Polynomial system identification modeling and adaptive model predictive control of arterial oxygen saturation in premature infants

The automation of the regulation of the fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2) in neonatal mechanical ventilation to treat respiratory distress syndrome has proven challenging due to competing objectives: maintaining arterial oxygen saturation levels (SpO2) while simultaneously not inducing complications such as retrolental fibroplasia. Historically, models of the dynamics of the neonatal respiratory system were first order transfer function approximations. This work used higher order polynomial system identification methods with the model structures of autoregressive with exogenous inputs (ARX) and Box-Jenkins (BJ) models to investigate possible improved modeling of the dynamic relationship between the FiO2, Heart Rate (HR), and Respiratory Rate (RR) to the SpO2. Through a parameter sweep of different of polynomial orders and sampling delays, 3,456 ARX models and 13,176 BJ models were created, with four being selected for comparison based upon modeling performance metrics. From these best performing models, it was concluded that the FiO2 relationship to SpO2 could still be adequately approximated by a first order transfer function model with delay. The disturbance HR, RR, and the unmodeled dynamics did require higher order approximations. It was also shown that selecting a model based off the Akaike's Information Criterion was preferred in picking a model from a collection of identified models. With a singular winning model from the four best performing models, an adaptive model predictive controller (AMPC) was designed to adhere to clinical best practices to regulate the SpO2. Through a recursive polynomial model estimator (RPME), an ARX approximation of the unknown model's dynamics for the FiO2, HR, and RR relationship to the SpO2 could be used to update the internal model of the AMPC. Through this online model estimation, the AMPC could successfully feedforward reject the HR and RR disturbances improving the simulated time within the SpO2 target limits, 67.8% of simulation time, to a baseline PI controller's 56.6%, in periodic desaturation simulations.Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-65)

O-mannosylation in Candida albicans enables development of interkingdom biofilm communities

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Editorial: Advances in the Biology and Conservation of Marine Turtles

(First Paragraph) Marine turtles have been the subject of research over many decades, inspired by their unique life history and necessitated by their declining populations from a suite of human impacts including direct harvest, bycatch in marine fisheries, pollution, and climate change. Despite this, much about marine turtle biology has remained a mystery (Godley et al., 2008; Rees et al., 2016; Wildermann et al., 2018), but the rate of scientific discovery is increasing rapidly. As research techniques and conservation practices expand, the marine turtle research community has kept abreast of these developments and their application to marine turtles. In this special Research Topic, researchers submitted articles related to cutting-edge work in biology and conservation. The resulting 10 articles bring new insights across marine turtle movement, conservation, and methodological and analytical techniques, as well as other understudied areas and issues

Blue-Green Color Tunable Solution Processable Organolead Chloride-Bromide Mixed Halide Perovskites for Optoelectronic Applications.

Solution-processed organo-lead halide perovskites are produced with sharp, color-pure electroluminescence that can be tuned from blue to green region of visible spectrum (425-570 nm). This was accomplished by controlling the halide composition of CH3NH3Pb(BrxCl1-x)3 [0 ≤ x ≤ 1] perovskites. The bandgap and lattice parameters change monotonically with composition. The films possess remarkably sharp band edges and a clean bandgap, with a single optically active phase. These chloride-bromide perovskites can potentially be used in optoelectronic devices like solar cells and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Here we demonstrate high color-purity, tunable LEDs with narrow emission full width at half maxima (FWHM) and low turn on voltages using thin-films of these perovskite materials, including a blue CH3NH3PbCl3 perovskite LED with a narrow emission FWHM of 5 nm.We acknowledge funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Winton Programme (Cambridge) for the Physics of Sustainability. Support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (NIM Excellence Cluster) is gratefully acknowledged. A.S. acknowledges the funding and support from the Indo-UK APEX project. F.D. acknowledges funding and support from a Herchel Smith fellowship. M.D.V. acknowledges funding and support from the ERC-StG 337739-HIENA. A.S. thanks Dr. D. Di for the insightful discussions. P. D. gratefully acknowledges support from the European Union in the form of a Marie Curie Intra-European fellowship.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the American Chemical Society via http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b0236

Multiple Distant Origins for Green Sea Turtles Aggregating off Gorgona Island in the Colombian Eastern Pacific

Mitochondrial DNA analyses have been useful for resolving maternal lineages and migratory behavior to foraging grounds (FG) in sea turtles. However, little is known about source rookeries and haplotype composition of foraging green turtle aggregations in the southeastern Pacific. We used mitochondrial DNA control region sequences to identify the haplotype composition of 55 green turtles, Chelonia mydas, captured in foraging grounds of Gorgona National Park in the Colombian Pacific. Amplified fragments of the control region (457 bp) revealed the presence of seven haplotypes, with haplotype (h) and nucleotide (π) diversities of h = 0.300±0.080 and π = 0.009±0.005 respectively. The most common haplotype was CMP4 observed in 83% of individuals, followed by CMP22 (5%). The genetic composition of the Gorgona foraging population primarily comprised haplotypes that have been found at eastern Pacific rookeries including Mexico and the Galapagos, as well as haplotypes of unknown stock origin that likely originated from more distant western Pacific rookeries. Mixed stock analysis suggests that the Gorgona FG population is comprised mostly of animals from the Galapagos rookery (80%). Lagrangian drifter data showed that movement of turtles along the eastern Pacific coast and eastward from distant western and central Pacific sites was possible through passive drift. Our results highlight the importance of this protected area for conservation management of green turtles recruited from distant sites along the eastern Pacific Ocean

Impact of Orientational Glass Formation and Local Strain on Photo-Induced Halide Segregation in Hybrid Metal-Halide Perovskites.

