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This document provides brief biographical information about three individuals involved in the field of mathematics and systems science. The first individual is a professor at the ISS Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, CAS, with research interests in system modeling, adaptive control, stochastic systems, and multi-agent systems. The second individual is a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, specializing in adaptive control, quantized control, multi-agent systems control, and their applications to aircraft control systems. The third individual is a Ph.D. student at the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, with research interests in quantized control, adaptive control, and sparse identification. [Extracted from the article]

Aging can cause degenerative changes in multiple tissues and organs. Gastrointestinal diseases and dysfunctions are common in the elderly population. In this study, we investigated the effects of Astragalus membranaceus polysaccharide (APS) and Astragalus membranaceus ethanol extract (AEE) on age-related intestinal dysfunction and gut microbiota dysbiosis in naturally aging mice. The energy expenditure and physical activity of 23-month-old C57BL6/J mice were recorded using a metabolic cage system. Pathological changes in the intestine were evaluated using Alcian blue staining. The protein levels of leucine-rich repeats containing G protein-coupled receptor 5 (Lgr5) and Stat3 in the small intestine were determined using immunohistochemistry. The intestinal cell migration distance was assessed using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) immunofluorescence staining. The gene transcription levels of intestinal stem cell (ISC) markers and ISC-related signaling pathways were detected using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Microbiota analysis based on 16S rDNA was performed to evaluate the composition of the gut microbiota. APS and AEE improved a series of aging phenotypes in female but not in male aging mice. APS and AEE ameliorate intestinal dysfunction and histopathological changes in aging mice. APS had a more significant anti-aging effect than AEE, particularly on intestinal dysfunction. APS promotes ISC regeneration by activating the IL-22 signaling pathway. Cohousing (CH) experiments further confirmed that APS induced the IL-22 signaling pathway by increasing the abundance of Lactobacillus, thereby promoting the regeneration of ISCs. Our results show that APS may serve as a promising agent for improving age-related intestinal dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal long-span bridges are intensively constructed along the western Pacific coast. While the coast is frequently disturbed by typhoons. Given that a coastal long-span bridge will experience a number of typhoons during its service life, it is important to have an understanding of the wind fields formed by typhoons with different crossing paths and corresponding structural dynamic responses. Wind and acceleration data of the Xihoumen Bridge under the influence of onshore, offshore, and landfalling typhoons were acquired by the structural health monitoring system (SHMS). Wind field features of typhoons with three types of paths were compared. The landfalling Typhoon In-fa was used to investigate the differences of wind-induced structural dynamic responses under the influence of each typhoon structural region. The covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification (SSI-COV) was used to identify the modal parameters of the bridge. The results revealed that wind field features at bridge site varied with typhoon crossing paths. The SSI-COV accurately identified the structural frequencies of first 15 vertical modes using the acceleration data under the influence of spiral rainband. The first eyewall has the most detrimental wind conditions to the bridge because the stiffening girder vibrated violently in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a recurrent disease associated with a potential risk of colorectal cancer. Abelmoschus manihot (AM), a Chinese herbal medicine, is known to alleviate IBD. However, its mechanism of action requires further clarification. Here, we focused on the role of IL-10 and the gut microbiota in the mechanism of action of AM. The effects of AM on intestinal inflammation, mucus production, and gut microbes were evaluated in dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced acute and chronic IBD models and in IL-10-deficient mice (IL-10 − ∕ − ). AM exhibited protective effects on acute and chronic models of IBD in wild-type mice by restoring body weight and colon length, promoting IL-10 secretion, and decreasing TNF- α levels. Moreover, AM alleviated inflammatory infiltration, increased mucin 2 transcription, and increased the number of goblet cells in the colon. On the contrary, these effects were diminished in IL-10 − ∕ − mice, which implied that the effect of AM on intestinal inflammation is IL-10-dependent. A gut microbial sequencing analysis showed that gut microbial dysbiosis was modulated by AM intervention. The regulatory effects of AM on Eggerthellaceae, Sutterellaceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, Burkholderiaceae, Desulfovibrionaceae, and Enterococcaceae were dependent on IL-10. These results revealed that AM ameliorated IBD and modulated gut microbes by promoting IL-10 secretion, indicating that AM has the potential to improve IBD and that AM is IL-10-dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Embedded applications are becoming more complex and are required to utilize computing platform resources more efficiently. Existing dynamic memory allocation (DSA) schemes cannot adaptively perform memory management according to the environment in which they are located or integrate various memory allocation strategies, making it impossible to guarantee a constant execution time. Efficient memory utilization is a crucial challenge for developers, especially in embedded OSs (operating systems). In this paper, we propose an adaptive layered segregated fit (ALSF) scheme for DSA. The ALSF scheme combines dynamic two-dimensional arrays and