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This paper presents a case study of the setpoint tracking performance of the proportional integral derivative (PID) controller on the Single-Input Single-Output (SISO) and Multi-Input Multi-Output (MIMO) nonlinear digital plants under Gaussian white noise and constant load disturbance for the nonlinear time-delay dynamic system. With the objective of getting a better understanding of the nonlinear discrete-time PID controller, we proposed a case study using two SISO and two MIMO digital plants, and then do the numerical simulations along with the addition of Gaussian white noise and load disturbance to simulate the real environment. In this paper, we compare the results of the system working with and without noise and load disturbance. The study result of this paper shows that on the discrete-time digital nonlinear plant, the PID controller is working well to follow the nonlinear setpoint even under heavy noise and load disturbance. The study compared the performance indexes of the controllers in terms of the maximum error, the Root mean square error (RMSE), the Integral square error (ISE), the Integral absolute error (IAE), and the Integral of time-weighted absolute error (ITAE).

Patients undergoing partial or total rhinectomy surgeries are left with a lifelong facial defect that poses psychosocial and functional challenges. The extended postoperative healing period after rhinectomy can delay the timely restoration of a patient's nose by definitive prosthesis when conventional impression methods are used. The treatment workflow for fabricating a custom esthetic nasal bandage with the use of digital technology is introduced to avoid the conventional preoperative impression, as well as to allow for immediate delivery at the postoperative follow-up visit.

Total rhinectomy defects pose a challenge for the reconstructive surgeon, but since the introduction of osseointegrated implants, maxillofacial implant–retained prosthetic rehabilitation has provided the patient with an alternative option that has an excellent cosmetic result. Traditionally, zygomatic implants are used for prosthodontic restoration in patients with severely atrophic maxilla or to retain an obturator after tumor ablative surgery. More recently, the nonconventional use of zygomatic implants for retention of a nasal prosthesis has been reported in cases involving rhinectomy defects where the length of conventional dental implants is a limiting factor. In this article, we describe the use and value of transversely-oriented zygomatic implants in combination with an acrylic keeper and maxillary denture to optimize retention of a complex, multi-unit prosthesis in an edentulous patient with a total rhinectomy and upper lip defect.

Patients undergoing partial rhinectomy with limited size may have the major portion of the nasal structure preserved. However, the fibrosis or scar formation after the surgery may cause distortion of remaining tissues, followed by nasal airway obstruction. By physically expanding an affected nostril during the impression and using digital technology to design a custom flexible internal nasal dilator, embedded in the medical grade silicone during processing, a partial nasal prosthesis with airway-maintaining purpose can be fabricated to improve quality of life both esthetically and functionally.

This article optimizes an injection molding process using an efficient sequential design methodology. The goal is to set the process control variables to minimize the shrinkages of a selected collection of injection molded parts. This multiobjective optimization problem is solved by finding those process control variable settings that are Pareto minimizing values (i.e., process settings for which none of the shrinkages of the parts can be decreased by an alternative process setting without increasing the shrinkages of other parts). The sequential design uses an expected improvement criterion to guide updates. The shrinkages are estimated by a calibrated predictor of the process mean shrinkage. The calibration is based on observations of the manufacturing process supplemented by computer runs of a commercial simulator code that mimics the manufacturing process.

Mixed plug-flow loop reactor (MPFLR) has been widely adopted by the US dairy farms to convert cattle manure to biogas. However, the microbiome in MPFLR digesters remains unexplored. In this study, the microbiome in a MPFLR digester operated on a mega-dairy farm was examined thrice over a 2 month period. Within 23 days of retention time, 55–70% of total manure solid was digested. Except for a few minor volatile fatty acids (VFAs), total VFA concentration and pH remained similar along the course of the digester and over time. Metagenomic analysis showed that although with some temporal variations, the bacterial community was rather stable spatially in the digester. The methanogenic community was also stable both spatially and temporally in the digester. Among methanogens, genus Methanosaeta dominated in the digester. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis and metagenomic analysis yielded different relative abundance of individual genera of methanogens, especially for Methanobacterium, which was predominant based on qPCR analysis but undetectable by metagenomics. Collectively, the results showed that only small microbial and chemical gradients existed within the digester, and the digestion process occurred similarly throughout the MPFLR digester. The findings of this study may help improve the operation and design of this type of manure digesters.

