Tracking control for multi-agent consensus with an active leader and variable topology

In this paper, we consider the coordination control of a group of autonomous mobile agents with multiple leaders. Different interconnection topologies are investigated. At first, a necessary and sufficient condition is proved in the case of fixed interconnection topology. Then a sufficient condition is proposed when the interconnection topology is switched. With a simple first-order dynamics model by using the neighborhood rule, both results show that the group behavior of the agents will converge to the polytope formed by the leaders.Comment: 6 page

In situ-constructed LixMoS2 with highly exposed interface boosting high-loading and long-life cathode for all-solid-state Li–S batteries

As the persistent concerns regarding sluggish reaction kinetics and insufficient conductivities of sulfur cathodes in all-solid-state Li–S batteries (ASSLSBs), numerous carbon additives and solid-state electrolytes (SSEs) have been incorporated into the cathode to facilitate ion/electron pathways around sulfur. However, this has resulted in a reduced capacity and decomposition of SSEs. Therefore, it is worth exploring neotype sulfur hosts with electronic/ionic conductivity in the cathode. Herein, we present a hybrid cathode composed of few-layered S/MoS2/C nanosheets (<5 layers) that exhibits high-loading and long-life performance without the need of additional carbon additives in advanced ASSLSBs. The multifunctional MoS2/C host exposes the abundant surface for intimate contacting sites, in situ-formed LixMoS2 during discharging as mixed ion/electron conductive network improves the S/Li2S conversion, and contributes extra capacity for the part of active materials. With a high active material content (S + MoS2/C) of 60 wt% in the S/MoS2/C/Li6PS5Cl cathode composite (the carbon content is only ~3.97 wt%), the S/MoS2/C electrode delivers excellent electrochemical performance, with a high reversible discharge capacity of 980.3 mAh g−1 (588.2 mAh g−1 based on the whole cathode weight) after 100 cycles at 100 mA g−1. The stable cycling performance is observed over 3500 cycles with a Coulombic efficiency of 98.5% at 600 mA g−1, while a high areal capacity of 10.4 mAh cm−2 is achieved with active material loading of 12.8 mg cm−2

Microtissues Enhance Smooth Muscle Differentiation and Cell Viability of hADSCs for Three Dimensional Bioprinting

Smooth muscle differentiated human adipose derived stem cells (hADSCs) provide a crucial stem cell source for urinary tissue engineering, but the induction of hADSCs for smooth muscle differentiation still has several issues to overcome, including a relatively long induction time and equipment dependence, which limits access to abundant stem cells within a short period of time for further application. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting holds great promise in regenerative medicine due to its controllable construction of a designed 3D structure. When evenly mixed with bioink, stem cells can be spatially distributed within a bioprinted 3D structure, thus avoiding drawbacks such as, stem cell detachment in a conventional cell-scaffold strategy. Notwithstanding the advantages mentioned above, cell viability is often compromised during 3D bioprinting, which is often due to pressure during the bioprinting process. The objective of our study was to improve the efficiency of hADSC smooth muscle differentiation and cell viability of a 3D bioprinted structure. Here, we employed the hanging-drop method to generate hADSC microtissues in a smooth muscle inductive medium containing human transforming growth factor β1 and bioprinted the induced microtissues onto a 3D structure. After 3 days of smooth muscle induction, the expression of α-smooth muscle actin and smoothelin was higher in microtissues than in their counterpart monolayer cultured hADSCs, as confirmed by immunofluorescence and western blotting analysis. The semi-quantitative assay showed that the expression of α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) was 0.218 ± 0.077 in MTs and 0.082 ± 0.007 in Controls; smoothelin expression was 0.319 ± 0.02 in MTs and 0.178 ± 0.06 in Controls. Induced MTs maintained their phenotype after the bioprinting process. Live/dead and cell count kit 8 assays showed that cell viability and cell proliferation in the 3D structure printed with microtissues were higher at all time points compared to the conventional single-cell bioprinting strategy (mean cell viability was 88.16 ± 3.98 vs. 61.76 ± 15% for microtissues and single-cells, respectively). These results provide a novel way to enhance the smooth muscle differentiation of hADSCs and a simple method to maintain better cell viability in 3D bioprinting

Accelerated electromagnetic transient (EMT) equivalent model of solid-state transformer

Accurate and efficient electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation of various types of solid-state transformers (SST) is extremely time-consuming due to the complex module structure, flexible topology connections, large number of electrical nodes and simulation time-steps limited in the range of micro-seconds. Therefore, it is urgent to develop the EMT equivalent modelling and fast simulation of SSTs for system level studies. Taking the modular multilevel converter (MMC) based SST as an example, this paper proposes an accelerated EMT model which focuses on the equivalence of the dual active bridge (DAB) based high-frequency link (HFL) in the SST. Compared with the existing algorithms, two critical factors of the proposed method that contribute the most to the efficiency improvement are the preprocessing of the nodal admittance equation and the conversion of the short-circuit admittance parameters. The proposed model is verified in PSCAD/EMTDC by comparing it with the detailed EMT model. The results show that the accelerated model is one to two orders of magnitude faster than the detailed model without sacrificing the accuracy. The experiment validation also confirms the validity of the proposed model

