Autonomous Landing and Go-around of Large Jets Under Severe Weather Conditions Using Artificial Neural Networks

We introduce the Intelligent Autopilot System (IAS) which is capable of autonomous landing, and go-around of large jets such as airliners under severe weather conditions. The IAS is a potential solution to the current problem of Automatic Flight Control Systems of being unable to autonomously handle flight uncertainties such as severe weather conditions, autonomous complete flights, and go-around. A robust approach to control the aircraft's bearing using Artificial Neural Networks is proposed. An Artificial Neural Network predicts the appropriate bearing to be followed given the drift from the path line to be intercepted. In addition, the capabilities of the Flight Manager of the IAS are extended to detect unsafe landing attempts, and generate a go-around flight course. Experiments show that the IAS can handle such flight skills and tasks effectively, and can even land aircraft under severe weather conditions that are beyond the maximum demonstrated landing of the aircraft model used in this work as reported by the manufacturer's operations limitations. The proposed IAS is a novel approach towards achieving full control autonomy of large jets using ANN models that match the skills and abilities of experienced human pilots

An Intelligent Autopilot System that Learns Flight Emergency Procedures by Imitating Human Pilots

We propose an extension to the capabiliti es of the Intelligent Autopilot System (IAS) from our previou s work, to be able to learn handling emergencies by observing and imitating human pilots. The IAS is a potential solution to th e current problem of Automatic Flight Control Systems of bein g unable to handle flight uncertainties, and the need to constr uct control models manually. A robust Learning by Imitation app roach is proposed which uses human pilots to demonstrate the task to be learned in a flight simulator while training datase ts are captured from these demonstrations. The datasets are then us ed by Artificial Neural Networks to generate control models automati cally. The control models imitate the skills of the human pilo t when handling flight emergencies including engine(s) failure or f ire, Rejected Take Off (RTO), and emergency landing, while a flig ht manager program decides which ANNs to be fired given the cu rrent condition. Experiments show that, even after being presented with limited examples, the IAS is able to handle such fl ight emergencies with high accuracy

Budding-like division of all-aqueous emulsion droplets modulated by networks of protein nanofibrils.

Networks of natural protein nanofibrils, such as cytoskeletal filaments, control the shape and the division of cells, yet mimicking this functionality in a synthetic setting has proved challenging. Here, we demonstrate that artificial networks of protein nanofibrils can induce controlled deformation and division of all-aqueous emulsion droplets with budding-like morphologies. We show that this process is driven by the difference in the immersional wetting energy of the nanofibril network, and that both the size and the number of the daughter droplets formed during division can be controlled by modulating the fibril concentration and the chemical properties of the fibril network. Our results demonstrate a route for achieving biomimetic division with synthetic self-assembling fibrils and offer an engineered approach to regulate the morphology of protein gels

Evolution of leaf-form in land plants linked to atmospheric CO2 decline in the Late Palaeozoic era

The widespread appearance of megaphyll leaves, with their branched veins and planate form, did not occur until the close of the Devonian period at about 360 Myr ago. This happened about 40 Myr after simple leafless vascular plants first colonized the land in the Late Silurian/Early Devonian, but the reason for the slow emergence of this common feature of present-day plants is presently unresolved. Here we show, in a series of quantitative analyses using fossil leaf characters and biophysical principles, that the delay was causally linked with a 90% drop in atmospheric pCO2 during the Late Palaeozoic era. In contrast to simulations for a typical Early Devonian land plant, possessing few stomata on leafless stems, those for a planate leaf with the same stomatal characteristics indicate that it would have suffered lethal overheating, because of greater interception of solar energy and low transpiration. When planate leaves first appeared in the Late Devonian and subsequently diversified in the Carboniferous period, they possessed substantially higher stomatal densities. This observation is consistent with the effects of the pCO2 on stomatal development and suggests that the evolution of planate leaves could only have occurred after an increase in stomatal density, allowing higher transpiration rates that were sufficient to maintain cool and viable leaf temperatures

Dynamic and physical clustering of gene expression during epidermal barrier formation in differentiating keratinocytes.