bitmaps, completes the allocation and freeing of memory blocks within constant execution time, and uses memory splitting technology to reduce internal fragmentation. The proposed scheme also adjusts the number of segregated lists by analyzing the system's allocation of different memory sizes, which improves the matching accuracy of memory blocks. We conducted a comparative experimental analysis and investigation of the ALSF and two-level segregated fit (TLSF) schemes in the Zephyr OS. Experiments show that the average memory utilization of the proposed ALSF scheme reaches 94.95%. Compared with the TLSF scheme, our scheme has a 12.99% higher allocation success rate in the memory-scarce environment, and the execution speeds of the two are similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a vehicle moving over a bridge, the vehicle-bridge interaction (VBI) embraces the time-varying modal parameters of the system. The identification of non-stationary characteristics of bridge responses due to moving vehicle load is important and remains a challenging task. A new method based on the improved empirical wavelet transform (EWT) along with ridge detection of signals in time-frequency representation (TFR) is proposed to estimate the instantaneous frequencies (IFs) of the bridge. Numerical studies are conducted using a VBI model to investigate the time-varying characteristics of the system. The effects of the measurement noise, road surface roughness and structural damage on the bridge IFs are investigated. Finally, the dynamic responses of an in-situ cable-stayed bridge subjected to a passing vehicle are analyzed to further explore the time varying characteristics of the VBI system. Numerical and experimental studies demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method on the IF estimation. The identified IFs reveal important time-varying characteristics of the bridge dynamics that is significant to evaluating the actual performance of operational bridges in operation and may be used for structural health assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strong vibration responses of the cab system can be restrained by the damper force and the friction of the suspensions for trucks. After the failures of dampers, especially in the case of the complete failure, the anti vibration effect of the friction is prominent. However, the nonlinear vibration response characteristics of the cab subject to the damper complete failure have not been revealed. In order to reveal the nonlinear vibration response characteristics, a dynamic model of the cab system was established and its vibration equations were given. The friction forces existing in the suspensions were determined by the bench test. The influences of the friction forces on the cab vibration under different amplitude harmonic inputs were investigated when the dampers completely fail. The cab vertical displacement changes with the excitation amplitude and the vibration represents various motion states, including the periodic motion, the quasi-periodic motion, and the chaotic motion. The simulation results show that when the dampers fail, the proper friction forces help to suppress the quasi-periodic motion and the chaotic motion of the cab and to reduce the amplitude of the periodic motion. The proper friction forces can make the cab movement far away from the chaos area. They also help to avoid the fatigue damage of the cab floor and suspension parts to improve the service life of the suspension parts and to reduce the maintenance cost of the cab suspensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time-triggered CAN (TTCAN) protocol has been widely used in the automotive industry to fulfil the safety and real-time requirements of the application. As an extension of the standard CAN protocol, the TTCAN protocol aims to guarantee a safe and deterministic communication by introducing time-triggered messages with respect to a global synchronized time, which are scheduled in independent transmission windows within the system matrix. However, the new features bring more difficulties in designing and verifying the reliable applications in the TTCAN network. In this paper, we first present a formal probabilistic model of the TTCAN protocol with a consideration of its novel features. A TTCAN system consisting of three parts, i.e., a system matrix, an arbitration and some nodes, is modeled as discrete Markov chains model. Furthermore, five probabilistic properties are described and verified in the probabilistic model checker tool PRISM. Our work gives a quantitative analysis method for the given requirements, which facilitates the designers to a formal understanding of TTCAN protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the world. Considerable research has been done linking various mechanical risk factors to plaque progression and rupture. However, methods transforming research results to clinical implementation are limited by time-consuming processes. In this study, a 3D thin-wall (TW) model was developed to approximate the 3D fluid–structure interaction (FSI) model to save time for clinical implementations. Results from one patient data (100 TW models) indicated that the relative errors of the average plaque wall stress (APWS) and strain were less than 7%, meanwhile the correlation results of the TW models were similar with that of the FSI models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a delivery system based on atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been developed to transport nucleic acids, proteins and drugs to single adherent cell by controlling the indentation process. However, the transportation efficiency is limited by the low penetration rate of the common commercial AFM probe. The tip of commercial AFM probe is blunt and it is hard for blunt tip to insert into the soft cell membrane. In this study, dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations were applied to investigate the penetration process of the AFM probe into the cell membrane subjected to different strain states. It was observed that the AFM tip moved down a shorter distance to penetrate the stretched lipid membrane compared with unstretched membrane. Moreover, the threshold value of