A new framework for consensus for discrete-time directed networks of multi-agents with distributed delays

Copyright @ 2012 Taylor & FrancisIn this article, the distributed consensus problem is considered for discrete-time delayed networks of dynamic agents with fixed topologies, where the networks under investigation are directed and the time-delays involved are distributed time delays including a single or multiple time delay(s) as special cases. By using the invariance principle of delay difference systems, a new unified framework is established to deal with the consensus for the discrete-time delayed multi-agent system. It is shown that the addressed discrete-time network with arbitrary distributed time delays reaches consensus provided that it is strongly connected. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the proposed methods.This work was supported in part by City University of Hong Kong under Grant 7008114, the Royal Society of the UK, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 60774073 and 61074129, and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province of China under Grant BK2010313

The Effectiveness Of The Six Minute Walk Test For Tracking Progress In Patients With Post-COVID Condition: A Case Report

Background and Purpose Post-COVID Condition (PCC) is defined as the presence of symptoms related to SARS-CoV-2 four weeks past the initial infection. The SARS-CoV-2 virus impacts many organs and body systems. The six-minute walk test (6MWT) is a standardized measure of cardiovascular endurance commonly used in physical therapy practice. Use of the 6MWT has been studied in specific patient populations (e.g., geriatrics, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder). The purpose of this case report is to discuss the utility of the 6MWT as a measure of walking capacity in individuals with PCC. Case Description The patient was a 46-year-old female diagnosed with PCC who presented to outpatient physical therapy with impaired cardiopulmonary endurance, including difficulty breathing, shortness of breath with exertion, and generalized muscle weakness. The patient had persistent pulmonary symptoms that impacted her ability to perform activities of daily living and recreational activities. The 6MWT was used to measure changes in cardiopulmonary endurance and walking capacity during her course of care. Interventions included whole body strengthening and aerobic exercise. Outcomes The patient demonstrated significant improvements in her cardiopulmonary endurance as demonstrated by an increase in the 6MWT distance (from 450 meters to 588 meters) and patient-reported symptoms. Discussion The 6MWT may be an appropriate outcome measure for monitoring change following physical therapy intervention for PCC. Further research is required to determine the psychometric properties of the 6MWT for this patient population

Advances, Mechanisms and Applications in Oxygen Evolution Electrocatalysis of Gold- driven

© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives CC BY-NC-ND licence, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a crucial role in electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Among different metal elements, gold (Au) stands out due to its high electronegativity and remarkable catalytic properties, especially in nanoscale size. In this review, we aim to comprehensively analyze the oxygen electrocatalytic performance of nanosized Au, including the influence of the crystal surface, morphology, substrate materials of Au nanoparticles, size and ligands of Au nanoclusters, and Au single atoms on oxygen electrocatalysis. By exploring the catalytic performance of noble metals, non-noble metals, oxides, hydroxides/oxyhydroxides/layered double hydroxides, sulfides, phosphides, nitrides, and selenides through the integration of nanosized Au, which offers valuable insights for enhancing the OER efficiency. These effects can be attributed to two mechanisms: i) adsorbate evolution mechanism (AEM) and ii) lattice oxygen mechanism (LOM), where the nanosized Au changed the electronic structure of the catalysts and improved the adsorption of reaction intermediates to accelerate electron transfer process or exerts the synergistic effect between metallic Au and oxygen vacancies. For instance, Au-driven OER catalysts can be widely used in zinc-air batteries and water splitting in the future.Peer reviewe

Synchronization of stochastic genetic oscillator networks with time delays and Markovian jumping parameters

The official published version of the article can be found at the link below.Genetic oscillator networks (GONs) are inherently coupled complex systems where the nodes indicate the biochemicals and the couplings represent the biochemical interactions. This paper is concerned with the synchronization problem of a general class of stochastic GONs with time delays and Markovian jumping parameters, where the GONs are subject to both the stochastic disturbances and the Markovian parameter switching. The regulatory functions of the addressed GONs are described by the sector-like nonlinear functions. By applying up-to-date ‘delay-fractioning’ approach for achieving delay-dependent conditions, we construct novel matrix functional to derive the synchronization criteria for the GONs that are formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Note that LMIs are easily solvable by the Matlab toolbox. A simulation example is used to demonstrate the synchronization phenomena within biological organisms of a given GON and therefore shows the applicability of the obtained results.This work was supported in part by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) of the UK under Grants BB/C506264/1 and 100/EGM17735, the Royal Society of the UK, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 60804028, the Teaching and Research Fund for Excellent Young Teachers at Southeast University of China, the International Science and Technology Cooperation Project of China under Grant 2009DFA32050, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany

From GPT-4 to Gemini and Beyond: Assessing the Landscape of MLLMs on Generalizability, Trustworthiness and Causality through Four Modalities

