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Gyroelastic solar panel is a kind of flexible solar panel structure with variable-speed control moment gyroscopes distributed inside. The torque generated by these variable-speed control moment gyroscopes can be used for active vibration suppression. This paper addresses the vibration suppression problem of gyroelastic solar panel in the presence of parametric uncertainties and un-modeled dynamic uncertainties. A novel μ-synthesis method based on analytical multiple-input multiple-output weights design is proposed, which relates 2-norm of the vector of regulated outputs, closed-loop modal damping, and relative control ability of actuators to each mode to the weights. Based on the idea of collocated control, the full order state-space model of the constrained gyroelastic plate with angle gyros as measuring devices is derived. After model reduction, modeling of un-modeled dynamic, and designing the multiple-input multiple-output weights, μ-controller is solved by the DK-iteration method. Furthermore, a comparative study of the μ-controller designed by the proposed procedure and the Positive Position Feedback (PPF) controller designed by the non-smooth H∞ synthesis method is also presented. The control methods are compared for their vibration attenuation, energy utilization, robustness performance characteristics, and robustness stability characteristics. Results for both time domain and frequency domain simulations are presented. Simulation results show that the designed μ-controller has better vibration attenuation effect and robustness performance characteristics than the PPF controller, and can achieve a better robust vibration suppression of the constrained gyroelastic solar panel in presence of parametric and un-modeled dynamic uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CD8+ tissue-resident memory T (TRM) cells provide frontline immunity in mucosal tissues. The mechanisms regulating CD8+ TRM maintenance, heterogeneity, and protective and pathological functions are largely elusive. Here, we identify a population of CD8+ TRM cells that is maintained by major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) signaling, and CD80 and CD86 costimulation after acute influenza infection. These TRM cells have both exhaustedlike phenotypes and memory features and provide heterologous immunity against secondary infection. PD-L1 blockade after the resolution of primary infection promotes the rejuvenation of these exhausted-like TRM cells, restoring protective immunity at the cost of promoting postinfection inflammatory and fibrotic sequelae. Thus, PD-1 serves to limit the pathogenic capacity of exhausted-like TRM cells at the memory phase. Our data indicate that TRM cell exhaustion is the result of a tissue-specific cellular adaptation that balances fibrotic sequelae with protective immunity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Zushima tablet (ZT) has been used for decades in the clinical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in China. However, its therapeutic mechanism is unclear. In this study, we aimed to explore the distinctive metabolic patterns in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rats and evaluate the therapeutic effects of ZT on RA using untargeted serum and fecal metabolomics approaches based on gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Body weight, hind paw swelling, TNF-a and IL-1ß levels, arthritis scores, and histopathological parameters were assessed. In the metabolomics study, 31 altered metabolites in the serum and 30 in the feces were identified by comparing the model with the control group using statistical processing. These altered metabolites revealed that the tricarboxylic acid cycle, glycolysis metabolism, fatty acid metabolism, and purine metabolism were disturbed in CIA rats, and most of these altered metabolites including l-isoleucine, l-aspartic acid, pyruvic acid, cholic acid, and hypoxanthine, were rectified by ZT. Furthermore, short-chain fatty acids in feces were quantitatively determined, and the results showed that ZT could regulate the levels of propionate, butyrate, and valerate in CIA rats. Then, gut microbiota were analyzed by 16S rRNA analysis. Our results showed that Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the most abundant bacteria in rats. The levels of 19 types of bacteria at the family level were altered in RA rats, and most of them could be regulated by ZT. This study demonstrated that metabolomics analysis is a powerful tool for providing novel insight into RA and for elucidating the potential mechanism of ZT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characterization of alkaloids is challenging because of the diversity of structures and the complicated fragmentation of collision induced structural dissociation in mass spectrometry. In this study, we analyzed the alkaloids in Sinomenium acutum (Thunb.) Rehderet Wil by high resolution mass spectrometry. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a Phenomenex Kinetex C18 (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 2.6 μm) column with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile and water (0.1% formic acid) under gradient elution. A total of 52 alkaloids were well separated and 45 of them were structurally characterized, including morphinans, aporphines, benzylisoquinolines, and protoberberines. Specially, mass spectrometric study of the morphinan alkaloids were explicitly investigated. Electrostatic potential plot from simulation was calculated for determination of protonation sites. Further fragmentation analysis suggested that the C3H7N, CH4O, and H2O elimination was displayed in MS2 spectrum. These fragmentation pathways are universal for morphinan alkaloids having methoxy substituted cyclohexenone or cyclohexadienone moieties. Additionally, for nitrogen oxides, an ion-neutral complex intermediate is involved in the fragmentation process, generating additional oxygenated ions. All these results provided the universal rules of fragmentation used for detection of alkaloids, and will be expected to be highly useful for comprehensive study of multi-components in the herbal medicine analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A highly miniaturized limb sounder for the observation of the O2 