Planning for Decentralized Control of Multiple Robots Under Uncertainty

We describe a probabilistic framework for synthesizing control policies for general multi-robot systems, given environment and sensor models and a cost function. Decentralized, partially observable Markov decision processes (Dec-POMDPs) are a general model of decision processes where a team of agents must cooperate to optimize some objective (specified by a shared reward or cost function) in the presence of uncertainty, but where communication limitations mean that the agents cannot share their state, so execution must proceed in a decentralized fashion. While Dec-POMDPs are typically intractable to solve for real-world problems, recent research on the use of macro-actions in Dec-POMDPs has significantly increased the size of problem that can be practically solved as a Dec-POMDP. We describe this general model, and show how, in contrast to most existing methods that are specialized to a particular problem class, it can synthesize control policies that use whatever opportunities for coordination are present in the problem, while balancing off uncertainty in outcomes, sensor information, and information about other agents. We use three variations on a warehouse task to show that a single planner of this type can generate cooperative behavior using task allocation, direct communication, and signaling, as appropriate

A prospective observational study of iron isomaltoside in haemodialysis patients with chronic kidney disease treated for iron deficiency (DINO).

Iron deficiency is frequent in haemodialysis (HD) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), and intravenous iron is an established therapy for these patients. This study assessed treatment routine, effectiveness, and safety of iron isomaltoside (IIM) 5% (Diafer®) in a HD cohort.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the link to the publisher's site to access the full-text

Rendering Protein-Based Particles Transiently Insoluble for Therapeutic Applications

Herein, we report the fabrication of protein (bovine serum albumin, BSA) particles which were rendered transiently insoluble using a novel, reductively labile disulfide-based cross-linker. After being cross-linked, the protein particles retain their integrity in aqueous solution and dissolve preferentially under a reducing environment. Our data demonstrates that cleavage of the cross-linker leaves no chemical residue on the reactive amino group. Delivery of a self-replicating RNA was achieved via the transiently insoluble PRINT protein particles. These protein particles can provide new opportunities for drug and gene delivery