Broadband Cr3+ , Sn4+ -Doped Oxide Nanophosphors for Infrared Mini Light-Emitting Diodes.

Light-emitting diodes break barriers of size and performance for displays. With devices becoming smaller, the materials also need to get smaller. Chromium(III)-doped oxide phosphors, which emit near-infrared (NIR) light, have recently been used in small electronic devices. In this work, mesoporous silica nanoparticles were used as nanocarriers. The nanophosphor ZnGa2 O4 :Cr3+ ,Sn4+ formed in the mesopore after sintering. Good dispersity and morphology were performed with average diameters of 71±7 nm. It emitted light at 600-850 nm; the intensity was optimized by tuning the doping ratio of Cr3+ and Sn4+ . Meanwhile, the light conversion efficiency increased from 7.8 % to 37 % and the molar concentration increased from 0.125 m to 0.5 m. The higher radiant flux of 3.3 mW was obtained by operating an input current of 45 mA. However, the NIR nanophosphor showed good performance on mini light-emitting diode chips.

Volume polarization holographic recording in thick photopolymer for optical memory.

Based on a vector wave theory of volume holograms, dependence of holographic reconstruction on the polarization states of the writing and reading beams is discussed. It is found that under paraxial approximation the circular polarization holograms provide a better distinction of the reading beams. Characteristics of recording polarization holograms in thick phenanthrenequinone-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PQ/PMMA) photopolymer are experimentally investigated. It is found that the circular polarization holographic recording possesses better dynamic range and material sensitivity, and a uniform spatial frequency response over a wide range. The performance is comparable to that of the intensity holographic recording in PQ/PMMA. Based on theoretical analyses and the material properties, a polarization multiplexing holographic memory using circularly polarization recording configuration for increasing storage capacity has been designed and experimentally demonstrated.

Self-Organizing Type-2 Fuzzy Double Loop Recurrent Neural Network for Uncertain Nonlinear System Control.

Nonlinear systems, such as robotic systems, play an increasingly important role in our modern daily life and have become more dominant in many industries; however, robotic control still faces various challenges due to diverse and unstructured work environments. This article proposes a double-loop recurrent neural network (DLRNN) with the support of a Type-2 fuzzy system and a self-organizing mechanism for improved performance in nonlinear dynamic robot control. The proposed network has a double-loop recurrent structure, which enables better dynamic mapping. In addition, the network combines a Type-2 fuzzy system with a double-loop recurrent structure to improve the ability to deal with uncertain environments. To achieve an efficient system response, a self-organizing mechanism is proposed to adaptively adjust the number of layers in a DLRNN. This work integrates the proposed network into a conventional sliding mode control (SMC) system to theoretically and empirically prove its stability. The proposed system is applied to a three-joint robot manipulator, leading to a comparative study that considers several existing control approaches. The experimental results confirm the superiority of the proposed system and its effectiveness and robustness in response to various external system disturbances.

Molecular signaling in feather morphogenesis.

The development and regeneration of feathers have gained much attention recently because of progress in the following areas. First, pattern formation. The exquisite spatial arrangement provides a simple model for decoding the rules of morphogenesis. Second, stem cell biology. In every molting, a few stem cells have to rebuild the entire epithelial organ, providing much to learn on how to regenerate an organ physiologically. Third, evolution and development ('Evo-Devo'). The discovery of feathered dinosaur fossils in China prompted enthusiastic inquiries about the origin and evolution of feathers. Progress has been made in elucidating feather morphogenesis in five successive phases: macro-patterning, micro-patterning, intra-bud morphogenesis, follicle morphogenesis and regenerative cycling.

Decoder Choice Network for Metalearning.

Metalearning has been widely applied for implementing few-shot learning and fast model adaptation. Particularly, existing metalearning methods have been exploited to learn the control mechanism for gradient descent processes, in an effort to facilitate gradient-based learning in gaining high speed and generalization ability. This article presents a novel method that controls the gradient descent process of the model parameters in a neural network, by limiting the model parameters within a low-dimensional latent space. The main challenge for implementing this idea is that a decoder with many parameters may be required. To tackle this problem, the article provides an alternative design of the decoder with a structure that shares certain weights, thereby reducing the number of required parameters. In addition, this work combines ensemble learning with the proposed approach to improve the overall learning performance. Systematic experimental studies demonstrate that the proposed approach offers results superior to the state of the art in performing the Omniglot classification and miniImageNet classification tasks.

Off-the-shelf CAR-engineered natural killer cells targeting FLT3 enhance killing of acute myeloid leukemia.

