Real-time motion planning based vibration control of a macro-micro parallel manipulator system for super antenna

A macro-micro manipulator (M3) system, composed of a rigid parallel manipulator serially mounted on a flexible cable suspended parallel manipulator, is used to precisely position the feed source of a super antenna. In order to reduce the impact of mechanical vibrations of the macro manipulator and achieve accurate positioning and orientating of the micro manipulator, a real-time motion planning based vibration control strategy is presented. This strategy comprises: (1) To determine the optimal position and orientation of the cable driven parallel manipulator, the real-time optimization is conducted according to the principle of uniform tension in the six driving cables; (2) Synchronized points and the “judge and wait” technique ensure the continuity and synchrony of the trajectory tracking of the two parallel manipulators; (3) The preadjustment of the micro parallel manipulator minimizes the drastic dynamical coupling as a result of its high-speed manipulation. Experimental results of the field model validate the high precision of the M3 system for super antenna when tracking a circular arc trajectory

Real-time motion planning based vibration control of a macro-micro parallel manipulator system for super antenna

A macro-micro manipulator (M3) system, composed of a rigid parallel manipulator serially mounted on a flexible cable suspended parallel manipulator, is used to precisely position the feed source of a super antenna. In order to reduce the impact of mechanical vibrations of the macro manipulator and achieve accurate positioning and orientating of the micro manipulator, a real-time motion planning based vibration control strategy is presented. This strategy comprises: (1) To determine the optimal position and orientation of the cable driven parallel manipulator, the real-time optimization is conducted according to the principle of uniform tension in the six driving cables; (2) Synchronized points and the “judge and wait” technique ensure the continuity and synchrony of the trajectory tracking of the two parallel manipulators; (3) The preadjustment of the micro parallel manipulator minimizes the drastic dynamical coupling as a result of its high-speed manipulation. Experimental results of the field model validate the high precision of the M3 system for super antenna when tracking a circular arc trajectory

Climatic Control on Plant and Soil d13C along an Altitudinal Transect of Lushan Mountain in Subtropical China: Characteristics and Interpretation of Soil Carbon Dynamics

<div><p>Decreasing temperature and increasing precipitation along altitude gradients are typical mountain climate in subtropical China. In such a climate regime, identifying the patterns of the C stable isotope composition (δ¹³C) in plants and soils and their relations to the context of climate change is essential. In this study, the patterns of δ¹³C variation were investigated for tree leaves, litters, and soils in the natural secondary forests at four altitudes (219, 405, 780, and 1268 m a.s.l.) in Lushan Mountain, central subtropical China. For the dominant trees, both leaf and leaf-litter δ¹³C decreased as altitude increased from low to high altitude, whereas surface soil δ¹³C increased. The lower leaf δ¹³C at high altitudes was associated with the high moisture-related discrimination, while the high soil δ¹³C is attributed to the low temperature-induced decay. At each altitude, soil δ¹³C became enriched with soil depth. Soil δ¹³C increased with soil C concentrations and altitude, but decreased with soil depth. A negative relationship was also found between O-alkyl C and δ¹³C in litter and soil, whereas a positive relationship was observed between aromatic C and δ¹³C. Lower temperature and higher moisture at high altitudes are the predominant control factors of δ¹³C variation in plants and soils. These results help understand C dynamics in the context of global warming.</p></div

Evaluation of the reporting quality of clinical practice guidelines on gliomas using the RIGHT checklist

Background: The reporting quality of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) for gliomas has not yet been thoroughly assessed. The International Reporting Items for Practice Guidelines in Healthcare (RIGHT) statement developed in 2016 provides a reporting framework to improve the quality of CPGs. We aimed to estimate the reporting quality of glioma guidelines using the RIGHT checklist and investigate how the reporting quality differs by selected characteristics. Methods: We systematically searched electronic databases, guideline databases, and medical society websites to retrieve CPGs on glioma published between 2018 and 2020. We calculated the compliance of the CPGs to individual items, domains and the RIGHT checklist overall. We performed stratified analyses by publication year, country of development, reporting of funding, and impact factor (IF) of the journal. Results: Our search revealed 20 eligible guidelines. Mean overall adherence to the RIGHT statement was 54.6%. Eight CPGs reported more than 60% of the items, and five reported less than 50%. All guidelines adhered to the items 1a, 3, 7a, 13a, while no guidelines reported the items 17 or 18b (see http://www.rightstatement.org/right-statement/checklist for a description of the items). Two of the seven domains, "Basic information" and "Background", had mean reporting rates above 60%. The "Review and quality assurance" domain had the lowest mean reporting rate, 12.5%. The reporting quality of guidelines published in 2020, guidelines developed in the United States, and guidelines that reported funding tended to be above average. Conclusions: The reporting quality of CPGs on gliomas is low and needs improvement. Particular attention should be paid on reporting the external review and quality assurance process. The use of the RIGHT criteria should be encouraged to guide the development, reporting and evaluation of CPGs

