3-D Velocity Regulation for Nonholonomic Source Seeking Without Position Measurement

We consider a three-dimensional problem of steering a nonholonomic vehicle to seek an unknown source of a spatially distributed signal field without any position measurement. In the literature, there exists an extremum seeking-based strategy under a constant forward velocity and tunable pitch and yaw velocities. Obviously, the vehicle with a constant forward velocity may exhibit certain overshoots in the seeking process and can not slow down even it approaches the source. To resolve this undesired behavior, this paper proposes a regulation strategy for the forward velocity along with the pitch and yaw velocities. Under such a strategy, the vehicle slows down near the source and stays within a small area as if it comes to a full stop, and controllers for angular velocities become succinct. We prove the local exponential convergence via the averaging technique. Finally, the theoretical results are illustrated with simulations.Comment: submitted to IEEE TCST;12 pages, 10 figure

catena-Poly[[diaqua­magnesium(II)]-bis­(μ-5-ammonio­isophthalato-κ2 O 1:O 3)]

In the title compound, [Mg(C8H6NO4)2(H2O)2]n, the MgII ion lies on a twofold roatation axis and is coordinated in a slightly distorted octa­hedral environment. Pairs of bridging ammonium­isophthalate ligands connect symmetry-related MgII ions, forming chains along [010]. In the crystal, inter­molecular O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link these chains into a three-dimensional network. The centroids of pairs of symmetry-related benzene rings within a chain are separated by 3.5707 (12) Å

P-type tin monoxide thin-film transistors on cellulose nanopaper substrates

Oxide-based thin-film transistors (TFTs) possess advantages such as relatively high mobility, low process temperature and good uniformity, which make them attractive for flexible electronics applications. Most flexible oxide-based TFTs reported today were made on plastic substrates. In this work, flexible inverted-staggered bottom-gate p-type tin monoxide (SnO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) were demonstrated on cellulose nanopaper substrates using a photolithography-compatible direct-fabrication approach. The paper substrate was formed by drop-casting suspension containing cellulose nanofibers and cellulose nanocrystals on a rigid carrier substrate. A buffer layer consisting of parylene, SiNx and SiO2 was then deposited to protect the paper substrate from processing gases and chemicals. The processing temperatures of the TFT were kept ≤ 200°C to ensure the paper substrate remained intact during the process. The channel, gate, source, and drain patterns were defined by using conventional photolithography techniques. Fig. 1(a) shows the micrograph of p-type SnO TFTs made on a cellulose nanopaper substrate. The channel width and length are 60 μm and 30 μm, respectively. Figs. 1(b), (c), and (d) illustrate the transfer characteristics, output characteristics and linear field-effect mobility as a function gate voltage of a p-type SnO TFT fabricated on a cellulose nanopaper substrate. The on-paper SnO TFT exhibits a field-effect mobility of 1.21 cm2V-1s-1, threshold voltage of 3.56 V, subthreshold swing of 2.36 V/dec and on/off current ratio of 2.06×103. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Cucurbitacin E inhibits the Yes‑associated protein signaling pathway and suppresses brain metastasis of human non‑small cell lung cancer in a murine model.

Human non‑small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is associated with an extremely poor prognosis especially for the 40% of patients who develop brain metastasis, and few treatment strategies exist. Cucurbitacin E (CuE), an oxygenated tetracyclic triterpenoid isolated from plants particularly of the family Cucurbitaceae, has shown anti‑tumorigenic properties in several types of cancer, yet the mechanism remains unclear. Yes‑associated protein (YAP), a main mediator of the Hippo signaling pathway, promotes tumorigenesis, drug resistance and metastasis in human NSCLC. The present study was designed to ascertain whether CuE inhibits YAP and its downstream gene expression in the human NSCLC cell lines H2030‑BrM3 (K‑rasG12C mutation) and PC9‑BrM3 (EGFRΔexon19 mutation), which have high potential for brain metastasis. The efficacy of CuE in suppressing brain metastasis of H2030‑BrM3 cells in a murine model was also investigated. It was found that after CuE treatment in H2030‑BrM3 and PC9‑BrM3 cells, YAP protein expression was decreased, and YAP signaling GTIIC reporter activity and expression of the downstream genes CTGF and CYR61 were significantly (P<0.01) decreased. CuE treatment also reduced the migration and invasion abilities of the H2030‑BrM3 and PC9‑BrM3 cells. Finally, our in vivo study showed that CuE treatment (0.2 mg/kg) suppressed H2030‑BrM3 cell brain metastasis and that mice treated with CuE survived longer than the control mice treated with 10% DMSO (P=0.02). The present study is the first to demonstrate that CuE treatment inhibits YAP and the signaling downstream gene expression in human NSCLC in vitro, and suppresses brain metastasis of NSCLC in a murine model. More studies to verify the promising efficacy of CuE in inhibiting brain metastasis of NSCLC and various other cancers may be warranted