The objective of this study was to understand how the non-microbial factors of L-AD effluent affected the microbiome composition and successions in the SS-AD digesters using both Illumina sequencing and qPCR quantification of major genera of methanogens. The SS-AD digesters started with a feedstock/total effluent (F/Et) ratio 2.2 (half of the effluent was autoclaved) performed stably, while the SS-AD digesters started with a 4.4 F/Et ratio (no autoclaved effluent) suffered from digester acidification, accumulation of volatile fatty acids, and ceased biogas production two weeks after startup. Some bacteria and methanogens were affected by non-microbial factors of the L-AD fluent. Alkalinity, the main difference between the two F/Et ratios, may be the crucial factor when SS-AD digesters were started using L-AD effluent.

Temperature-phased anaerobic digestion (TPAD) has gained increasing attention because it provides the flexibility to operate digesters under conditions that enhance overall digester performance. However, research on impact of organic overloading rate (OLR) to microbiota of TPAD systems was limited. In this study, we investigated the composition and successions of the microbiota in both the thermophilic and the mesophilic digesters of a laboratory-scale TPAD system co-digesting dairy manure and waste whey before and during organic overloading. The thermophilic and the mesophilic digesters were operated at 50 and 35 °C, respectively, with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 10 days for each digester. High OLR (dairy manure with 5 % total solid and waste whey of ≥60.4 g chemical oxygen demand (COD)/l/day) resulted in decrease in pH and in biogas production and accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in the thermophilic digester, while the mesophilic digester remained unchanged except a transient increase in biogas production. Both denaturant gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and Illumina sequencing of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene amplicons showed dramatic change in microbiota composition and profound successions of both bacterial and methanogenic communities. During the overloading, Thermotogae was replaced by Proteobacteria, while Methanobrevibacter and archaeon classified as WCHD3-02 grew in predominance at the expense of Methanoculleus in the thermophilic digester, whereas Methanosarcina dominated the methanogenic community, while Methanobacterium and Methanobrevibacter became less predominant in the mesophilic digester. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) revealed that digester temperature and pH were the most influential environmental factors that explained much of the variations of the microbiota in this TPAD system when it was overloaded.

Human beta-defensin (HBD)-2, an antimicrobial peptide, has been discovered to be produced by a number of epithelial cells. It is identified as a key element in the innate host defense mechanism. Because little is known about the expression of HBD-2 in the human sinonasal tract, we conducted this study to investigate the expression of the HBD-2 mRNA gene by the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and localization of HBD-2 peptide by immunohistochemistry in human nasal inferior turbinates and nasal polyps. RT-PCR showed significantly higher expression of HBD-2 mRNA in nasal polyps than in inferior turbinates. Using immunohistochemistry, HBD-2 peptide was predominantly localized in surface epithelial cells. Thus, it is feasible that HBD-2 is expressed in nasal mucosa and is upregulated in a condition of chronic inflammation.

2-(Aryloxymethyl)-5-benzyloxy-1-methyl-1H-pyridin-4-ones 8a–8g, 2-(aryloxymethyl)-5-hydroxy-4H-pyran-4-ones 9a–9g, and 2-(aryloxymethyl)-5-hydroxy-1-methyl-1H-pyridin-4-ones 10a–10g were prepared from the known 5-benzyloxy-2-(hydroxymethyl)pyran-4-one (3) in a good overall yield. These compounds were evaluated in vitro against a three-cell lines panel consisting of MCF7 (breast), NCI-H460 (lung), and SF-268 (CNS), and the active compounds passed on for evaluation in the full panel of 60 human tumor cell lines derived from nine cancer cell types. The results indicated that 5-hydroxy derivatives are more favorable than their corresponding 5-benzyloxy precursors (10a–10gvs.8a–8g), and 1-methyl-1H-pyridin-4-ones are more favorable than their corresponding pyran-4(1H)-ones (10a–10gvs.9a–9g). Among these three types of compounds, 2-(aryloxymethyl)-5-hydroxy-1-methyl-1H-pyridin-4-ones 10a–10g were the most cytotoxic; they inhibited the growth of almost all the cancer cells tested. On the contrary, compound 8a (a mean GI50=27.8 μM), 8b (38.5), 8d (11.0), and 8e (30.5) are especially active against the growth of SK-MEL-5 (a melanoma cancer cell) with a GI50 of

