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The construction of new towns is one of the main measures to evacuate urban populations and promote regional coordination and urban–rural integration in China. Mining the spatio-temporal pattern of new town hot spots based on multivariate data and analyzing the influencing factors of new town construction hot spots can provide a strategic basis for new town construction, but few researchers have extracted and analyzed the influencing factors of new town internal hot spots and their classification. In order to define the key points of Wuhan's new town construction and promote the construction of new cities in an orderly and efficient manner, this paper first constructs a space-time cube based on the luminous remote sensing data from 2010 to 2019, extracts hot spots and emerging hot spots in Wuhan New City, selects 14 influencing factor indicators such as population density, and uses bivariate Moran's index to analyze the influencing factors of hot spots, indicating that the number of bus stops and vegetation coverage rate are the most significant. Secondly, the disorderly multivariate logistic regression model is used to analyze the influencing factors of emerging hot spots. The results show that population density, vegetation coverage, road density, distance to water bodies, and distance to train stations are the most significant factors. Finally, based on the analysis results, some relevant suggestions for the construction of Wuhan New City are proposed, providing theoretical support for the planning and policy guidance of new cities, and offering reference for the construction of new towns in other cities, promoting the construction of high-quality cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To illustrate the status of all cancer clinical trials and characterize clinical trial enrollment disparities in the most common cancer. Methods: Clinical trial data were extracted from ClinicalTrials.gov website. All searched clinical trials were included in the current status analysis of clinical trials on cancer. Among all the clinical trials, only trials addressing single disease sites of breast, prostate, colorectal, or lung (BPCRL) cancer were included in the age disparities analysis. The difference in median age (DMA) between the trial participant median age and the population-based disease-site-specific median age was calculated for each trial. Results: A total of 7747 clinical trials were included in the current status analysis of clinical trials on cancer. The number of registered trials had been increasing from 2008 to 2021 (AAPC = 50.60, 95% CI 36.60, 66.00, P < 0.05). Of the 7747 trials, 1.50% (116) of the studies were clinical trials for the elderly aged 60 years or older. 322 trials were included in the age disparities analysis. For all trials, the median DMA was − 8.15 years (P25, P75, − 10.83 to − 2.98 years, P < 0.001). The median DMA were − 9.55 years (P25, P75, − 11.63 to − 7.11 years), − 7.10 years (P25, P75, − 9.80 to − 5.70 years), − 9.75 years (P25, P75, − 11.93 to − 7.35 years), 3.50 years (P25, P75, 0.60 to 4.55 years), respectively, for breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer and prostate cancer. Conclusion: The numbers of registered clinical trials show an upward trend. Age disparities between trial participants and diagnosed disease population are present in BPCRL cancer trials and appear to be increasing over time. Equitable participation in clinical trials on the basis of age is crucial for advancing medical knowledge and evaluating the safety and efficacy of new treatments that are generalizable to aging populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the input–output finite-time stability (IO-FTS) of a class of continuous-time switched systems characterized by uncertainties and subjected to external disturbances is studied under asynchronous switching by means of the sliding mode control (SMC) method. The IO-FTS poses a finite-time constraint problem, which involves addressing two main issues: firstly, ensuring that the state trajectory of the switched system reaches the given sliding mode surface within the specified time, and secondly, achieving IO-FTS for the closed-loop switched system during asynchronous switching. To address these issues, we apply a partitioning strategy and construct asynchronous sliding mode controllers with adjustable parameters to ensure the reachability of the system's state trajectory within a finite time. Subsequently, we employ a multiple Lyapunov function (MLF) approach to provide sufficient conditions that ensure IO-FTS during the whole phase [ 0 , T ] for the resulting switched system. Additionally, we analyze the asynchronous characteristics concerning the reachability phase of the designed sliding surface, considering the system's switching properties. Finally, we demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach with a numerical example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the sliding mode control (SMC) problem is investigated for a class of Lur'e nonlinear switched systems subject to finite channels constraints, which may lead to data collision. To solve this phenomenon, the Weighted Try-Once-Discard (WTOD) protocol is proposed on the sensor-to-controller (S/C) channels to regulate which one sensor node is permitted to send data via the communication network