Application of C5 inhibitors in glomerular diseases in 2021

The complement pathway is an essential mechanism in innate immunity, but it is also involved in multiple pathologies. For kidney diseases, strong evidence of a dysregulation in the alternative pathway in atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS) led to the use of eculizumab, the first anti-C5 inhibitor available in clinical practice. Intensive fundamental research resulted in the development of subsequent new drugs, such as long-acting C5 inhibitors, oral medications, or antagonists of C5aR, the receptor for C5a. New data in the domain of C5-inhibition in glomerular diseases are still limited and mainly focus on 1) the efficacy of ravulizumab, a long-acting C5 inhibitor in aHUS, and 2) the use of avacopan, a C5aR antagonist, in antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody vasculitis. Several new studies ongoing or planned for the next few years will evaluate the efficacy of C5 inhibition in secondary thrombotic microangiopathy, C3 glomerulopathy, membranous nephropathy, or immunoglobulin A nephropathy

Use of upper bound delay estimate in stability analysis and robust control compensation in networked control systems

Recent interest in networked control systems (NCS) has instigated research in various areas of both communication networks and control. The analysis of NCS has often been performed either from the network, or the control point of view and not many papers exist were the analysis of both is done in the same context. Here a simple overall analysis is presented. In the paper the procedure of obtaining the upper bound delay value in the switched Ethernet network is proposed and the obtained delay estimate is used in stability analysis of the feedback loop and in the control compensation. The upper bound delay algorithm is based on the network calculus theory, the stability analysis uses the small gain theorem, and control compensating strategy is based on Smith predictor, where however the upper bound delay is utilised in obtaining the delay estimate.Comment: 6 page