A-Band to derive temperatures in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere is presented. The instrument consists of a monolithic spatial heterodyne spectrometer (SHS), which is able to resolve the rotational structure of the R-branch of that band. The relative intensities of the emission lines follow a Boltzmann distribution and the ratio of the lines can be used to derive the kinetic temperature. The SHS operates at a Littrow wavelength of 761.8 nm and heterodynes a wavelength regime between 761.9 nm and 765.3 nm with a resolving power of about 8000 considering apodization effects. The size of the SHS is 38 x 38 x 27 mm³ and its acceptance angle is ±5°. It has an etendue of 0.014 cm² sr. Complemented by a front optics with a solid angle of 0.65° and a detector optics, the entire optical system fits into a volume of about 1.5 liters. This allows to fly this instrument on a 3 or 6 unit CubeSat. The vertical field of view of the instrument is about 60 km at the Earth's limb if operated in a typical low Earth orbit. Integration times to obtain an entire altitude profile of nighttime temperatures are in the order of one minute for a vertical resolution of 1.5 km and a random noise level of 1.5 K. Daytime integration times are one order of magnitude shorter. This work presents the design parameters of the optics and a radiometric assessment of the instrument. Furthermore it gives an overview of the required characterization and calibration steps. This includes the characterization of image distortions in the different parts of the optics, flat fielding and the spectral power estimation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jiegeng Gancao decoction, which is composed of Jiegeng and Gancao at a weight ratio of 1:2, was widely used for treating pharyngalgia and cough for thousands of years. Our previous work indicated that Gancao could increase the systemic exposure of platycodin D and deapio-platycodin D, two main components in Jiegeng. However, whether Jiegeng could alter the pharmacokinetics of the main compounds in Gancao is still unknown. Thus, the purpose of this study was to compare the oral pharmacokinetics of flavonoids and saponins from Gancao alone vs. after co-administration with Jiegeng. Furthermore, Caco-2 cell transport and fecal hydrolysis were investigated to explain the altered pharmacokinetic properties. Pharmacokinetics results suggested that the bioavailability of liquiritin, isoliquiritin, glycyrrhizin and its metabolite, glycyrrhetinic acid, could be improved while bioavailability of liquiritigenin and isoliquiritigenin deteriorated when co-administered with Jiegeng. The Caco-2 transport study showed no significant difference of the Papp values of the main components in Jiegeng Gancao decoction when compared with those in Gancao decoction (p > 0.05). The in vitro metabolism study suggested that saponins and flavonoids glycosides in Gancao were influenced and the metabolic characteristics of most ingredients were consistent with pharmacokinetic results, such as liquiritin and glycyrrhetinic acid. The hydrolysis of liquiritigenin and glycyrrhizin observed with fecal lysate in vitro appeared consistent with the oral pharmacokinetics. Based on experiments, the pharmacokinetic profiles of six components in Gancao were influenced by Jiegeng. The metabolic process might partially contribute to the altered pharmacokinetic behavior. The metabolism of some components of Gancao appeared to be inhibited when coadministered with Jiegeng, possibly by the Jiegeng constituent platycodin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study, the rationality for the antiviral effect (H1N1 virus) of Flos Lonicerae Japonicae (FLJ, named JinYinHua)-Fructus forsythiae (FF, named LianQiao) herb couple preparations improved by chito-oligosaccharide (COS) was investigated. We found that the improvement of antiviral activity for four preparations attributed to the enhancement of bioavailability for the FLJ-FF herb couple in vivo, and that caffeic acid derivatives are the most important type of components for antiviral activity. The anti-Influenza virus activity-half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50), not area under concentration (AUC) was considered as the weighting factor for integrating the pharmacokinetics of caffeic acid derivatives. It was found that the integral absorption, both in vitro and in vivo, especially that in Shuang-Huang-Lian, can be improved significantly by COS, an absorption enhancer based on tight junction. The results indicated that the antiviral activity in four preparations improved by COS was mainly attributed to the integral absorption enhancement of caffeic acid derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) have attracted extensive interest throughout the world due to their long history of health protection and disease control, and the internalization of TCM preparations or patented drugs has been considered a wind vane in the process of TCM modernization. However, multi-target effects, caused by multiple components in TCMs, hinder not only the construction of the quality evaluation system (bioavailability), but also the application of pharmaceutical technologies, which results in the poor efficacy in clinical practice. This review describes the methods in the literature as well as in our thoughts about how to identify the marker components, establish the evaluation system of bioavailability, and improve the bioavailability in TCM preparations. We expect that the current study will be positive and informative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Platycodi radix, the dried root of Platycodon grandiflorum A. DC, has been widely used as food and herb medicine for treating cough, cold and other respiratory ailments, and platycodin D (PD) is one of the most important compounds in Platycodi Radix. