Intelligent coordination steering control of automated guided vehicle

In this paper, based on the neural network, fuzzy control and bang-bang control, an intelligent coordination control strategy for automated guided vehicle (AGV) steering system is presented. The dynamic steering model of distance error and orientation angle error for AGV is expressed. With least square method of system identification, the model of AGV is identified. Because a toy type of AGV is employed, its structure is simple, but AGV model parameters are variable according to the operating conditions and environment. In order to improve the dynamic performances of AGV, the intelligent coordinated control strategy is used to design the AGV controller in the AGV steering control system. Simulation and experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy. © 2011 IEEE

Downregulation of metastasis suppressor 1(MTSS1) is associated with nodal metastasis and poor outcome in Chinese patients with gastric cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The putative tumor metastasis suppressor 1(MTSS1) is an actin-binding scaffold protein that has been implicated to play an important role in carcinogenesis and cancer metastasis, yet its role in the development of gastric cancer has not been well illustrated. In this study, we detected MTSS1 expression and explored its clinical significance in gastric cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Immunohistochemistry was performed using tissue microarrays containing gastric adenocarcinoma specimens from 1,072 Chinese patients with normal adjacent mucosa, primary gastric cancer and lymph node (LN) metastasis and specific antibody against MTSS1. MTSS1 mRNA and protein expression were detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and Western blotting. The clinical follow-up was done in the 669 patients living in Shanghai that was chose from the 1072 cases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Complete loss of MTSS1 expression was observed in 751 cases (70.1%) of the 1,072 primary tumors and 103 (88%) of 117 nodal metastases; and loss of MTSS1 expression was significantly associated with poorly differentiated tumors, large tumor size, deep invasion level, the presence of nodal metastases and advanced disease stage. Moreover, multivariate analysis demonstrated that loss of MTSS1 expression correlated significantly with poor survival rates (RR = 0.194, 95% CI = 0.144-0.261, P < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>MTSS1 expression decreased significantly as gastric cancer progressed and metastasized, suggesting MTSS1 may serve as a useful biomarker for the prediction of outcome of gastric cancer.</p

A novel switching delayed PSO algorithm for estimating unknown parameters of lateral flow immunoassay

In this paper, the parameter identification problem of the lateral flow immunoassay (LFIA) devices is investigated via a new switching delayed particle swarm optimization (SDPSO) algorithm. By evaluating an evolutionary factor in each generation, the velocity of the particle can adaptively adjust the model according to a Markov chain in the proposed SDPSO method. During the iteration process, the SDPSO can adaptively select the inertia weight, acceleration coefficients, locally best particle pbest and globally best particle gbest in the swarm. It is worth highlighting that the pbest and the gbest can be randomly selected from the corresponding values in the previous iteration. That is, the delayed information of the pbest and the gbest can be exploited to update the particle’s velocity in current iteration according to the evolutionary states. The strategy can not only improve the global search but also enhance the possibility of eventually reaching the gbest. The superiority of the proposed SDPSO is evaluated on a series of unimodal and multimodal benchmark functions. Results demonstrate that the novel SDPSO algorithm outperforms some well-known PSO algorithms in aspects of global search and efficiency of convergence. Finally, the novel SDPSO is successfully exploited to estimate the unknown time-delay parameters of a class of nonlinear state-space LFIA model.This work was supported in part by the Royal Society of the U.K., the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany, the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 61403319, the Fujian Natural Science Foundation under Grant 2015J05131, and the Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Eco-Industrial Green Technology

Murine Missing in Metastasis (MIM) Mediates Cell Polarity and Regulates the Motility Response to Growth Factors

Missing in metastasis (MIM) is a member of the inverse BAR-domain protein family, and in vitro studies have implied MIM plays a role in deforming membrane curvature into filopodia-like protrusions and cell dynamics. Yet, the physiological role of the endogenous MIM in mammalian cells remains undefined.We have examined mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) derived from mice in which the MIM locus was targeted by a gene trapping vector. MIM(-/-) MEFs showed a less polarized architecture characterized by smooth edges and fewer cell protrusions as compared to wild type cells, although the formation of filopodia-like microprotrusions appeared to be normal. Immunofluorescent staining further revealed that MIM(-/-) cells were partially impaired in the assembly of stress fibers and focal adhesions but were enriched with transverse actin filaments at the periphery. Poor assembly of stress fibers was apparently correlated with attenuation of the activity of Rho GTPases and partially relieved upon overexpressing of Myc-RhoA(Q63L), a constitutively activated RhoA mutant. MIM(-/-) cells were also spread less effectively than wild type cells during attachment to dishes and substratum. Upon treatment with PDGF MIM(-/-) cells developed more prominent dorsal ruffles along with increased Rac1 activity. Compared to wild type cells, MIM(-/-) cells had a slower motility in the presence of a low percentage of serum-containing medium but migrated normally upon adding growth factors such as 10% serum, PDGF or EGF. MIM(-/-) cells were also partially impaired in the internalization of transferrin, fluorescent dyes, foreign DNAs and PDGF receptor alpha. On the other hand, the level of tyrosine phosphorylation of PDGF receptors was more elevated in MIM depleted cells than wild type cells upon PDGF treatment.Our data suggests that endogenous MIM protein regulates globally the cell architecture and endocytosis that ultimately influence a variety of cellular behaviors, including cell polarity, motility, receptor signaling and membrane ruffling

