A Modular Event-Triggered Containment Control Scheme for Nonlinear Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems With Unknown Leaders.

This article addresses the containment control problem in multiagent systems with nonlinear heterogeneous followers and multiple unknown leaders whose dynamics are exclusively known to their neighbors. The primary goal is to ensure the convergence of each follower to the dynamic convex hull spanned by the leaders under the constraints of limited communication resources. To achieve this, this article introduces a modular event-triggered containment control scheme with three modules. The first module, Module I-signal generator, is designed for each follower to generate a reference signal asymptotically entering the dynamic convex hull without relying on follower dynamics. The second module, Module II-event-triggered mechanism, is tailored to save communication resources effectively by determining when to broadcast information based on perturbed system stability and input-to-state stability theories. The third module, Module III-tracking controller, treats each follower as an independent agent and is crafted to track the reference signal generated by Module I using an output regulation approach. It is established that the system achieves containment control without Zeno behavior under the influence of these modules, and the theoretical results are validated through simulation examples, demonstrating the practical validity of the proposed approach.

Regulating Au coverage for the direct oxidation of methane to methanol.

The direct oxidation of methane to methanol under mild conditions is challenging owing to its inadequate activity and low selectivity. A key objective is improving the selective oxidation of the first carbon-hydrogen bond of methane, while inhibiting the oxidation of the remaining carbon-hydrogen bonds to ensure high yield and selectivity of methanol. Here we design ultrathin PdxAuy nanosheets and revealed a volcano-type relationship between the binding strength of hydroxyl radical on the catalyst surface and catalytic performance using experimental and density functional theory results. Our investigations indicate a trade-off relationship between the reaction-triggering and reaction-conversion steps in the reaction process. The optimized Pd3Au1 nanosheets exhibits a methanol production rate of 147.8 millimoles per gram of Pd per hour, with a selectivity of 98% at 70 °C, representing one of the most efficient catalysts for the direct oxidation of methane to methanol.

Crystal Plane Engineering to Boost Water Cluster Evaporation for Enhanced Solar Steam Generation.

Polymer based low evaporation enthalpy materials have become a universal selection for improving the efficiency of solar steam generation. Although water cluster and intermediate water mechanisms have been proposed to explain the low evaporation enthalpy, the production process and microstructure of activated water are still unclear. Here, crystal plane engineering is used to investigate the intermediate water state and the water cluster activation mechanism. The unique open-closed coordination structure on the optimized crystal surface promotes the generation of firm water clusters by optimizing the intermediate water state. Under the similar solar energy absorption of all materials, crystal plane engineering increased the solar steam generation rate of the evaporator by 31.2% and increased the energy efficiency to 94.8%. Exploring the micro-evaporation process and activated water structure is expected to stimulate the development of the next generation low evaporation enthalpy materials.

Multimetallic Single-Atom Catalysts for Bifunctional Oxygen Electrocatalysis.

Multimetallic alloys have demonstrated promising performance for the application of metal-air batteries, while it remains a challenge to design multimetallic single-atom catalysts (MM-SACs). Herein, metal-C3N4 and nitrogen-doped carbon are employed as cornerstones to synthesize MM-SACs by a general two-step method, and the inherent features of atomic dispersion and the strong electronic reciprocity between the multimetallic sites have been verified. The trimetallic FeCoZn-SACs and quatermetallic FeCoCuZn-SACs are both found to deliver superior oxygen evolution reaction and oxygen reduction reaction activity, respectively, as well as outstanding bifunctional durability. Density functional theory calculations elucidate the crucial contribution of Co sites of FeCoCuZn-SACs to the efficient catalysis of both the ORR and the OER. More importantly, Zn-air batteries with FeCoCuZn-SACs as cathodic catalysts exhibit a high power density (252 mW cm-2), high specific capacity (817 mAh gZn-1), and considerable stability (over 225 h) for charging-discharging processes. This work provides a visual perspective for the advantages of MM-SACs toward oxygen electrocatalysis.