LTBI-negative close contacts of tuberculosis are more likely to develop the disease: enlightenment and lessons from a cluster outbreak

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) prevention and control among groups living together, such as students, workers, older adults in nursing homes, and prisoners, present many challenges due to their particular age and environmental factors, which can make them more susceptible to TB clusters with significant societal impact. This study aimed to evaluate a TB cluster outbreak epidemic in a university and provide suggestions for improving TB control strategies for groups living together.MethodsPulmonary TB screening and close-contact investigation were conducted using acid-fast staining, sputum culture, GeneXpert testing, tuberculin skin testing (TST), interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA), and chest computed tomography (CT). GraphPad Prism 9.5.1 was utilized for data analysis. Collected epidemic data were comprehensively analyzed by rate comparison.ResultsThe TB cluster outbreak epidemic was identified with an index case confirmed positive. The initial screening was conducted on potential close contacts of the index case, and the TST’s positive rate (diameter ≥ 5 mm) and strong positive rate (diameter ≥ 15 mm) among these close contacts were 65.60% (21/32) and 34.40% (11/32), respectively. Moreover, the latent TB infection (LTBI) rate (diameter ≥ 10 mm) was 43.75% (14/32), and the IGRA’s positive rate was 9.30% (3/32). Chest CT scans did not reveal any abnormalities. Surprisingly, 5 of the close contacts developed active TB in the second screening, accompanied by changes from negative to positive TST and/or IGRA results, after 3 months of follow-up. Accordingly, we expanded the screening scope to include another 28 general contacts. We found that the positive rate (78.00%, 25/32), strong positive rate (50.00%, 16/32), and LTBI rate (62.50%, 20/32) of the 32 close contacts were significantly higher than those of the additional general contacts (28.00%, 8/28; 14.3%, 4/28; 25.00%, 7/28), as indicated by p &lt; 0.05.ConclusionIn the event of an epidemic TB outbreak, it is essential to rapidly identify the source of infection and initiate timely screening of close contacts. The initial screening should be focused on individuals without LTBI, who are at higher risk of developing TB. In purified protein derivative-negative individuals living in groups, additional vaccination or revaccination with Bacille Calmette-Guérin may help prevent cluster outbreaks of TB

Clinical characteristics of patients with non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease: a seven-year follow-up study conducted in a certain tertiary hospital in Beijing

BackgroundThe incidence of non-tuberculous mycobacterial pulmonary disease (NTM-PD) has increased in recent years. However, the clinical and immunologic characteristics of NTM-PD patients have received little attention.MethodsNTM strains, clinical symptoms, underlying diseases, lung CT findings, lymphocyte subsets, and drug susceptibility tests (DSTs) of NTM-PD patients were investigated. Then, the counts of immune cells of NTM-PD patients and their correlation were evaluated using principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation analysis.Results135 NTM-PD patients and 30 healthy controls (HCs) were enrolled from 2015 to 2021 in a certain tertiary hospital in Beijing. The number of NTM-PD patients increased every year, and Mycobacterium intracellulare (M. intracellulare), M. abscessus, M. avium, and M. kansasii were the major pathogens of NTM-PD. The main clinical symptoms of NTM-PD patients were cough and sputum production, and the primary lung CT findings were thin-walled cavity, bronchiectasis, and nodules. In addition, we identified 23 clinical isolates from 87 NTM-PD patients with strain records. The DST showed that almost all of M. abscessus and M. avium and more than half of the M. intracellulare and M. avium complex groups were resistant to anti-tuberculosis drugs tested in this study. M. xenopi was resistant to all aminoglycosides. M. kansasii was 100% resistant to kanamycin, capreomycin, amikacin, and para-aminosalicylic acid, and sensitive to streptomycin, ethambutol, levofloxacin, azithromycin, and rifamycin. Compared to other drugs, low resistance to rifabutin and azithromycin was observed among NTM-PD isolates. Furthermore, the absolute counts of innate and adaptive immune cells in NTM-PD patients were significantly lower than those in HCs. PCA and correlation analysis revealed that total T, CD4+, and CD8+ T lymphocytes played an essential role in the protective immunity of NTM-PD patients, and there was a robust positive correlation between them.ConclusionThe incidence of NTM-PD increased annually in Beijing. Individuals with bronchiectasis and COPD have been shown to be highly susceptible to NTM-PD. NTM-PD patients is characterized by compromised immune function, non-specific clinical symptoms, high drug resistance, thin-walled cavity damage on imaging, as well as significantly reduced numbers of both innate and adaptive immune cells

