Evaluation of Digitally Encoded Layer‐by‐layer Coated Microparticles as Cell Carriers

To obtain more biologically relevant data there is a growing interest in the use of living cells for assaying the biological activity of unknown chemical compounds. Density ‘multiplex’ cell‐based assays, where different cell types are mixed in one well and simultaneously investigated upon exposure to a certain compound are beginning to emerge. To be able to identify the cells they should be attached to microscopic carriers that are encoded. This paper investigates how digitally encoded microparticles can be loaded with cells while keeping the digital code in the microcarriers readable. It turns out that coating the surface of the encoded microcarriers with polyelectrolytes using the layer‐by‐layer (LbL) approach provides the microcarriers with a ‘highly functional’ surface. The polyelectrolyte layer allows the growth of the cells, allows the orientation of the cell loaded microcarriers in a magnetic field, and does not hamper the reading of the code. It has further been shown that the cells growing on the polyelectrolyte layer can become transduced by adenoviral particles hosted by the polyelectrolyte layer. It is concluded that the digitally encoded microparticles are promising materials for use in biomedical and pharmaceutical in‐vitro research where cells are used as tools.     

Modeling of the AC Arc Discharge on Snow-covered Insulators

A mathematical model for predicting the ac flashover voltage of snow-covered insulators is presented. The arc constant parameters in air gaps and inside snow, as well as the arc reignition condition are determined using a cylindrical model. The effects of the arc length on the arc constants parameters are also investigated. The model is then applied to an EPDM insulator artificially covered with natural snow. There is good concordance between the flashover results determined from the mathematical model and those obtained experimentally.     

High-speed techniques for estimating t1, t2, and density images

This work presents methods for estimating relaxation times T1 and T2 and proton density using a real time digital video processor. This device performs each mathematical step of the fitting algorithms in one video frame interval (1/30 s). Two-point fits of T1 and T2 may be generated in approximately 15 video frame intervals or about 0.5 s; generation of a T2 image from four acquired images requires about 30 video frame intervals or about 1 s. The hardware is common to many commercial MR scanners and requires no array processor. Such high-speed techniques can expedite the clinical use of computed images and facilitate the implementation of image synthesis.     

Highly efficient synthesis of coumarin derivatives in the presence of H14[NaP5W30O110] as a green and reusable catalyst

A variety of heteropolyanions including: Keggin, Dawson, Preyssler, mixed addenda and sandwich types, catalyzed the formation of 4-methylnaphtho-(1,2-b)-pyran-2-one (coumarin) from the condensation of α-naphthol and ethylacetoacetate in a solvent free system and under heating conditions. Our data vividly indicate that sodium30–tungsto pentaphosphate, [NaP₅W₃₀O₁₁₀]¹⁴⁻, which so-called Preyssler’s anion, with high hydrolytic (pH 0–12) and thermal stability is the catalyst of choice. This catalyst catalyzed the synthesis of other coumarin derivatives in high yields and good selectivity.     

Application of Taguchi method in determining optimum level of curing system of NBR/PVC blend

Taguchi method is applied in this study to determine the optimum level of curing system (sulfur, MBTS, and CBS) in a NBR/PVC blend. By considering physicomechanical properties of cured NBR/PVC blend, optimum level of curing system is determined. A fixed master batch formulation of NBR/PVC is used, and the effect of curing system is studied on the physicomechanical properties of NBR/PVC blend, such as tensile strength (TS) and elongation‐at‐break (EB) before and after aging and also hardness and abrasion. The L9 orthogonal array that includes nine rows and four columns is applied. In this matrix, rows show the experiments and three columns show the amount of three factors (sulfur, MBTS, and CBS) and one column is left arbitrarily as an empty column. In this array, the columns are mutually orthogonal. The optimum physicomechanical properties of cured NBR/PVC blend are at 2 phr sulfur, 2 phr MBTS, and 0.5 phr CBS of curing system. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 5358–5362, 2006     

