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Summary: The paper is devoted to the prescribed finite time attitude control for quadrotors. A novel prescribed finite time function is introduced, which is independent of initial conditions and design parameters. And a switched prescribed finite time controller is firstly designed, such that the quadrotor can not only converge to the desired attitude in a prescribed time, but also guarantee the stability of the quadrotor after the settling time. Simultaneously, it effectively avoids chattering issues at the controller's switching points. Finally, the simulation comparisons are carried out between the proposed control strategy and infinite time, finite time, traditional prescribed finite time control schemes to demonstrate the superiority of the developed controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With high incidence rate, cancer is the main cause of death in humans. Non-coding RNAs, as novel master regulators, especially long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs), play important roles in the regulation of tumorigenesis. lncRNA NEAT1 has recently gained much attention, as it is dysregulated in a broad spectrum of cancers, where it acts as either an oncogene or a tumor suppressor gene. Accumulating evidence shows that NEAT1 is correlated with the process of carcinogenesis, including proliferation, invasion, survival, drug resistance, and metastasis. NEAT1 is considered to be a biomarker and a novel therapeutic target for the diagnosis and prognosis of different cancer types. The mechanisms by which NEAT1 plays a critical role in cancers are mainly via interactions with miRNAs. NEAT1-miRNA regulatory networks play significant roles in tumorigenesis, which has attracted much attention from researchers around the world. In this review, we summarize the interaction of NEAT1 with miRNAs in the regulation of protein-coding genes in cancer. A better understanding of the NEAT1-miRNA interactions in cancer will help develop new diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic approaches.

The paper is devoted to the adaptive tracking control based on the mismatched disturbance observer for motor‐driven robotic manipulators. A novel mismatched disturbance observer is introduced, which does not make bounded derivative assumptions on mismatched disturbances in the robotic manipulator system. Additionally, a new adaptive tracking controller for a motor‐driven robotic manipulator based on the mismatched disturbance observer is designed, which guarantees that all closed‐loop signals are globally uniformly bounded and the tracking error is asymptotic stable. Finally, the simulation comparisons are carried out between the proposed and existing control strategies to demonstrate the superiority of the developed controller. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to establish an animal model of abdominal aortic vascular replacement in mongrel dogs to investigate the effect of extracorporeal radiotherapy on the intima. Twenty healthy mongrel dogs were randomly divided into four groups: 5-week control group, 5-week radiotherapy group, 10-week control group and 10-week radiotherapy group. We first performed an artificial vascular replacement of the abdominal aortic segment. The radiotherapy group received external radiotherapy with a dose of 7 Gy for 4 days. The thickness of neointimal hyperplasia, immunoreactivity and expression of proliferation-related factors were detected by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, immunohistochemistry, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)and western blotting at 5 and 10 weeks after the reconstruction. The results showed that the intimal thickness of the artificial blood vessel in the 5- and 10-week radiotherapy groups was thinner than that in the control groups by HE staining. The immunoreactivity and expression levels of Skp2, c-Myc and CyclinE1 were significantly decreased in the radiotherapy groups than those in control groups by immunohistochemistry, qRT-PCR and western blotting. On the contrary, immunoreactivity and expression levels of P27kip1 were increased. In conclusion, we discovered that postoperative external radiotherapy significantly decreases the intimal hyperplasia of artificial blood vessels by regulating c-Myc-Skp2-P27-CyclinE1 network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies have shown that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are involved in many human diseases, but their roles in secondary damage after spinal cord injury (SCI) remain unclear. In the current study circRNA sequencing was performed in the damaged tissues of SCI rats on the seventh day after injury, and related molecular mechanisms were investigated. Quantitative PCR validations of molecules that exhibited significantly altered expression in SCI mice were performed. Gene ontology and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes analyses were conducted to assess differentially expressed circRNAs. A novel circRNA‐2960 was the most significantly upregulated in the SCI group. It could downregulate its target molecule miRNA‐124, then exacerbate the inflammatory response and induce apoptosis at the lesion site. Disrupting circRNA‐2960 expression promoted recovery of tissues affected by secondary SCI damage. The results of the present study may provide new insight into the mechanisms of secondary injury in SCI, and a new molecular marker for the diagnosis and treatment of SCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphene oxide (GO)-based membranes in desalination suffer from either low ion rejection or low water flux. Herein, an electroconductive three-dimensional hybrid membrane was successfully fabricated using reduced GO and carbon nanotubes (GCM) and exhibited great potential to break the trade-off between permeability and selectivity when it simultaneously performed as a filter membrane and an electrode. The intercalation of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the reduced GO matrix not only created numerous water transport channels to promote permeability, but also increased the active adsorption sites for salt ions. The large specific surface area contributed to more capacitive counterions onto the GCM under applied bias, which resulted in stronger electrostatic repulsion between the capacitive ions on the GCM and counterions in solution, leading to an enhanced Donnan effect and remarkable salt rejection. The optimized GCM (containing 15% CNTs) achieved an outstanding NaCl rejection of 71%, which is three times higher than that without bias. Moreover, the GCM exhibited superior rejection ability for divalent cations and performed better under negative potential due to the pseudo-capacitance induced by the coordination of cations and oxygen-containing groups. These findings provide new insight for the future development of GO-based membranes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]