penetrating force decreased as cell membrane extended. The short indentation time and small force can reduce the probability of cell membrane collapse, therefore it is easier for the AFM tip to penetrate the cell. We also performed the AFM indentation experiments via AFM to investigate the relationship between penetrating force and indentation speed. This work provides a potential way to improve the efficiency of cell transfection by using the AFM delivery system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the origins and breaking mechanisms of the spin and pseudospin symmetries for the antinucleon spectrum by the use of the similarity renormalization group, which transforms the Dirac Hamiltonian into a diagonal form and decomposes it into several independent components. By comparing the contribution of every component to the spin and pseudospin splittings, it is found that the energy splitting of spin doublets is dominated by the spin-orbit coupling while the pseudospin breaking comes mainly from these contributions of the nonrelativistic term and the dynamical term. In addition, the dependencies of the spin and pseudospin symmetries on the shape of the potential and the quantum numbers of the doublets are clarified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rosmarinic Acid (RA), a caffeic acid ester, has been shown to exert anti-inflammation, anti-oxidant and antiallergic effects. Our study aimed to investigate the effect of RA in sodium taurocholate ()-induced acute pancreatitis, both in vivo and in vitro. In vivo, RA (50 mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally 2 h before sodium taurocholate injection. Rats were sacrificed 12 h, 24 h or 48 h after sodium taurocholate injection. Pretreatment with RA significantly ameliorated pancreas histopathological changes, decreased amylase and lipase activities in serum, lowered myeloperoxidase activity in the pancreas, reduced systematic and pancreatic interleukin-1 β (IL-1β), IL-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) levels, and inhibited NF-κB translocation in pancreas. In vitro, pretreating the fresh rat pancreatic acinar cells with 80 μ mol/L RA 2 h before 3750 nmol/L sodium taurocholate or 10 ng/L TNF-α administration significantly attenuated the reduction of isolated pancreatic acinar cell viability and inhibited the nuclear activation and translocation of NF-κB. Based on our findings, RA appears to attenuate damage in sodium taurocholate-induced acute pancreatitis and reduce the release of inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting the activation of NF-κB. These findings might provide a basis for investigating the therapeutic role of RA in managing acute pancreatits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ta (3.3 nm)/- (3.3 nm) integrated films deposited on substrates by magnetron sputtering, annealed at various temperatures in a ultra-high vacuum, have been studied as diffusion barrier layers between and for application in interconnection. The images of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) prove that the cross-sectional interfaces of //-/ sample annealed at 600°C are clear and sharp. No -silicide peaks can be found from the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the 850°C annealed sample, but the sheet resistance of the sample increases abruptly. Moreover, large grooves are found from the image of atomic force microscopy (AFM) for the 850°C annealed sample, implying the failure of the diffusion barrier. The integrated /- barrier layer retains thermally stable nature up to at least 800°C, indicating that the /- integrated film is an excellent diffusion barrier between and . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the nonlinear damped vibration of prestressed orthotropic membrane structures. The Krylov-Bogolubov-Mitropolsky (KBM) perturbation method is employed for solving the governing equations of large amplitude nonlinear vibration of rectangular orthotropic membranes with viscous damping. Presented herein are asymptotic analytical solutions for the frequency and displacement function of large amplitude nonlinear damped vibration of rectangular orthotropic membranes with four edges simply supported or fixed. Through the computational example, we compared and analyzed the frequency results. Meanwhile, the vibration mode of the membrane and the displacement and time curve of each feature point on the membrane surface were analyzed. The results obtained herein provide a simple and convenient approach to calculate the frequency and lateral displacement of large amplitude nonlinear vibration of rectangular orthotropic membranes with low viscous damping. In addition, the results provide some computational basis for the vibration control and dynamic design of membrane structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emodin is a principle ingredient isolated from rhubarb rhizome, which is commonly used for constipation or pain-related diseases in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice. The transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 ion channel proteins (TRPV1) are abundantly expressed in the peripheral sensory neurons and are assumed to act as a kind of nociceptor involved in the perception of pain and development of hyperalgesia. The aim of this study was to further unravel the analgesic mechanisms of rhubarb through investigating the effects of its main constitutive ingredient emodin on the expression of TRPV1 mRNA as well as on its calcium- mediating functions in vitro. The primary DRG neurons with a high purity and viability were obtained, and the TRPV1 mRNA expression levels were examined by using real-time RT-PCR and the elevated amplitudes of intracellular [Ca2+]i in the DRG neurons evoked by TRPV1 agonist capsaicin were examined by confocal microscopy. The results showed that emodin could significantly down-regulate both the mRNA expression of TRPV1 and the capsaicin-evoked intracellular fluorescent intensity in the DRG neurons under both 37°C and 39°C in vitro. Concomitantly, all of the changes induced by emodin could not be blocked by pretreatment of the primary neurons with capsazepine, an antagonist of TRPV1. In conclusion, we established