DETC2005/MECH-85241 DYNAMIC MODELING AND CONTROLLER DESIGN OF A PLANAR PARALLEL 3-RRR COMPLIANT MICROMANIPULATOR

ABSTRACT This paper presents control system formulations of a planar parallel 3-RRR parallel compliant micromanipulator. The design methodology is illustrated with one of such designs constructed at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China. Compliant joints and motion-amplifying mechanism allow rapid and accurate response as well as larger workspace. The three PZT actuators attached on the linkages produce the bending moments. The sensor is a CCD camera feeding back the tool point position. The plant is the equations of motion which can be formulated using the Lagrangian method and dynamics software. The system dynamic model was developed with ADAMS which can export the nonlinear and linearized control plant to Matlab Simulink. Overall dynamic behavior of the manipulator will be illustrated through simulations with Matlab Simulink Toolbox. After comparison of two different control plans, the controller obtained from LQR method was chosen to achieve the control objectives. Closed-loop performance in response to a step reference was plotted. Bode plots of the sensitivity and complementary sensitivity showed their relation to the step response. Gain and phase margins was computed

Systems Pharmacology Dissection of Multi-Scale Mechanisms of Action of Huo-Xiang-Zheng-Qi Formula for the Treatment of Gastrointestinal Diseases

Multi-components Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treats various complex diseases (multi-etiologies and multi-symptoms) via herbs interactions to exert curative efficacy with less adverse effects. However, the ancient Chinese compatibility theory of herbs formula still remains ambiguous. Presently, this combination principle is dissected through a systems pharmacology study on the mechanism of action of a representative TCM formula, Huo-xiang-zheng-qi (HXZQ) prescription, on the treatment of functional dyspepsia (FD), a chronic or recurrent clinical disorder of digestive system, as typical gastrointestinal (GI) diseases which burden human physical and mental health heavily and widely. In approach, a systems pharmacology platform which incorporates the pharmacokinetic and pharmaco-dynamics evaluation, target fishing and network pharmacological analyses is employed. As a result, 132 chemicals and 48 proteins are identified as active compounds and FD-related targets, and the mechanism of HXZQ formula for the treatment of GI diseases is based on its three function modules of anti-inflammation, immune protection and gastrointestinal motility regulation mainly through four, i.e., PIK-AKT, JAK-STAT, Toll-like as well as Calcium signaling pathways. In addition, HXZQ formula conforms to the ancient compatibility rule of “Jun-Chen-Zuo-Shi” due to the different, while cooperative roles that herbs possess, specifically, the direct FD curative effects of GHX (serving as Jun drug), the anti-bacterial efficacy and major accompanying symptoms-reliving bioactivities of ZS and BZ (as Chen), the detoxication and ADME regulation capacities of GC (as Shi), as well as the minor symptoms-treating efficacy of the rest 7 herbs (as Zuo). This work not only provides an insight of the therapeutic mechanism of TCMs on treating GI diseases from a multi-scale perspective, but also may offer an efficient way for drug discovery and development from herbal medicine as complementary drugs

Crop Diversity for Yield Increase

Traditional farming practices suggest that cultivation of a mixture of crop species in the same field through temporal and spatial management may be advantageous in boosting yields and preventing disease, but evidence from large-scale field testing is limited. Increasing crop diversity through intercropping addresses the problem of increasing land utilization and crop productivity. In collaboration with farmers and extension personnel, we tested intercropping of tobacco, maize, sugarcane, potato, wheat and broad bean – either by relay cropping or by mixing crop species based on differences in their heights, and practiced these patterns on 15,302 hectares in ten counties in Yunnan Province, China. The results of observation plots within these areas showed that some combinations increased crop yields for the same season between 33.2 and 84.7% and reached a land equivalent ratio (LER) of between 1.31 and 1.84. This approach can be easily applied in developing countries, which is crucial in face of dwindling arable land and increasing food demand

Development of a prognostic model to predict BLCA based on anoikis-related gene signature: preliminary findings

Abstract Background The prevalence of bladder urothelial carcinoma (BLCA) is significant on a global scale. Anoikis is a type of procedural cell death that has an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis. The advent of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) approaches has revolutionized the genomics field by providing unprecedented opportunities for elucidating cellular heterogeneity. Understanding the mechanisms associated with anoikis in BLCA is essential to improve its survival rate. Methods Data on BLCA and clinical information were acquired from the databases of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO). ARGs were obtained from Genecards and Harmonizome databases. According to univariate Cox regression analysis, the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) algorithm was utilized to select the ARGs associated with the overall rate (OS). A multivariate Cox regression analysis was carried out to identify eight prognostic ARGs, leading to the establishment of a risk model. The OS rate of BLCA patients was evaluated using Kaplan–Meier survival analysis. To explore the molecular mechanism in low- and high-risk groups, we employed Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSVA). Immune infiltration landscape estimation was performed using ESTIMATE, CIBERSOT, and single sample gene set enrichment analysis (ssGSEA) algorithms. Patients were categorized into different subgroups through consensus clustering analysis. We employed biological functional enrichment analysis and conducted immune infiltration analysis to examine the disparities in potential biological functions, infiltration of immune cells, immune activities, and responses to immunotherapy. Results We identified 647 ARGs and 37 survival-related genes. We further developed a risk scoring model to quantitatively assess the predictive capacity of ARGs. The high-risk score group exhibited an unfavorable prognosis, whereas the low-risk score group demonstrated a converse effect. We also found that the two groups of patients might respond differently to immune targets and anti-tumor drugs. Conclusion The nomogram with 8 ARGs may help guide treatment of BLCA. The systematic assessment of risk scores can help to design more individualized and precise treatment strategies for BLCA patients

Estimation of Observer Parameters for Dynamic Positioning Ships

Considering the problem of dynamic positioning systems for the slowly varying disturbances, a parametrically adaptive observer is presented. The peak frequency of observer is adjusted on-line by autoregressive (AR) spectral estimation; other parameters of observer are optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The peak frequency can be calculated by spectral analysis of the pitch, roll, and heave measurements. In the spectral estimation, Levinson-Durbin algorithm is used to solve the Yule-Walker equations. Finally, the computer simulation is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method

SGII: Towards Semantic Grid-Based Enterprise Information Integration *

Abstract. To fully leverage the information from different data sources and applications, an enterprise needs a generic, interoperable and flexible infrastructure to integrate and coordinate information across back-end data sources on semantic level. Through undertaking research at the intersection of the Semantic Web and Grid, the Semantic Grid expects to establish a semantic interconnection environment to effectively organize, share, cluster, fuse, and manage globally distributed versatile resources. In this context, we introduce SGII, an EII (Enterprise Information Integration) infrastructure based on Semantic Grid vision to achieve adaptive and intelligence information sharing. A survey of existent solutions is made to provide evidence of the benefits from Semantic Grid in the context of integration and interoperation of enterprise information. A primary architecture for SGII is introduced based on the analysis of realizing the vision of an infrastructure for semantic information integration on grid.