Parameter-varying modeling and nonlinear model predictive control with disturbance prediction for spar-type floating offshore wind turbines

This paper proposes novel methods for the modeling and control of spar-type floating offshore wind turbines (FOWTs) by focusing on the dependency of the equilibrium and perturbed dynamics on the rotor azimuth angle. In addition, three new reduced models for controller design are derived using trajectory linearization by accounting for the dependency of the equilibrium on the azimuth angle. A thorough simulation study shows that the proposed models reproduce the important dynamic characteristics of FOWTs more accurately than the conventional models. Then, nonlinear model predictive controllers (NMPCs) minimizing the nonquadratic cost functions are developed for the proposed models, which include nonlinear terms for the rotor azimuth angle. These NMPCs suppress the variation in the forces applied to the blades better than the conventional linear MPCs while maintaining a low computational cost. The best NMPC for the models is one that accounts for the dependency of both the equilibrium and perturbed dynamics on the rotor azimuth angle. This NMPC suppresses the platform yaw and forces added on the blades. The performance of such an NMPC can be further improved using the inflow wind disturbance data predicted using a light detection and ranging wind sensor

Apt-clean: Aptamer-mediated cleavage of extracellular antigen, a new strategy for the inhibition of membrane protein functions

Recently, targeted protein degradation (TPD) has attracted much attention as a powerful strategy for effective inhibition of disease-related proteins. However, development of ligands with high affinity and specificity for a target protein is still a demanding task and poses a particular challenge for designing TPD therapeutics. In this work, we report a novel TPD strategy called aptamer-mediated cleavage of extracellular antigen (Apt-clean), where oligonucleotide-based affinity agents are used for selective recruitment of proteases to target membrane proteins. Our data demonstrate that Apt-clean induces selective degradation of the target protein both in vitro and in cellulo. In addition, potential of Apt-clean was demonstrated through the inhibition of a tumor-related growth factor signaling. This novel TPD modality may serve as an efficient and flexible strategy for targeting membrane proteins