Consensus tracking protocol and formation control of multi-agent systems with switching topology

Consensus tracking control problems for single-integrator dynamics of multi-agent systems with switching topology are investigated. In order to design effective consensus tracking protocols for a more general class of networks, which are aimed at ensuring that the concerned states of agents converge to a constant or time-varying reference state, new consensus tracking protocols with a constant and time-varying reference state are proposed, respectively. Particularly, by contrast with spanning tree, an improved condition of switching interaction topology is presented. And then, convergence analysis of two consensus tracking protocols is provided by Lyapunov stability theory. Moreover, consensus tracking protocol with a time-varying reference state is extended to achieve the fbrmation control. By introducing formation structure set, each agent can gain its individual desired trajectory. Finally, several simulations are worked out to illustrate the effectiveness of theoretical results. The test results show that the states of agents can converge to a desired constant or time-varying reference state. In addition, by selecting appropriate structure set, agents can maintain the expected formation under random switching interaction topologies.

Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells to treat spinal cord injury in the early chronic phase: study protocol for a prospective, multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blinded clinical trial

Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells(hUC-MSCs)support revascularization,inhibition of inflammation,regulation of apoptosis,and promotion of the release of beneficial factors.Thus,they are regarded as a promising candidate for the treatment of intractable spinal cord injury(SCI).Clinical studies on patients with early chronic SCI(from 2 months to 1 year post-injury),which is clinically common,are rare;therefore,we will conduct a prospective,multicenter,randomized,placebo-controlled,single-blinded clinical trial at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,West China Hospital of Sichuan University,and Shanghai East Hospital,Tongji University School of Medicine,China.The trial plans to recruit 66 early chronic SCI patients.Eligible patients will undergo randomization at a 2:1 ratio to two arms:the observation group and the control group.Subjects in the observation group will receive four intrathecal transplantations of stem cells,with a dosage of 1×106/kg,at one calendar month intervals.Subjects in the control group will receive intrathecal administrations of 10 mL sterile normal saline in place of the stem cell transplantations.Clinical safety will be assessed by the analysis of adverse events and laboratory tests.The American Spinal Injury Association(ASIA)total score will be the primary efficacy endpoint,and the secondary efficacy outcomes will be the following:ASIA impairment scale,International Association of Neural Restoration-Spinal Cord Injury Functional Rating Scale,muscle tension,electromyogram,cortical motor and cortical sensory evoked potentials,residual urine volume,magnetic resonance imaging–diffusion tensor imaging,T cell subtypes in serum,neurotrophic factors and inflammatory factors in both serum and cerebrospinal fluid.All evaluations will be performed at 1,3,6,and 12 months following the final intrathecal administration.During the entire study procedure,all adverse events will be reported as soon as they are noted.This trial is designed to evaluate the clinical safety and efficacy of subarachnoid transplantation of hUC-MSCs to treat early chronic SCI.Moreover,it will establish whether cytotherapy can ameliorate local hostile microenvironments,promote tracking fiber regeneration,and strengthen spinal conduction ability,thus improving overall motor,sensory,and micturition/defecation function in patients with early chronic SCI.This study was approved by the Stem Cell Research Ethics Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,China(approval No.[2018]-02)on March 30,2018,and was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov(registration No.NCT03521323)on April 12,2018.The revised trial protocol(protocol version 4.0)was approved by the Stem Cell Research Ethics Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University,China(approval No.[2019]-10)on February 25,2019,and released on ClinicalTrials.gov on April 29,2019.

A Simulation of Signal Collisions over the North Atlantic for a Spaceborne ADS-B Receiver Using Aloha Protocol

Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is an air traffic surveillance system in which aircraft broadcast GPS position, velocity and status on 1090 MHz at random intervals between 0.4 and 0.6 seconds. ADS-B networks for air traffic monitoring have been implemented worldwide, but ground stations cannot be installed in oceanic regions, leaving these areas uncovered. A solution for tracking aircraft over the ocean is through the monitoring of ADS-B signals by using spaceborne receivers. The Royal Military College of Canada has developed an ADS-B receiver that is scheduled to fly as a technology demonstrator on the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment-7 (CanX-7) nanosatellite. The payload will collect ADS-B data over the North Atlantic that will be compared to truth data provided by air traffic services. A potential issue for the CanX-7 payload is signal collisions. The extended footprint of the satellite coverage means that a large number of aircraft may be in view at any one time, leading to ADS-B messages that arrive simultaneously at the receiver not being decoded. A simulation of CanX-7 passage over the operations area was carried out to calculate the probability of signal collisions. Using the Aloha Protocol, it was determined that the loss of information as a result of signal collisions is well within the standards of ground based radars used by air traffic system agencies.

