Vibration suppression using fractional-order disturbance observer based adaptive grey predictive controller

A novel control strategy is proposed for vibration suppression using an integration of a fractional-order disturbance observer (FDOB) and an adaptive grey predictive controller (AGPC). AGPC is utilized to realize outer loop control for better transient performance by predicting system outputs ahead with metabolic GM(1,1) model, and an adaptive step switching module is adopted for the grey predictor in AGPC. FDOB is used to obtain disturbance estimate and generate compensation signal, and as the order of Q-filter is expanded to real-number domain, FDOB has a wider range to select a suitable tradeoff between robustness and vibration suppression. For implementation of the fractional order Q-filter, broken-line approximation method is introduced. The proposed control strategy is simple in control-law derivation, and its effectiveness is validated by numerical simulations

Expression of cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) in hen ovary

Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), discovered initially by via differential display RT-PCR analysis of brains of rats administered cocaine, is expressed mainly in central nervous system or neuronal origin cells, and is involved in a wide range of behaviors, such as regulation of food intake, energy homeostasis, and reproduction. The hens egg-laying rate mainly depends on the developmental status of follicles, expression of CART have not been identified from hen follicles, the regulatory mechanisms of CART biological activities are still unknown. The objective of this study was to characterize the mRNA expression of CART in hen follicular granulosa cells and determine CART peptide localization and regulatory role during follicular development

Neural Mixed Platoon Controller Design

Vehicle platooning can be formulated as an optimal control problem and many solving paradigms, such as Pontryagin's maximum principle-based and dynamical programming methods, have been recently developed. However, these methods usually rely on solving a group of necessary conditions or Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) partial differential equations, which is hard to calculate. Besides, due to the heterogeneous dynamics of different vehicles in a mixed and complex platoon which comprises of not only connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs), but also human-driven vehicles (HDVs), it is also challenging to coordinate the behaviors of different vehicles in an unified control framework. Here we provide a Neural Mixed Platoon Control (NMPC) framework, a novel control design for mixed vehicle platooning based on a neural ordinary differential equation (NODE). We first formulate an optimal control model that incorporates the heterogeneous dynamics of a leading CAV and several following HDVs. We use a neural network to parameterize a state-feedback controller and join the neural controller and the mixed platooning dynamics into the NODE solver to create a closed-loop and learnable controlled system. The resulting system can learn optimal control inputs driving the mixed platoon to evolve from a given beginning condition to the target state within a finite duration in an unsupervised manner. Finally, simulation results validate our suggested method's usefulness in terms of space headway and velocity tracking

Skin transcriptome profiles associated with coat color in sheep

Background Previous molecular genetic studies of physiology and pigmentation of sheep skin have focused primarily on a limited number of genes and proteins. To identify additional genes that may play important roles in coat color regulation, Illumina sequencing technology was used to catalog global gene expression profiles in skin of sheep with white versus black coat color. Results There were 90,006 and 74,533 unigenes assembled from the reads obtained from white and black sheep skin, respectively. Genes encoding for the ribosomal proteins and keratin associated proteins were most highly expressed. A total of 2,235 known genes were differentially expressed in black versus white sheep skin, with 479 genes up-regulated and 1,756 genes down-regulated. A total of 845 novel genes were differentially expressed in black versus white sheep skin, consisting of 107 genes which were up-regulated (including 2 highly expressed genes exclusively expressed in black sheep skin) and 738 genes that were down-regulated. There was also a total of 49 known coat color genes expressed in sheep skin, from which 13 genes showed higher expression in black sheep skin. Many of these up-regulated genes, such as DCT, MATP, TYR and TYRP1, are members of the components of melanosomes and their precursor ontology category. Conclusion The white and black sheep skin transcriptome profiles obtained provide a valuable resource for future research to understand the network of gene expression controlling skin physiology and melanogenesis in sheep

Functional Role of Cyclin-Dependent Kinase 5 in the Regulation of Melanogenesis and Epidermal Structure

The mammalian integumentary system plays important roles in body homeostasis, and dysfunction of melanogenesis or epidermal development may lead to a variety of skin diseases, including melanoma. Skin pigmentation in humans and coat color in fleece-producing animals are regulated by many genes. Among them, microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) and paired-box 3 (PAX3) are at the top of the cascade and regulate activities of many important melanogenic enzymes. Here, we report for the first time that cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) is an essential regulator of MITF and PAX3. Cdk5 knockdown in mice causes a lightened coat color, a polarized distribution of melanin and hyperproliferation of basal keratinocytes. Reduced expression of Keratin 10 (K10) resulting from Cdk5knockdown may be responsible for an abnormal epidermal structure. In contrast, overexpression of Cdk5 in sheep (Ovis aries) only produces brown patches on a white background, with no other observable abnormalities. Collectively, our findings show that Cdk5 has an important functional role in the regulation of melanin production and transportation and in normal development of the integumentary system

Reliable data transmission scheduling for UAV-assisted air-to-ground communications

Reliability is significant for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-assisted air-to-ground (A2G) communications. In this letter, we address the reliability optimization problem by properly scheduling data transmissions under Non-Line-of-Sight (NLoS) channel fading. We capture the channel fading effect by the Rayleigh distribution and then formulate the A2G communication reliability from a probabilistic perspective. We propose a constrained optimization model that jointly takes into account the impacts of the aerial and ground nodes' mobility, the stochastic fading characteristics of the A2G channel, and the transmission constraints. From the model, we derive a closed-form reliability-optimal solution for data transmission scheduling and theoretically characterize the optimal reliability that is achievable. Simulation results verify our theoretical results and show the superior performance of the proposed scheduling solution over benchmark methods

Robust Neural Control for Distributed Formation of UAVs under Uncertain Disturbances

No abstract available

Expression of cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) in hen ovary

Abstract Background Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART), discovered initially by via differential display RT-PCR analysis of brains of rats administered cocaine, is expressed mainly in central nervous system or neuronal origin cells, and is involved in a wide range of behaviors, such as regulation of food intake, energy homeostasis, and reproduction. The hens egg-laying rate mainly depends on the developmental status of follicles, expression of CART have not been identified from hen follicles, the regulatory mechanisms of CART biological activities are still unknown. The objective of this study was to characterize the mRNA expression of CART in hen follicular granulosa cells and determine CART peptide localization and regulatory role during follicular development. Methods Small white follicles (1–2 mm in diameter) were treated for RNA isolation; Small white follicles (1–2 mm in diameter) and large white follicles (4–6 mm in diameter) were treated for immunohistochemical localization and large white follicles (4–6 mm in diameter), small yellow follicles (6–8 mm in diameter), large yellow follicles (9–12 mm in diameter), mature follicles (F5, F4, F3, F2, F1, >12 mm in diameter) were treated for RNA isolation and Real time PCR. Results The results showed that full length of the CDS of hen CART was 336 bp encoding a 111 amino acid polypeptide. In the hen ovary, CART peptide was primarily localized to the theca layer, but not all, the oocyte and granulosa layer, with diffused, weaker staining than relative to the theca cell layer. Further, amount of CART mRNA was more (P < 0.05) in granulosa cells of 6–8 mm follicles compared with that in granulosa cells of other follicles. However, CART mRNA amount was greater in theca cells of 4–6 mm follicles relative to follicles of other sizes (P < 0.05). Conclusions Results suggest that CART could play a potential role in developmental regulation of chicken follicles