Observer-Based Non-Fragile Passive Control for Uncertain Nonlinear Sampled-Data System with Time-Delay

The problem of observer-based passive control for uncertain nonlinearsampled-data systems with time delay is investigated by using non-fragile passivecontrol. Attention is focused on the design of a non-fragile passive observer and acontroller which guarantees the passivity of the closed-loop system for all admissibleuncertainties. A sufficient condition for passivity and asymptotic stability of thecombined system is derived via linear matrix inequality (LMI). Finally, a simulationexample is presented to show the validity and advantages of the proposed method

WAP four-disulfide core domain protein 2 promotes metastasis of human ovarian cancer by regulation of metastasis-associated genes.

BACKGROUND: WAP four-disulfide core domain protein 2 (WFDC2) shows a tumor-restricted upregulated pattern of expression in ovarian cancer. METHODS: In this study, we evaluated the role of WFCD2 in tumor mobility, invasion and metastasis of ovarian cancer in clinical tissue and in ovarian cancer cells, both in vitro and in vivo. RESULTS: Our results revealed WFCD2 was overexpressed in ovarian tissues, and the expression level of WFCD2 was associated with metastasis and lymph node metastasis. Higher expression of WFCD2 was also observed in aggressive HO8910-PM cells than in HO8910 cells, and WFCD2 knockdown halted cell migration, invasion, tumorigenicity and metastasis in ovarian cancer cells, both in vitro and in vivo. Knockdown of WFDC2 induced the down-regulation of ICAM-1, CD44, and MMP2. CONCLUSION: In summary, our work demonstrates that WFCD2 promotes metastasis in ovarian cancer. These findings suggest that WFCD2 plays a critical role in promoting metastasis and may constitute a potential therapeutic target of ovarian cancer

WAP four-disulfide core domain protein 2 gene(WFDC2) is a target of estrogen in ovarian cancer cells

BACKGROUND: WAP four-disulfide core domain protein 2 (WFDC2) shows a tumor-restricted upregulated pattern of expression in ovarian cancer. METHODS: We investigated the role of estradiol (E2) on cell growth in estrogen-sensitive or estrogen-insensitive ovarian cancer cell lines. Real-time (RT)-PCR and western blotting were used to examine the expression of WFDC2 at RNA and protein levels. Growth traits of cells transfected with WFDC2-shRNA or blank control were assessed using MMT arrays. Cell apoptosis was analyzed using annexin V-FITC/PI and flow cytometry. Estrogen receptor expression was evaluated using RT-PCR and flow cytometry. Apoptosis-related proteins induced by E2 directly and indirectly were determined using an antibody array comparing cells transfected with WFDC2- shRNA or a blank control. RESULTS: High-dose (625 ng/ml) E2 increased the expression of WFDC2 in HO8910 cells at both the mRNA and protein levels. However, E2 had no effect on WFDC2 expression in estrogen-insensitive SKOV3 cells. Of interest, knockdown of WFDC2 enabled a considerable estrogen response in SKOV3 cells in terms of proliferation, similar to estrogen-responsive HO8910 cells. This transformation of SKOV3 cells into an estrogen-responsive phenotype was accompanied by upregulation of estrogen receptor beta (ERß) and an effect on cell apoptosis under E2 treatment by regulating genes related to cell proliferation and apoptosis. CONCLUSIONS: We postulate that increased WFDC2 expression plays an important role in altering the estrogen pathway in ovarian cancer, and the identification of WFDC2 as a new player in endocrine-related cancer encourages further studies on the significance of this gene in cancer development and therapy. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13048-015-0210-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Parameter Estimation of Poisson–Gaussian Signal-Dependent Noise from Single Image of CMOS/CCD Image Sensor Using Local Binary Cyclic Jumping