The mammalian epidermis is a continually renewing structure that provides the interface between the organism and an innately hostile environment. The keratinocyte is its principal cell. Keratinocyte proteins form a physical epithelial barrier, protect against microbial damage, and prepare immune responses to danger. Epithelial immunity is disordered in many common diseases and disordered epithelial differentiation underlies many cancers. In order to identify the genes that mediate epithelial development we used a tissue model of the skin derived from primary human keratinocytes. We measured global gene expression in triplicate at five times over the ten days that the keratinocytes took to fully differentiate. We identified 1282 gene transcripts that significantly changed during differentiation (false discovery rate <0.01%). We robustly grouped these transcripts by K-means clustering into modules with distinct temporal expression patterns, shared regulatory motifs, and biological functions. We found a striking cluster of late expressed genes that form the structural and innate immune defences of the epithelial barrier. Gene Ontology analyses showed that undifferentiated keratinocytes were characterised by genes for motility and the adaptive immune response. We systematically identified calcium-binding genes, which may operate with the epidermal calcium gradient to control keratinocyte division during skin repair. The results provide multiple novel insights into keratinocyte biology, in particular providing a comprehensive list of known and previously unrecognised major components of the epidermal barrier. The findings provide a reference for subsequent understanding of how the barrier functions in health and disease

Hand-grip strength is a simple and effective outcome predictor in esophageal cancer following esophagectomy with reconstruction: a prospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Surgery for esophageal cancer usually carries considerable complication and mortality rate. Adequate preoperative evaluation is mandatory to decrease complication rate. Hand-grip strength is a useful measure to assess the extent of aging, nutrition and patient's overall condition. Because preoperative nutrition state and physiologic aging process play important roles in postoperative recovery, we would like to know if hand-grip strength is an adequate tool for such evaluation.</p> <p>Material and methods</p> <p>From January 1st, 2007 to December 31, 2008, there was 68 cases underwent esophagectomy with reconstruction due to esophageal cancer in our hospital. After excluding 7 patients of incomplete data and loss of follow-up, there were 61 patients included in the study.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were 54 men and 7 women. The mean age is 60.7. Most of patients had squamous cell carcinoma. Patient with weak hand-grip strength prior to operation had exceedingly high rates of complication and mortality within 6 months after operation. Compared to other risk factors, low grip strength has highest relative risks for both mortality and morbidity.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Because test for hand-grip strength is cheap, not time-consuming and has high predictive value, it may be included in routine preoperative evaluation.</p

Surveillance of Schistosoma japonicum Infection in Domestic Ruminants in the Dongting Lake Region, Hunan Province, China

Background: Schistosomiasis japonica is prevalent in Asian countries and it remains a major public health problem in China. The major endemic foci are the marsh and lake regions of southern China, particularly the Dongting Lake region bordering Hunan and Hubei provinces, and the Poyang Lake region in Jiangxi province. Domestic ruminants, especially bovines, have long been considered to play a major role in the transmission of Schistosoma japonicum to humans. Methods and Findings: A miracidial hatching technique was used to investigate the prevalence of S. japonicum infections in domestic ruminants and field feces collected from two towns located to the south and east of Dongting Lake, Hunan province, between 2005 and 2010. The overall prevalence of infection was not significantly reduced from 4.93 % in 2005 to 3.64 % in 2008, after which it was maintained at this level. Bovines comprised 23.5–58.2 % of the total infected ruminants, while goats comprised 41.8–76.5%. Infection rates in cattle and goats were significantly higher than those found in buffalo in most study years. The prevalence in buffalo younger than three years was significantly higher than that in those aged over three years. All the positive field samples of feces were derived from bovines in Nandashan. In Matang Town, 61.22 % of the positive field feces were from bovines, while the rest were from goats. The positive rates for field feces were approximately the same in April and November/October. Conclusions: The present study found that bovines and goats are major sources of S. japonicum infection in the Dongtin

Gene transfer: anything goes in plant mitochondria

Parasitic plants and their hosts have proven remarkably adept at exchanging fragments of mitochondrial DNA. Two recent studies provide important mechanistic insights into the pattern, process and consequences of horizontal gene transfer, demonstrating that genes can be transferred in large chunks and that gene conversion between foreign and native genes leads to intragenic mosaicism. A model involving duplicative horizontal gene transfer and differential gene conversion is proposed as a hitherto unrecognized source of genetic diversity