Neural-Network-Based Control for Discrete-Time Nonlinear Systems with Input Saturation Under Stochastic Communication Protocol

In this paper,an adaptive dynamic programming(ADP)strategy is investigated for discrete-time nonlinear systems with unknown nonlinear dynamics subject to input saturation.To save the communication resources between the controller and the actuators,stochastic communication protocols(SCPs)are adopted to schedule the control signal,and therefore the closed-loop system is essentially a protocol-induced switching system.A neural network(NN)-based identifier with a robust term is exploited for approximating the unknown nonlinear system,and a set of switch-based updating rules with an additional tunable parameter of NN weights are developed with the help of the gradient descent.By virtue of a novel Lyapunov function,a sufficient condition is proposed to achieve the stability of both system identification errors and the update dynamics of NN weights.Then,a value iterative ADP algorithm in an offline way is proposed to solve the optimal control of protocol-induced switching systems with saturation constraints,and the convergence is profoundly discussed in light of mathematical induction.Furthermore,an actor-critic NN scheme is developed to approximate the control law and the proposed performance index function in the framework of ADP,and the stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed in view of the Lyapunov theory.Finally,the numerical simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

A hierarchical architecture of centralized monitoring and controlling system and its high-performance and interoperability protocol

This paper describes a hierarchical architecture and a high-performance and interoperability protocol for centralized monitoring and controlling systems (CMCS) . The protocol we proposed can interoperate different monitoring and controlling systems constructed by different companies, each with different functions and communication protocols. The protocol reduces the amount of traffic and has real-time and high-perfor-mance advantages. The protocol was implemented in CMCS for telecommunication power supply and air-condi-tioner used by the Telecommunication Bureau of Zhejiang Province. This paper deals with the hierarchical architecture and function of CMCS and packet format, command ID, and SDL description of its protocol. We also discuss the properties of the interoperability and performance of the protocol in this paper.

Self-organization of Reconfigurable Protocol Stack for Networked Control Systems

In networked control systems （NCS）,the control performance depends on not only the control algorithm but also the communication protocol stack.The performance degradation introduced by the heterogeneous and dynamic communication environment has intensified the need for the reconfigurable protocol stack.In this paper,a novel architecture for the reconfigurable protocol stack is proposed,which is a unified specification of the protocol components and service interfaces supporting both static and dynamic reconfiguration for existing industrial communication standards.Within the architecture,a triple-level self-organization structure is designed to manage the dynamic reconfiguration procedure based on information exchanges inside and outside the protocol stack.Especially,the protocol stack can be self-adaptive to various environment and system requirements through the reconfiguration of working mode,routing and scheduling table.Finally,the study on the protocol of dynamic address management is conducted for the system of controller area network （CAN）.The results show the efficiency of our self-organizing architecture for the implementation of a reconfigurable protocol stack.

The development of data acquisition and control system for extraction power supply of prototype RF ion source

A 16 kV/20 A power supply was developed for the extraction grid of prototype radio frequency（RF） ion source of neutral beam injector. To acquire the state signals of extraction grid power supply（EGPS） and control the operation of the EGPS, a data acquisition and control system has been developed. This system mainly consists of interlock protection circuit board, photoelectric conversion circuit, optical fibers, industrial compact peripheral component interconnect（CPCI） computer and host computer. The human machine interface of host computer delivers commands and data to program of the CPCI computer, as well as offers a convenient client for setting parameters and displaying EGPS status. The CPCI computer acquires the status of the power supply. The system can turn-off the EGPS quickly when the faults of EGPS occur. The system has been applied to the EGPS of prototype RF ion source. Test results show that the data acquisition and control system for the EGPS can meet the requirements of the operation of prototype RF ion source.

A new real-time ethernet MAC protocol for time-critical applications

The authors propose a new persistent transmission based real time Ethernet MAC protocol that provides a predictable upper bound for the delivery delay of real time frames. Moreover, it is compatible with the protocol used by the existing Ethernet controllers for conventional datagram traffic and thus standard Ethernet stations can be used in the system without any modification. The paper describes the protocol in detail and analyses the maximum delivery delay for real time traffic and the efficiency of the channel.

A NOVEL MARKOV ANALYTICAL MODEL FOR THE TCP/AQM SYSTEMS

A novel closed-loop feedback TCP/AQM(Transfer Control Protocol/Active Queue Management) model is proposed in this paper using a discrete-time Markov chain,and a way to calculate the equilibrium distribution of this model is given.In the model,system time is divided into time slots,the bottleneck router queue model and TCP window size model in each slot are analyzed.Finally,by combining adjacent slots,an integrated TCP/AQM analytical model is developed.By this model,the average values of packets dropping ratio and queue length in the router and TCP sending rate can be estimated,hence,this model could be a useful tool for the analysis of AQMs and support the development of new AQM schemes theoretically.The proposed TCP/AQM model is extended to a TCP-UDP(Control User Datagram Protocol)/AQM model,to analyze the TCP/AQM system performance when UDP flows exist.By implementing this model on Matlab,we compare its solutions to NS2 simulated solutions,then the validity of the model to analyze the closed-loop feedback TCP/RED(Random Early Detection) system is verified.

