Testing protocols in Internet of Things by a formal passive technique

In recent years, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol （XMPP） is gaining momentum in Internet of Things （IoT）. It has been widely used in chatting, message exchanging and unique addressing. As a matter of course, it raises an interesting issue： how to formally test the conformance and performance of XMPP in IoT environment. While conformance testing of communicating protocols is a functional test that verifies whether the behaviors of the protocol satisfy defined requirements, performance testing is a qualitative and quantitative test that aims at checking whether the performance requirements of the protocol are satisfied under certain conditions. In this paper, we present a logic-based passive testing approach that can test both the conformance and the performance of XMPP protocol through real execution traces and formally specified properties. To evaluate and assess our methodology, we present a developed prototype and the experiments with a set of XMPP properties. Finally, the relevant verdicts and conclusions are provided.     

Bioparticle separation and manipulation using dielectrophoresis

Manipulation and separation of micro-sized particles, particularly biological particles, using the dielectrophoretic (DEP) force is an emerging technique in MEMS technology. This paper presents a DEP-based microsystem for the selective manipulation and separation of bioparticles using dielectrophoretic effects. The microfabricated DEP device consists of a sandwich structure, in which a microchannel with electrode array lining on its bottom is sandwiched between the substrate and the glass lid. Dielectrophoretic behavior of polystyrene particles with diameter of 4.3 μm was studied. Both positive DEP and negative DEP were observed. Particles under positive DEP were attracted to the edges of the electrodes, while those under negative DEP were repelled away from the electrodes and levitated at certain height above the electrodes (within a proper range of frequencies of the electric field). Levitation height of the particles was measured. It was demonstrated that the levitation height of a specific particle strongly depends on the combined contributions of a number of parameters, such as the frequency of the electric field, dielectric properties of the particles and the surrounding medium. Different particles can be separated and manipulated on the basis of their difference in these parameters.     

Controllability of Boolean control networks avoiding states set

In this paper, using semi-tensor product and the vector form of Boolean logical variables, the Boolean control network （BCN） is expressed as a bilinear discrete time system about state and control variables. Based on the algebraic form, the reachability and controllability avoiding undesirable states set are discussed. The reachability and controllability discussed here are under certain constraint and tile definitions of reachability and controllability avoiding undesirable states set have practical meaning. Also, the necessary and sufficient conditions for reachability and controllability are given. At last, the control sequence that steers one state to another is constructed.     

Time optimal control of a dielectrophoretic system

This paper examines a time optimal control problem for a dielectrophoretic system. The system consists of a neutrally buoyant and neutrally charged particle in a chamber filled with a fluid flowing with a low Reynolds number. At the bottom of this chamber is a series of parallel electrodes with a controlled time‐varying voltage. The voltage on the electrodes creates a time‐varying nonuniform electric field inducing a dipole moment in the particle. This induced dipole moment interacts with the electric field to generate a force on the particle. There are two state variables x and y, where x is the position of the particle and y is the induced dipole moment in the particle. The system has two parameters α and c which depend on the electric characteristics of the particle and the ambient fluid. The parameter c is always positive by the laws of physics, but α can have either sign. We solve the time optimal control problem for this system when α≥0 and y(0) is arbitrarily prescribed. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Comparison of spherical and non-spherical particles in microchannels under dielectrophoretic force

This paper focuses on the computational and experimental study of dielectrophoretic (DEP) force based manipulation of spherical and non-spherical particles by taking into consideration of both electrokinetic effects and particle hydrodynamics. The model is first validated with conventional dipole moment theory. The movements of a spherical polystyrene particle and a rod-shape particle under a non-uniform electric field created by a pair of non-symmetrical electrodes in a microfluidic channel are studied, and a good agreement between the simulation and experimental results is obtained. Both experimental and simulation results reveal that the rod-shape particle experiences larger DEP force and moves faster than spherical particle with a similar mass. It was also interestingly found that the shape-dependent DEP force distribution on the microscale rod particle results in its unique behavior, which cannot be captured by traditional DEP theory.     