that the mRNA expression level of TRPV1 and its calcium-mediating function in naive DRG neurons could be down-regulated by emodin through perhaps the non-TRPV1 channel pathways, and this might be the molecular mechanisms for rhubarb to inhibit hyperalgesia induced by inflammatory stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The systematic investigation of shape evolution between spherical U(5) and γ-unstable O(6) for Mo isotopes has been carried out by the microscopic quadrupole constrained relativistic mean field model plus BCS method with all the most used interactions, i.e. PK1, NL3, TM1 and NLSH. The calculated potential energy surfaces show a clear shape evolution for the even–even Mo isotopes with N = 50~64 and 94Mo is suggested to be the γ-unstable nucleus, which is favored by the experimental data. Similar conclusion is also drawn from the neutron single particle spectra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effective elastic modulus and fracture toughness of the nanofilm were derived with the surface relaxation and the surface energy taken into consideration by means of the interatomic potential of an ideal crystal. The size effects of the effective elastic modulus and fracture toughness were discussed when the thickness of the nanofilm was reduced. And the dependence of the size effects on the surface relaxation and surface energy was also analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The superheavy nucleus 294118 and its α-decay chain have been investigated systematically in the relativistic mean-field (RMF) theory with the interactions NL3, TMA, PK1 and NLZ. The properties of ground state have been described well with the binding energies per nucleon and α-decay energies, which are reproduced as compared with the experimental data. It shows that the RMF theory is effective for studying not only the stable nuclei but also the superheavy nuclei presented here. In particular, the prolate shape predicted in the ground state of these superheavy nuclei is in agreement with the experimental data as well as other theoretical calculations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relativistic mean field theory is used to produce potential energy surfaces (PESs) for Ti isotopes. The relatively flat PESs suggest that 48, 52, 60Ti, being on the way from vibrations to γ-unstable behavior, are the possible examples with the transitional dynamical symmetry E(5). Especially for 48Ti, PES shows that it is a better candidate with E(5) symmetry. These conclusions are supported by the experimental data via the observed ratios of excitation energies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed a novel catheter operating system with an integrated force sensor for medical applications which included a highly precise master-slave remote control system. This paper explains the system design and control system in detail. As part of our research, we designed a micro force sensor and included it in the system to ensure safe operation in intravascular neurosurgery applications. We performed operation simulation experiments and analyzed the operating errors. The experimental results indicated that the proposed force sensor-based catheter operating system works well and can be controlled remotely, and the force feedback can effectively improve operability at an aneurysm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the condition of pseudospin symmetry, the exact solution of Dirac equation is studied and that no bound solutions are observed for generalized asymmetrical Hartmann potential, which is in agreement with that for Coulomb potential. With the analytic continuation method, the unbound solutions are presented by mapping the wave functions of bound states in the complex momentum plane. Furthermore, the scattering phase shifts are obtained from the radial wave function by analyzing the asymptotic behavior of the confluent hypergeometric functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A theoretical model is presented to investigate the size-dependent elastic moduli of nanostructures with the effects of the surface relaxation surface energy taken into consideration. At nanoscale, due to the large ratios of the surface-to-volume, the surface effects, which include surface relaxation surface energy, etc., can play important roles. Thus, the elastic moduli of nanostructures become surface- and size-dependent. In the research, the three-dimensional continuum model of the nanofilm with the surface effects is investigated. The analytical expressions of five nonzero elastic moduli of the nanofilm are derived, and then the dependence of the elastic moduli is discussed on the surface effects and the characteristic dimensions of nanofilms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of shape from the axially deformed to the spherical shapes in the Ce isotopes is investigated microscopically in relativistic mean-field theory. The microscopic and self-consistent quadruple deformation constrained relativistic mean-field calculations show a clear change for the even-even Ce isotopes with N = 62 ~ 84. The potential surfaces for 128Ce, 130Ce, 132Ce and 134Ce are found to be relatively flat, which may be the possible critical-point nuclei. Similar conclusions can also be drawn from the microscopic single-particle spectra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shape phase transition between spherical U(5) and axially deformed SU(3) nuclei is investigated systemically for the rare-earth region nuclei by the constrained relativistic mean field theory with the interactions NL3. The properties of ground state for Nd, Gd and Dy isotopes are described fairly well as compared with experiments. By examining the potential energy curve and quadruple deformation β2 obtained with this microscopic approach, the possible critical point nuclei are suggested to be 148,150Nd for Nd isotopes, but 148Nd is the best candidate, and 150Nd is slightly to the rotor side of the phase transition. For Gd and Dy isotopes, 150,152Gd and 152,154Dy are suggested to be the critical point nuclei. Similar conclusions are also drawn from the microscopic neutron single particle spectra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]