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the pharmacokinetic characteristics, intestinal absorption and microbial metabolism of PD in monomer with that in Platycodi radix extract (PRE). Materials and Methods: In the pharmacokinetic study, the concentrations of PD in rat plasma were determined by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and the main pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated by data analysis software (DAS). Besides, in vitro Caco-2 cells and fecal lysate were performed to investigate the intestinal absorption and metabolism, respectively. Results: The results from pharmacokinetics showed that the area under the curve, the peak concentration the time to reach peak concentration and mean residence time of PD in PRE were enhanced significantly compared with that in single PD. Caco-2 cells transport study indicated that the absorption of PD both in monomer and in PRE were poor owning that the permeability of PD were <1/106 cm/s. The hydrolysis degree of PD in PRE was significantly lower than that in monomer PD in fecal lysate, which might be illustrated by the other ingredients in PRE influenced the hydrolysis of PD via gut microbiota. Conclusion: These findings indicated that the difference of microbial metabolism, not apparent absorption in intestine for PD between in monomer and in PRE contributed to their pharmacokinetic difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this letter, we propose a novel iterative method for computing generalized inverse, based on a novel KKT formulation. The proposed iterative algorithm requires making four matrix and vector multiplications at each iteration and thus has low computational complexity. The proposed method is proved to be globally convergent without any condition. Furthermore, for fast computing generalized inverse, we present an acceleration scheme based on the proposed iterative method. The global convergence of the proposed acceleration algorithm is also proved. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed iterative algorithm is evaluated numerically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A genetic algorithm is implemented to identify the transfer function of an experimental system consisting of a flexible manipulator with a collocated piezoelectric sensor/actuator pair. A multi-mode positive position feedback controller is then designed based upon the identified transfer function. To this end, the same iteratively implemented genetic algorithm is used to optimize all controller parameters by minimization of the closed loop H∞-norm. The designed controller is then applied for vibration suppression on the experimental system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A system identification and vibration control strategy for a flexible manipulator with a collocated piezoelectric sensor/actuator pair is presented in this paper. An iteratively implemented genetic algorithm is applied to the system identification problem of the flexible manipulator. A control law based upon positive position feedback is developed for vibration suppression. A minimization criterion based on the H∞-norm of the closed loop system is solved by a genetic algorithm to derive optimal controller parameters. Numerical simulations are performed to verify the effectiveness of the system identification and vibration con [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smart materials based actuators suffer from the nonlinear hysteresis effect. To achieve a high-precision positioning motion, the inverse compensator is commonly constructed to mitigate the hysteresis effect. However, the inverse compensator fails to work when the input saturation of the actuator occurs. In this paper, an inverse hysteresis compensator with an anti-saturation block is developed to deal with the hysteresis effect and the input saturation. The purpose of the proposed compensator is to use an open-loop approach to eliminate the compensation error caused by the input saturation. Experiments are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a systematic control system design for nano-positioning of a piezoelectric actuator (PEA). PEAs exhibit hysteresis nonlinearity, which can dramatically limit the application and performance of linear feedback control theory. Thus the hysteresis is compensated for based on the Maxwell resistive capacitor (MRC) model first. Then a proportional plus integral (PI) controller and a proportional double integral plus lead compensation (PII&L) controller are designed for the hysteresis-compensated PEA to account for model uncertainty, disturbance, and noise. The robust stability of both controllers is proved. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated experimentally. Both controllers achieve fast precise positioning. The 2% settling times for the PI controller and the PII&L controller are 1.5 ms and 4.7 ms, respectively. The positioning resolution is upto 1 nm for both controllers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a robust output feedback controller for a piezoelectrically actuated system with only position sensor. This considered piezoelectric actuator (PEA) system is subjected to model imperfection, creep nonlinearity, hysteresis nonlinearity and other external effects. The designed controller employs a second-order auxiliary system and a discontinuous uncertainty and disturbance estimation term to generate filtered error signals and to compensate for the model uncertainties and system disturbance, respectively. The global stability of the proposed controller is proved through Lyapunov-based stability analysis. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed control approach are verified experimentally using a PEA stage. Results demonstrate that both set-point and tracking control without/with external loads are realized with good performance and the PEA system with high-accuracy can be achieved. Moreover, the robustness of the controller is verified and analyzed through the sinusoidal tracking with external disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the control system design for a piezoelectric actuator (PEA) for a high-speed trajectory scanning application. First nonlinear hysteresis is compensated for by using the Maxwell resistive capacitor model. Then the linear dynamics of the hysteresis-compensated piezoelectric actuator are identified. A proportional plus integral (PI) controller is designed based on the linear system, enhanced by feedforward hysteresis compensation. It is found that the feedback controller does not always improve tracking accuracy. When the input frequency exceeds a certain value, feedforward control only may result in better control performance. Experiments are conducted, and the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]