Sequential Field-Flow Cell Separation Method in a Dielectrophoretic Chip With 3-D Electrodes

This paper presents a sequential dielectrophoretic field-flow separation method for particle populations using a chip with a 3-D electrode structure. A unique characteristic of our chip is that the walls of the microfluidic channels also constitute the device's electrodes. This property confers the opportunity to use the electrodes' shape to generate not only the electric field gradient required for dielectrophoretic force but also a fluid velocity gradient. This interesting combination gives rise to a new solution for the dielectrophoretic separation of two particle populations. The proposed sequential field-flow separation method consists of four steps. First, the microchannel is filled with the mixture of the two populations of particle. Second, the particle populations are trapped in different locations of the microfluidic channels. The population, which exhibits positive dielectrophoresis (DEP), is trapped in the area where the distance between the electrodes is the minimum, while the other population that exhibits negative DEP is trapped in locations of maximum distance between electrodes. In the next step, increasing the flow in the microchannels will result in an increased hydrodynamic force that sweeps the cell population trapped by positive DEP out of the chip. In the last step, the electric field is removed, and the second population is swept out and collected at the outlet. For theoretical and experimental exemplification of the separation method, a population of viable and nonviable yeast cells was considered.     

Dielectrophoresis in aqueous suspension: impact of electrode configuration

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) allows to moving neutral or charged particles in liquids by supplying a non-uniform electric field. When using alternating current and insulated electrodes, this is possible in conducting media such as aqueous solutions. However, relatively high field strength is required that is discussed to induce also an undesired Joule heating effect. In this paper, we demonstrate boundary conditions for avoiding this side effect and suggest a novel design of an interdigitated electrode (IDE) configuration to reduce the power consumption. Numerical simulation using OpenFOAM demonstrated that, when replacing conventional plate IDE by cylindrical micro-IDE in microchannel systems, the dielectrophoretic force field, i.e., the electric field gradient squared, becomes stronger and more homogeneously distributed along the electrodes array. Also the resulting particle DEP velocities were highest for the cylindrical IDE. The simulations were experimentally confirmed by measuring velocity of resin particle located at the subsurface of demineralized water. Surprisingly the fluid flow induced by electrothermal effect turned out to be negligible in microchannels when compared to the DEP effect and becomes dominant only for distances between particle and IDE larger than 6,000 μm. The well-agreed experimental and simulation results allow for predicting particle motion. This can be expected to pave the way for designing DEP microchannel separators with high throughput and low energy consumption.     

Precisely sized separation of multiple particles based on the dielectrophoresis gradient in the z-direction

We present a new 3D dielectrophoresis-field-flow fraction (DEP-FFF) concept to achieve precise separation of multiple particles by using AC DEP force gradient in the z-direction. The interlaced electrode array was placed at the upstream of the microchannel, which not only focused the particles into a single particle stream to be at the same starting position for further separation, but also increased the spacing between each particle by the retard effect to reduce particle–particle aggregation. An inclined electrode was also designed in back of the focusing component to continuously and precisely separate different sizes of microparticles. Different magnitudes of DEP force are induced at different positions in the z-direction of the DEP gate, which causes different penetration times and positions of particles along the inclined DEP gate. 2, 3, 4, and 6?μm polystyrene beads were precisely sized fractionation to be four particle streams based on their different threshold DEP velocities that were induced by the field gradient in the z-direction when a voltage of 6.5?V_p–p was applied at a flow rate of 0.6?μl/min. Finally, Candida albicans were also sized separated to be three populations for demonstrating the feasibility of this platform in biological applications. The results showed that a high resolution sized fractionation (only 25% size difference) of multiple particles can be achieved in this DEP-based microfluidic device by applying a single AC electrical signal.     

