•Ionic DESs like choline-based DES, are green solvents similar to ionic liquids.•They are most popular DESs and wined wide application.•This review summarized current ionic DESs including composition ...and application.•Especially for application in natural products extraction and separation.
Room ionic liquids (ILs) used as green solvents have received considerable attention and wide application in different research and industrial fields, such as chemistry, biology, catalysis, energy, and even environmental sciences. Recently, a new class of sustainable solvents named deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have been developed, which share the promising solvent characteristics of ILs, such as thermal and chemical stability, low vapor pressure and design ability. In addition, the major advantages of DESs over ILs are their lower prices and easier preparation. Therefore, DESs have been considered to be a potential alternative to replace conventional organic solvents and ILs. Currently, the developed DESs may be classified into ionic and nonionic liquids. Typically, choline chloride (ChCl)/urea (1:2) is an ionic DES, while glucose/sucrose (1:1) is a nonionic DES. Although several reviews have covered advancements in DESs, in this review, we aim to provide a general insight into DESs, particularly ionic DESs, like choline-based DES, in terms of their preparation and application in the extraction of natural products (NPs) mainly from traditional Chinese medicines and the recovery of extracted compounds from their extracts. Additionally, various factors affecting the extraction efficiency of DESs are discussed.
Recently, we investigated the problem of leader-following rendezvous with connectivity preservation for a double integrator multi-agent system subject to external disturbances by a full information ...feedback controller. In this technical note, we further study a generalized problem via the position feedback control. Thus, the result of this technical note is more practical than that of the previous paper.
Cancer‐targeted nanotechnology is experiencing the trend of finding new materials with multiple functions for imaging and therapeutic applications. With the rapid development of the related fields, ...there exists a large number of reports regarding theranostic nanomedicine, decreasing the gap between cancer diagnosis and treatment with minimized separate comprehensions. In order to present an overview on the cancer‐targeted nanotheranostics, we first describe their essential building blocks, including platforms, therapeutic agents and imaging agents, and then the recently rapidly developed multimodal theranostic systems. Finally we discuss the major challenges and the perspectives of future development of nanotheranostics toward clinical translations and personalized nanomedicine.
Essential segments of theranostic nanomedicine are reviewed, including platforms, therapeutic options and imaging modalities, and then examples of typical nanotheranostic systems, with a particular focus on recently developed multimodal theranostics for optimal cancer therapy. Finally, the major challenges and possible future directions in the field are discussed.
Besides genetic alterations, the cellular environment also determines disease onset and progression. When different cell types contribute to disease outcome, this imposes environmental challenges as ...different cell types likely differ in their extracellular dependencies. Hsa‐microRNA‐31‐5p (miR‐31) is highly expressed in keratinocytes of psoriatic skin, and we show that expression in keratinocytes is induced by limited glucose availability and enables increased survival under limiting glucose conditions by increasing glutamine metabolism. In addition, miR‐31 expression results in not only secretion of specific metabolites (aspartate and glutamate) but also secretion of immunomodulatory factors. We show that this miR‐31‐induced secretory phenotype is sufficient to induce Th17 cell differentiation, a hallmark of psoriasis. Inhibitors of miR31‐induced metabolic rewiring and metabolic crosstalk with immune cells alleviate psoriasis pathology in a mouse model of psoriasis. Together our data illustrate an emerging concept of metabolic interaction across cell compartments that characterizes disease development, which can be employed to design effective treatment options for disease, as shown here for psoriasis.
Synopsis
MiR‐31 expression, a marker of psoriasis, redirects keratinocyte metabolism to support survival of cells in the spinous layer and to induce Th17 cell differentiation. Pharmacological inhibition of miR‐31‐induced metabolic changes relieves psoriatic disease in an animal model.
MiR‐31 expression in the spinous layer of psoriatic skin induces a redirection of metabolism toward glutamine utilization
MiR‐31‐induced metabolic changes in keratinocytes contribute to the induction of Th17 differentiation
Targeting miR‐31‐induced metabolic changes alleviates psoriasis pathology
MiR‐31 expression, a marker of psoriasis, redirects keratinocyte metabolism to support survival of cells in the spinous layer and to induce Th17 cell differentiation. Pharmacological inhibition of miR‐31‐induced metabolic changes relieves psoriatic disease in an animal model.