A scalable and anti-fouling silver-nickel/cellulose paper with synergy photothermal effect for efficient solar distillation.

Solar interfacial evaporation is one of the most efficient and environmentally-friendly clean freshwater production technologies. Plasma metal nanoparticles are excellent optical absorption materials, but their high cost and inherent resonance narrow bandwidth absorption limit their application. In this work, commercial cellulose papers are used as substrates to synthesize Ag-Ni/cellulose paper by the seed-mediated method. The Ag-Ni/cellulose paper exhibits high light absorption at the full wavelength (200-2500 nm) resulting from the synergistic effect of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of Ag NPs and the interband transitions (IBTs) of Ni. Under one-sun irradiation (1 kW m-2), the energy utilization efficiency of Ag-Ni/cellulose paper is as high as 93.8%, and the water evaporation rate is 1.87 kg m-2 h-1. Diffusion inhibition experiment results show that the Ag-Ni/cellulose paper exhibits excellent antibacterial performance, and the antibacterial performance is highly related with Ag NPs content. These provide new opportunities for commercial production of competitive cost, green, and portable solar evaporators for different application sceneries.

Chiral molecule induced valley polarization enhancement of MoS2.

Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) are atomically thin direct-bandgap semiconductors with potential applications in nanoelectronics, opto-electronics, and electrochemical sensing. Recent theoretical and experimental results have suggested that they are ideal systems for exploiting the valley degrees of freedom of Bloch electrons. Here, we report detailed studies of the opto-valleytronic properties of a chiral histidine molecule embedded in monolayer MoS2 single crystals grown via chemical vapor deposition. By irradiating MoS2 with circularly polarized light and measuring the resulting spatially resolved circularly polarized emission, we find the existence of a significantly increased circular polarization for D-histidine doped MoS2. The increased valley contrast is attributed to the selective enhancement of both the excitation and emission rates having one particular handedness of the circular polarization. These results provide a promising pathway to enhance the valley contrast for monolayer TMDCs at room temperature.

A State Space Approach to Decentralized Fault SE-Coprognosability of Partially Observed Discrete Event Systems.

The problem of fault prognosis in the context of discrete event systems (DESs) is a crucial subject to study the security and maintenance of cyber-physical systems. In this article, the decentralized fault prognosis of partially observed DESs is analyzed with a universal state-estimate-based protocol. It follows (M,K) as the performance bound of any expected decentralized prognosers, where any fault can be predicted K steps before its occurrence and the fault is guaranteed to occur within M steps once a corresponding fault alarm is issued. To determine whether expected decentralized prognosers exist, the notion of state-estimate-coprognosability (SE-coprognosability) under the case of one fault type is proposed. Compared with existing other kinds of coprognosability, SE-coprognosability is a more generalized concept. Meanwhile, combining the formal method and algebraic state space approach, a novel state estimation algorithm is presented and based on which, the verification of SE-coprognosability is also solved.

Distributed Adaptive Fault-Tolerant Control for Multiagent Systems via Virtual-Actuator-Based Reconfiguration.

This article aims to develop a virtual-actuator-based control scheme for the consensus tracking problem of multiagent systems (MASs) against actuator faults and mismatched disturbances. The proposed scheme has a double-layer structure. In the cyber layer, the nominal controller is designed with neighboring information for the fault-free case. While in the physical layer, the fault compensator, working as the virtual actuator, is applied to reconfigure faulty plants adaptively. This design enjoys the advantages that the nominal controller needs no adjustment and all its properties can be preserved after failure. Moreover, the proposed control scheme is distinguished by the following features: 1) the commonly imposed rank condition on outage faults is removed; 2) the norm bound of the leader's input is allowed to be unknown even though the topologies are switching and directed; and 3) there is no need to use the estimates of faults in the virtual actuator design, which means the negative impacts caused by the inaccurate fault estimation can be avoided. Finally, a numerical example is given to validate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.