Stepwise gray-scale light-induced electric field gradient for passive and continuous separation of microparticles

This article presents a gray-scale light-induced dielectrophoresis (GS-LIDEP) method that induces the lateral displacements normal to the through-flow for continuous and passive separation of microparticles. In general, DEP force only can affect the particles within very local areas due to the electric field is exponentially decayed by the distance away from the electrodes. Unlike with conventional LIDEP, a broad-ranged electrical field gradient can easily be created by GS pattern illumination, which induces DEP forces with two directions for continuous separation of particles to their specific sub-channels. Candia albicans were effectively guided to the specific outlet with the efficiency of 90% to increase the concentration of the sample below the flow rate of 0.6?μl/min. 2 and 10?μm polystyrene particles can also be passively and well separated using the multi-step GS pattern through positive and negative DEP forces, respectively, under an applied voltage of 36?V_p–p at the frequency of 10?kHz. GS-LIDEP generated a wide-ranged DEP force that is capable of working on the entire area of the microchannel, and thus the mix of particles can be passively and continuously separated toward the opposite directions by the both positive and negative GS-LIDEP forces. This simple, low cost, and flexible separation/manipulation platform could be very promising for many applications, such as in-field detections/pretreatments.     

On-chip separation of Lactobacillus bacteria from yeasts using dielectrophoresis

Dielectrophoresis, the induced motion of dielectric particles in non-uniform electric fields, enables the separation of suspended bio-particles based on their dimensions or dielectric properties. This work presents a microfluidic system, which utilises a combination of dielectrophoretic (DEP) and hydrodynamic drag forces to separate Lactobacillus bacteria from a background of yeasts. The performance of the system is demonstrated at two operating frequencies of 10?MHz and 100?kHz. At 10?MHz, we are able to trap the yeasts and bacteria at different locations of the microelectrodes as they experience different magnitudes of DEP force. Alternatively, at 100?kHz we are able to trap the bacteria along the microelectrodes, while repelling the yeasts from the microelectrodes and washing them away by the drag force. These separation mechanisms might be applicable to automated lab-on-a-chip systems for the rapid and label-free separation of target bio-particles.     

Electrokinetically driven concentration of particles and cells by dielectrophoresis with DC-offset AC electric field

Insulator-based dielectrophoresis (iDEP) has been successfully used for on-chip manipulations of biological samples. Despite its effectiveness, iDEP typically requires high DC voltages to achieve sufficient electric field; this is mainly due to the coupled phenomena among linear electrokinetics: electroosmosis (EO) and electrophoresis (EP) and nonlinear electrokinetics: dielectrophoresis (DEP). This paper presents a microfluidic technique using DC-offset AC electric field for electrokinetic concentration of particles and cells by repulsive iDEP. This technique introduces AC electric field for producing iDEP which is decoupled from electroosmosis (EO) and electrophoresis (EP). The repulsive iDEP is generated in a PDMS tapered contraction channel that induces non-uniform electric field. The benefits of introducing AC electric field component are threefold: (i) it contributes to DEP force acting on particles, (ii) it suppresses EO flow and (iii) it does not cause any EP motion. As a result, the required DC field component that is mainly used to transport particles on the basis of EO and EP can be significantly reduced. Experimental results supported by numerical simulations showed that the total DC-offset AC electric field strength required to concentrate 15-μm particles is significantly reduced up to 85.9% as compared to using sole DC electric field. Parametric experimental studies showed that the higher buffer concentration, larger particle size and higher ratio of AC-to-DC electric field are favorable for particle concentration. In addition, the proposed technique was demonstrated for concentration of yeast cells.     

