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This paper proposes a model predictive controller (MPC) designed to tackle the magnetic control of the DEMO plasma. DEMO is an ambitious EU project aimed at the construction by 2050 of a tokamak demonstrating that energy from nuclear fusion can be conveniently commercially used. Magnetic control is one of the problems to be solved to operate the machine. Using MPC, in this paper it is shown how it is possible to take into account all the various constraints on the input and state variables during the controller design. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by means of simulations, using a validated nonlinear evolution code describing the interactions between the plasma and the surrounding metallic strictures.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is clearly explained as the unintentional passage of stomach contents through the esophagus that takes place many times during the day both in children and in adults. GERD leads to symptoms of heartburn and regurgitation, these defined esophageal symptoms are in dichotomy with extraesophageal symptoms of GERD. These extra-esophageal symptoms include several respiratory manifestations that include chronic cough, bronchoconstriction and inflammation of airway, main features of asthma. Asthma is a chronic disease defined by variable degree of airflow obstruction, bronchial hyper-responsiveness (AHR) and chronic airway inflammation. Recent papers demonstrated an association between GERD and asthma. There are a lot of mechanisms through GERD can alter the reactivity of airway and lead to bronchoconstriction. Two hypotheses are proposed to explain this effect and different mechanisms may be involved. However many authors suggest bidirectional effect between asthma and GERD. In fact, asthma can lead to onset of GERD through an increase of intrathoracic pressure during breathing and a reduction of lower esophageal sphincter (LES) pressure due to asthma therapy. The correlation between GERD and asthma is more complicated and has not yet been fully elucidated and understood, leaving this field of research open to further investigations.

This paper describes an algorithm for the control of a swarm of UAVs based on decentralized MPC. For each UAV, our algorithm first determines the trajectory taking into account the obstacles and the constraints on the aircraft performance. Then basing on a robust MPC algorithm, optimal guidance laws are calculated and tracked by the UAVs by means of local PIDs controllers. Our approach also allows us to take into account moving obstacles and constraints on the minimum distance between the vehicles. Validation of the approach is obtained by means of simulations where for each UAV a 6-DOF model is used.

This paper deals with the development of a flight control scheme based on the Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion technique (NDI). Such a scheme has been implemented on the Flight Control System (FCS) of a trirotors prototype model used to simulate tilt rotor air vehicles dynamics during all those phases when aerodynamic surfaces are less effective or not effective at all. An adaptive flight control scheme has been developed based on Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) and NDI making both attitude and trajectory tracking control system less sensitive to modelling errors. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control technique both numerical simulations and experimental tests have been performed. To this end a scaled multi-rotor test bed has been built simulating a tilt rotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV) in hovering and low speed flight conditions. The control system has been implemented on an embedded board based on an ARM Cortex M4 processor and a low cost Inertial Measurement Unit with triaxial MEMS accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer sensors. As accuracy of NDI control system can be affected by model uncertainties and sharp transients due to the RBFNN adaptation transients, a model calibration phase is needed. To this end preliminary flight tests have been performed for UAV dynamic model identification and control parameters tuning.

In this paper, the use of time-varying piecewise quadratic functions is investigated to characterize the finite-time stability of state-dependent impulsive dynamical linear systems. Finite-time stability defines the behavior of a dynamic system over a bounded time interval. More precisely, a system is said to be finite-time stable if, given a set of initial conditions, its state vector does not exit a predefined domain for a certain finite interval of time. This paper presents new sufficient conditions for finite-time stability based on time-varying piecewise quadratic functions. These conditions can be reformulated as a set of Linear Matrix Inequalities that can be efficiently solved through convex optimization solvers. Dif ferent numerical analysis are included in order to prove that the presented conditions are able to improve the results presented so far in the literature.

In this article, the control approach based on structured input-output finite-time stability (IO-FTS) is extended to tackle the reference tracking problem. IO-FTS was originally introduced to deal with the disturbance rejection problem. By applying the finite-time stability control to a properly augmented system, we show that it is possible to enforce a set of specific requirements on the response of the closed-loop system during the transients, taking also into account saturation constraints on the actuators. Adding IO-FTS constraints to classic-state-feedback control law leads to a feasibility problem with bilinear matrix inequality (BMI) constraints. Herein, we show how the original BMI problem can be relaxed to a linear matrix inequality (LMI) one, which comes at a price of more conservatism, but turns out to be computationally more efficient. To prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we consider the case of the longitudinal control of a missile.