Multifunctional nanoparticles with anti-inflammatory effect for improving metabolic syndromes.

Metabolic syndromes are a group of metabolic disorders for which the molecular mechanisms are still unclear. An increasing number of studies have implicated metabolic syndrome in the association with inflammation. Currently, lipsomes is known to improve nanoparticle hydrophobicity. Meanwhile, in drug delivery systems the application of cholesterol, which is commonly used to stabilise liposomal structures, has essentially no pharmacological effect on liposomes. Herein, we developed an 'anti-inflammatory liposome' (Phy-Lip) to effectively handle these challenges via employing Phytosterol instead of cholesterol. Different with the conventional liposomes, Phy-Lip is a much more brilliant nanoparticle with anti-inflammatory functions. In Phy-Lip, cholesterol was substituted by Phy, which works as membrane stabiliser, anti-inflammatory adjuvant at the same time. The experimental results show that Phy-Lip has a strong anti-inflammatory effect, and improves Metabolic syndromes. This study aims to provide a way to solve the challenge.

CD44 Receptor-Targeted and Reactive Oxygen Species-Responsive H2S Donor Micelles Based on Hyaluronic Acid for the Therapy of Renal Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury.

For the therapy attenuating renal ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury, a novel drug delivery system was urgently needed, which could precisely deliver drugs to the pathological renal tissue. Here, we have prepared new nanomaterials with a reactive oxygen species (ROS)-responsive hydrogen sulfide (H2S) donor and hyaluronic acid that targets CD44 receptor. The novel material was synthesized and characterized via related experiments. Then, rapamycin was loaded, which inhibited kidney damage. In the in vitro study, we found that the micelles had ROS-responsiveness, biocompatibility, and cell penetration. In addition, the experimental results showed that the intracellular H2S concentration after administration was threefold higher than that of the control group. The western blot assay revealed that they have anti-inflammatory effects via H2S donor blocking the NF-κB signaling pathway. Consequently, the rising CD44 receptor-targeting and ROS-sensitive H2S donor micelles would provide a promising way for renal IR injury. This work provides a strategy for improving ischemia/reperfusion injury for pharmaceuticals.

Identification of m6A-related long non-coding RNAs for predicting prognosis and immune characterizations in gastric cancer.

Background: N6-methyladenosine (m6A) mRNA modification triggers malignant behavior in tumor cells, which promotes malignant progression and migration of gastric cancer (GC). Nevertheless, studies on the prognostic value of m6A-related long non-coding RNA (MRlncRNA) in GC remain quite restricted. The study aimed to develop a reasonable predictive model to explore the prognostic potential of MRlncRNAs in predicting the prognosis of GC patients and monitoring the efficacy of immunotherapy. Methods: Transcriptomic and clinical data for GC were derived from TCGA. Next, univariate Cox, LASSO and multivariate Cox regression analyses were next used to identify prognostic MRlncRNAs, calculate risk scores and build risk assessment models. The predictive power of the risk models was then validated by Kaplan-Meier analysis, ROC curves, DCA, C-index, and nomogram. We attempted to effectively differentiate between groups in terms of immune cell infiltration status, ICI-related genes, immunotherapy responses, and common anti-tumor drug sensitivity. Results: A risk model based on 11 MRlncRNAs was developed with an AUC of 0.850, and the sensitivity and specificity of this model in predicting survival probability is satisfactory. The Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the low-risk group in the model had a significantly higher survival rate, and the model was highly associated with survival status, clinical features, and clinical stage. Furthermore, the model was verified to be an independent prognostic risk factor, and the low-risk group in the model had a remarkable positive correlation with a variety of immune cell infiltrates. The expression levels of ICI-related genes differed significantly between the different groups. Lastly, immunotherapy responses and common anti-tumor drug sensitivity also differed significantly between different groups. Conclusion: The risk model on the basis of 11-MRlncRNAs can serve as independent predictors of GC prognosis and may be useful in developing personalized treatment strategies for patients.