at each instant. A key issue of this work is how to integrate the WTOD protocol into the design of observer and the sliding mode controller for the switched systems. To this end, a token-dependent observer is constructed to estimate the unmeasured states, and then an observer-based SMC law is properly designed. Moreover, by constructing a Lur'e-type Lyapunov function interconnected with a cone-bounded nonlinearity, some sufficient conditions are established such that the reachability with a sliding domain around the specified sliding surface is achieved, meanwhile, the exponential stability of the resultant closed-loop switched systems is guaranteed. Finally, some numerical simulation results are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Governmental attention towards the high-quality development of the Yellow River basin has brought new development opportunities for the hotel industry. This study aims to reveal the spatial-temporal evolution patterns and influencing factors of hotels in the Yellow River Basin from 2012 to 2022, based on economic, social, and physical geographic data of 190,000 hotels in the Yellow River flowing. With the help of a GIS technology system, the spatial-temporal evolution patterns of all hotels, star hotels, and ordinary hotels were explored, respectively. Then, the significant influencing factors of these patterns were revealed by using geographic detector and Person correlation analysis. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) the overall scale of the hotel industry in the Yellow River Basin expanded year by year, achieving rapid growth from 2016, and fluctuating around 2020 due to the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic; the overall spatial distribution had significant regional differences, showing the structural characteristics of "southeast more, northwest less"; (2) there was a great difference in the degree of spatial autocorrelation agglomeration among prefecture-level cities, and the degree of agglomeration of both the hotel industry as a whole and general hotels decreased year by year, showing a random distribution in 2022; star hotels were always distributed randomly. Additionally, a strong synergistic correlation was shown between the number of ordinary hotels and the number of star hotels in local space; (3) overall, the development of the hotel industry was significantly affected by seven factors: structural force, macro force, ecological force, internal power, consumption power, intermediary power, and external power. There were differences in the forces acting on different types of hotels, which gives a pattern recognition in-depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This article focuses on the sliding mode control of a class of interval type‐2 fuzzy systems with immeasurable states. During the data transmission from the sensor to the controller, the intermittent denial‐of‐service (DoS) attacks may be launched by vicious opponents. A key issue is to evaluate the tolerable region of the attacks for keeping the desired dynamic performance of the controlled interval type‐2 fuzzy systems. To this end, two weighting coefficients are first introduced to construct new membership functions. Based on this, a switched interval type‐2 fuzzy estimator is proposed to estimate the immeasurable state and compensate for the lost measurements caused by DoS attacks. And then, considering different DoS statues, a switched sliding mode controller transiting between the attack free and active cases is synthesized such that the specified sliding surface can be reached. In addition, the acceptable DoS region is quantitatively analyzed via a switched Lyapunov function. It is proven that the input‐to‐state stability of the sliding mode dynamics and the error system can be ensured within this tolerable DoS region. Finally, a simulation example is provided to illustrate the proposed control scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study copes with the guaranteed cost problem for a class of Markovian jump Lur'e systems via sliding mode control technique, in which the scheduling of controller signals towards the actuators is regulated by the Round‐Robin protocol. This means that at each transmission instant, only one actuator node can access the transmission network and the other actuators cannot obtain any new control information. In order to deal with this phenomenon, an updating rule as compensator is proposed, based on which the other actuators utilise the past control signals stored in the corresponding buffers. Then, a mode‐token‐dependent sliding mode controller is designed, in which the characteristic of the Lur'e non‐linearities is involved. Furthermore, by introducing a new token‐dependent Lur'e‐type Lyapunov function, the stochastic stability of the resultant closed‐loop systems is analysed, and the guaranteed cost performance is attained. Finally, a dynamic Leontief input–output model is adopted to illustrate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important questions in the science of global carbon cycle is how to balance the atmospheric CO2 budget. However, there is a large terrestrial carbon sink is missing. The locations, magnitudes, variations, and mechanisms responsible for this terrestrial missing carbon sink are uncertain and the focus of much continuing debate. In order to provide a basis for the assessment of