Due to the inherently distributed and heterogeneous nature of the microgrids, distributed control can be a promising approach to improve the stability, reliability, and scalability of the microgrids ...compared with centralized control strategies. This paper studies the distributed reactive power sharing problem for a microgrid with connected ac inverters. Under the standard decoupling approximation for bus angle differences, the reactive power flow of each inverter is dependent on the voltage amplitudes of its neighboring inverters connected by electrical power lines. Using the Lyapunov approach, a novel distributed voltage controller with nonlinear state feedback is proposed for reactive power sharing of the microgrid. It is proved that the inverters can achieve accurate reactive power sharing under the proposed controller if the communication network of inverters is connected. Then, by introducing the sampling and holding scheme, we extend the proposed controller to the nonlinear state feedback control with event-triggered communication among inverters. The new event-triggered control approach can dramatically reduce the amount of communication of the microgrid, and significantly relax the requirement for precise real-time information transmission among the inverters. Both the proposed controllers are validated by simulations on a group of inverters with time-varying loads.
NOTCH2NLC GGC repeat expansions were recently identified in neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID); however, it remains unclear whether they occur in other neurodegenerative disorders. This ...study aimed to investigate the role of intermediate‐length NOTCH2NLC GGC repeat expansions in Parkinson disease (PD). We screened for GGC repeat expansions in a cohort of 1,011 PD patients and identified 11 patients with intermediate‐length repeat expansions ranging from 41 to 52 repeats, with no repeat expansions in 1,134 controls. Skin biopsy revealed phospho‐alpha‐synuclein deposition, confirming the PD diagnosis in 2 patients harboring intermediate‐length repeat expansions instead of NIID or essential tremor. Fibroblasts from PD patients harboring intermediate‐length repeat expansions revealed NOTCH2NLC upregulation and autophagic dysfunction. Our results suggest that intermediate‐length repeat expansions in NOTCH2NLC are potentially associated with PD. ANN NEUROL 2021;89:182–187
Abnormal mitochondrial fission participates in the pathogenesis of many diseases. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as new players in gene regulation, but how lncRNAs operate in the ...regulation of mitochondrial network is unclear. Here we report that a lncRNA, named cardiac apoptosis-related lncRNA (CARL), can suppress mitochondrial fission and apoptosis by targeting miR-539 and PHB2. The results show that PHB2 is able to inhibit mitochondrial fission and apoptosis. miR-539 is responsible for the dysfunction of PHB2 and regulates mitochondrial fission and apoptosis by targeting PHB2. Further, we show that CARL can act as an endogenous miR-539 sponge that regulates PHB2 expression, mitochondrial fission and apoptosis. Our present study reveals a model of mitochondrial fission regulation that is composed of CARL, miR-539 and PHB2. Modulation of their levels may provide a new approach for tackling apoptosis and myocardial infarction.
This paper studies the distributed rendezvous problem of multi-agent systems with novel event-triggered controllers. We have proposed a combinational measurement approach to event design and ...developed the basic event-triggered control algorithm. As a result, control of agents is only triggered at their own event time, which reduces the amount of communication and lowers the frequency of controller updates in practice. Furthermore, based on the convergence analysis of the basic algorithm, we have proposed a new iterative event-triggered algorithm where continuous measurement of the neighbor states is avoided. It is noted that the amount of communication among agents has been significantly reduced without obvious negative effects on the control performances. The effectiveness of the proposed strategies is illustrated by numerical examples in 3D spaces.
In this technical note, a self-triggered consensus algorithm for multi-agent systems has been proposed. Each agent receives the state information of its neighbors and computes the average state of ...its neighborhood. Based on this average state the event trigger is designed to determine when the agent updates its control input and transmits the average state to its neighbors. By specifying a strictly positive minimal inter-event time for each agent, Zeno behavior can be avoided. Then by solving quadratic equations related to the event condition, the self-triggered consensus algorithm is developed by directly computing the event time instants with a set of iterative procedures. It has been proved that with the proposed "Zeno-free" algorithm the agent group can achieve consensus asymptotically. Compared with the existing works, the proposed algorithm is simpler in formulation and computation. Moreover, it has been showed that agents need less time to achieve consensus with considerable reduction of the number of triggering events, controller updates and information transmission. As a result, more energy can be saved using the proposed algorithm in practical multi-agent systems.
Abstract
Objective
Metabolic signatures have emerged as valuable signaling molecules in the biochemical process of type 2 diabetes (T2D). To summarize and identify metabolic biomarkers in T2D, we ...performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the associations between metabolites and T2D using high-throughput metabolomics techniques.
Methods
We searched relevant studies from MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library as well as Chinese databases (Wanfang, Vip, and CNKI) inception through 31 December 2018. Meta-analysis was conducted using STATA 14.0 under random effect. Besides, bioinformatic analysis was performed to explore molecule mechanism by MetaboAnalyst and R 3.5.2.
Results
Finally, 46 articles were included in this review on metabolites involved amino acids, acylcarnitines, lipids, carbohydrates, organic acids, and others. Results of meta-analysis in prospective studies indicated that isoleucine, leucine, valine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, glutamate, alanine, valerylcarnitine (C5), palmitoylcarnitine (C16), palmitic acid, and linoleic acid were associated with higher T2D risk. Conversely, serine, glutamine, and lysophosphatidylcholine C18:2 decreased risk of T2D. Arginine and glycine increased risk of T2D in the Western countries subgroup, and betaine was negatively correlated with T2D in nested case-control subgroup. In addition, slight improvements in T2D prediction beyond traditional risk factors were observed when adding these metabolites in predictive analysis. Pathway analysis identified 17 metabolic pathways may alter in the process of T2D and metabolite-related genes were also enriched in functions and pathways associated with T2D.