Semi-Global Bipartite Fault-Tolerant Containment Control for Heterogeneous Multiagent Systems With Antagonistic Communication Networks and Input Saturation.

Semi-global bipartite fault-tolerant containment control framework on antagonistic communication networks is proposed in this article for heterogeneous multiagent systems (MASs) under the influence of input saturation and actuator faults. An observer is constructed to estimate the leaders' states on signed digraph, where the communication networks are antagonistic. A fully distributed virtual control approach is developed to acquire the containment trajectory. Based on the observer, a semi-global containment control method is developed to compensate for the detrimental impacts of both input saturation and actuator faults. Besides, the dynamics and state-space dimensions of the agents can be different. The proposed framework overcomes two drawbacks of the conventional containment control: 1) the containment trajectory is obtained under general antagonistic communication networks, which is more general in engineering applications and 2) both actuator faults and input saturation are solved for heterogeneous agents, which relaxes the limitation of homogeneous dynamics. Finally, a simulation example is conducted to test and verify the feasibility of the proposed method framework.

A novel saponin liposomes based on the couplet medicines of Platycodon grandiflorum-Glycyrrhiza uralensis for targeting lung cancer.

Liposomes have been widely used for targeted drug delivery, but the disadvantages caused by cholesterol limit the application of conventional liposomes in cancer treatment. The compatibility basis of couplet medicines and the compatibility principle of the traditional Chinese medicine principle of 'monarch, minister, assistant and guide' are the important theoretical basis of Chinese medicine in the treatment of tumor and the important method to solve the problem of high toxicity. In this study, the active ingredients of the couplet medicines Platycodon grandiflorum and Glycyrrhiza uralensis were innovatively utilized, and glycyrrhizic acid (GA) was encapsulated in liposomes constructed by mixing saponin and lecithin, and cholesterol was replaced by platycodin and ginsenoside to construct saponin liposomes (RP-lipo) for the drug delivery system of Chinese medicine. Compared with conventional liposomes, PR-lipo@GA has no significant difference in morphological characteristics and drug release behavior, and also shows stronger targeting of lung cancer cells and anti-tumor ability in vitro, which may be related to the pharmacological properties of saponins themselves. Thus, PR-lipo@GA not only innovatively challenges the status of cholesterol as a liposome component, but also provides another innovative potential system with multiple functions for the clinical application of TCM couplet medicines.

Ultrathin Pd3 Pt1 Rh0.1 Nanorings with Strong C-C Bond Breaking Ability for the Ethanol Oxidation Reaction.

Ethanol as a fuel for direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) has the advantages of being highly energetic, environmentally friendly, and low-cost, while the slow anodic ethanol oxidation reaction (EOR), intermediate poisoning effect, and incomplete oxidation of ethanol became obstacles to the development of DEFCs. Herein, a 2D ternary cyclic Pd3 Pt1 Rh0.1 nanorings (NRs) catalyst with efficient EOR performance is prepared via a facile one-pot solvothermal approach, and systematic studies are carried out to reveal the mechanisms of the enhanced performance and C-C bond selectivity. In particular, the optimized catalyst exhibits impressive mass activity, stability, toxicity resistance, and C-C bond cleavage ability. It's proposed that the considerable performance is attributed to the unique hollow structure, providing abundant active sites. The high toxicity resistance is not only attributed to the electronic modulation of the catalyst material by Rh atoms, but also depends on the excellent water activation properties of Rh, which contribute to the removal of intermediates, such as CO. In addition, the density functional theory calculations showed that the introduction of Rh significantly enhances the C-C bond cleavage ability of the catalyst, further improving the EOR activity.

Analysis of Prognostic Risk Factors of Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection (ESD) and Curative Resection of Gastrointestinal Neuroendocrine Neoplasms.