A Multi-Criteria Group Decision Making Methodology Using Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Sets: Application to Water Resources Management

In this paper, a new fuzzy group decision-making methodology which determines and incorporates negotiation powers of decision makers is developed. The proposed method is based on a combination of interval type-2 fuzzy sets and a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model, namely TOPSIS. To examine the applicability of the proposed methodology, it is used for finding the best scenario of allocating water and reclaimed wastewater to domestic, agricultural, and industrial water sectors and restoring groundwater quantity and quality in the Varamin region located in Tehran metropolitan area in Iran. The results show that the selected scenario leads to an acceptable groundwater conservation level during a long-term planning horizon. Although the capital cost of this scenario is high, which leads to groundwater restoration during the 34-year planning horizon, it is determined as the best allocation scenario. This scenario also entails the second least pumping cost, due to less water allocation from the groundwater. To evaluate the results of the proposed methodology, they are compared with those obtained using some well-known interval type-2 decision-making approaches including arithmetic-based, TOPSIS-based, and likelihood-based comparison methods. The Spearman correlation coefficient shows that the obtained results generally concur with those of the other methods. It is also concluded that the proposed methodology gives more reasonable results by calculating and considering the negotiation powers of decision makers in an extended TOPSIS-based group decision-making model.

     

Networked Estimation of Multi‐Agent Systems Subject to Faults and Unreliable Information

In this paper, a novel framework for networked estimation of multi‐agent systems subject to presence of actuator faults is proposed. This framework is developed based on the notion of sub‐observers where within a group of sub‐observers each sub‐observer estimates certain states that are conditioned on a given input, output, and other state information. We model the overall estimation process by a weighted estimation (WE) digraph. By selecting an appropriate path in the WE digraph, an assigned supervisor can select and configure a set of sub‐observers to successfully estimate all the system states. In the presence of large intermittent disturbances, noise, and faults certain sub‐observers may become invalid, and consequently the supervisor reconfigures the set of sub‐observers by selecting a new path in the estimation digraph such that the impacts of these uncertainties are confined to only the local estimators. This will prevent the propagation of uncertainties on the estimation performance of the entire multi‐agent system. Simulation results provided for a five satellite formation flight system in deep space confirm the validity and applicability of our proposed analytical work.     

CQARPL: Congestion and QoS-aware RPL for IoT applications under heavy traffic

The Journal of Supercomputing - The Internet of Things (IoT) provides a common platform to connect the heterogeneous devices over the internet. Hence, the number of devices connected via the...     

Finite time control of robotic manipulators with position output feedback

This paper deals with the robust finite time tracking of desired trajectories for a wide group of robotic manipulators in spite of unknown disturbances, uncertainties, and saturations of actuators while only manipulator's positions are available and its velocities are not measurable physically. A new form of chattering‐free second order fast nonsingular terminal sliding mode control scheme is introduced to design input torques for fulfilling the determined tracking objective in the adjustable total finite settling time. The proposed control algorithm is incorporated with two nonlinear observers to estimate disturbances and velocities of joints within finite settling times. The global finite time stability of the closed‐loop manipulator is analytically proved. Finally, a numerical simulation is carried out to verify the effectiveness of the designed input torques. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A robust adaptive congestion control strategy for large scale networks with differentiated services traffic

In this paper, a robust decentralized congestion control strategy is developed for a large scale network with Differentiated Services (Diff-Serv) traffic. The network is modeled by a nonlinear fluid flow model corresponding to two classes of traffic, namely the premium traffic and the ordinary traffic. The proposed congestion controller does take into account the associated physical network resource limitations and is shown to be robust to the unknown and time-varying delays. Our proposed decentralized congestion control strategy is developed on the basis of Diff-Serv architecture by utilizing a robust adaptive technique. A Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) condition is obtained to guarantee the ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system. Numerical simulation implementations are presented by utilizing the QualNet and Matlab software tools to illustrate the effectiveness and capabilities of our proposed decentralized congestion control strategy.