Output consensus for multiple non-holonomic systems under directed communication topology

In this paper, the problem of output consensus for multiple non-holonomic systems in chained form has been investigated. First, an output consensus controller under the strongly connected communication topology is devised by two steps, where a time-varying control strategy and the backstepping design technique are employed. Then, the results are extended to the general directed topology case via graph decomposition, in which the input-to-state stability theory plays a critical role. We prove that the proposed controller can achieve the semi-global output consensus among multiple non-holonomic systems, provided that the interaction graph contains a spanning tree. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the designed controller.     

Development and evaluation of intestinal targeted mucoadhesive microspheres of Bacillus coagulans

Background: Intestinal targeted mucoadhesive microsphere of probiotics may provide numerous associated health benefits.

Aim: To develop mucoadhesive microspheres that will deliver viable probiotic cells into gut protectively against harsh environmental conditions of stomach for extended period.

Materials and methods: Core mucoadhesive microspheres of Bacillus coagulans were prepared using hypromellose, following coacervation and phase separation technique and were then coated with hypromellose phthalate to achieve their site-specific release. Microspheres were evaluated for percent yield, entrapment efficiency, surface morphology, particle size and size distribution, flow property, swelling property, mucoadhesion property by the in vitro wash-off and the ex vivo mucoadhesive strength tests, in vitro release profile and release kinetic, in vivo probiotic activity, and stability. The values for kinetic constant and regression coefficient of model-dependent approaches and the difference factor, the similarity factor, and the Rescigno index of model-independent approaches were determined for accessing and comparing in vitro performance.

Results: Microsphere formulation batches have percent yield value between 56.26% and 69.13% and entrapment efficiency value between 66.95% and 77.89%. Microspheres were coarser with spherical shape having mean particle size from 28.03 to 48.31 μm. In vitro B. coagulans release profile follows zero-order kinetics and depends on the grade of hypromellose and the B. coagulans-to-hypromellose ratio. Experimental microspheres rendered adequate stability to B. coagulans at room temperature.

Conclusion: Microspheres had delivered B. coagulans in simulated intestinal condition following zero-order kinetics, protectively in simulated gastric condition, exhibiting appreciable mucoadhesion in intestinal condition, which could be useful to achieve site-specific delivery for extended period.     

Efficient algorithm for calculating short cycles in Tanner graph based on matrix computation

Loop distribution of Tanner graph affects the BER performance of low-density parity-check codes(LDPC) decoding.To count short cycles in the Tanner graph efficiently,a side by side recursion algorithm based on matrix computation was proposed.Firstly,5 basic graph structures were defined to realize recursive calculate in the implementation process.Compared with previous works,the algorithm provided many methods for counting the same length of cycles.The same result confirmed the correctness of the algorithm.The new algorithm could not only calculate the total number of cycles,but also gave the number each edge participating in fixed-length cycles.Its complexity was proportional to the product of D and square of N,where D was the average degree of variable nodes,and N denoted the code length.For LDPC codes,D was far less than N.For most of the LDPC codes,the calculation for numbers of cycle-length g、g+2、g+4 was only several seconds.     

Experiments on drawing 2-level hierarchical graphs

This paper studies different heuristics for drawing 2-level hierarchical graphs. Especially, we compare the barycenter and the median heuristics. We show that the barycenter heuristic clearly outperforms the median heuristic, although only the latter has a proved bound for the maximum error done when two vertices are ordered. Moreover, we improve a known heuristic, called the greedy switching, by introducing the barycenter heuristic as a preprocessing phase for it.     

Copy-Paste Detection Based on a SIFT Marked Graph Feature Vector

To detect copy-paste tampering, an im-proved SIFT (Scale invariant feature transform)-based al-gorithm was proposed. Maximum angle is defined and a maximum angle-based marked graph is constructed. The m arked graph feature vector is provided to each SIFT key point via discrete polar coordinate transformation. Key points are matched to detect the copy-paste tamper-ing regions. The experimental results show that the pro-posed algorithm can effectively identify and detect the ro-tated or scaled copy-paste regions, and in comparison with the methods reported previously, it is resistant to post-processing, such as blurring, Gaussian white noise and JPEG recompression. The proposed algorithm performs better than the existing algorithm to dealing with scaling transformation.     

Towards a sales assistant using a product knowledge graph

The phenomenal growth in the consumer electronics industry over the last decade is mainly due to rapid advances in integration technologies. The market is ever evolving with new products made available on a frequent basis. However, typically, the average consumer tends to have insufficient knowledge of the features and functions of an electronic device. Although most manufacturers provide product specifications, they are often difficult for consumers to understand and it is hard for customers to grasp the details of a product. This study introduces the concept of a product knowledge graph, which is constructed by transforming a set of data from a product management system and external data. This study overcomes the technical barriers for customers with the use of knowledge graph technologies. To construct large-scale product knowledge, an ontology model is designed and a platform for knowledge extraction and transformation is also developed. Then, a sales assistant called God of Sales is demonstrated. This study provides a novel approach to explaining product features and functions in a comprehensive manner with semantic recommendations.     

Implementation of supervisory control using extended finite-state machines

This article aims at bridging the gap between traditional designs to discrete-event control problems and supervisory control theory of Ramadge and Wonham. We propose to implement supervisory control by extending the plant's finite state machine with Boolean variables, guard formulas and updating functions. Boolean variables are used to encode the supervisor's states, event observation is captured by a set of Boolean functions that update the value of variables, and control is introduced by guarding events with Boolean formulas. The framework developed in this work is fundamental in our ongoing research on communication between supervisors in a distributed discrete-event system.     

Flexible Low-Melting Point Radiation Shielding Materials: Soft Elastomers with GaInSnPbBi High-Entropy Alloy Inclusions

A polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix soft elastic composite material with low-melting-point GaInSnPbBi high-entropy alloy (LHEA) inclusions is prepared to evaluate its radiation shielding performance. The LHEA is composed of two different three-component eutectic microstructures, which are grown in a mixed manner to form a complex eutectic structure. The inclusions have excellent mechanical properties that matched the deformation of the PDMS matrix. To evaluate the interaction of the shielding material with photons, the Monte Carlo N-Particle Extended and XCOM codes are used to determine the shielding parameters of the LHEA/PDMS composites, such as mass attenuation coefficient, linear attenuation coefficient, half-value layer, tenth value layer, mean free path, and effective atomic number. The composite with 50-vol% LHEA has the best radiation shielding properties, validated by medical X-ray imaging experiments. The excellent shielding properties of the flexible lightweight composites are attributed to the higher mass attenuation coefficient of the LHEA inclusions than that of lead.     

Length two path-centred surface areas for the arrangement graph

We suggest the notion of H-centred surface area of a graph G, where H is a subgraph of G, i.e. the number of vertices in G at a certain distance from H, and focus on the special case when H is a length two path to derive an explicit formula for the length two path-centred surface areas of the general and scalable arrangement graph.