carbonate weathering-related carbon sink, this study investigated the spatial and temporal variations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and particulate organic carbon (POC), and used stable carbon isotopes and hydrochemical data to quantitatively estimate the proportion of DIC transformation to POC and analyze the potential influence of the transformation of DIC into OC on the carbon isotope composition in the Lijiang River (typical karst surface water), Southwest China. The results showed that DIC concentrations are high in winter and low in summer and increase from upstream to downstream. POC concentrations are high in summer and low in spring. δ13CPOC and δ13CDIC are negatively correlated in the Lijiang River. The δ13CDIC values are high in spring and low in summer, compared with the estimated δ13CDIC(cal.); the observed δ13CDIC values have a maximum positive shift in spring and similar in the summer; the δ13CPOC values decrease from upstream to downstream, and are high in summer and low in spring. These observations indicate that the isotopic compositions of both DIC and POC are significantly affected by aquatic photosynthesis that transforms DIC into OC. In-river primary production contribute 12–54% of POC, and the contributions of carbonate rock-sourced DIC to the riverine POC range from 7 to 30%, which suggests an important sink of atmospheric CO2 in river systems and should be taken into account in global carbon cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surface water suffering from nitrate (NO3−) contamination in karst area is not only harmful to human health as drinking water but can also affect the process of carbonate rock weathering, so it is crucial to trace the sources and transformations of NO3− in karst surface water. In this study, an investigation of water chemical data and NO3− isotopes (δ15N and δ18O) was used to elucidate the transformations of NO3− and quantify a proportional apportionment of NO3− sources of individual potential sources (incl. soil organic nitrogen (SON), atmospheric precipitation (AP), manure and sewage wastes (M&S), and chemical fertilizer (CF)) in the Lijiang River (typical karst surface water), Guilin, Southwest China. δ15N-NO3− and δ18O-NO3− values of water samples from the Lijiang River range from 2.14 to 13.50‰ (mean, 6.59‰) and from − 2.44 to 6.97‰ (mean, 3.76‰), respectively. A positive correlation between Cl− and NO3− but no correlations between NO3− and δ15N-NO3− or δ18O-NO3− are found and the δ18O-NO3− values fitted the theoretical δ18O-NO3− values produced from nitrification, suggesting that the genesis of NO3− in waters of the Lijiang River is affected by nitrification processes and the mixing process has a major effect on NO3− transportation. Results of the Bayesian stable isotope mixing model show that the M&S and SON are the main NO3− source through the whole year (accounting for ~ 61% and 65% of the total NO3− in the wet and dry season, respectively), followed by CF (~ 29%). Furthermore, we find that nitrification of nitrogen in fertilizers, soil, and manure and sewage can promote the carbonate rock weathering. The estimated contribution of such nitrification to the weathering of carbonate rocks accounts for about 11% of the total carbonate rock weathering flux (calculated by HCO3−) in the Lijiang River. This finding indicates that the weathering of carbonate rock is probably affected by nitrogen nitrification processes in karst catchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This work considers the sliding mode control problem of a class of discrete‐time uncertain switched systems subject to detecting‐delay on mode signals, which may result in the asynchronous phenomenon between the controller and the switched system. Since the mode information of the controlled system is not available for the controller in time, a mode‐independent sliding surface will be introduced, by which an asynchronous sliding mode controller is designed, whose control gain and robust parameter will be changing according to the controller mode. In the analysis on the stability of the closed‐loop control system and the reachability of the specified sliding surface, the asynchronous characteristics are detailedly investigated. It is shown that the Lyapunov function may be not always decreasing along the state trajectories during the unmatched interval of controller modes and system modes. Nevertheless, it is proven that the state trajectories can be driven into a sliding region around the specified sliding surface in finite time. Finally, some numerical simulation results are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the problem of the optimal guaranteed cost sliding mode control (SMC) for a class of uncertain switched systems, in which the sojourn probabilities staying in each subsystem are available. By introducing a set of stochastic variables, a new type of switched system model with known sojourn probabilities is constructed. And then, the SMC law is synthesized such that the reachability of the specified common sliding surface can be ensured. Moreover, some sufficient conditions are derived to ensure the mean-square stability of the closed-loop system with quadratic guaranteed cost function. The optimal solution of the guaranteed SMC scheme is established for the closed-loop systems. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the problem of finite-time boundedness (FTB) for a class of Markovian jump systems (MJSs) via sliding mode control (SMC) technique, in which there may happen actuator faults in all of control channels and mismatched external disturbance. By means of the available boundary information of actuator faults, a suitable sliding mode controller is designed such that state trajectories are driven to sliding surface before a specified finite (possibly short) time interval. Furthermore, a partitioning strategy is introduced to derive the sufficient conditions for ensuring the FTB of the closed-loop systems over the whole specified finite-time interval including the reaching phase and the sliding motion phase. Finally, a practical example are provided from an F-404 aircraft engine system to illustrate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the input-to-state stability (ISS) analysis is addressed for switched nonlinear delay systems. By introducing a novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional with indefinite derivative and the merging switching signal techniques, some new criteria are established for switched nonlinear delay systems under asynchronous switching, which extends the existing results to the nonlinear systems with switching rules and delays. The ISS problem is also considered under synchronous switching for switched nonlinear systems by employing the similar techniques. Finally, a nonlinear delay model is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of sliding mode control (SMC) is investigated for a class of uncertain switched systems subject to unmeasurable state and assigned finite (possible short) time constraint. A key issue is how to ensure the finite-time boundedness (FTB) of system state during reaching phase and sliding motion phase. To this end, a state observer is constructed to estimate the unmeasured states. And then, a state estimate-based SMC law is designed such that the state trajectories can be driven onto the specified integral sliding surface during the assigned finite time interval. By means of partitioning strategy, the corresponding FTB over reaching phase and sliding motion phase are guaranteed and the sufficient conditions are derived via average dwell time technique. Finally, an illustrative example is given to illustrate the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Hypomyelinating disorders are a group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous diseases characterized by neurological deterioration with hypomyelination visible on brain MRI scans. This study was aimed to clarify the clinical and genetic features of HMDs in Chinese population. Methods: 119 patients with hypomyelinating disorders in Chinese population were enrolled and evaluated based on their history, clinical manifestation, laboratory examinations, series of brain MRI with follow-up, genetic etiological tests including chromosomal analysis, multiplex ligation probe amplification, Sanger sequencing, targeted enrichment-based next-generation sequencing and whole exome sequencing. Results: Clinical and genetic features of hypomyelinating disorders were revealed. Nine different hypomyelinating disorders were identified in 119 patients: Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (94, 79%), Pelizaeus-Merzbacher-like disease (10, 8%), hypomyelination with atrophy of the basal ganglia and cerebellum (3, 3%), GM1 gangliosidosis (5, 4%), GM2 gangliosidosis (3, 3%), trichothiodystrophy (1, 1%), Pol III-related leukodystrophy (1, 1%), hypomyelinating leukodystrophy type 9 (1, 1%), and chromosome 18q deletion syndrome (1, 1%). Of the sample, 94% (112/119) of the patients were genetically diagnosed, including 111 with mutations distributing across 9 genes including PLP1, GJC2, TUBB4A, GLB1, HEXA, HEXB, ERCC2, POLR3A, and RARS and 1 with mosaic chromosomal change of 46, XX,del(18)(q21.3)/46,XX,r(18)(p11.32q21.3)/45,XX,-18. Eighteen novel mutations were discovered. Mutations in POLR3A and RARS were first identified in Chinese patients with Pol III-related leukodystrophy and hypomyelinating leukodystrophy, respectively. Significance: This is the first report on clinical and genetic features of hypomyelinating disorders with a large sample of patients in Chinese population, identifying 18 novel mutations especially mutations in POLR3A and RARS in Chinese patients, expanding clinical and genetic spectrums of hypomyelinating disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the problem of robust finite-time guaranteed cost control for a class of impulsive switched systems with time-varying delay. Firstly, the definitions of finite-time boundedness, finite-time stabilization, and robust finite-time guaranteed cost control are presented. Next, based on the average dwell-time approach, sufficient conditions on robust finite-time guaranteed cost control are obtained for the uncertain impulsive switched systems. Then, by using multiple Lyapunov-like functional method and linear matrix equality (LMI) technique, the state feedback controller is designed to guarantee that the uncertain impulsive switched system is finite-time stabilized. Furthermore, a finite-time guaranteed cost bound is given. Finally, a numerical example is shown to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central core disease is a rare inherited neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations in ryanodine receptortype 