Since signal-dependent noise in a local weak texture region of a noisy image is approximated as additive noise, the corresponding noise parameters can be estimated from a given set of weakly textured image blocks. As a result, the meticulous selection of weakly textured image blocks plays a decisive role to estimate the noise parameters accurately. The existing methods consider the finite directions of the texture of image blocks or directly use the average value of an image block to select the weakly textured image block, which can result in errors. To overcome the drawbacks of the existing methods, this paper proposes a novel noise parameter estimation method using local binary cyclic jumping to aid in the selection of these weakly textured image blocks. The texture intensity of the image block is first defined by the cumulative average of the LBCJ information in the eight neighborhoods around the pixel, and, subsequently, the threshold is set for selecting weakly textured image blocks through texture intensity distribution of the image blocks and inverse binomial cumulative function. The experimental results reveal that the proposed method outperforms the existing alternative algorithms by 23% and 22% for the evaluative measures of MSE (a) and MSE (b), respectively

An Improved Underwater Electric Field-Based Target Localization Combining Subspace Scanning Algorithm And Meta-EP PSO Algorithm

In this paper, we propose an improved three-dimensional underwater electric field-based target localization method. This method combines the subspace scanning algorithm and the meta evolutionary programming (meta-EP) particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The subspace scanning algorithm is applied as the evaluation function of the electric field-based underwater target locating problem. The meta-EP PSO method is used to select M elite particles by the q-tournament selection method, which could effectively reduce the computational complexity of the three-dimensional underwater target localization. Moreover, the proposed meta-EP PSO optimization algorithm can avoid subspace scanning trapping into local minima. We also analyze the positioning performance of the uniform circular and cross-shaped electrodes arrays by using the subspace scanning algorithm combined with meta–EP PSO. According to the simulation, the calculation amount of the proposed algorithm is greatly reduced. Moreover, the positioning accuracy is effectively improved without changing the positioning accuracy and search speed

A Novel Generalized Group-Sparse Mixture Adaptive Filtering Algorithm

A novel adaptive filtering (AF) algorithm is proposed for group-sparse system identifications. In the devised algorithm, a novel mixed error criterion (MEC) with two-order logarithm error, p-order errors and group sparse constraint method is devised to give a resistant to the impulsive noise. The proposed group-sparse MEC can fully use the known group-sparse characteristics in the cluster sparse systems, and it is derived and analyzed in detail. Various simulations are presented and analyzed to give a verification on the effectiveness of the developed group-sparse MEC algorithms, and the simulated results shown that the developed algorithm outperforms the previously developed sparse AF algorithms for identifying the systems

A new species of myxosporidian from allogynogenetic silver crucian carp (Myxosporea: Bivalvulida, Myxobolidae)

A new species Myxobolus guanqiaoensis was found in the liver and abdominal cavity of Allogynogenetic silver prassian carp at Guanqiao, in Oct, 1996. The type specimens were preserved in the Laboratory of Fish Diseases, Institute of Hydrobiology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China. Myxobolus guanqiaoensis sp. nov. Host and site: Allogynogenetic silver crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio female X Cyprinus carpio male), Liver and abdominal cavity. Locality: Guanqiao, Wuhan, China. Infection rate: above 60%. Cyst: Oval or elliptic in form, white in color; 2.1-4.0 cm in diameter, embraced by a transparent membrane. Spores: Spores elongated-oval in thecal view. Pointed at anterior end and bluntly round in posterior end; 1-3 V-shaped folds at posterior end; elongated elliptic in sutural view; sutural line S-shaped and distinct; shell valves smooth; intercapsular appendix distinct Two polar capsules eggplant, unequal in size, polar capsule located at 1/2 position of spore length; 7-8mum flat coiled filament. Dimensions of 20 fresh spores: Length 19.6(18.2-22.0) mum. width 10.8(9.0-13.2) mum. thickness 8.3(8.0-9.0) mum, large polar capsules 9.5(8.8-10.1) by 3.7(3.0-4.4)mum, small polar capsules 8.4(7.9-9.8) by 3.6(3.2-4.0)mum. Polar capsule nuclei situated at the inner of two polar capsules. An indistinct iodinophilous vacuole and two round germinal nuclei. The shape of this new species is similar to Myxobolus gigi, Myxobolus koi and Myxobolus aureatus, but differs from them in dimensions of spore, the size of polar capsule, suture line and host