Non-trivial band topology and orbital-selective electronic nematicity in a new titanium-based kagome superconductor

Electronic nematicity that spontaneously breaks rotational symmetry has been shown as a generic phenomenon in correlated quantum systems including high-temperature superconductors and the AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) family with a kagome network. Identifying the driving force has been a central challenge for understanding nematicity. In iron-based superconductors, the problem is complicated because the spin, orbital and lattice degrees of freedom are intimately coupled. In vanadium-based kagome superconductors AV3Sb5, the electronic nematicity exhibits an intriguing entanglement with the charge density wave order (CDW), making understanding its origin difficult. Recently, a new family of titanium-based kagome superconductors ATi3Bi5 has been synthesized. In sharp contrast to its vanadium-based counterpart, the electronic nematicity occurs in the absence of CDW. ATi3Bi5 provides a new window to explore the mechanism of electronic nematicity and its interplay with the orbital degree of freedom. Here, we combine polarization-dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with density functional theory to directly reveal the band topology and orbital characters of the multi-orbital RbTi3Bi5. The promising coexistence of flat bands, type-II Dirac nodal line and nontrivial Z2 topological states is identified in RbTi3Bi5. Remarkably, our study clearly unveils the orbital character change along the G-M and G-K directions, implying a strong intrinsic inter-orbital coupling in the Ti-based kagome metals, reminiscent of iron-based superconductors. Furthermore, doping-dependent measurements directly uncover the orbital-selective features in the kagome bands, which can be well explained by the d-p hybridization. The suggested d-p hybridization, in collaboration with the inter-orbital coupling, could account for the electronic nematicity in ATi3Bi5

Strain-induced enhancement of TcT_c in infinite-layer Pr0.8_{0.8}Sr0.2_{0.2}NiO2_2 films

The mechanism of unconventional superconductivity in correlated materials remains a great challenge in condensed matter physics. The recent discovery of superconductivity in infinite-layer nickelates, as analog to high-Tc cuprates, has opened a new route to tackle this challenge. By growing 8 nm Pr0.8Sr0.2NiO2 films on the (LaAlO3)0.3(Sr2AlTaO6)0.7 substrate, we successfully raise the transition temperature Tc from 9 K in the widely studied SrTiO3-substrated nickelates into 15 K. By combining x-ray absorption spectroscopy with the first-principles and many-body simulations, we find a positive correlation between Tc and the pre-edge peak intensity, which can be attributed to the hybridization between Ni and O orbitals induced by the strain. Our result suggests that structural engineering can further enhance unconventional superconductivity, and the charge-transfer property plays a crucial role in the pairing strength.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Two distinct superconducting states controlled by orientation of local wrinkles in LiFeAs

We observe two types of superconducting states controlled by orientations of local wrinkles on the surface of LiFeAs. Using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, we find type-I wrinkles enlarge the superconducting gaps and enhance the transition temperature, whereas type-II wrinkles significantly suppress the superconducting gaps. The vortices on wrinkles show a C2 symmetry, indicating the strain effects on the wrinkles. A discontinuous switch of superconductivity occurs at the border between two different wrinkles. Our results demonstrate that the local strain effect could affect superconducting order parameter of LiFeAs with a possible Lifshitz transition, by alternating crystal structure in different directions.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Urinary Arsenic Metabolites of Subjects Exposed to Elevated Arsenic Present in Coal in Shaanxi Province, China

In contrast to arsenic (As) poisoning caused by naturally occurring inorganic arsenic-contaminated water consumption, coal arsenic poisoning (CAP) induced by elevated arsenic exposure from coal combustion has rarely been reported. In this study, the concentrations and distributions of urinary arsenic metabolites in 57 volunteers (36 subjects with skin lesions and 21 subjects without skin lesions), who had been exposed to elevated levels of arsenic present in coal in Changshapu village in the south of Shaanxi Province (China), were reported. The urinary arsenic species, including inorganic arsenic (iAs) [arsenite (iAsIII) and arsenate (iAsV)], monomethylarsonic acid (MMAV) and dimethylarsinic acid (DMAV), were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) combined with inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). The relative distributions of arsenic species, the primary methylation index (PMI = MMAV/iAs) and the secondary methylation index (SMI = DMAV/MMAV) were calculated to assess the metabolism of arsenic. Subjects with skin lesions had a higher concentration of urinary arsenic and a lower arsenic methylation capability than subjects without skin lesions. Women had a significantly higher methylation capability of arsenic than men, as defined by a higher percent DMAV and SMI in urine among women, which was the one possible interpretation of women with a higher concentration of urinary arsenic but lower susceptibility to skin lesions. The findings suggested that not only the dose of arsenic exposure but also the arsenic methylation capability have an impact on the individual susceptibility to skin lesions induced by coal arsenic exposure