Objective: To explore the prognostic risk factors of ESD curative resection of gastrointestinal-neuroendocrine neoplasms (GI-NENs). Methods: A total of 97 patients treated with ESD successfully in our hospital were selected, their surgical site, size, number of resection lesions, operation time, intraoperative complications (such as bleeding and perforation), and treatment status were recorded, and the number of hemostatic clamps used after the postoperative follow-up results and the independent risk factors for ESD complications were obtained through the comparison between the noncomplication group and the ESD complication group using regression analysis. Results: A total of 97 patients with gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors were treated with ESD. 61 were males, 36 were females, the ratio of male to female was 1.7 : 1, onset age was 20-78 years old, and median onset age was 50 years old. In 81 cases, tumors were located in the stomach, 10 in the duodenum, and 6 in the rectum. A total of 103 lesions were detected by endoscopy, including 1 case with 2 sites in the stomach, 5 cases with 2 sites in the rectum, and the rest were single. The tumor diameter was 0.3 ∼ 2.5 cm, and the median diameter was 0.6 cm; there were 25 sites with a diameter less than 5 cm. There were 57 places with 10 mm, 16 places with 10-15 mm, and 5 places with >15 mm. All ESD operations were performed in one piece, with a total resection rate of 100%; 89.6% (60/67) of postoperative pathology showed negative basal, and 90.3% (56/62) showed negative resection margin, with a complete resection rate of 88.9% (48/54). ESD's operation time is 6 ∼ 66 min, and the median time is 18 min. During the operation, 5 cases had small amount of bleeding, 3 cases were perforated, 2 cases of delayed postoperative bleeding, 1 case of bleeding was caused by the patient's failure to follow the advice of the doctor to eat a large amount of solid food too early, and 1 case of delayed perforation (all recovered and discharged). ESD operation that bled, age, gender, and perforation location, pathological grade, pathological classification, tumor diameter, tumor surface, operation time, number of titanium clips, origin, echo uniformity, and echo level were statistically insignificant (P > 0.05). Postoperative bleeding was related to the operation time (P=0.017), but it was not an independent risk factor for postoperative bleeding (P=0.118; OR, 0.226; 95% CI, 0.035-1.461). 59 cases were followed up by endoscopy after the operation, and recurrence or no new tumors were found. Conclusion: ESD is an effective and safe treatment method for gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors with a diameter of 1-2 cm without invading the muscularis propria. The intraoperative complications seem to have little relationship with the patient; postoperative delayed bleeding is closely related to the ESD operation time but it is not an independent risk factor.

Hierarchical Natural Pollen Cell-Derived Composite Sorbents for Efficient Atmospheric Water Harvesting.

Freshwater scarcity is a critical challenge threatening human survival especially due to poverty and arid and off-grid regions. Sorption-based atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) has emerged as a promising strategy for clean water production. However, most of the high-capacity sorbents are limited by the poor sorption/desorption kinetics and uncontrollable liquid leakage problem. Inspired by the plant transpiration process, we develop an environmentally friendly LiCl@pollen cell-polypyrrole (LiCl@PC-PPy) composite sorbent by confining the LiCl hygroscopic agent in the cages of the PC-PPy. The composite sorbent exhibits much improved sorption/desorption kinetics owing to the hydrophilicity of the hierarchical porous structure of the pollen cells, which provides abundant water sorption active sites and diffusion pathways and forms a concave meniscus on cell skeletons to maximize the thermal utilization efficiency. Moreover, the big cavities of the PC-PPy cages can serve as a water reservoir to reduce liquid leakage. As a result, the sorbent can capture atmospheric water to 85% of its own weight under 60% relative humidity (RH) within 2 h and rapidly release the water within 1 h under weak light irradiation of 0.8 sun. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, the fabricated AWH device can absorb 1.55 gwater/gsorbent at night and collect 1.53 gwater/gsorbent of water in 1-day outdoor operation, and the collected water can meet the drinking water standards defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Composite Learning Adaptive Tracking Control for Full-State Constrained Multiagent Systems Without Using the Feasibility Condition.