Multi-modal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have shown impressive abilities in generating reasonable responses with respect to multi-modal contents. However, there is still a wide gap between the performance of recent MLLM-based applications and the expectation of the broad public, even though the most powerful OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Gemini have been deployed. This paper strives to enhance understanding of the gap through the lens of a qualitative study on the generalizability, trustworthiness, and causal reasoning capabilities of recent proprietary and open-source MLLMs across four modalities: ie, text, code, image, and video, ultimately aiming to improve the transparency of MLLMs. We believe these properties are several representative factors that define the reliability of MLLMs, in supporting various downstream applications. To be specific, we evaluate the closed-source GPT-4 and Gemini and 6 open-source LLMs and MLLMs. Overall we evaluate 230 manually designed cases, where the qualitative results are then summarized into 12 scores (ie, 4 modalities times 3 properties). In total, we uncover 14 empirical findings that are useful to understand the capabilities and limitations of both proprietary and open-source MLLMs, towards more reliable downstream multi-modal applications

Embedded Si/Graphene Composite Fabricated by Magnesium-Thermal Reduction as Anode Material for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract Embedded Si/graphene composite was fabricated by a novel method, which was in situ generated SiO2 particles on graphene sheets followed by magnesium-thermal reduction. The tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and flake graphite was used as original materials. On the one hand, the unique structure of as-obtained composite accommodated the large volume change to some extent. Simultaneously, it enhanced electronic conductivity during Li-ion insertion/extraction. The MR-Si/G composite is used as the anode material for lithium ion batteries, which shows high reversible capacity and ascendant cycling stability reach to 950 mAh·g−1 at a current density of 50 mA·g−1 after 60 cycles. These may be conducive to the further advancement of Si-based composite anode design

Diagnosis of Swine Toxoplasmosis by PCR and Genotyping of Toxoplasma gondii from pigs in Henan, Central China

Abstract Background Toxoplasma gondii, a widely prevalent protozoan parasite, causes serious toxoplasmosis infections in humans and other animals. Among livestock, pigs are susceptible to T. gondii infection. Despite Henan being one of the biggest pig-raising provinces in China, little information exists on the epidemiology of toxoplasmosis in this location. Therefore, we molecularly characterized DNA samples from pigs in Henan. A total of 1647 samples, including 952 from dead piglets, 478 from seriously sick fattening pigs and 217 from abortion sows, were collected from different animal hospitals or pig farms from 10 different cities in Henan (2006–2008). Each pig corresponded to a separate pig farm. DNA was extracted from 3 to 5 g of the most severely affected pig tissue (liver, spleen, lung, hilar lymph nodes and amniotic fluid) after postmortem examination. The presence of the T. gondii B1 gene was detected using nested polymerase chain reactions (PCR). Genotyping was performed directly on DNA from the PCR-positive tissue samples using 11 PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism markers (SAG1, 5′- and 3′-SAG2, alternative SAG2, SAG3, BTUB, GRA6, L358, PK1, c22–8, c29–2, and Apico). Results Of all samples, thirty-four were positive for the T. gondii B1 gene (2.06%, 95% CI: 1.86%–2.26%) from four cities, including 31 from NanYang city, one (PgXY 1) from Xinyang City, one (PgZZ 1) from Zhengzhou City and one (PgZK1) from Zhoukou City. The prevalence was found to be highest in piglets than in fattening pigs and sows. And the difference was statistically significant (P<0.01). The following 32 samples were genotyped with complete data: 13 hilar lymph node tissue samples, seven liver tissue samples, seven lung tissue samples, four spleen tissue samples, and one amniotic fluid sample. Only one genotype, belonging to ToxoDB Genotype #9, was identified. Conclusions This is the first large-scale survey molecularly characterizing T. gondii from pigs in Henan. The results of the present study revealed that T. gondii infection is present in swine in Henan and is a potential source of foodborne toxoplasmosis in the investigated areas. Implementation of effective control measures for T. gondii to reduce the chance of zoonotic toxoplasmosis spreading from pig farms may be warranted. The results show that the ToxoDB #9 genotype may be the dominant T. gondii lineage in mainland China. These findings strengthen the limited Chinese T. gondii epidemiology database

Primitive new termites (Blattodea, Termitoidae) in Cretaceous amber from Myanmar

Mastotermitidae, the first-diverging extant family of termites, has only one relic extant species; however, this family had greater richness during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Fossil termites from the Cretaceous provide information on the early evolution of termites and the transition between extinct families. Herein, two new Mastotermitidae species found in upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Kachin amber are reported. One is a female imago described as Angustitermes reflexus gen. et sp. nov. and assigned to the subfamily Mastotermitinae. The other is Mastotermes reticulatus sp. nov., which is described from an isolated forewing. With the comparison especially of the antenna and venation, these new mastotermitids further increase our knowledge of the diversity and morphology of Mastotermitidae during the Mesozoic