Natural killer or T-lymphocyte cells: Which is the best immune therapeutic agent for cancer? An optimal control approach

Therapeutic vaccines are being developed as a promising new approach to treatment for cancer patients. There are still many unanswered questions about which kind of therapeutic vaccines are the best for the cancer treatments? In this paper we consider a mathematical model, in the form of a system of ordinary differential equations (ODE), this system is an example from a class of mathematical models for immunotherapy of the tumor that were derived from a biologically validated model by Lisette G. de Pillis. The problem how to schedule a variable amount of which vaccines to achieve a maximum reduction in the primary cancer volume is consider as an optimal control problem and it is shown that optimal control is quadratic with 0 denoting a trajectory corresponding to no treatment and 1 a trajectory with treatment at maximum dose along that all therapeutics are being exhausted. The ODE system dynamics characterized by locating equilibrium points and stability properties are determined by using appropriate Lyapunov functions. Especially we attend a parametric sensitivity analysis, which indicates the dependency of the optimal solution with respect to disturbances in model parameters.     

A Saturating Extension of an Output Feedback Controller for Internally Damped Euler‐Lagrange Systems

In this research, a novel extension of the passivity‐based output feedback trajectory tracking controller is developed for internally damped Euler‐Lagrange systems with input saturation. Compared with the previous output feedback controllers, this new design of a combined adaptive controller‐observer system will reduce the risk of actuator saturation effectively via generalized saturation functions. Semi‐global uniform ultimate boundedness stability of the tracking errors and state estimation errors is guaranteed by Lyapunov stability analysis. An application of the proposed saturated output feedback controller is the stabilization of a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot with saturated actuators towards desired trajectories. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed controller in dealing with the actuator saturation.     

Smartphone Information Displays When Reading News in Persian and English Languages

By their nature, smartphones must have small screens, and that is one of their limitations. Many users have trouble reading information on the Internet on such small screens because Internet browsers are usually designed for computers that have larger screens than smartphones. This study evaluates the usability of alternative user interfaces when reading news articles on smartphones. An experiment was conducted involving 120 smartphone users who were asked to evaluate six types of user interfaces based on three methods (pop-up, full-screen, and auto-zooming) and two display orientations (horizontal, vertical) in one of two languages (English and Persian). The participants were assigned four typical tasks that users must perform to obtain information from the Internet, that is, finding, refinding, reading, and browsing; they were asked to conduct the tasks in random order. In addition, a questionnaire was used to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of the participants’ completion of the tasks, as well as their satisfaction, compatibility, and enjoyment of the undertakings. The results indicated that method, orientation, and language affected the actual usage and the time used. Based on the human factor experiment, the full-screen method was preferred in refinding and reading, whereas the pop-up method was preferred in browsing and finding. In terms of orientation, the vertical mode was preferred, and each user’s performance in the vertical mode was better in all tasks except browsing. Of interest, using the English language turned out to be more satisfying, enjoyable, and efficient to the Persian users who did the experiment in English as their second language.     

Submicron nanoporous polyacrylamide beads with tunable size for verapamil imprinting

Submicron sized polyacrylamide particles were prepared via modified precipitation polymerization method. Experimental design based on Taguchi approach was employed to study the influence of the polymerization composition including monomer (acrylamide), crosslinker (methylenebisacrylamide), initiator (azobisisobutyronitrile), and modifier (polyvinylpyrrolidone, K-30), on the size and morphology of the particles. Varying the polymerization composition, submicron-particles with sizes ranging between 100 and 600 nm were achieved. In all the cases, polydispersity index (PDI) of the particle size was found to be almost 1 indicating uniformity of the particle size. The concentration of crosslinker was found to be the most influential parameter on the particles size and the modifier concentration as an extra tunable parameter was believed to affect the nucleation mechanism and the viscosity of the medium to help controlling the particle size. To validate the optimization, particles with a preset diameter, i.e., 500 nm, were synthesized based on the composition predicted by the mathematical correlation. The polymer with the preset particle size was also imprinted with verapamil and characterized by FTIR, DSC, SEM, physisorption, elemental analysis, swelling, and batch rebinding experiments. The verapamil imprinted polymers bearing nano-cavities exhibited high affinity with imprinting factor 2.17 towards the target molecule. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Mortality response of folate receptor-activated,PEG–functionalized TiO2 nanoparticles for doxorubicin loading with and without ultraviolet irradiation

TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized by hydrothermal assisted sol–gel technique. In the next step, as-synthesized NPs were modified by poly ethylene glycol (PEG). Then, folic acid (FA) was conjugated to TiO₂–PEG. Finally, Doxorubicin (Dox) as an anticancer drug was loaded on as-prepared TiO₂–PEG–FA nanocarrier. The optimization of TiO₂ and FA concentration and the influence of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on photocatalytic activity of nanocarrier and Dox loaded carrier were assessed by utilizing the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT)-assay method.     

Thermal,mechanical, and barrier properties of polyethylene/surlyn/organoclay nanocomposites blown films prepared by different mixing methods

(Low‐density polyethylene) (LDPE)/clay nanocomposites were prepared by melt blending in a twin‐screw extruder by using different mixing methods. Zinc‐neutralized carboxylate ionomer was used as a compatibilizer. Blown films of the nanocomposites were then prepared. The effect of mixing method on the clay dispersion and properties of the nanocomposites was evaluated by wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction analysis, mechanical properties, thermal properties, and barrier properties. The structure and properties of nanocomposites containing different amounts of nanoclay prepared by selected mixing techniques were also investigated. It was found that melt compounding of Surlyn/clay masterbatch with pure LDPE and Surlyn (two‐step‐a method) results in better dispersion and intercalation of the nanofillers than melt mixing of LDPE/Surlyn/clay masterbatch with pure LDPE and surlyn (two‐step‐b method) and direct mixing of LDPE with clay. The films containing ionomer have good barrier properties. A wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction pattern indicates that intercalation of polymer chains into the clay galleries decreases by increasing the clay content. Barrier properties and tensile modulus of the films were improved by increasing the clay content. In addition, tensile strength increased in the machine direction, but it decreased in the transverse direction by increasing the clay content. DSC results showed that increasing the clay content does not show significant change in the melting and crystallization temperatures. The results of thermogravimetric analysis showed that the thermal stability of the nanocomposites decreased by increasing the clay content more than 1 wt%. J. VINYL ADDIT. TECHNOL., 21:60–69, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Development of a Demand Driven Hydro-climatic Model for Drought Planning

In recent years, droughts with increasing severity and frequency have been experienced around the world due to climate change effects. Water planning and management during droughts needs to deal with water demand variability, uncertainties in streamflow prediction, conflicts over water resources allocation, and the absence of necessary emergency schemes in drought situations. Reservoirs could play an important role in drought mitigation; therefore, development of an algorithm for operation of reservoirs in drought periods could help to mitigate the drought impacts by reducing the expected water shortages. For this purpose, the probable drought’s characteristics and their variations in response to factors such as climate change should be incorporated. This study aims at developing a contingency planning scheme for operation of reservoirs in drought periods using hedging rules with the objective of decreasing the maximum water deficit. The case study for evaluation of the performance of the proposed algorithm is the Sattarkhan reservoir in the Aharchay watershed, located in the northwestern part of Iran. The trend evaluations of the hydro-climatic variables show that the climate change has already affected streamflow in the region and has increased water scarcity and drought severity. To incorporate the climate change study in reservoir planning; streamflow should be simulated under climate change impacts. For this purpose, the climatic variables including temperature and precipitation in the future under climate change impacts are simulated using downscaled GCM (General Circulation Model) outputs to derive scenarios for possible future drought events. Then a hydrological model is developed to simulate the river streamflow, based on the downscaled data. The results show that the proposed methodology leads to less water deficit and decreases the drought damages in the study area.