Band gap tuning of hybrid metal-halide perovskites by halide substitution holds promise for tailored light absorption in tandem solar cells and emission in light-emitting diodes. However, the impact of halide substitution on the crystal structure and the fundamental mechanism of photo-induced halide segregation remain open questions. Here, using a combination of temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction and calorimetry measurements, we report the emergence of a disorder- and frustration-driven orientational glass for a wide range of compositions in CH3NH3Pb(Cl x Br1-x )3. Using temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurements, we find a correlation between halide segregation under illumination and local strains from the orientational glass. We observe no glassy behavior in CsPb(Cl x Br1-x )3, highlighting the importance of the A-site cation for the structure and optoelectronic properties. Using first-principles calculations, we identify the local preferential alignment of the organic cations as the glass formation mechanism. Our findings rationalize the superior photostability of mixed-cation metal-halide perovskites and provide guidelines for further stabilization strategies

Preparation of Single-Phase Films of CH3NH3Pb(I1-xBrx)3 with Sharp Optical Band Edges.

Organometallic lead-halide perovskite-based solar cells now approach 18% efficiency. Introducing a mixture of bromide and iodide in the halide composition allows tuning of the optical bandgap. We prepare mixed bromide-iodide lead perovskite films CH3NH3Pb(I1-xBrx)3 (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) by spin-coating from solution and obtain films with monotonically varying bandgaps across the full composition range. Photothermal deflection spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and X-ray diffraction show that following suitable fabrication protocols these mixed lead-halide perovskite films form a single phase. The optical absorption edge of the pure triiodide and tribromide perovskites is sharp with Urbach energies of 15 and 23 meV, respectively, and reaches a maximum of 90 meV for CH3NH3PbI1.2Br1.8. We demonstrate a bromide-iodide lead perovskite film (CH3NH3PbI1.2Br1.8) with an optical bandgap of 1.94 eV, which is optimal for tandem cells of these materials with crystalline silicon devices.We acknowledge funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Winton Programme (Cambridge) for the Physics of Sustainability. THT acknowledges funding from Cambridge Australia Scholarships and the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. D.C. acknowledges support from St. John's College Cambridge and the Winton Programme (Cambridge) for the Physics of Sustainability.This is the final published version. It's also available at: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jz501332v

The Assembly History of Disk Galaxies: I - The Tully-Fisher Relation to z~1.3 from Deep Exposures with DEIMOS

We present new measures of the evolving scaling relations between stellar mass, luminosity and rotational velocity for a morphologically-inclusive sample of 129 disk-like galaxies with z_AB<22.5 in the redshift range 0.2<z<1.3, based on spectra from DEIMOS on the Keck II telescope, multi-color HST ACS photometry, and ground-based Ks-band imaging. A unique feature of our survey is the extended spectroscopic integration times, leading to significant improvements in determining characteristic rotational velocities for each galaxy. Rotation curves are reliably traced to the radius where they begin to flatten for ~90% of our sample, and we model the HST-resolved bulge and disk components in order to accurately de-project our measured velocities, accounting for seeing and dispersion. We demonstrate the merit of these advances by recovering an intrinsic scatter on the stellar mass Tully-Fisher relation a factor of 2-3 less than in previous studies at intermediate redshift and comparable to that of locally-determined relations. With our increased precision, we find the relation is well-established by ~1, with no significant evolution to ~0.3, \DeltaM_stellar ~ 0.04+/-0.07 dex. A clearer trend of evolution is seen in the B-band Tully-Fisher relation corresponding to a decline in luminosity of \DeltaM_B ~ 0.85+/-0.28 magnitudes at fixed velocity over the same redshift range, reflecting the changes in star formation over this period. As an illustration of the opportunities possible when gas masses are available for a sample such as ours, we show how our dynamical and stellar mass data can be used to evaluate the likely contributions of baryons and dark matter to the assembly history of spiral galaxies.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Cosmological Simulations with Self-Interacting Dark Matter II: Halo Shapes vs. Observations

If dark matter has a large self-interaction scattering cross section, then interactions among dark-matter particles will drive galaxy and cluster halos to become spherical in their centers. Work in the past has used this effect to rule out velocity-independent, elastic cross sections larger than sigma/m ~ 0.02 cm^2/g based on comparisons to the shapes of galaxy cluster lensing potentials and X-ray isophotes. In this paper, we use cosmological simulations to show that these constraints were off by more than an order of magnitude because (a) they did not properly account for the fact that the observed ellipticity gets contributions from the triaxial mass distribution outside the core set by scatterings, (b) the scatter in axis ratios is large and (c) the core region retains more of its triaxial nature than estimated before. Including these effects properly shows that the same observations now allow dark matter self-interaction cross sections at least as large as sigma/m = 0.1 cm^2/g. We show that constraints on self-interacting dark matter from strong-lensing clusters are likely to improve significantly in the near future, but possibly more via central densities and core sizes than halo shapes.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figure