Continuous size-based focusing and bifurcating microparticle streams using a negative dielectrophoretic system

Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is an electrokinetic phenomenon which is used for manipulating micro- and nanoparticles in micron-sized devices with high sensitivity. In recent years, electrode-based DEP by patterning narrow oblique electrodes in microchannels has been used for particle manipulation. In this theoretic study, a microchannel with triangular electrodes is presented and a detailed comparison with oblique electrodes is made. For each shape, the behavior of particles is compared for three different configurations of applied voltages. Electric field, resultant DEP force, and particle trajectories for configurations are computed by means of Rayan native code. The separation efficiency of the two systems is assessed and compared afterward. The results demonstrate higher lateral DEP force, responsible for particle separation, distributed wider across the channel width for triangular shape electrodes in comparison with the oblique ones. The proposed electrode shape also shows the ability of particle separation by attracting negative DEP particles to or propelling them from the flow centerline, according to the configuration of applied voltages. A major deficiency of the oblique electrodes, which is the streamwise variation of the lateral DEP force direction near the electrodes, is also eliminated in the proposed electrode shape. In addition, with a proper voltages configuration, the triangular electrodes require lower voltages for particle focusing in comparison with the oblique ones.     

A microfluidic device for rapid concentration of particles in continuous flow by DC dielectrophoresis

This article presents a microfluidic device (so called concentrator) for rapid and efficient concentration of micro/nanoparticles using direct current dielectrophoresis (DC DEP) in continuous fluid flow. The concentrator is composed of a series of microchannels constructed with PDMS-insulating microstructures to focus efficiently the electric field in the flow direction to provide high field strength and gradient. Multiple trapping regions are formed within the concentrator. The location of particle trapping depends on the strength of the electric field applied. Under the experimental conditions, both streaming movement and DEP trapping of particles simultaneously take place within the concentrator at different regions. The former occurs upstream and is responsible for continuous transport of the particles, whereas the latter occurs downstream and rapidly traps the particles delivered from upstream. The observation agrees with the distribution of the simulated electric field and DEP force. The performance of the device is demonstrated by successfully and effectively concentrating fluorescent nanoparticles. At the sufficiently high electric field, the device demonstrates a trapping efficiency of 100%, which means downstream DEP traps and concentrates all (100%) the incoming particles from upstream. The trapping efficiency of the device is further studied by measuring the fluorescence intensity of concentrated particles in the channel. Typically, the fluorescence intensity becomes saturated in Trap 1 by applying the voltage (400 V) for >2 min, demonstrating that rapid concentration of the nanoparticles (10⁷ particles/ml) is achieved in the device. The microfluidic concentrator described can be implemented in applications where rapid concentration of targets is needed such as concentrating cells for sample preparation and concentrating molecular biomarkers for detection.     

Controllability of predicates and languages in discrete-event systems

In discrete-event systems, two control techniques, called supervisory control and state feedback logic, are applicable if control specifications are given in terms of predicates on the set of states. The concepts of controllability for both techniques has been proposed for the analysis and design of these techniques. First it is shown that controllability of the legal language for a given predicate is equivalent to that for the corresponding reachability set. Next we deal with the relationship between the supremal controllable subpredicate of the predicate and the supremal controllable sublanguage of the corresponding legal language     

On the existence of a continuous storage function for dissipative systems

Conditions for nonlocal existence of a continuous storage function for nonlinear dissipative system are presented. More precisely, it is shown that under the local w-uniform reachability assumption at one point x, the required supply function is continuous on the set of points reachable from x. Conditions for the local w-uniform reachability based on the local controllability properties of the system are provided.     

On controllability and stabilizability of probabilistic Boolean control networks

The controllability of probabilistic Boolean control networks(PBCNs)is first considered.Using the input-state incidence matrices of all models,we propose a reachability matrix to characterize the joint reachability.Then we prove that the joint reachability and the controllability of PBCNs are equivalent,which leads to a necessary and sufcient condition of the controllability.Then,the result of controllability is used to investigate the stability of probabilistic Boolean networks(PBNs)and the stabilization of PBCNs.A necessary and sufcient condition for the stability of PBNs is obtained first.By introducing the control-fixed point of Boolean control networks(BCNs),the stability condition has finally been developed into a necessary and sufcient condition of the stabilization of PBCNs.Both necessary and sufcient conditions for controllability and stabilizability are based on reachability matrix,which are easily computable.Hence the two necessary and sufcient conditions are straightforward verifiable.Numerical examples are provided from case to case to demonstrate the corresponding theoretical results.     