Iridium(III) complex-based activatable probe for phosphorescent/time-gated luminescent sensing and imaging of cysteine in mitochondria of live cells and animals

This study reports an activatable iridium(III) complex probe for phosphorescence/time-gated luminescence detection of cysteine (Cys) in vitro and in vivo. The probe, [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6), is developed by incorporating a strong electron withdrawing group, nitroolefin, into a bipyridine ligand of the Ir(III) complex. The luminescence of the probe is quenched due to the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) process, but switched on by a specific recognition reaction between the probe and Cys. [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6) shows high sensitivity and selectivity for Cys detection and good biocompatibility. The long-lived emission of [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6) allows time-gated luminescence analysis of Cys in cells and human sera. These properties make it convenient for the phosphorescence and time-gated luminescence imaging and flow cytometry analysis of Cys in live samples. The Cys images in cancer cells and inflamed macrophage cells reveal that [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6) is distributed in mitochondria after cellular internalization. Visualizations and flow cytometry analysis of mitochondrial Cys levels and Cys-mediated redox activities of live cells are achieved. Using [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6) as a probe, in vivo sensing and imaging of Cys in D. magna, zebrafish, and mice are then demonstrated

Iridium(III) complex-based activatable probe for phosphorescent/time-gated luminescent sensing and imaging of cysteine in mitochondria of live cells and animals

This study reports an activatable iridium(III) complex probe for phosphorescence/time-gated luminescence detection of cysteine (Cys) in vitro and in vivo. The probe, [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6), is developed by incorporating a strong electron withdrawing group, nitroolefin, into a bipyridine ligand of the Ir(III) complex. The luminescence of the probe is quenched due to the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) process, but switched on by a specific recognition reaction between the probe and Cys. [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6) shows high sensitivity and selectivity for Cys detection and good biocompatibility. The long-lived emission of [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6) allows time-gated luminescence analysis of Cys in cells and human sera. These properties make it convenient for the phosphorescence and time-gated luminescence imaging and flow cytometry analysis of Cys in live samples. The Cys images in cancer cells and inflamed macrophage cells reveal that [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6) is distributed in mitochondria after cellular internalization. Visualizations and flow cytometry analysis of mitochondrial Cys levels and Cys-mediated redox activities of live cells are achieved. Using [Ir(ppy)2(NTY-bpy)](PF6) as a probe, in vivo sensing and imaging of Cys in D. magna, zebrafish, and mice are then demonstrated

Aridity-driven shift in biodiversity–soil multifunctionality relationships

From Springer Nature via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2021-01-07, accepted 2021-08-12, registration 2021-08-25, pub-electronic 2021-09-09, online 2021-09-09, collection 2021-12Publication status: PublishedFunder: National Natural Science Foundation of China (National Science Foundation of China); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001809; Grant(s): 31770430Abstract: Relationships between biodiversity and multiple ecosystem functions (that is, ecosystem multifunctionality) are context-dependent. Both plant and soil microbial diversity have been reported to regulate ecosystem multifunctionality, but how their relative importance varies along environmental gradients remains poorly understood. Here, we relate plant and microbial diversity to soil multifunctionality across 130 dryland sites along a 4,000 km aridity gradient in northern China. Our results show a strong positive association between plant species richness and soil multifunctionality in less arid regions, whereas microbial diversity, in particular of fungi, is positively associated with multifunctionality in more arid regions. This shift in the relationships between plant or microbial diversity and soil multifunctionality occur at an aridity level of ∼0.8, the boundary between semiarid and arid climates, which is predicted to advance geographically ∼28% by the end of the current century. Our study highlights that biodiversity loss of plants and soil microorganisms may have especially strong consequences under low and high aridity conditions, respectively, which calls for climate-specific biodiversity conservation strategies to mitigate the effects of aridification