A Priority-aware Frequency Domain Polling MAC Protocol for OFDMA-based Networks in Cyber-physical Systems

Wireless networking in cyber-physical systems (CPSs) is characteristically different from traditional wireless systems due to the harsh radio frequency environment and applications that impose high real-time and reliability constraints. One of the fundamental considerations for enabling CPS networks is the medium access control protocol. To this end, this paper proposes a novel priority-aware frequency domain polling medium access control (MAC) protocol, which takes advantage of an orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) physical layer to achieve instantaneous priority-aware polling. Based on the polling result, the proposed work then optimizes the resource allocation of the OFDMA network to further improve the data reliability. Due to the non-polynomial-complete nature of the OFDMA resource allocation, we propose two heuristic rules, based on which an efficient solution algorithm to the OFDMA resource allocation problem is designed. Simulation results show that the reliability performance of CPS networks is significantly improved because of this work. © 2014 Chinese Association of Automation.

Evaluation on the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal medication Xifeng Dingchan Pill in treating Parkinson's disease: study protocol of a multicenter, open-label, randomized active-controlled trial

BACKGROUND： Parkinson＇s disease （PD） is a complicated disease, commonly diagnosed among the elderly, which leads to degeneration of the central nervous system. It presently lacks an effective therapy for its complex pathogenesis. Adverse effects from Western drug-based medical intervention prevent long-term adherence to these therapies in many patients. Traditional Chinese medicine （TCM） has long been used to improve the treatment of PD by alleviating the toxic and adverse effects of Western drug-based intervention. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Xifeng Dingchan Pill （XFDCP）, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, taken in conjunction with Western medicine in the treatment of PD patients at different stages in the progression of the disease. METHODS AND DESIGN： This is a multicenter, randomized controlled trial. In total, 320 patients with early- （n = 160） and middle-stage PD （n = 160） will be enrolled and divided evenly into control and trial groups. Of the 160 patients with early-stage PD, the trial group （n = 80） will be given XFDCP, and the control group （n = 80） will be given Madopar. Of the 160 patients with middle-stage PD, the trial group （n = 80） will be given XFDCP combined with Madopar and Piribedil, and the control group （n = 80） will be given Madopar and Piribedil. The Unified Parkinson＇s Disease Rating Scale scores, TCM symptoms scores, quality of life, change of Madopar＇s dosage and the toxic and adverse effects of Madopar will be observed during a 3-month treatment period and through a further 6-month follow-up period. DISCUSSION： It is hypothesized that XFDCP, combined with Madopar and Piribedil, will have beneficial effects on patients with PD. The results of this study will provide evidence for developing a comprehensive therapy regimen, which can delay the progress of the disease and improve the quality of life for PD patients in different stages. TRIAL REGISTRATION： This trial has been registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry with the identifer ChiCTR-TRC-12002150.

MULTIPLE ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNITS CALIBRATION SYSTEM BASED ON EXPLICIT CALIBRATION PROTOCOL AND J1939 PROTOCOL

The rising number of electronic control units （ECUs） in vehicles and the decreasing time to market have led to the need for advanced methods of calibration. A multi-ECU calibration system was developed based on the explicit calibration protocol （XCP） and J1939 communication protocol to satisfy the need of calibrating multiple ECUs simultaneously. The messages in the controller area network （CAN） are defined in the J1939 protocol. Each CAN node can get its own calibration messages and information from other ECUs, and block other messages by qualifying the CAN messages with priority, source or destination address. The data field of the calibration message is designed with the XCP, with CAN acting as the transport layer. The calibration sessions are setup with the event-triggered XCP driver in the master node and the responding XCP driver in the slave nodes. Mirroring calibration variables from ROM to RAM enables the user to calibrate ECUs online. The application example shows that the multi-ECU calibration system can calibrate multiple ECUs simultaneously, and the main program can also accomplish its calculation and send commands to the actuators in time. By the multi-ECU calibration system, the calibration effort and time can be reduced and the variables in ECU can get a better match with the variables of other ECUs.

