Stabilization of positive switched systems with time-varying delays under asynchronous switching

This paper investigates the state feedback stabilization problem for a class of positive switched systems with time-varying delays under asynchronous switching in the frameworks of continuous-time and discrete-time dynamics. The so-called asynchronous switching means that the switches between the candidate controllers and system modes are asynchronous. By constructing an appropriate co-positive type Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional and further allowing the functional to increase during the running time of active subsystems, sufficient conditions are provided to guarantee the exponential stability of the resulting closed-loop systems, and the corresponding controller gain matrices and admissible switching signals are presented. Finally, two illustrative examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed methods

Endophytic Fungi of Bitter Melon \u3ci\u3e(Momordica Charantia)\u3c/i\u3e in Guangdong Province, China

Endophytic fungi can mutualistically interact with their host plants by deterring herbivores. Overall 1172 endophytic fungal isolates were recovered from roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits of bitter melon, Momordica charantia, at five sites in Guangdong Province. These isolates were identified to 25 genera using morphological and molecular characteristics. The endophyte communities at the five sites were similar. Alternaria alternata, Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp., Colletotrichum spp., Nigrospora spp., Penicillium spp., Arthrinium spp., Chaetimium spp., Curvularia spp., Fusarium spp., Phoma spp., and Phomopsis spp. were isolated from at least three of the five sites. The coefficient of similarity for endophytes ranged from 60.6% to 83.3% between any two sites. There were significant differences in the species composition of endophytes recovered from different tissues of bitter melon. Fusarium spp. was the most frequent in root and stem samples, Colletotrichum spp. in leaf samples, A. alternata in flower samples, and Cladosporium spp. in fruit samples. The coefficients of similarity for endophytes were between 42.9% and 80.0% from any two tissues. We found that the composition of endophytes of bitter melon was relatively stable across sites, but differed greatly among tissues. We also found that there were fewer insects such as aphids (Homoptera: Aphididae), leafminers (Lepidoptera, Gracillariidae), and cotton leafworms Spodoptera litura (Fabricius) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) collected from the leaves of bitter melon at the Huadu site compared to those collected at the Yunfu site. Whether this is related to the endophyte communities isolated from different sites requires further research

Progress of Enantioselective Nitrile Biotransformations in Organic Synthesis

Recent progress of enantioselective biotransformations of nitriles including various functionalized nitriles, ?-hydroxy and ?-amino nitriles, oxirane- and aziridine-containing carbonitriles is summarized in this short review article

Capturing The Digital Dollar: How Religious Nonprofits Are Adopting Social Media for Adoption, Engagement, and Community

The objective of this thesis was to quantify the impact of religious, media-related nonprofit adoption rate, online presence, and online giving technology. Specifically, this thesis focuses on the nonprofits’ adoption, use, and interactivity on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. This thesis study was rooted in Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations Theory, and its constructs were used to best understand the adoption and impact of use within the religious nonprofit sector (Rogers, 2003). First, the researcher defined and evaluated the nonprofit’s active online presence, sophistication of technology integration, and impact of these findings. Second, the researcher quantitatively examined audience interactivity. Targeting a niche nonprofit group that has an understanding of online presence and content creation (religious, media-related nonprofits) significantly revealed that the extent of digital innovation and social media used was not dependent on the amount of revenue. This study provides the level of adoption of social media and online donation tools and audience interactivity that can assist nonprofits to efficiently invest their resources for a better return on investment on a digital, online scale

Elevated expression of human bHLH factor ATOH7 accelerates cell cycle progression of progenitors and enhances production of avian retinal ganglion cells.

The production of vertebrate retinal projection neurons, retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), is regulated by cell-intrinsic determinants and cell-to-cell signaling events. The basic-helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein Atoh7 is a key neurogenic transcription factor required for RGC development. Here, we investigate whether manipulating human ATOH7 expression among uncommitted progenitors can promote RGC fate specification and thus be used as a strategy to enhance RGC genesis. Using the chicken retina as a model, we show that cell autonomous expression of ATOH7 is sufficient to induce precocious RGC formation and expansion of the neurogenic territory. ATOH7 overexpression among neurogenic progenitors significantly enhances RGC production at the expense of reducing the progenitor pool. Furthermore, forced expression of ATOH7 leads to a minor increase of cone photoreceptors. We provide evidence that elevating ATOH7 levels accelerates cell cycle progression from S to M phase and promotes cell cycle exit. We also show that ATOH7-induced ectopic RGCs often exhibit aberrant axonal projection patterns and are correlated with increased cell death during the period of retinotectal connections. These results demonstrate the high potency of human ATOH7 in promoting early retinogenesis and specifying the RGC differentiation program, thus providing insight for manipulating RGC production from stem cell-derived retinal organoids

The Navigation Engineering in Developed Hydropower Station

Source: ICHE Conference Archive - https://mdi-de.baw.de/icheArchive

2-(4-Bromo­phen­yl)-2-methyl-2,3-di­hydro­quinazolin-4(1H)-one

In the title compound, C15H13BrN2O, the pyrimidine ring adopts a skew boat conformation. The amino H atom forms an inter­molecular hydrogen bond with the carbonyl O atom of an adjacent mol­ecule, forming an inversion dimer. Another lone pair of electrons on the same carbonyl O atom acts as acceptor for another N—H⋯O inter­molecular hydrogen bond with a neighbouring mol­ecule, forming chains along the c axis

Anion Recognition by Charge Neutral Electron-deficient Arene Receptors

Anion-? interactions are newly emerging non-covalent interactions and have attracted considerable attention from both theoreticians and supramolecular chemists. This short review article summarizes the recent advances in anion recognition using charge neutral electron-deficient aromatic compounds