1 gene. The clinical phenotype of the disease is highly variable. We report a Chinese pedigree with central core disease confirmed by the gene sequencing. All 3 patients in the family presented with mild proximal limb weakness. The serum level of creatine kinase was normal, and electromyography suggested myogenic changes. The histologic analysis of muscle biopsy showed identical central core lesions in almost all of the muscle fibers in the index case. Exon 90-106 in the C-terminal domain of the ryanodine receptor type 1 gene was amplified using polymerase chain reaction. One heterozygous missense mutation G14678A (Arg4893Gln) in exon 102 was identified in all 3 patients. This is the first report of a familial case of central core disease confirmed by molecular study in mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While pathogenic copy number variations (CNVs) in 15q11.2 were recently identified in Caucasian patients with idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGEs), the epilepsy-associated gene(s) in this region is/are still unknown. Our study investigated whether the CNVs in 15q11.2 are associated with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) in Chinese patients and whether the selective magnesium transporter NIPA2 gene affected by 15q11.2 microdeletions is a susceptive gene for CAE. We assessed IGE-related CNVs by Affymetrix SNP 5.0 microarrays in 198 patients with CAE and 198 controls from northern China, and verified the identified CNVs by high-density oligonucleotide-based CGH microarrays. The coding region and exon-intron boundaries of NIPA2 were sequenced in all 380 patients with CAE and 400 controls. 15q11.2 microdeletions were detected in 3 of 198 (1.5%) patients and in no controls. Furthermore, we identified point mutations or indel in a heterozygous state of the NIPA2 gene in 3 out of 380 patients, whereas they were absent in 700 controls ( P = 0.043). These mutations included two novel missense mutations (c.532A>T, p.I178F; c.731A>G, p.N244S) and one small novel insertion (c.1002_1003insGAT, p.N334_335EinsD). No NIPA2 mutation was found in 400 normal controls. We first identified that NIPA2, encoding a selective magnesium transporter, is a susceptible gene of CAE, and 15q11.2 microdeletions are important pathogenic CNVs for CAE with higher frequency in Chinese populations than that previously reported in Caucasians. The haploinsufficiency of NIPA2 may be a mechanism underlying the neurological phenotypes of 15q11.2 microdeletions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In highland areas worldwide, socioeconomic globalization is progressing urbanization and environmental destruction. Urbanization is caused by socioeconomic globalization of development of transportation, movement or immigration of people, and prevailing market economy. Lifestyle-related diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, are increasing worldwide with greater longevity and changes in lifestyles. Highland areas may also be affected by globalization and the people living there may be especially vulnerable. Our objective was to disclose the features of lifestyle-related diseases and the human aging phenomena of highland people affected by their increasingly urbanized lifestyles by undertaking a detailed geriatric assessment. Our assessment included firstly comparing the prevalence of hypertension and neurobehavioral functions in community-dwelling Tibetan elderly in Shangri-la, Yunnan, China (altitude 3,300 m) with Thai elderly in the city of Jing Hong, Yunnan, China (altitude 500 m) and Japanese in Tosa, Kochi, Japan (altitude 300 m). Secondly, differences in the prevalence of hypertension, obesity, and neurobehavioral function were analyzed between people in an urban area, Jiang Tang, and rural areas and in association with their economic status in Nish in Shangri-la. High prevalences of lifestyle-related diseases such as hypertension and obesity were shown in highlanders, especially those in an urban area. Geriatric functional ability was associated with economic status. Notwithstanding a higher prevalence of physical disorders and lowered functional abilities, a higher quantitative quality of life was found in Shangri-la than in Tosa. We concluded that highland-dwelling people were vulnerable and susceptible to lifestyle-related diseases resulting from socioeconomic globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we used the same four-parameter function as Hathaway, Wilson, and Reichmann (1994) proposed and studied the temporal behavior of sunspot cycles 12–22. We used the monthly averages of sunspot areas and their 13-point smoothed data. Our results show the following. (1) The four-parameter function may reduce to a function of only two parameters. (2) As a cycle progresses, the two-parameter function can be accurately determined after 4–4.5 years from the start of the cycle. A good prediction can be made for the timing and size of the sunspot maximum and for the behavior of the remaining 5–10 years of the cycle. (3) The solar activity in the remaining and forthcoming years of cycle 23 is predicted. (4) The smoothed monthly sunspot areas are more suitable to be employed for prediction at the maximum and the descending period of a cycle, whereas at the early period of a cycle the (un-smoothed) monthly data are more suitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]