Consensus Control of Multi-Agent Systems Using Fault-Estimation-in-the-Loop:Dynamic Event-Triggered Case

The paper develops a novel framework of consensus control with fault-estimation-in-the-loop for multi-agent systems(MASs)in the presence of faults.A dynamic event-triggered protocol(DETP)by adding an auxiliary variable is utilized to improve the utilization of communication resources.First,a novel estimator with a noise bias is put forward to estimate the existed fault and then a consensus controller with fault compensation(FC)is adopted to realize the demand of reliability and safety of addressed MASs.Subsequently,a novel consensus control framework with fault-estimation-in-the-loop is developed to achieve the predetermined consensus performance with the l_(2)-l_(∞)constraint by employing the variance analysis and the Lyapunov stability approaches.Furthermore,the desired estimator and controller gains are obtained in light of the solution to an algebraic matrix equation and a linear matrix inequality in a recursive way,respectively.Finally,a simulation result is employed to verify the usefulness of the proposed design framework.

pH-responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticles employed in controlled drug delivery systems for cancer treatment

In the fight against cancer, controlled drug delivery systems have emerged to enhance the therapeutic efficacy and safety of anti-cancer drugs. Among these systems, mesoporous silica nanoparticles （MSNs） with a functional surface possess obvious advantages and were thus rapidly developed for cancer treatment. Many stimuli-responsive materials, such as nanopartides, polymers, and inorganic materials, have been applied as caps and gatekeepers to control drug release from MSNs. This review presents an overview of the recent progress in the production of pH-responsive MSNs based on the pH gradient between normal tissues and the tumor microenvironment. Four main categories of gatekeepers can respond to acidic conditions. These categories will be described in detail.

Active Queue Management Exploiting the Rate Information in TCP-IP Networks

In this paper, we propose a new mechanism called explicit rate notification(ERN) to be used in end-to-end communications. The ERN scheme encodes in the header of transmission control protocol(TCP) packets information about the sending rate and the round trip time(RTT) of the flows. This new available information to the intermediate nodes(routers) is used to improve fairness, increase utilization, decrease the number of drops, and minimize queueing delays. Thus, it induces a better management of the queue. A comparison of our scheme with preexistent schemes, like the explicit congestion notification scheme, shows the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.

Enabling Technologies for Green Radio-over-Fiber Distributed Anten na System Based Wireless Sensor Network

Novel enabling technologies from physical layer to Medium Access Control (MAC) layer are proposed to provide energy efficient Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) Distributed Antenna System (DAS) based Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The power consumption performance of the network is evaluated in terms of the total network power consumption based on the proposed power consumption models from the physical layer. The results illustrate that for a given power consumption value, the tradeoff among the number of Remote Access Units (RAUs), the number of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antennas and the number of hops must be taken into account. In order to efficiently reduce the total network power consumption, we also proposed a solution from the MAC layer using a sleep-aware MAC protocol, which can dynamically centralized control MIMO antennas to operate in a sleep mode. The proposed enabling technologies provide basis for selecting suitable RoF DAS based WSN and effectively reduce the power consumption.

Modeling and Algorithm Application of Weapon Assignment System

In order to improve weapon assignment(WA)accuracy in real scenario,an artificial neural network(ANN)model is built to calculate real-time weapon kill probabilities.Considering the WA characteristic,each input representing one assessment index should be normalized properly.Therefore,the modified WA model is oriented from constant value to dynamic computation.Then an improved invasive weed optimization algorithm is applied to solve the WA problem.During search process,local search is used to improve the initial population,and seed reproduction is redefined to guarantee the mutation from multipoint to single point.In addition,the idea of vaccination and immune selection in biology is added into optimization process.Finally,simulation results verify the model′s rationality and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

A new multi-channel MAC protocol based on CDMA for ad hoc networks

This paper proposes a novel multichannel medium access control （MAC） protocol based on CDMA that improves network performance and reduces collision probability in wireless ad hoc networks. In the scheme, the code channel is divided into common channel, broadcast channel and several data channels. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol can achieve significantly better performance than the IEEE 802.11 standard.

Mosquito vector management with botanicals-the most effective weapons in controlling mosquito-borne diseases

Dear editor,Mosquito-borne diseases,viz.,malaria,filariasis,dengue hemorrhagic fever,chikungunya,Japanese encephalitis etc.,created huge impact on humans over the world,and the chemical insecticides remain the mainstay of effective control.But,indiscriminate and rampant use of the chemical insecticides in controlling mosquito vectors,in order to prevent diseases vectored by them,has resulted problems related to the adverse environmental effects for their(insecticides)potential toxicity,high operational cost,community acceptance,and the development of insecticide resistance among the vectors.The factors mentioned above prompted the search for new means of control strategies.Currently,the botanicals(viz.,plant extracts,essential oils and phytochemicals)with mosquitocidal potential