This article proposes a distributed consensus tracking controller for a class of nonlinear multiagent systems under a directed graph, in which all agents are subject to time-varying asymmetric full-state constraints, internal uncertainties, and external disturbances. The feasibility condition generally required in the existing constrained control is removed by using the proposed nonlinear mapping function (NMF)-based state reconstruction technology, and the Lipschitz condition usually needed in the consensus tracking is also canceled based on the adaptive command-filtered backstepping framework. The composite learning of the neural network-based function approximator (NN-FAP) and the finite-time smooth disturbance observer (DOB) provides a novel scheme for handling internal and external uncertainties simultaneously. One advantage of this scheme is that the use of online historical data of the closed-loop system strengthens the excitation of NN's learning. Another advantage is that the DOB with NN-FAP embedding realizes that the finite-time observation for external disturbance in the case of the system dynamics is unknown. A complete controller design, sufficient stability analysis, and numerical simulation are provided.

Experimental study on the desorption effect of penetrant on gas-containing coal.

Two non-ionic reagents, polyethylene glycol 4000 and Tween-80, two anionic reagents, sodium dodecyl benzenesulfonate and sodium lauryl sulfate, and a mixture of these non-ionic and anionic reagents were used as penetrants. The processes of replacement desorption and relief-pressure desorption of gas-containing coal were studied, the influence of the penetrant on the amount of gas replacement desorption and relief-pressure desorption was explored, and the change rule of the amounts of gas replacement desorption and relief-pressure desorption was analysed. The results show that the increase rate of the replacement desorption amount of the mixed penetrant is 11.81%-34.75%, and the decrease rate of the relief-pressure desorption amount is 51.68%-72.69%, which are higher values than those with a single penetrant. As the mass fraction of penetrant increases within the range of 0.5%~2%, the capacity of gas replacement desorption and hindering gas relief-pressure desorption will increase. At the same mass fraction, the effect of the mixed penetrant is better than that of the anionic penetrant, which in turn is better than that of the non-ionic penetrant.

Luminescence Reduced Graphene Oxide Based Photothermal Purification of Seawater for Drinkable Purpose.

Getting drinking water from seawater is a hope and long-term goal that has long been explored. Here, we report graphene-loaded nonwoven fabric membranes for seawater purification based on photothermal heating. The photothermal membrane of non-woven fabric loaded with graphene oxide has high light absorption and strong heating effect, and its evaporation rate about 5 times higher than that of non-woven fabric. Under the condition of light intensity of 1 kW m-2, the evaporation rate can reach 1.33 kg m-2 h-1. The results of cell activity test showed that the concentration of bacteria after photothermal membrane treatment decreased significantly. The photothermal membrane can be used for many times without greatly reducing the evaporation efficiency, which means that it is suitable for regional water purification and seawater desalination.

Electrochemical Exfoliation of Two-Dimensional Phosphorene Sheets and its Energy Application.

Recently, single or few-layer phosphorene has attracted intense attention due to its exceptional physicochemical properties. To this end, mass production of high-quality phosphorene nanosheets with specific functionalities represents a pivotal factor for the basic academic studies and practical applications. Among the current synthetic methods, electrochemical exfoliation of black phosphorous is one of the most hopeful ways for mass-production of phosphorene sheets owing to the uncomplicated apparatus, low cost as well as significant efficiency. Especially, regulating the electrochemical parameters not only induces adjustable phosphorene characteristics but also enables them a promising candidate in energy applications. In this Review, a concise and crucial studies of the recent and most representative developments in this domain was introduced, including the relationship between exfoliation philosophy, internal mechanisms, processing techniques, and multiple applications of phosphorene. At the end, a summary discussion and future perspectives is also provided.