed to aggregate "nearby" soundings into what the instrument would have seen at the location and time of interest. We are particularly interested in validation efforts for satellite-retrieved total column carbon dioxide (X_(CO₂)), where X_(CO₂) data from Greenhouse Gas Observing Satellite (GOSAT) retrievals (ACOS, NIES, RemoteC, PPDF, etc.) or SCanning Imaging Absorption SpectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) are often colocated and compared to ground-based column X_(CO₂) measurement from Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON). Current colocation methodologies for comparing satellite measurements of total column dry-air mole fractions of CO₂ (X_(CO₂)) with ground-based measurements typically involve locating and averaging the satellite measurements within a latitudinal, longitudinal, and temporal window. We examine a geostatistical colocation methodology that takes a weighted average of satellite observations depending on the "distance" of each observation from a ground-based location of interest. The "distance" function that we use is a modified Euclidian distance with respect to latitude, longitude, time, and midtropospheric temperature at 700 hPa. We apply this methodology to X_(CO₂) retrieved from GOSAT spectra by the ACOS team, cross-validate the results to TCCON X_(CO₂) ground-based data, and present some comparisons between our methodology and standard existing colocation methods showing that, in general, geostatistical colocation produces smaller mean-squared error

Mild Regiospecific Synthesis of 1-Alkoxy-isochromenes Catalysed by Well-Defined [Silver(I)(Pc-L)] Complexes

The synthesis of 3-substituted-1-alkoxyisochromenes starting from 2-alkynylbenzaldehydes and different alcohols is reported. The reaction is catalysed by a silver(I)complex with an original macrocyclic pyridine-containing ligand (Pc-L). The approach is characterised by absolute regioselectivity, mild reaction conditions, good to excellent reaction yields, cleanness of the reaction and reduced purification steps. The reaction mechanism is investigated by in-depth 1H NMR experiments and an aimed \u201ctrapping\u201d experiment

RARITAN FORMATION (UPPER CRETACEOUS), LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK: SEDIMENTOLOGICAL AND GEOCHEMICAL ASSESSMENT

The lithology of the Upper Cretaceous Raritan Formation (RF) consists of two members: an upper clay member (Raritan clay) and a lower unit, the Lloyd Sand Member. RF is unconformably overlain by upper Pleistocene glacial deposits. The RF consists of stratified white, light- to dark-gray, and red beds and lenses of clay, silt, and sand; lignite and pyrite are common. Variegated, thin to thickly-bedded Lloyd sandstone (LS) is considered to be one of the extensive regional aquifers in Long Island and interpreted to be nearshore, fluvio-deltaic deposit. Proximity to fluvial axes and active deltaic lobes plays an important role in sequence thickness and maintaining an overall architecture of deltaic sandbodies. Presumably large amounts of deltaically derived sand are reworked by wave action and redistributed by longshore currents. LS is generally identified as containing clayey lenses, pyrite and hematitic, highly micaceous reddish silty sandstone. Its upper surface lies about 400 feet below sea level in northwest Huntington and at Orient, and over 1,500 feet below sea level at western Fire Island. The exposed unit is about 30 m thick in Caumsett State Park, Long Island. Preliminary geochemical investigations using ICP-MS (Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry), Ultra Trace Aqua Regia ICP-MS, and routine petrography on selected samples (both outcrop and subsurface) revealed a distinctive geochemical signature associated with RF units (Raritan Clay and Lloyd Sandstone). Clay unit known as Raritan Clay contains 60-42% silica, 27-15% alumina, 7% iron-oxide, and 3% K2O, whereas LS is found to be dominantly silica rich (97%) and remarkably poor in alumina, iron-oxide, and K2O. RF clayey unit also showed LOI to be 7-40%. Field exposure of RF clay resembles a kaolinitic-illitic type of high plasticity. Selected trace elements were identified and include Zr, Cu, Ti, Rb, La, Ba, Sr, Ce, Cr, Y, and Zn. Clayey units in RF were found to contain significantly higher proportion of Cu (80-30 ppm), Rb (35-15 ppm), Ba (80-40 ppm), Ce (105 ppm), Cr (60-20 ppm), Y (30 ppm) and Zn (200-40 ppm), compared to LS. Distinctive geochemical variations between the RF clay and LS point to variable provenance, diagenetic pathways, and depositional environments. Further investigations will proceed to differentiate subunits within the LS and RF clayey unit

Regulation of caspase-3 processing by cIAP2 controls the switch between pro-inflammatory activation and cell death in microglia.

Cell Death and Disease is an open-access journal published by Nature Publishing Group. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons licence, users will need to obtain permission from the licence holder to reproduce the material.The activation of microglia, resident immune cells of the central nervous system, and inflammation-mediated neurotoxicity are typical features of neurodegenerative diseases, for example, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. An unexpected role of caspase-3, commonly known to have executioner role for apoptosis, was uncovered in the microglia activation process. A central question emerging from this finding is what prevents caspase-3 during the microglia activation from killing those cells? Caspase-3 activation occurs as a two-step process, where the zymogen is first cleaved by upstream caspases, such as caspase-8, to form intermediate, yet still active, p19/p12 complex; thereafter, autocatalytic processing generates the fully mature p17/p12 form of the enzyme. Here, we show that the induction of cellular inhibitor of apoptosis protein 2 (cIAP2) expression upon microglia activation prevents the conversion of caspase-3 p19 subunit to p17 subunit and is responsible for restraining caspase-3 in terms of activity and subcellular localization. We demonstrate that counteracting the repressive effect of cIAP2 on caspase-3 activation, using small interfering RNA targeting cIAP2 or a SMAC mimetic such as the BV6 compound, reduced the pro-inflammatory activation of microglia cells and promoted their death. We propose that the different caspase-3 functions in microglia, and potentially other cell types, reside in the active caspase-3 complexes formed. These results also could indicate cIAP2 as a possible therapeutic target to modulate microglia pro-inflammatory activation and associated neurotoxicity observed in neurodegenerative disorders

Magnetization reversal and exchange bias effects in hard/soft ferromagnetic bilayers with orthogonal anisotropies

The magnetization reversal processes are discussed for exchange-coupled ferromagnetic hard/soft bilayers made from Co[subscript 0.66]Cr[subscript 0.22]Pt[subscript 0.12] (10 and 20 nm)/Ni (from 0 to 40 nm) films with out-of-plane and in-plane magnetic easy axes respectively, based on room temperature hysteresis loops and first-order reversal curve analysis. On increasing the Ni layer thicknesses, the easy axis of the bilayer reorients from out-of-plane to in-plane. An exchange bias effect, consisting of a shift of the in-plane minor hysteresis loops along the field axis, was observed at room temperature after in-plane saturation. This effect was associated with specific ferromagnetic domain configurations experimentally determined by polarized neutron reflectivity. On the other hand, perpendicular exchange bias effect was revealed from the out-of-plane hysteresis loops and it was attributed to residual domains in the magnetically hard layer.National Science Foundation (U.S.)MIT-Spain/La Cambra de Barcelona Seed Fun