The role of centrosomal Nlp in the control of mitotic progression and tumourigenesis

The human centrosomal ninein-like protein (Nlp) is a new member of the γ-tubulin complexes binding proteins (GTBPs) that is essential for proper execution of various mitotic events. The primary function of Nlp is to promote microtubule nucleation that contributes to centrosome maturation, spindle formation and chromosome segregation. Its subcellular localisation and protein stability are regulated by several crucial mitotic kinases, such as Plk1, Nek2, Cdc2 and Aurora B. Several lines of evidence have linked Nlp to human cancer. Deregulation of Nlp in cell models results in aberrant spindle, chromosomal missegregation and multinulei, and induces chromosomal instability and renders cells tumourigenic. Overexpression of Nlp induces anchorage-independent growth and immortalised primary cell transformation. In addition, we first demonstrate that the expression of Nlp is elevated primarily due to NLP gene amplification in human breast cancer and lung carcinoma. Consistently, transgenic mice overexpressing Nlp display spontaneous tumours in breast, ovary and testicle, and show rapid onset of radiation-induced lymphoma, indicating that Nlp is involved in tumourigenesis. This review summarises our current knowledge of physiological roles of Nlp, with an emphasis on its potentials in tumourigenesis

Three-dimensional nitrogen-doped graphene supported molybdenum disulfide nanoparticles as an advanced catalyst for hydrogen evolution reaction

An efficient three-dimensional (3D) hybrid material of nitrogen-doped graphene sheets (N-RGO) supporting molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoparticles with high-performance electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is fabricated by using a facile hydrothermal route. Comprehensive microscopic and spectroscopic characterizations confirm the resulting hybrid material possesses a 3D crumpled few-layered graphene network structure decorated with MoS2 nanoparticles. Electrochemical characterization analysis reveals that the resulting hybrid material exhibits efficient electrocatalytic activity toward HER under acidic conditions with a low onset potential of 112 mV and a small Tafel slope of 44 mV per decade. The enhanced mechanism of electrocatalytic activity has been investigated in detail by controlling the elemental composition, electrical conductance and surface morphology of the 3D hybrid as well as Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations. This demonstrates that the abundance of exposed active sulfur edge sites in the MoS2 and nitrogen active functional moieties in N-RGO are synergistically responsible for the catalytic activity, whilst the distinguished and coherent interface in MoS 2 /N-RGO facilitates the electron transfer during electrocatalysis. Our study gives insights into the physical/chemical mechanism of enhanced HER performance in MoS2/N-RGO hybrids and illustrates how to design and construct a 3D hybrid to maximize the catalytic efficiency

Azimuthal Charged-Particle Correlations and Possible Local Strong Parity Violation

Parity-odd domains, corresponding to nontrivial topological solutions of the QCD vacuum, might be created during relativistic heavy-ion collisions. These domains are predicted to lead to charge separation of quarks along the system’s orbital momentum axis. We investigate a three-particle azimuthal correlator which is a P even observable, but directly sensitive to the charge separation effect. We report measurements of charged hadrons near center-of-mass rapidity with this observable in Au+Au and Cu+Cu collisions at √sNN=200  GeV using the STAR detector. A signal consistent with several expectations from the theory is detected. We discuss possible contributions from other effects that are not related to parity violation

Prevalence and trend of hepatitis C virus infection among blood donors in Chinese mainland: a systematic review and meta-analysis

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Blood transfusion is one of the most common transmission pathways of hepatitis C virus (HCV). This paper aims to provide a comprehensive and reliable tabulation of available data on the epidemiological characteristics and risk factors for HCV infection among blood donors in Chinese mainland, so as to help make prevention strategies and guide further research.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic review was constructed based on the computerized literature database. Infection rates and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using the approximate normal distribution model. Odds ratios and 95% CI were calculated by fixed or random effects models. Data manipulation and statistical analyses were performed using STATA 10.0 and ArcGIS 9.3 was used for map construction.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Two hundred and sixty-five studies met our inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of HCV infection among blood donors in Chinese mainland was 8.68% (95% CI: 8.01%-9.39%), and the epidemic was severer in North and Central China, especially in Henan and Hebei. While a significant lower rate was found in Yunnan. Notably, before 1998 the pooled prevalence of HCV infection was 12.87% (95%CI: 11.25%-14.56%) among blood donors, but decreased to 1.71% (95%CI: 1.43%-1.99%) after 1998. No significant difference was found in HCV infection rates between male and female blood donors, or among different blood type donors. The prevalence of HCV infection was found to increase with age. During 1994-1995, the prevalence rate reached the highest with a percentage of 15.78% (95%CI: 12.21%-19.75%), and showed a decreasing trend in the following years. A significant difference was found among groups with different blood donation types, Plasma donors had a relatively higher prevalence than whole blood donors of HCV infection (33.95% <it>vs </it>7.9%).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The prevalence of HCV infection has rapidly decreased since 1998 and kept a low level in recent years, but some provinces showed relatively higher prevalence than the general population. It is urgent to make efficient measures to prevent HCV secondary transmission and control chronic progress, and the key to reduce the HCV incidence among blood donors is to encourage true voluntary blood donors, strictly implement blood donation law, and avoid cross-infection.</p