In this letter we present some new sufficient conditions for the annular stochastic finite-time stability of a class of stochastic linear time-varying systems. These new conditions are obtained adopting time-varying piecewise quadratic Lyapunov functions rather than the classical quadratic ones. The proposed approach allows us to extend the class of consider domains, which are typically limited to ellipsoidal domains. The proposed finite-time stability conditions can be converted into a feasibility problem based on a set of differential linear matrix inequalities. Two numerical examples are considered to perform a comparison with the previous results, and they show that the new proposed conditions are less conservative than the previous ones.

An initial concept for the plasma diagnostic and control (D&C) system has been developed as part of European studies towards the development of a demonstration tokamak fusion reactor (DEMO). The main objective is to develop a feasible, integrated concept design of the DEMO D&C system that can provide reliable plasma control and high performance (electricity output) over extended periods of operation. While the fusion power is maximized when operating near to the operational limits of the tokamak, the reliability of operation typically improves when choosing parameters significantly distant from these limits. In addition to these conflicting requirements, the D&C development has to cope with strong adverse effects acting on all in vessel components on DEMO (harsh neutron environment, particle fluxes, temperatures, electromagnetic forces, etc.). Moreover, space allocation and plasma access are constrained by the needs for first wall integrity and optimization of tritium breeding. Taking into account these boundary conditions, the main DEMO plasma control issues have been formulated, and a list of diagnostic systems and channels needed for plasma control has been developed, which were selected for their robustness and the required coverage of control issues. For a validation and refinement of this concept, simulation tools are being refined and applied for equilibrium, kinetic and mode control studies.

In this paper a Deep Reinforcement Learning algorithm, known as Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG), is applied to the problem of designing a missile lateral acceleration control system. To this aim, the autopilot control problem is recast in the Reinforcement Learning framework, where the environment consists of a 2-Degrees-of-Freedom nonlinear model of the missile's longitudinal dynamics, while the agent training procedure is carried out on a linearized version of the model. In particular, we show how to account not only for the stabilization of the longitudinal dynamic, but also for the main performance indexes (settling-Time, undershoot, steady-state error, etc.) in the DDPG reward function. The effectiveness of the proposed DDPG-based missile autopilot is assessed through extensive numerical simulations, carried out on both the linearized and the fully nonlinear dynamics by considering different flight conditions and uncertainty in the aerodynamic coefficients, and its performance is compared against two model-based control strategies in order to check the capability of the proposed data-driven approach to achieve prescribed closed-loop response in a completely model-free fashion.

In this paper, the sweeping control strategy is applied to DEMO single null configuration as possible solution for the power exhaust problem. Firstly, a possible sweeping control strategy is proposed to impose a periodic movement of the plasma divertor legs at a desired frequency with an almost fixed plasma shape. Then, the performance of the sweeping control using ex-vessel coils is analyzed in terms of current, voltage and maximum sweeping frequency. Finally, the possibility to implement the sweeping with the in-vessel coils is considered. Two possible solutions for the in-vessel coils have been adopted: a preliminary solution compatible with the actual DEMO port locations and an optimized solution that is more performing for the sweeping but needs to be validated for the compatibility with the remote handling. Numerical simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach coupling the sweeping control with the feedback control strategies for the plasma shape and position.

In this paper, we investigate some finite-time control problems for stochastic linear time-varying systems, described by an Itô type differential equation. In particular, the annular stochastic finite-time stability control problem is dealt with. In this context, it is required that the norm of the state variables remains bounded between an inner and an outer ellipsoid, during a finite-interval of time. The first contribution of the paper consists of two sufficient conditions for stability, which are derived by exploiting an approach based on time-varying quadratic Lyapunov functions. The first condition requires the solution of two generalised differential Lyapunov equations; the latter the existence of a feasible solution to a pair of differential linear matrix inequalities. As particular cases, we obtain sufficient conditions for stochastic finite-time stability (in this last case, the lower ellipsoid collapses to the origin). From the analysis conditions, a sufficient condition is derived for the annular stochastic finite-time stabilisation via both state and output feedback. Some numerical examples illustrate the application of the proposed methodology and show that our approach attains less conservative results than those obtainable with the existing literature. Moreover, an application of the annular stochastic finite-time stability approach to the stabilisation problem of a satellite with respect to the geomagnetic field is presented.

