Adaptive Time-delay Estimated Sliding Mode Control for a Bias Momentum Satellite with Two Reaction Wheels

An adaptive sliding mode control to stabilize the attitude of a bias momentum satellite with a time delay via two wheels is proposed. Stabilizing the attitude of a rigid body via two control torques is an under-actuated control problem, and belongs to the class of systems that are controllable but cannot be asymptotically stabilized via continuous state feed-back because Brockett\u27s necessary condition is not satisfied. The adaptive method combined with the sliding mode control estimates the time delay contained in the system by sensing the difference between the attitude predicted and the measured one at each sampling time and compensates for the time delay by predicting the current state using the past measured attitude and angular velocity. Provided that external disturbances and modeling uncertainties in the satellite moments of inertia are absent, the validity of the proposed adaptive time delay estimated sliding mode control for attitude control of a bias momentum satellite is verified through numerical simulations

Singularity Analysis and Steering Control Laws for Adaptive-skew Pyramid-type Control Moment Gyros

In contrast to past studies that have treated the skew angle as fixed in pyramid-type control moment gyro (CMG) systems, this paper treats the adaptive-skew pyramid-type CMG (ASCMG) system, in which the skew angle is one of the control variables for generating torques. The singular surfaces of the fixed-skew CMG are analyzed and visualized to illustrate how they depend on the skew angle, and the singular surfaces of the ASCMGs are also analyzed and visualized from a viewpoint of null motion for not only the gimbal angle but also the skew angle. The steering control laws are presented, and we numerically study their effectiveness for the reduction of settling time as compared to the fixed-skew pyramid-type CMGs

Conjugated 3D Virtual Reality Worlds in Spacecraft Attitude Control

The chapter aims to contribute to the application of virtual reality (VR) in spacecraft attitude control for systems, possessing “Inertial Morphing (IM)” capabilities.The concept of IM, proposed/applied by authors in 2017, is attractive in design of the fully autonomous future space missions, as swift control, requiring minimized energy and computations, can be achieved with exiguous/paltry morphings. To assist rapid planning of the optimized maneuver scenarios, we propose collocated merging of the various VR simulation worlds for the same spacecraft or merging of the VR worlds for the same system (but in different configurations). This enabled concurrent utilization of different methods of modeling, including Poinsot’s and Bine’s construction and Euler’s equations. Therefore, superimposed VR worlds are called “conjugated.” We present the classical methods of modeling of the torque-free systems and then show their implementation in the developed VR-integrated interactive package. Effectiveness of the VR-conjugated environment is illustrated with its use for planning of spacecraft de-tumbling, spacecraft 180-degrees inversion, and 90-degrees inversion. The developed VR environment enables utilization of both the body-axes spacecraft coordinate system and inertial coordinate system with instant transition from one into another, switching on/off various virtual reality worlds for multiple supports in the process of mission design

Establishment of an Epicutaneously Sensitized Murine Model of Shellfish Allergy and Evaluation of Skin Condition by Raman Microscopy

Background: Shellfish allergy is one of the most common food allergies. Recent studies have shown that sensitization to allergens via the skin is involved in the development of food allergies. In this study, a mouse model of shrimp allergy was generated by epicutaneous sensitization and used to identify skin conditions associated with susceptibility to sensitization. Methods: Four-week-old female BALB/c mice were sensitized by repeated application of 0.1 mg of tropomyosin to tape-stripped skin on days 0, 7, and 15, followed by a challenge on days 28 and 35. Results: Epicutaneously sensitized mice exhibited higher serum levels of tropomyosin-specific IgE on day 15 than control mice. After the oral challenge, model mice had higher anaphylaxis scores and lower rectal temperature. After three tape-strip treatments for sensitization, the skin was analyzed by Raman microscopy. The sensitized mice exhibited lower relative intensities of Raman bands at 399, 915, and 1073 cm−1 than control mice, which could be helpful noninvasive markers in screening for potential sensitization via the skin. Conclusions: An epicutaneous sensitization shellfish allergy model was generated. This model will be useful in studies to elucidate the pathogenesis of skin sensitization. Raman microscopy may also be valuable for capturing subtle skin changes leading to sensitization

Space demostration of bare electrodynamic tape-tether technology on the sounding rocket S520-25

A spaceflight validation of bare electro dynamic tape tether technology was conducted. A S520-25 sounding rocket was launched successfully at 05:00am on 31 August 2010 and successfully deployed 132.6m of tape tether over 120 seconds in a ballistic flight. The electrodynamic performance of the bare tape tether employed as an atmospheric probe was measured. Flight results are introduced through the present progressive report of the demonstration and the results of flight experiment are examined as the premier report of the international cooperation between Japan, Europe, USA and Australia. Future plans for maturing space tether technology, which will play an important role for future space activities, are also discussed

T-REX: Bare electro-dynamic tape-tether technology experimetn on sounding rocket S520

The project to verify the performance of space tether technology was successfully demonstrated by the launch of the sounding rocket S520 the 25tu. The project is the space demonstration of science and engineering technologies of a bare tape electrodynamic tether (EDT) in the international campaign between Japan, USA, Europe and Australia. Method of "Inverse ORIGAMI (Tape tether folding)" was employed in order to deploy the bare tape EDT in a short period time of the suborbital flight. The deployment of tape tether was tested in a various experimental schemes on ground to show high reliability of tape tether deployment. The rocket was launched on the summer of 2010 and deployed a bare electro-dynamic tape tether with length 132.6 m, which is the world record of the length deployment of tape tether. The verification of tether technology has found a variety kind of science and technology results as the first in the humankind and will lead a large number of applications of space tether technologie

The whole blood transcriptional regulation landscape in 465 COVID-19 infected samples from Japan COVID-19 Task Force

「コロナ制圧タスクフォース」COVID-19患者由来の血液細胞における遺伝子発現の網羅的解析 --重症度に応じた遺伝子発現の変化には、ヒトゲノム配列の個人差が影響する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2022-08-23.Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a recently-emerged infectious disease that has caused millions of deaths, where comprehensive understanding of disease mechanisms is still unestablished. In particular, studies of gene expression dynamics and regulation landscape in COVID-19 infected individuals are limited. Here, we report on a thorough analysis of whole blood RNA-seq data from 465 genotyped samples from the Japan COVID-19 Task Force, including 359 severe and 106 non-severe COVID-19 cases. We discover 1169 putative causal expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) including 34 possible colocalizations with biobank fine-mapping results of hematopoietic traits in a Japanese population, 1549 putative causal splice QTLs (sQTLs; e.g. two independent sQTLs at TOR1AIP1), as well as biologically interpretable trans-eQTL examples (e.g., REST and STING1), all fine-mapped at single variant resolution. We perform differential gene expression analysis to elucidate 198 genes with increased expression in severe COVID-19 cases and enriched for innate immune-related functions. Finally, we evaluate the limited but non-zero effect of COVID-19 phenotype on eQTL discovery, and highlight the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs (ieQTLs; e.g., CLEC4C and MYBL2). Our study provides a comprehensive catalog of whole blood regulatory variants in Japanese, as well as a reference for transcriptional landscapes in response to COVID-19 infection