Tracking Control of Shape-Memory-Alloy Actuators Based on Self-Sensing Feedback and Inverse Hysteresis Compensation

Shape memory alloys (SMAs) offer a high power-to-weight ratio, large recovery strain, and low driving voltages, and have thus attracted considerable research attention. The difficulty of controlling SMA actuators arises from their highly nonlinear hysteresis and temperature dependence. This paper describes a combination of self-sensing and model-based control, where the model includes both the major and minor hysteresis loops as well as the thermodynamics effects. The self-sensing algorithm uses only the power width modulation (PWM) signal and requires no heavy equipment. The method can achieve high-accuracy servo control and is especially suitable for miniaturized applications

Real-Time Telemetry System for Amperometric and Potentiometric Electrochemical Sensors

A real-time telemetry system, which consists of readout circuits, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a microcontroller unit (MCU), a graphical user interface (GUI), and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver, is proposed for amperometric and potentiometric electrochemical sensors. By integrating the proposed system with the electrochemical sensors, analyte detection can be conveniently performed. The data is displayed in real-time on a GUI and optionally uploaded to a database via the Internet, allowing it to be accessed remotely. An MCU was implemented using a field programmable gate array (FPGA) to filter noise, transmit data, and provide control over peripheral devices to reduce power consumption, which in sleep mode is 70 mW lower than in operating mode. The readout circuits, which were implemented in the TSMC 0.18-μm CMOS process, include a potentiostat and an instrumentation amplifier (IA). The measurement results show that the proposed potentiostat has a detectable current range of 1 nA to 100 μA, and linearity with an R2 value of 0.99998 in each measured current range. The proposed IA has a common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) greater than 90 dB. The proposed system was integrated with a potentiometric pH sensor and an amperometric nitrite sensor for in vitro experiments. The proposed system has high linearity (an R2 value greater than 0.99 was obtained in each experiment), a small size of 5.6 cm × 8.7 cm, high portability, and high integration

The moderating effect of environmental dynamism on green product innovation and performance

Environmental management has been researching extensively in the last two decades. Pressure from environmental regulations or policies plays an important role to boost environmental management practices. Nevertheless, the relationship between such pressure and the ultimate firm performance is not very obvious. Although green product innovation has been recognized as a predictor to improve environment performance, there is a lack of discussion in the literature to examine the mediating effect of green product innovation between the aforementioned pressure and firm performance. Additionally, most previous studies adopted a static view which ignores the implications on external dynamic factors in many empirical studies. In this connection, this study contributes to the field of knowledge by filling these two gaps. More specifically, this study: (i) examines the effect of green product innovation on the relationship between pressure of environmental regulations (or policies) and firm performance; and (ii) evaluates the moderating effect of environmental dynamism on the relationship between green production innovation and firm performance. A questionnaire survey is conducted in an emerging country, China, to verify the hypotheses.Institute of Textiles and Clothin

MicroRNA-sequence profiling reveals novel osmoregulatory microRNA expression patterns in catadromous eel anguilla marmorata

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of endogenous small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression by post-transcriptional repression of mRNAs. Recently, several miRNAs have been confirmed to execute directly or indirectly osmoregulatory functions in fish via translational control. In order to clarify whether miRNAs play relevant roles in the osmoregulation of Anguilla marmorata, three sRNA libraries of A. marmorata during adjusting to three various salinities were sequenced by Illumina sRNA deep sequencing methods. Totally 11,339,168, 11,958,406 and 12,568,964 clear reads were obtained from 3 different libraries, respectively. Meanwhile, 34 conserved miRNAs and 613 novel miRNAs were identified using the sequence data. MiR-10b-5p, miR-181a, miR-26a-5p, miR-30d and miR-99a-5p were dominantly expressed in eels at three salinities. Totally 29 mature miRNAs were significantly up-regulated, while 72 mature miRNAs were significantly down-regulated in brackish water (10‰ salinity) compared with fresh water (0‰ salinity); 24 mature miRNAs were significantly up-regulated, while 54 mature miRNAs were significantly down-regulated in sea water (25‰ salinity) compared with fresh water. Similarly, 24 mature miRNAs were significantly up-regulated, while 45 mature miRNAs were significantly down-regulated in sea water compared with brackish water. The expression patterns of 12 dominantly expressed miRNAs were analyzed at different time points when the eels transferred from fresh water to brackish water or to sea water. These miRNAs showed differential expression patterns in eels at distinct salinities. Interestingly, miR-122, miR-140-3p and miR-10b-5p demonstrated osmoregulatory effects in certain salinities. In addition, the identification and characterization of differentially expressed miRNAs at different salinities can clarify the osmoregulatory roles of miRNAs, which will shed lights for future studies on osmoregulation in fish