Green development, an essential part of sustainable development transformation, is spatially correlated intra- and inter-regionally. However, previous research has not fully addressed the spatial ...characteristics of green development. This study investigates the spatial correlation structures, core-peripheral positions, and factors impacting the spatial network formation of China's green development. Based on the green development evaluation index system modified by the entropy method, this study applies social network analysis, block model analysis, and quadratic assignment procedure analysis to data from 30 provinces in China. The results confirm the spatial spillover effect is overwhelmingly present in China's green development. The findings further distinguish the core roles of provinces including Hunan, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Henan, and Xinjiang, and underline factors of green economic growth, governmental policy support, spatial adjacency, and geographic distance as significantly affecting the spatial network formation of China's green development. Policy recommendations for green development are then put forward.
On 1 September 2023, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress amended the Chinese Civil Procedure Law which will come into effect on 1 January 2024 (‘the 2024 CPL’). The 2024 CPL ...brings significant changes to the entire procedure of transnational civil and commercial litigation in China covering jurisdiction, service of process, the taking of evidence abroad, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. It is critical for foreign states, courts, and parties which conduct business in China to understand this new legal development and to prepare for the changes. Adopting comparative-law and empirical research methods, this commentary aims to explain the new provisions for transnational civil litigation in the 2024 CPL and how they may be implemented in practice.
•Model of dual planar cranes carrying a distributed-mass beam is derived.•A new method is developed for estimating the natural frequency of dual planar cranes.•MEI input shaper is presented for ...limiting oscillations of dual cranes.•Experiments validate dynamic behaviour and the effectiveness of MEI shaper.
Unwanted oscillations caused by the operator-commanded motions lower the capable operating speeds and degrade the safety of dual cranes moving distributed-mass payloads. Mounting numbers of works have been devoted to the dynamics and control of dual cranes. However, few studies have been dedicated to the accurate estimation of natural frequency, which is a critical factor for controlling the dual cranes. This paper develops a new method to predict the natural frequency of dual planar cranes with different cable lengths. Furthermore, a modified extra-insensitive (MEI) input shaper is proposed to suppress the oscillations of the payload swing and pitch in the dual cranes. The MEI shaper has good robustness to large changes in the frequency, and has good performance in the jerk limitation. Simulated and experimental investigations are performed on small-scale dual cranes transporting a slender beam to validate the system dynamic behavior and the effectiveness of the MEI shaper.
This paper studies a leader-following rendezvous problem for a double integrator multi-agent system where the leader system can generate a class of signals such as ramp signal and sinusoidal signals ...with arbitrary amplitudes and initial phases. Motivated by some techniques in output regulation theory, we propose a dynamic distributed state feedback control protocol that is able to maintain the connectivity of an initially connected communication network, and, at the same time, achieve the objective of the asymptotic tracking of all followers to the leader regardless of external disturbances.
The cooperative output regulation problem for singular multi-agent systems subject to static networks was studied recently under the assumption that each follower system satisfies the standard ...assumption. In this paper, we further study the same problem for singular multi-agent systems subject to jointly connected switching networks. First, by introducing a static output feedback control, we remove the unnecessary standard assumption on the singular system in the existing result. Then, we derive a reduced-order normal multi-agent system and obtain a distributed output measurement feedback control law based on the existing result on the normal multi-agent system. Finally, we show that the composition of the static output feedback control law and the distributed output measurement feedback control law solves the cooperative output regulation problem for the original singular multi-agent system. Our result enlarges the class of systems whose cooperative output regulation problem is solvable.
Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) techniques have been actively pursued recently in underwater acoustic communications to increase the data rate over the bandwidth-limited channels. In this ...communication, we present a MIMO system design, where spatial multiplexing is applied with orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) signals. The proposed receiver works on a block-by-block basis, where null subcarriers are used for Doppler compensation, pilot subcarriers are used for channel estimation, and a MIMO detector consisting of a hybrid use of successive interference cancellation and soft minimum mean square error (MMSE) equalization is coupled with low-density parity-check (LDPC) channel decoding for iterative detection on each subcarrier. The proposed design has been tested using data recorded from three different experiments. A spectral efficiency of 3.5 b/s/Hz was approached in one experiment, while a data rate of 125.7 kb/s over a bandwidth of 62.5 kHz was achieved in another. These results suggest that MIMO-OFDM is an appealing solution for high-data-rate transmissions over underwater acoustic channels.