This paper presents a novel approach for the numerical solution of differential linear matrix inequalities. The solutions are searched in the class of piecewise-quadratic functions with symmetric matrix coefficients to be determined. To limit the numbers of unknowns, congruence constraints are considered to guarantee continuity of the solution and of its derivative. In Example section, some control problems involving differential linear matrix inequalities are considered and solved in order to compare the proposed approach with alternative approximation methods adopted in the literature.

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Pulmonary emphysema is a respiratory condition characterized by alveolar destruction that leads to airflow limitation and reduced lung function. Although with extensive research, the pathophysiology of emphysema is poorly understood and effective treatments are still missing. Evidence suggests that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess the ability to engraft the injured tissues and induce repair via a paracrine effect. Thus, the aim of this study was to test the effects of the intratracheal administration of lung-derived mouse MSCs in a model of elastase-induced emphysema. Pulmonary function (static lung compliance) showed an increased stiffness induced by elastase, while morphometric findings (mean linear intercept and tissue/alveolar area) confirmed the severity of alveolar disruption. Contrarily, MSC administration partially restored lung elasticity and alveolar architecture. In the absence of evidence that MSCs acquired epithelial phenotype, we detected an increased proliferative activity of aquaporin 5-and surfactant protein C-positive lung cells, suggesting MSC-driven paracrine mechanisms. The data indicate the mediation of hepatocyte growth factor in amplifying MSC-driven tissue response after injury. Our study shed light on supportive properties of lung-derived MSCs, although the full identification of mechanisms orchestrated by MSCs and responsible for epithelial repair after injury is a critical aspect yet to be achieved. Copyright © 2018 Donato Cappetta et al. Pulmonary emphysema is a respiratory condition characterized by alveolar destruction that leads to airflow limitation and reduced lung function. Although with extensive research, the pathophysiology of emphysema is poorly understood and effective treatments are still missing. Evidence suggests that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) possess the ability to engraft the injured tissues and induce repair via a paracrine effect. Thus, the aim of this study was to test the effects of the intratracheal administration of lung-derived mouse MSCs in a model of elastase-induced emphysema. Pulmonary function (static lung compliance) showed an increased stiffness induced by elastase, while morphometric findings (mean linear intercept and tissue/alveolar area) confirmed the severity of alveolar disruption. Contrarily, MSC administration partially restored lung elasticity and alveolar architecture. In the absence of evidence that MSCs acquired epithelial phenotype, we detected an increased proliferative activity of aquaporin 5- and surfactant protein C-positive lung cells, suggesting MSC-driven paracrine mechanisms. The data indicate the mediation of hepatocyte growth factor in amplifying MSC-driven tissue response after injury. Our study shed light on supportive properties of lung-derived MSCs, although the full identification of mechanisms orchestrated by MSCs and responsible for epithelial repair after injury is a critical aspect yet to be achieved.

A small scale tri-rotor test bed with tilting propellers has been built to test flight control laws in view of the construction of a larger tilt rotor UAV. As a first step to achieve autonomous flight capabilities, a nonlinear dynamic inversion based flight controller is developed. This controller is designed on the basis of a time-scale principle with two levels. A lower level, fast control action, designed to achieve attitude control and stability goals, is driven by a higher level trajectory tracking control law. To achieve robust stability and performance in the presence of parametric variations and modelling uncertainties, an adaptive flight control law correction based on neural networks is investigated. A RBF neural network is implemented to mitigate the effects of imprecise inverse dynamics. The overall proposed flight controller performance are tested via numerical simulations on the mathematical model of the small scale tri-rotor. Preliminary results on the full tilt rotor are also shown. © 2015, IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) Hosting by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Structural changes contribute to airway hyperresponsiveness and airflow obstruction in asthma. Emerging evidence points to the involvement of c-kit+ cells in lung homeostasis, although their potential role in asthma is unknown. Our aim was to isolate c-kit+ cells from normal mouse lungs and to test whether these cells can interfere with hallmarks of asthma in an animal model. Adult mouse GFP-tagged c-kit+ cells, intratracheally delivered in the ovalbumin-induced airway hyperresponsiveness, positively affected airway remodeling and improved airway function. In bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of cell-treated animals, a reduction in the number of inflammatory cells and in IL-4, IL-5, and IL-13 release, along with an increase of IL-10, was observed. In MSC-treated mice, the macrophage polarization to M2-like subset may explain, at least in part, the increment in the level of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. After in vitro stimulation of c-kit+ cells with proinflammatory cytokines, the indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase and TGFβ were upregulated. These data, together with the increased apoptosis of inflammatory cells in vivo, indicate that c-kit+ cells downregulate immune response in asthma by influencing local environment, possibly by cell-to-cell contact combined to paracrine action. In conclusion, intratracheally administered c-kit+ cells reduce inflammation, positively modulate airway remodeling, and improve function. These data document previously unrecognized properties of c-kit+ cells, able to impede pathophysiological features of experimental airway hyperresponsiveness.

