Stabilisation of highly non-linear continuous-time hybrid stochastic differential delay equations by discrete-time feedback control

In this study, the authors consider how to use discrete-time state feedback to stabilise hybrid stochastic differential delay equations. The coefficients of these stochastic differential delay equations do not satisfy the conventional linear growth conditions, but are highly non-linear. Using the Lyapunov functional method, they show that a discrete feedback controller, which depends on the states of the discrete-time observations, can be designed to make the solutions of such controlled hybrid stochastic differential delay equations asymptotically stable and exponentially stable. The upper bound of the discrete observation interval τ is also given in this study. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed theory

Community Structure of Bacteria Associated With Drifting Sargassum horneri, the Causative Species of Golden Tide in the Yellow Sea

Golden tides dominated by Sargassum spp. are occurring at an accelerated rate worldwide. In China, Sargassum has started to bloom in the Yellow Sea and led to tremendous economic losses, but the underlying biological causes and mechanisms are still unclear. Although algae-associated bacteria were suggested to play crucial roles in algal blooms, the profiles of bacteria associated with drifting Sargassum remain unexplored. In this study, the community structures and functions of Sargassum-associated bacteria were analyzed using the high-throughput sequencing data of the V5–V7 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene. Molecular identification revealed that the golden tide analyzed in the Yellow Sea was dominated by a single species, Sargassum horneri. They were a healthy brown color nearshore but were yellow offshore with significantly decreased chlorophyll contents (P < 0.01), which indicates that yellow S. horneri was under physiological stress. The structural and functional analyses of bacterial communities indicated that the drifting S. horneri had an obvious selectivity on their associated bacteria against surrounding seawater. Although the bacterial communities phylogenetically differed between brown and yellow S. horneri (P < 0.01), their dominant functions were all nitrogen and iron transporters, which strongly indicates microbial contribution to blooming of the algal host. For the first time, potential epiphytic and endophytic bacteria associated with Sargassum were independently analyzed by a modified co-vortex method with silica sand. We showed that the composition of dominant endophytes, mainly Bacillus and Propionibacterium, was relatively consistent regardless of host status, whereas the epiphytic operational taxonomic units (OTUs) greatly varied in response to weakness of host status; however, dominant functions were consistent at elevated intensities, which might protect the host from stress related to nitrogen or iron deficiency. Thus, we propose that host physiological status at different intensities of functional demands, which were related to variable environmental conditions, may be a critical factor that influences the assembly of epiphytic bacterial communities. This study provided new insight into the structure and potential functions of associated bacteria with golden tide blooms

Exponential stabilization by delay feedback control for highly nonlinear hybrid stochastic functional differential equations with infinite delay

Given an unstable hybrid stochastic functional differential equation, how to design a delay feedback controller to make it stable? Some results have been obtained for hybrid systems with finite delay. However, the state of many stochastic differential equations are related to the whole history of the system, so it is necessary to discuss the feedback control of stochastic functional differential equations with infinite delay. On the other hand, in many practical stochastic models, the coefficients of these systems do not satisfy the linear growth condition, but are highly nonlinear. In this paper, the delay feedback controls are designed for a class of infinite delay stochastic systems with highly nonlinear and the influence of switching state

A Dominant EV71-Specific CD4+ T Cell Epitope is Highly Conserved Among Human Enteroviruses

CD4+ T cell-mediated immunity plays a central role in determining the immunopathogenesis of viral infections. However, the role of CD4+ T cells in EV71 infection, which causes hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), has yet to be elucidated. We applied a sophisticated method to identify promiscuous CD4+ T cell epitopes contained within the sequence of the EV71 polyprotein. Fifteen epitopes were identified, and three of them are dominant ones. The most dominant epitope is highly conserved among enterovirus species, including HFMD-related coxsackieviruses, HFMD-unrelated echoviruses and polioviruses. Furthermore, the CD4+ T cells specific to the epitope indeed cross-reacted with the homolog of poliovirus 3 Sabin. Our findings imply that CD4+ T cell responses to poliovirus following vaccination, or to other enteroviruses to which individuals may be exposed in early childhood, may have a modulating effect on subsequent CD4+ T cell response to EV71 infection or vaccine

Unveiling the thermolysis natures of ZIF-8 and ZIF-67 by employing in situ structural characterization studies

The thermolysis routes of two isostructural metal–organic framework compounds (Zn-based ZIF-8 and Co-based ZIF-67) are investigated based on temperature-dependent and time-dependent in situ Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and in situ X-ray diffraction data, as well as thermogravimetric-differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC) analyses and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. These data highlight thermolysis effects on different vibrations and dissociations within specific atomic moieties. The coordination differences between Zn–N and Co–N lead to the distinct thermolysis routes of ZIF-8 and ZIF-67. ZIF-8 is easily deformed during heating while decomposes at a higher temperature due to the saturated Zn–N coordination. ZIF-67, however, does not deform during heating due to the stronger Co–N bonds, but easily reacts with oxygen due to the unsaturated Co–N bonds. Our results demonstrate that in situ FTIR paired with in situ XRD is a powerful technique for MOF thermolysis investigation, and we suggest that the thermolysis mechanisms of MOFs may be unveiled by investigating a series of MOFs having different coordination types using in situ characterisation methods

The occlusion camera

We introduce the occlusion camera: a non-pinhole camera with 3D distorted rays. Some of the rays sample surfaces that are occluded in the reference view, while the rest sample visible surfaces. The extra samples alleviate disocclusion errors. The silhouette curves are pushed back, so nearly visible samples become visible. A single occlusion camera covers the entire silhouette of an object, whereas many depth images are required to achieve the same effect. Like regular depth images, occlusion-camera images have a single layer thus the number of samples they contain is bounded by the image resolution, and connectivity is defined implicitly. We construct and use occlusion-camera images in hardware. An occlusion-camera image does not guarantee that all disocclusion errors are avoided. Objects with complex geometry are rendered using the union of the samples stored by a planar pinhole camera and an occlusion camera depth image. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.3. [Computer Graphics]—Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism

Rendering with spherical radiance transport maps

In this paper, we propose a real-time method for rendering soft shadows and inter-reflections of dynamic objects under complex illumination. In previous methods, many efforts were taken to acquire occlusion and reflection informations for dynamic scene on the fly, and the result image cannot be generated in real time. In our approach, these informations for each object are pre-computed and stored in well-defined Spherical Radiance Transport Maps (SRTMs). For distant complex illumination such as environment illumination and area light source, we decompose the illumination to several hundred directional lights. In rendering, we search in SRTMs for occlusion info which may cause shadows, and reflection info which may cause inter-reflections. Finally we produce realistic soft shadows and inter-reflections efficiently. Our method is related with but different from previous Pre-computed Radiance Transfer techniques which are only suitable for static scene. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: shading and shadowing 1