Internet-based event synchronization communication driven telerobotics

Based on QoS (quality of service) parameters: time delay, jitter, bandwidth and package loss. As time delay in the Internet is variable, it is hard to compensate it by traditional methods. Event synchronization communication driven method is proposed to overcome the negative effects induced by time delay. This method is a non-time based method and it can get rid of the effects of time in the control loop of telerobotics. Stability, transparency and synchronization can be maintained in it by event-driven method. Multimodal enhanced telerobotics is put forward with its feedback including force, video, audio and temperature etc. The use of multimodal feedback improves the efficiency and safety of the whole system. Synchronization in multimodal feedback is hard to ensure and event-driven method is also good for it. Experiments on an Internet-based shaft-hole assemblage system show good results by using event synchronization communication driven method and UDP protocol.

Sensing Traction Strain Induces Cell-Cell Distant Communications

Mechanobiology has been a highly recognized field in studying the importance of physical forces in physiologies at the molecular,cellular,tissue,organ and body-levels.Beside the intensive work focusing on the fine local biomechanical forces,the long-range force which can propagate through a relatively distant scale(in hundreds of micrometers and beyond)has been an intriguing topic with increasing attentions in recent years.The collective functions at cell population level often rely on cell-cell communications with or without direct contacts.Recent progresses including our own work indicate that the long-range biomechanical force propagating across scales far beyond single cell size may reserve the capability to trigger coordinative biological responses within cell population.Whether and how cells communicate mechanically in a distant manner remains largely to be explored.In respiratory system,the mechanical property of airway smooth muscle(ASM)is associated with asthma attack with prolonged contraction during airway hyper-responsiveness.In this work,we found that ASM cells rapidly self-assembled into a well-constructed network on 3D matrigel containing type I collagen(COL I),which required the collective functions and coordination of thousands of cells completed within 12-16 hours.Cells were assembled with aligned actin stress fibers and elongated nuclei.The assembling process relied on the long-range mechanical forces across the matrix to direct cell-cell distant interactions.We further found that single ASM cells could rapidly initiate multiple buds precisely pointing to neighboring cells in distance,which relied on cell traction force and force strain on the matrix.Beads tracking assay demonstrated the long-range transmission of cellular traction force to distant locations,and modeling of maximum strain distribution on matrix by finite element method predicted the consistency with cell directional protrusions and movements in experiments.Cells could sense each other in distance to move directionally on both non-fibrous matrigel and in much more efficient way when containing COL I.Cells recruited COL I from the hydrogel to build nearly identical COL I fibrous network to mechanically stabilize the cell network.Our results revealed that ASM cells can sense the traction strain transmitted through matrix to initiate distant communications and rapidly coordinate the network assembly at the population level through active cell-matrix interactions.As an interesting phenomenon,cells sound able to’make phone call’via the role of long-range mechanical force.In summary,this work demonstrated that long-range biomechanical force facilitates the collective functions of ASM cell population for network assembly.The cells reacted to traction strain on the matrix for distant communications,which resulted in directional budding and movement.Fibrous COL I had important roles in facilitating the efficiency of force transmission to induce the assembly and stabilizing the cell network.This work has helped advance the understanding of the feature andfunction of long-range biomechanical force at the cell population level.The observed high mechano-sensitivity of ASM cells might suggest a re-enforced feedback of enhanced contraction by excessive ASM under asthmatic condition.

The structure of mixed-species bird flocks,and their response to anthropogenic disturbance,with special reference to East Asia

Mixed-species flocks of birds are distributed world-wide and can be especially dominant in temperate forests during the non-breeding season and in tropical rainforests year-round.We review from a community ecology perspective what is known about the structure and organization of flocks,emphasizing that flocking species tend to be those particularly vulnerable to predation,and flocks tend to be led by species that are able to act as sources of information about predators for other species.Studies on how flocks respond to fragmentation and land-use intensification continue to accumulate,but the question of whether the flock phenomenon makes species more vulnerable to anthropogenic change remains unclear.We review the literature on flocks in East Asia and demonstrate there is a good foundation of knowledge on which to build.We then outline potentially fruitful future directions,focusing on studies that can investigate how dependent species are on each other in flocks,and how such interdependencies might affect avian habitat selection in the different types of human-modified environments of this region.