Conclusions
Several metabolites and metabolic pathways associated with T2D have been identified, which provide valuable biomarkers and novel targets for prevention and drug therapy.
The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) variants has altered the trajectory of the COVID‐19 pandemic and raised some uncertainty on the long‐term efficiency of ...vaccine strategy. The development of new therapeutics against a wide range of SARS‐CoV‐2 variants is imperative. We, here, have designed an inhalable siRNA, C6G25S, which covers 99.8% of current SARS‐CoV‐2 variants and is capable of inhibiting dominant strains, including Alpha, Delta, Gamma, and Epsilon, at picomolar ranges of IC50 in vitro. Moreover, C6G25S could completely inhibit the production of infectious virions in lungs by prophylactic treatment, and decrease 96.2% of virions by cotreatment in K18‐hACE2‐transgenic mice, accompanied by a significant prevention of virus‐associated extensive pulmonary alveolar damage, vascular thrombi, and immune cell infiltrations. Our data suggest that C6G25S provides an alternative and effective approach to combating the COVID‐19 pandemic.
Synopsis
C6G25S is a fully modified siRNA specifically targeting the highly‐conserve region of SARS‐CoV‐2 genome. It has been developed as an inhalable and broad‐spectrum therapeutic that is highly stable and effective via direct respiratory administration.
A broadly active siRNA covers 99.8% of SARS‐CoV‐2 variants, including highly infective Delta and Omicron.
C6G25S completely inhibited the Delta variant in lungs of infected mice by prophylactic treatment and decreased 93% of virions by co‐treatment.
First study that use fully modified siRNA for inhalation and achieved promising therapeutic effect without a special delivery system.
C6G25S is a safe, effective, and feasible therapeutic approach that could reach the market in a short time.
C6G25S is a fully modified siRNA specifically targeting the highly‐conserve region of SARS‐CoV‐2 genome. It has been developed as an inhalable and broad‐spectrum therapeutic that is highly stable and effective via direct respiratory administration.
Although neurons attract the most attention in neurobiology, our current knowledge of neural circuit can only partially explain the neurological and psychiatric conditions of the brain. Thus, it is ...also important to consider the influence of brain interstitial system (ISS), which refers to the space among neural cells and capillaries. The ISS is the major compartment of the brain microenvironment that provides the immediate accommodation space for neural cells, and it occupies 15% to 20% of the total brain volume. The brain ISS is a dynamic and complex space connecting the vascular system and neural networks and it plays crucial roles in substance transport and signal transmission among neurons. Investigation of the brain ISS can provide new perspectives for understanding brain architecture and function and for exploring new strategies to treat brain disorders. This review discussed the anatomy of the brain ISS under both physiological and pathological conditions, biophysical modeling of the brain ISS and in vivo measurement and imaging techniques, including recent findings on brain ISS divisions. Moreover, the implications of ISS knowledge for basic neuroscience and clinical applications are addressed.
Directly linearly polarized light emission from organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs), as an important functional expansion, is an intriguing and attractive research topic due to its increasing ...importance in various applications. Until now, however, the limited efficiency and inadequate polarization ratio constitute two major hurdles for real application. In this work, high‐efficiency linearly polarized white OLEDs with an ultrahigh polarization ratio are achieved by using integrated dielectric/metal nanograting and nanorelief speckle image holography metasurfaces. In the devices, the integrated grating behave as a polarizer to select the transverse magnetic wave (TM) component and simultaneously reflect the transverse electric wave (TE) counterpart over the whole emission spectrum, while the metasurfaces gather the otherwise waste TE‐polarized light reflected by the grating and transform it into reusable TM‐polarized light. This synergistic energy‐light recycling system leads to dramatically boosted device efficiency and polarization ratio, i.e., a power efficiency 21.4 lm W−1 (@ 1000 cd m−2), and an extinction ratio of 17.8 dB (@ V = 5 V) for the polarized white OLEDs. The presented paradigm for simultaneous polarization controlling and efficiency boosting in white OLEDs is expected to advance the OLED techniques in device reconfigurability for future multifunctional applications.
A new approach to tailor polarization conversion and light‐energy recycling for highly linearly polarized white organic light‐emitting diodes with integrated nanograting and nanorelief speckle image holography metasurfaces is conceived. This synergistic energy‐light recycling system plays a novel and dual role of dramatically boosting the device efficiency and polarization ratio.
Thermoelectrics that enable direct heat–electricity conversion possess unique advantages for green and renewable energy revolution and have received rapidly growing attention in the past decade. ...Among various thermoelectric materials, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) with intrinsic high porosity and tunable physical/chemical properties are emerging as a promising class of materials that have been demonstrated to exhibit many unique merits for thermoelectric applications. Their structural topologies and thermoelectric properties can be facilely regulated by precisely selecting and arranging metal centers and organic ligands. Besides, a large variety of guest molecules can be incorporated within their pores, giving rise to novel avenues of raising energy‐conversion efficiency. This review focuses on the recent advances in designing conductive MOFs and MOF‐based composites for thermoelectric applications. It first introduces the fundamental thermoelectric parameters and the underlying regulation mechanisms specifically effective for MOFs, then summarizes the related studies conducted in recent years, where the structural design strategies of tuning thermoelectric properties are demonstrated and discussed. In the final part, conclusions and perspectives with the envision of an outlook for this promising area are presented.
Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) share many of the features of organic polymers, and their intrinsic porous structure and tunability in electrical transport exhibit high potential in thermoelectric applications. This review summarizes recent studies of thermoelectric MOFs, discuss their thermoelectric properties and the underlying mechanisms, and envisions an outlook for their future development.
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