Epidemiological data suggest that obesity represent an important risk factor for asthma, but the link between excess fat and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and inflammation is not fully understood. Recently, a key role in physiopathologic conditions of lungs has been given to adiponectin (Acrp30). Acrp30 is one of the most expressed adipokines produced and secreted by adipose tissue, showing an intriguing relationship with metabolism of sphingolipids. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) has been proposed as an important inflammatory mediator implicated in the pathogenesis of airway inflammation and asthma. In the present study we analyze the effects of recombinant Acrp30 administration in an experimental model of S1P-induced AHR and inflammation. The results show that S1P is able to reduce endogenous Acrp30 serum levels and that recombinant Acrp30 treatment significantly reduce S1P-induced AHR and inflammation. Moreover, we observed a reduction of Adiponectin receptors (AdipoR1, AdipoR2 and T-cadherin) expression in S1P treated mice. Treatment with recombinant Acrp30 was able to restore Acrp30 serum levels and adiponectin receptors expression. These results could indicate the ability of S1P to modulate the Acrp30 action, by modulating not only the serum levels of the protein, but also its receptors. Taken together, these data suggest that adiponectin could represent a possible biomarker in obesity-associated asthma. Epidemiological data suggest that obesity represent an important risk factor for asthma, but the link between excess fat and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) and inflammation is not fully understood. Recently, a key role in physiopathologic conditions of lungs has been given to adiponectin (Acrp30). Acrp30 is one of the most expressed adipokines produced and secreted by adipose tissue, showing an intriguing relationship with metabolism of sphingolipids. Sphingosine-1-phosphate (SIP) has been proposed as an important inflammatory mediator implicated in the pathogenesis of airway inflammation and asthma. In the present study we analyze the effects of recombinant Acrp30 administration in an experimental model of S1P-induced AHR and inflammation. The results show that SIP is able to reduce endogenous Acrp30 serum levels and that recombinant Acrp30 treatment significantly reduce S1P-induced AHR and inflammation. Moreover, we observed a reduction of Adiponectin receptors (AdipoR1, AdipoR2 and T-cadherin) expression in S1P treated mice. Treatment with recombinant Acrp30 was able to restore Acrp30 serum levels and adiponectin receptors expression. These results could indicate the ability of SIP to modulate the Acrp30 action, by modulating not only the serum levels of the protein, but also its receptors. Taken together, these data suggest that adiponectin could represent a possible biomarker in obesity-associated asthma. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Background: The need for new options for chronic lung diseases promotes the research on stem cells for lung repair. Bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) can modulate lung inflammation, but the data on cellular processes involved in early airway remodeling and the potential involvement of neuropeptides are scarce. Objectives: To elucidate the mechanisms by which local administration of MSCs interferes with pathophysiological features of airway hyperresponsiveness in an animal model. Methods: GFP-tagged mouse MSCs were intratracheally delivered in the ovalbumin mouse model with subsequent functional tests, the analysis of cytokine levels, neuropeptide expression and histological evaluation of MSCs fate and airway pathology. Additionally, MSCs were exposed to pro-inflammatory factors in vitro. Results: Functional improvement was observed after MSC administration. Although MSCs did not adopt lung cell phenotypes, cell therapy positively affected airway remodeling reducing the hyperplastic phase of the gain in bronchial smooth muscle mass, decreasing the proliferation of epithelium in which mucus metaplasia was also lowered. Decrease of interleukin-4, interleukin-5, interleukin-13 and increase of interleukin-10 in bronchoalveolar lavage was also observed. Exposed to pro-inflammatory cytokines, MSCs upregulated indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase. Moreover, asthma-related in vivo upregulation of pro-inflammatory neurokinin 1 and neurokinin 2 receptors was counteracted by MSCs that also determined a partial restoration of VIP, a neuropeptide with anti-inflammatory properties. Conclusion: Intratracheally administered MSCs positively modulate airway remodeling, reduce inflammation and improve function, demonstrating their ability to promote tissue homeostasis in the course of experimental allergic asthma. Because of a limited tissue retention, the functional impact of MSCs may be attributed to their immunomodulatory response combined with the interference of neuropeptide system activation and tissue remodeling. © 2016 Urbanek et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This paper presents the application of a distributed attitude and position estimation algorithm to a swarm of cooperating UAVs with heterogeneous sensors on board. The algorithm, based on a Consensus Extended Kalman Filtering (CEKF) to account for nonlinearities, is implemented assuming kinematic relationships. Numerical simulations are presented on different flight scenarios to evaluate the benefits of dealing with prior and novel information in a separate way on the basis of recent theoretical results on CEKF. Inertial and vision sensors are supposed to be mounted on board of the aircraft. Realistic flight scenarios are analyzed in the light of possible time communication delays among the agents. © 2015 IEEE.