Certain indolo-, pyrrolo-, and benzofuro-quinolin-2(1H)-ones 4a,b, 6, 8, 16a-c and 6-anilinoindoloquinoline derivatives 10a,b, 11a,b, 12a,b have been synthesized and evaluated in vitro against a 3-cell lines panel consisting of MCF7 (Breast), NCI-H460 (Lung), and SF-268 (CNS). Those active compounds 4a,b, 6, 8, 10a,b, 11a,b, 12a,b were then evaluated in the full panel of 60 human tumor cell lines derived from nine cancer cell types. The results have shown that cytotoxicity decreases in the order of 6-anilinoindoloquinolines>indoloquinolin-2(1H)-ones>pyrroloquinolin-2(1H)-ones>benzofuroquinolin-2(1H)-ones. Among them, 1-[3-(11H-indolo[3,2-c]quinolin-6ylamino)phenyl]ethanone oxime hydrochloride (11a) and its 2-chloro derivative (11b) were most active, with mean GI(50) values of 1.70 and 1.35 microM, respectively. Both compounds 11a,b were also found to inhibit the growth of SNB-75 (CNS cancer cell) with a GI(50) value of less than 0.01 microM, and, therefore, were selected for further evaluation for in vivo antitumor activity.

The microbiomes involved in liquid anaerobic digestion process have been investigated extensively, but the microbiomes underpinning solid-state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) are poorly understood. In this study, microbiome composition and temporal succession in batch SS-AD reactors, operated at mesophilic or thermophilic temperatures, were investigated using Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons. A greater microbial richness and evenness were found in the mesophilic than in the thermophilic SS-AD reactors. Firmicutes accounted for 60 and 82 % of the total Bacteria in the mesophilic and in the thermophilic SS-AD reactors, respectively. The genus Methanothermobacter dominated the Archaea in the thermophilic SS-AD reactors, while Methanoculleus predominated in the mesophilic SS-AD reactors. Interestingly, the data suggest syntrophic acetate oxidation coupled with hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis as an important pathway for biogas production during the thermophilic SS-AD. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) showed that temperature was the most influential factor in shaping the microbiomes in the SS-AD reactors. Thermotogae showed strong positive correlation with operation temperature, while Fibrobacteres, Lentisphaerae, Spirochaetes, and Tenericutes were positively correlated with daily biogas yield. This study provided new insight into the microbiome that drives SS-AD process, and the findings may help advance understanding of the microbiome in SS-AD reactors and the design and operation of SS-AD systems.

We present a detailed account of theoretical and experimental studies of nonlinear molecular photonic processes accompanying the propagation of short intense laser pulses through an organic liquid cored fiber array. The theory takes into account two-photon absorption, excited state absorption, and dynamical evolution of the molecular energy level populations and the laser intensity. The coupled dynamical equations for the molecular energy-level populations and laser intensity are solved numerically using experimentally observed molecular and optical parameters. Experimentally obtained optical limiting results are analyzed along with nonlinear absorption and pump-probe studies of other nonlinear optical processes occurring in the fiber core. It is found that in the nanosecond time regime, besides excited state and two-photon absorption, thermal and density effects also contribute significantly to the optical limiting performance of the constituent fiber.

Background Comparative gene expression profiling analysis is useful in discovering differentially expressed genes associated with various diseases, including mental disorders. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of complex childhood-onset neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders characterized by deficits in language development and verbal communication, impaired reciprocal social interaction, and the presence of repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. The study aimed to identify novel genes associated with the pathogenesis of ASD. Methods We conducted comparative total gene expression profiling analysis of lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) between 16 male patients with ASD and 16 male control subjects to screen differentially expressed genes associated with ASD. We verified one of the differentially expressed genes, FOXP1, using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) in a sample of 83 male patients and 83 male controls that included the initial 16 male patients and male controls, respectively. Results A total of 252 differentially expressed probe sets representing 202 genes were detected between the two groups, including 89 up- and 113 downregulated genes in the ASD group. RT-qPCR verified significant elevation of the FOXP1 gene transcript of LCL in a sample of 83 male patients (10.46 ± 11.34) compared with 83 male controls (5.17 ± 8.20, P = 0.001). Conclusions Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of LCL is useful in discovering novel genetic markers associated with ASD. Elevated gene expression of FOXP1 might contribute to the pathogenesis of ASD. Clinical trial registration Identifier: NCT00494754