Combination of vegetable soup and glucan demonstrates synergistic effects on macrophage-mediated immune responses

Vegetable soup (VS), a plant-based functional food, has been used as a traditional folk medicine and is attracting attention for its ability to enhance the immune response. β-Glucan, a well-established and effective immunomodulator, has synergistic effects when used in combination with some bioactive compounds. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the synergistic immunomodulatory effects of the combination of VS and β-glucan on macrophage-mediated immune responses. β-Glucan was demonstrated to synergistically enhance the VS-stimulated immune response, including the production of interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α, and nitric oxide, mainly through the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway in macrophages. In addition, this combination has the potential for further development in functional foods with immune-enhancing activity.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-021-00888-x.     

Direct adaptive control of nonminimum phase systems using integralaction

A direct adaptive control scheme is proposed for nonminimum-phase systems in which controller parameters are estimated from the recursive least-squares algorithm and additional auxiliary parameters are obtained from the proposed polynomial identity. A local convergence is guaranteed without any extra condition. Integral action is incorporated into the adaptive controller to eliminate the steady-state error and to satisfy a condition of the unique solution for the polynomial identity. The control law used in this scheme is based on the set-point-on-I-only proportional-integral-derivative (PID) structure     

Control of NO x emissions from diesel engine by selective catalytic reduction (SCR) with urea

Topics in Catalysis - Among the catalysts screened, Cu-ion exchanged ZSM5 zeolite exhibited the highest NO removal activity, particularly at low reaction temperatures below 200 °C,...     

Fault-tolerant locomotion of the hexapod robot

In this paper, we propose a scheme for fault detection and tolerance of the hexapod robot locomotion on even terrain. The fault stability margin is defined to represent potential stability which a gait can have in case a sudden fault event occurs to one leg. Based on this, the fault-tolerant quadruped periodic gaits of the hexapod walking over perfectly even terrain are derived. It is demonstrated that the derived quadruped gait is the optimal one the hexapod can have maintaining fault stability margin nonnegative and a geometric condition should be satisfied for the optimal locomotion. By this scheme, when one leg is in failure, the hexapod robot has the modified tripod gait to continue the optimal locomotion.     

Quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm for a class of combinatorial optimization

This paper proposes a novel evolutionary algorithm inspired by quantum computing, called a quantum-inspired evolutionary algorithm (QEA), which is based on the concept and principles of quantum computing, such as a quantum bit and superposition of states. Like other evolutionary algorithms, QEA is also characterized by the representation of the individual, evaluation function, and population dynamics. However, instead of binary, numeric, or symbolic representation, QEA uses a Q-bit, defined as the smallest unit of information, for the probabilistic representation and a Q-bit individual as a string of Q-bits. A Q-gate is introduced as a variation operator to drive the individuals toward better solutions. To demonstrate its effectiveness and applicability, experiments were carried out on the knapsack problem, which is a well-known combinatorial optimization problem. The results show that QEA performs well, even with a small population, without premature convergence as compared to the conventional genetic algorithm.     

Direct adaptive control with integral action for nonminimum phase systems

This note presents a direct adaptive control scheme for nonminimum phase systems where controller parameters are estimated from the recursive least-squares algorithm. Some additional auxiliary parameters are obtained from the proposed polynomial identity,, and a local convergence is guaranteed without any extra conditions. Integral action is incorporated into the adaptive controller to eliminate the steady-state error, and to satisfy a condition of the unique solution for the polynomial identity as well.     

Reaction characteristics of the Au-Sn solder with under-bump metallurgy layers in optoelectronic packages

The reaction characteristics of molten Au/Sn eutectic solder with potential diffusion-barrier materials of optoelectronic packages were investigated. The characteristics were studied by reflowing the solder on Pt, Ni, and Co plates, respectively, and by measuring the thickness of the reaction product. In addition, the dissolution rate of Pt into the solder was measured. The results indicated that Pt, which is commonly used as the diffusion-barrier layer in the under-bump metallurgy (UBM) of optoelectronic packages, reacts readily with the molten solder, resulting in discontinuous reaction products at the solder/Pt interface. Cobalt, on the other hand, reacted with the solder at an order of magnitude slower rate than that of Pt and provided an effective barrier against the reaction with the solder.     

Synthesis and electrical properties of (Bi(1/2)Na(1/2))TiO3 (BNT) ferroelectric thin films by liquid sprayed mist chemical vapor deposition technique

This study aims to synthesize lead-free ferroelectric material, (Bi(1/2)Na(1/2))TiO3 using the Liquid Sprayed Mist Chemical Vapor Deposition (LSMCVD) technique. The mist of precursor solution was vaporized and deposited on two different substrates of Si(100) and (111)Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si(100) in an oxygen atmosphere. The deposition temperature and time were varied in the range of 400-600 degrees C and 30-90 min. (Bi(1/2)Na(1/2))TiO3 thin film had preferred orientations of (110). The thickness of the thin film deposited was 35-162 nm. The remnant polarization (2Pr) and the dielectric constant were 4.6-16.8 microC/cm2, 325-350, respectively.     

Injection casting of U–Zr and U–Zr–RE fuel slugs and their characterization

U–Zr fuel slugs containing rare-earth elements can be difficult to cast because of the high reactivity of rare-earth elements. In this study, U–Zr and U–Zr–RE (RE: a rare-earth alloy comprising 53% Nd, 25% Ce, 16% Pr, and 6% La by weight) fuel slugs were prepared by injection casting, and their characteristics were evaluated. The as-cast fuel slugs were fabricated to the full length of the mold, and they showed no thin sections or cracks. Compared to the theoretical density, the measured density of the U–Zr and U–Zr–RE fuel slug was lower and higher, respectively. Chemical analysis revealed that the Zr and RE compositions in the U–10Zr and U–10Zr–3RE fuel slugs matched the target composition within 1.0 wt%. However, the RE composition in the U–10Zr–7RE fuel slug differed from the target composition by over 4 wt%. The melting crucible was further deteriorated and the casting yield was lower for the casting of a high rare-earth bearing fuel slug.     

Hierarchical emotional episodic memory for social human robot collaboration

For social human robot collaboration, robots need to effectively remember human experiences and manage emotional experiences as well as repetitive experiences. To implement these functions, the hierarchical emotional episodic memory, using deep adaptive resonance theory network, is proposed in this paper. The proposed memory not only learns emotional experiences, but also has the ability to anticipate future emotional situations. Two parameter modulation processes, delayed consolidation and instant update, are provided. These make emotional experiences reinforce faster, remain for longer, and become more stable and sensitive to analogous experiences. Simulation analysis is conducted to verify the proposed memory, and an experiment is carried out in a kitchen environment to demonstrate social human robot collaboration.