Polymerization of an acrylate derivative of bisphenol-A by ionizing radiation in the presence of an organically modified montmorillonite was carried out in order to produce a flame-retardant composite. The measurement of the thermal effect during irradiation indicates that radiation curing of pure resin and resin-clay mixtures occurred in both cases. Moreover, differential scanning calorimetry and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis showed that a curing completion can be obtained by thermal curing after irradiation with a significant increase of the glass transition temperature. The morphology was investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. These have indicated that gamma irradiation leads to the formation of a microcomposite structure after radiation curing. The flame resistant characteristics were studied by means of thermal gravimetric analysis under nitrogen and air and by cone calorimeter tests. In particular, thermal gravimetric analysis in air showed that the presence of the dispersed clay in the polymer matrix increases the oxidation temperature. This is attributed to the formation of a more stable char, due to a protective skin of clay aggregates that builds up on the surface of the volatilizing polymer matrix during thermal degradation which protects the charred polymer from reactions with oxygen. Finally, the cone calorimeter tests show a reduction of heat release of the clay-polymer composite with respect to the neat resin. The contribution of the clay in reducing the rate of heat release is attributed to the dispersion of the filler that allows build-up of an inorganic surface layer at a rate which is sufficient for effectively compete with the feeding of the flame with combustible pyrolysis products. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Adv Polym Techn 25: 109–120, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/adv.20063

The mammalian zona pellucida contains several glycoproteins whose oligosaccharide moieties are known to play a key role in the interaction with spermatozoa. Since zona pellucida defects may represent one of the most likely causes of failed fertilization in human in-vitro reproduction, we have studied the carbohydrate composition and distribution over the human zona pellucida by means of lectins. Donated, not inseminated cumulus-oocyte complexes, from cohorts with high fertilization rates, and fertilization-failed oocytes from cohorts inseminated with proven fertile donor semen, were analysed using 11 fluorescein-labelled lectins, on deplasticized semi-thin epoxy sections. Results showed that wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), Maclura pomifera (MPA) and Pisum sativum (PSA) bound to the extracellular matrix bordering the zona pellucida-corona radiata interface of cumulus-oocytes complexes, while the zona pellucida was labelled by WGA, Concanavalin A (ConA) and PSA. WGA labelling and correlative electron microscopy on the cumulus-oocyte complexes demonstrated that this lectin is a useful tool to trace the cortical granule distribution in the human oocyte. Surprisingly, in the failed-fertilized oocytes the zona pellucida was also labelled by MPA and showed three different patterns: (i) labelling of the zona pellucida outer surface; (ii) uniform labelling; (iii) labelling of an outer zona pellucida layer with variable thickness. Comparative analysis of WGA and MPA labelling on single failed-fertilized oocytes demonstrated that MPA zona pellucida patterns are not related to the cortical reaction. The nature and meaning of the MPA pattern of failed-fertilized oocytes were discussed in the light of zona pellucida defects impairing sperm receptivity.