European contribution to the study of ROS: A summary of the findings and prospects for the future from the COST action BM1203 (EU-ROS).

The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) provides an ideal framework to establish multi-disciplinary research networks. COST Action BM1203 (EU-ROS) represents a consortium of researchers from different disciplines who are dedicated to providing new insights and tools for better understanding redox biology and medicine and, in the long run, to finding new therapeutic strategies to target dysregulated redox processes in various diseases. This report highlights the major achievements of EU-ROS as well as research updates and new perspectives arising from its members. The EU-ROS consortium comprised more than 140 active members who worked together for four years on the topics briefly described below. The formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) is an established hallmark of our aerobic environment and metabolism but RONS also act as messengers via redox regulation of essential cellular processes. The fact that many diseases have been found to be associated with oxidative stress established the theory of oxidative stress as a trigger of diseases that can be corrected by antioxidant therapy. However, while experimental studies support this thesis, clinical studies still generate controversial results, due to complex pathophysiology of oxidative stress in humans. For future improvement of antioxidant therapy and better understanding of redox-associated disease progression detailed knowledge on the sources and targets of RONS formation and discrimination of their detrimental or beneficial roles is required. In order to advance this important area of biology and medicine, highly synergistic approaches combining a variety of diverse and contrasting disciplines are needed.The EU-ROS consortium (COST Action BM1203) was supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). The present overview represents the final Action dissemination summarizing the major achievements of COST Action BM1203 (EU-ROS) as well as research news and personal views of its members. Some authors were also supported by COST Actions BM1005 (ENOG) and BM1307 (PROTEOSTASIS), as well as funding from the European Commission FP7 and H2020 programmes, and several national funding agencies

Multi-objective optimal control : a direct approach

The chapter introduces an approach to solve optimal control problems with multiple conflicting objectives. The approach proposed in this chapter generates sets of Pareto optimal control laws that satisfy a set of boundary conditions and path constraints. The chapter starts by introducing basic concepts of multi-objective optimisation and optimal control theory and then presents a general formulation of multi-objective optimal control problems in scalar form using the Pascoletti-Serafini scalarisation method. From this scalar form the chapter derives the first order necessary conditions for local optimality and develops a direct transcription method by Finite Elements in Time (DFET) that turns the infinite dimensional multi-objective optimal control problem into a finite dimensional multi-objective nonlinear programming problem (MONLP). The transcription method is proven to be locally convergent under some assumptions on the nature of the optimal control problem. A memetic agent-based optimisation approach is then proposed to solve the MONLP problem and return a partial reconstruction of the globally optimal Pareto set. An illustrative example concludes the chapter