Upregulation of Pd-L1 by Sars-Cov-2 Promotes Immune Evasion

Patients with severe COVID-19 often suffer from lymphopenia, which is linked to T-cell sequestration, cytokine storm, and mortality. However, it remains largely unknown how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induces lymphopenia. Here, we studied the transcriptomic profile and epigenomic alterations involved in cytokine production by SARS-CoV-2-infected cells. We adopted a reverse time-order gene coexpression network approach to analyze time-series RNA-sequencing data, revealing epigenetic modifications at the late stage of viral egress. Furthermore, we identified SARS-CoV-2-activated nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and interferon regulatory factor 1 (IRF1) pathways contributing to viral infection and COVID-19 severity through epigenetic analysis of H3K4me3 chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing. Cross-referencing our transcriptomic and epigenomic data sets revealed that coupling NF-κB and IRF1 pathways mediate programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) immunosuppressive programs. Interestingly, we observed higher PD-L1 expression in Omicron-infected cells than SARS-CoV-2 infected cells. Blocking PD-L1 at an early stage of virally-infected AAV-hACE2 mice significantly recovered lymphocyte counts and lowered inflammatory cytokine levels. Our findings indicate that targeting the SARS-CoV-2-mediated NF-κB and IRF1-PD-L1 axis may represent an alternative strategy to reduce COVID-19 severity

Broad neutralization of SARS-related viruses by human monoclonal antibodies

Broadly protective vaccines against known and preemergent human coronaviruses (HCoVs) are urgently needed. To gain a deeper understanding of cross-neutralizing antibody responses, we mined the memory B cell repertoire of a convalescent severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) donor and identified 200 SARS coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) binding antibodies that target multiple conserved sites on the spike (S) protein. A large proportion of the non-neutralizing antibodies display high levels of somatic hypermutation and cross-react with circulating HCoVs, suggesting recall of preexisting memory B cells elicited by prior HCoV infections. Several antibodies potently cross-neutralize SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and the bat SARS-like virus WIV1 by blocking receptor attachment and inducing S1 shedding. These antibodies represent promising candidates for therapeutic intervention and reveal a target for the rational design of pan-sarbecovirus vaccines

Pharmacogenetics: data, concepts and tools to improve drug discovery and drug treatment

Variation in the human genome is a most important cause of variable response to drugs and other xenobiotics. Susceptibility to almost all diseases is determined to some extent by genetic variation. Driven by the advances in molecular biology, pharmacogenetics has evolved within the past 40 years from a niche discipline to a major driving force of clinical pharmacology, and it is currently one of the most actively pursued disciplines in applied biomedical research in general. Nowadays we can assess more than 1,000,000 polymorphisms or the expression of more than 25,000 genes in each participant of a clinical study – at affordable costs. This has not yet significantly changed common therapeutic practices, but a number of physicians are starting to consider polymorphisms, such as those in CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, TPMT and VKORC1, in daily medical practice. More obviously, pharmacogenetics has changed the practices and requirements in preclinical and clinical drug research; large clinical trials without a pharmacogenomic add-on appear to have become the minority. This review is about how the discipline of pharmacogenetics has evolved from the analysis of single proteins to current approaches involving the broad analyses of the entire genome and of all mRNA species or all metabolites and other approaches aimed at trying to understand the entire biological system. Pharmacogenetics and genomics are becoming substantially integrated fields of the profession of clinical pharmacology, and education in the relevant methods, knowledge and concepts form an indispensable part of the clinical pharmacology curriculum and the professional life of pharmacologists from early drug discovery to pharmacovigilance

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data