Poly[(μ5-5-amino­isophthalato)aqua­barium]

In the title compound, [Ba(C8H5NO4)(H2O)]n, the BaII ion is eight-coordinated by six O atoms and one N atom from five 5-amino­isophthalate ligands and one water mol­ecule in a distorted dodeca­hedral geometry. The BaII ions are connected via the ligands into a layer parallel to (011). The layers are linked by N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. The coordinated water mol­ecule is involved in intra­layer O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Influence of electrode thermal conductivity on resistive switching behavior during reset process

Resistive random access memory (RRAM) is the most promising candidate for non-volatile memory (NVM) due to its extremely low operation voltage, extremely fast write/erase speed, and excellent scaling capability. However, an obstacle hindering mass production of RRAM is the non-uniform physical mechanism in its resistance switching process. This study examines the influence of different electrode thermal conductivity on switching behavior during the reset process. Electrical analysis methods and an analysis of current conduction mechanism indicate that better thermal conductivity in the electrode will require larger input power in order to induce more active oxygen ions to take part in the reset process. More active oxygen ions cause a more complete reaction during the reset process, and cause the effective switching gap (dsw) to become thicker. The effect of the electrode thermal conductivity and input power are explained by our model and clarified by electrical analysis methods. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Inhibition of yes-associated protein suppresses brain metastasis of human lung adenocarcinoma in a murine model.

Yes-associated protein (YAP) is a main mediator of the Hippo pathway and promotes cancer development and progression in human lung cancer. We sought to determine whether inhibition of YAP suppresses metastasis of human lung adenocarcinoma in a murine model. We found that metastatic NSCLC cell lines H2030-BrM3(K-rasG12C mutation) and PC9-BrM3 (EGFRΔexon19 mutation) had a significantly decreased p-YAP(S127)/YAP ratio compared to parental H2030 (K-rasG12C mutation) and PC9 (EGFRΔexon19 mutation) cells (P < .05). H2030-BrM3 cells had significantly increased YAP mRNA and expression of Hippo downstream genes CTGF and CYR61 compared to parental H2030 cells (P < .05). Inhibition of YAP by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) significantly decreased mRNA expression in downstream genes CTGF and CYR61 in H2030-BrM3 cells (P < .05). In addition, inhibiting YAP by YAP shRNA significantly decreased migration and invasion abilities of H2030-BrM3 cells (P < .05). We are first to show that mice inoculated with YAP shRNA-transfected H2030-BrM3 cells had significantly decreased metastatic tumour burden and survived longer than control mice (P < .05). Collectively, our results suggest that YAP plays an important role in promoting lung adenocarcinoma brain metastasis and that direct inhibition of YAP by shRNA suppresses H2030-BrM3 cell brain metastasis in a murine model

2-(3-Oxo-2,3-dihydro-1,2-benzothia­zol-2-yl)acetic acid

In the title compound, C9H7NO3S, the benzoisothia­zolone ring system is essentially planar, with a maximum deviation of 0.013 (2) Å. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked via O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming chains along [010]. In addition, weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds are present

Analysis of Agreement on Traditional Chinese Medical Diagnostics for Many Practitioners

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) diagnostics, it is an important issue to study the degree of agreement among several distinct practitioners. In order to study the reliability of TCM diagnostics, we have to design an experiment to simultaneously deal with both of the cases when the data is ordinal and when there are many TCM practitioners. In this study, we consider a reliability measure called “Krippendorff's alpha” to investigate the agreement of tongue diagnostics in TCM. Besides, since it is not easy to obtain a large data set with patients rated simultaneously by many TCM practitioners, we use the renowned “bootstrapping” to obtain a 95% confidence interval for the Krippendorff's alpha. The estimated Krippendorff's alpha for the agreement among ten physicians that discerned fifteen randomly chosen patients is 0.7343, and the 95% bootstrapping confidence interval for the true alpha coefficient is [0.6570, 0.7349]. The data was collected and analyzed at the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Changhua Christian Hospital (CCH) in Taiwan