Reachability and controllability analysis of probabilistic finite automata via a novel matrix method

Probabilistic finite automata (PFAs) can exhibit a stochastic behavior, and its reachability and controllability is viewed as the first necessary step of supervisory control and stabilization. In this paper, the problems of reachability and controllability of PFAs are investigated under the framework of semi‐tensor product (STP) of matrices. First, a matrix‐based modeling approach to PFAs is proposed, and the dynamics of PFAs can be described as a discrete‐time bilinear expression. Meanwhile, the notions of reachability with a probability of one is formally defined, and F‐reachability with a probability of one is introduced. With the algebraic expression, necessary and sufficient conditions of such reachability are provided systematically. Second, F‐set controllability with a probability of one of PFAs is developed by introducing the F‐reachability with a probability of one, and the associated algebraic condition to verify such controllability are given. Finally, a simple example is illustrated to validate the proposed results.     

Improved concentration and separation of particles in a 3D dielectrophoretic chip integrating focusing, aligning and trapping

This article presents a dielectrophoresis (DEP)-based microfluidic device with the three-dimensional (3D) microelectrode configuration for concentrating and separating particles in a continuous throughflow. The 3D electrode structure, where microelectrode array are patterned on both the top and bottom surfaces of the microchannel, is composed of three units: focusing, aligning and trapping. As particles flowing through the microfluidic channel, they are firstly focused and aligned by the funnel-shaped and parallel electrode array, respectively, before being captured at the trapping unit due to negative DEP force. For a mixture of two particle populations of different sizes or dielectric properties, with a careful selection of suspending medium and applied field, the population exhibits stronger negative DEP manipulated by the microelectrode array and, therefore, separated from the other population which is easily carried away toward the outlet due to hydrodynamic force. The functionality of the proposed microdevice was verified by concentrating different-sized polystyrene (PS) microparticles and yeast cells dynamically flowing in the microchannel. Moreover, separation based on size and dielectric properties was achieved by sorting PS microparticles, and isolating 5 μm PS particles from yeast cells, respectively. The performance of the proposed micro-concentrator and separator was also studied, including the threshold voltage at which particles begin to be trapped, variation of cell-trapping efficiency with respect to the applied voltage and flow rate, and the efficiency of separation experiments. The proposed microdevice has various advantages, including multi-functionality, improved manipulation efficiency and throughput, easy fabrication and operation, etc., which shows a great potential for biological, chemical and medical applications.     

Time-optimal control of a particle in a dielectrophoretic system

We study the time-optimal control of a particle in a dielectrophoretic system. This system consists of a time-varying nonuniform electric field which acts upon the particle by creating a dipole within it. The interaction between the induced dipole and the electric field generates the motion of the particle. The control is the voltage on the electrodes which induces the electric field. Since we are considering the motion of a particle on an invariant line in a chamber filled with fluid flowing at low Reynolds number, the dynamics have a two dimensional state; one for the particle position and the other for the induced dipole moment. In regard to time-optimal control, we address the issue of existence and uniqueness of optimal trajectories, and explicitly compute the optimal control and the corresponding minimum time. Finally, we cast our analysis in the framework of symplectic reduction theory in order to provide geometric insight into the problem.     

Controllability emerging from conditional path reachability in complex networks

Controllability of complex networks is a fundamental requirement to orientate the networks toward a sustainable way of development. Determination of link weights and calculation of eigenvalues of large‐scale matrices are two inevitable problems in applying the exact controllability framework in complex networks. Here, we introduce a novel controllability analysis approach based on the controllability index and the reachability matrix to identify the minimum set of driver nodes, in order to achieve complete regulation of arbitrary networks with general configurations. An effective algorithm is theoretically developed via using only the 0–1 binary structure of the network. Theoretical analysis and numerical examples show that our proposed algorithm possesses structural adaptability and control robustness under the weighted perturbation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.