The majority of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) succumb to the disease or its complications, especially among older patients. Natural killer (NK) cells have been shown to have antileukemic activity in patients with AML; however, to our knowledge, primary NK cells armed with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) targeting antigens associated with AML as an "off-the-shelf" product for disease control have not been explored. We developed frozen, off-the-shelf allogeneic human NK cells engineered with a CAR recognizing FLT3 and secreting soluble interleukin-15 (IL-15) (FLT3 CAR_sIL-15 NK) to improve in vivo NK cell persistence and T-cell activation. FLT3 CAR_sIL-15 NK cells had higher cytotoxicity and interferon gamma secretion against FLT3+ AML cell lines when compared with activated NK cells lacking an FLT3 CAR or soluble IL-15. Frozen and thawed allogeneic FLT3 CAR_sIL-15 NK cells prolonged survival of both the MOLM-13 AML model as well as an orthotopic patient-derived xenograft AML model when compared with control NK cells. FLT3 CAR_sIL-15 NK cells showed no cytotoxicity against healthy blood mononuclear cells or hematopoietic stem cells. Collectively, our data suggest that FLT3 is an AML-associated antigen that can be targeted by frozen, allogeneic, off-the-shelf FLT3 CAR_sIL-15 NK cells that may provide a novel approach for the treatment of AML.

Field induced dynamic waveguides based on potassium tantalate niobate crystals.

In this paper, a new type of optical waveguide based on potassium tantalate niobate (KTN) electro-optic crystal is presented. The guiding property of the optical waveguide can be quickly (on the order of nanosecond) tuned and controlled by the applied external electric field, which can be useful for many applications such as broadband ultrafast optical modulators, variable optical attenuators, and dynamic gain equalizers.

Encryption and Decryption of Audio Signal and Image Secure Communications Using Chaotic System Synchronization Control by TSK Fuzzy Brain Emotional Learning Controllers.

In this article, a new idea of chaos synchronization and chaos-based secure communication is developed. First, the chaotic master system is used as a transmitter in chaos-based secure communication, then a drive signal is constructed, and the information message is encrypted into the drive signal to form a transmitted signal for secure communication. Second, in the receiver, a recurrent Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy brain emotional learning cerebellar model articulation controller (RTFBECAC) is developed to control the slave system to follow the master system in the transmitter. Third, after descripting the chaotic signal, the embedded information message can be recovered. Besides, the stability problem is analyzed in detail based on the stability theory. Finally, two simulation examples, including audio signal and image, are introduced to illustrate the effectiveness and the advantages of the proposed method.

Solving Robotic Trajectory Sequential Writing Problem via Learning Character's Structural and Sequential Information.

The writing sequence of numerals or letters often affects aesthetic aspects of the writing outcomes. As such, it remains a challenge for robotic calligraphy systems to perform, mimicking human writers' implicit intention. This article presents a new robot calligraphy system that is able to learn writing sequences with limited sequential information, producing writing results compatible to human writers with good diversity. In particular, the system innovatively applies a gated recurrent unit (GRU) network to generate robotic writing actions with the support of a prelabeled trajectory sequence vector. Also, a new evaluation method is proposed that considers the shape, trajectory sequence, and structural information of the writing outcome, thereby helping ensure the writing quality. A swarm optimization algorithm is exploited to create an optimal set of parameters of the proposed system. The proposed approach is evaluated using Arabic numerals, and the experimental results demonstrate the competitive writing performance of the system against state-of-the-art approaches regarding multiple criteria (including FID, MAE, PSNR, SSIM, and PerLoss), as well as diversity performance concerning variance and entropy. Importantly, the proposed GRU-based robotic motion planning system, supported with swarm optimization can learn from a small dataset, while producing calligraphy writing with diverse and aesthetically pleasing outcomes.

Survival of an HLA-mismatched, bioengineered RPE implant in dry age-related macular degeneration.

Cell-based therapies face challenges, including poor cell survival, immune rejection, and integration into pathologic tissue. We conducted an open-label phase 1/2a clinical trial to assess the safety and preliminary efficacy of a subretinal implant consisting of a polarized monolayer of allogeneic human embryonic stem cell-derived retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) cells in subjects with geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to dry age-related macular degeneration. Postmortem histology from one subject with very advanced disease shows the presence of donor RPE cells 2 years after implantation by immunoreactivity for RPE65 and donor-specific human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I molecules. Markers of RPE cell polarity and phagocytosis suggest donor RPE function. Further histologic examination demonstrated CD34+ structures beneath the implant and CD4+, CD68+, and FoxP3+ cells in the tissue. Despite significant donor-host HLA mismatch, no clinical signs of retinitis, vitreitis, vasculitis, choroiditis, or serologic immune response were detected in the deceased subject or any other subject in the study. Subretinally implanted, HLA-mismatched donor RPE cells survive, express functional markers, and do not elicit clinically detectable intraocular inflammation or serologic immune responses even without long-term immunosuppression.

Global feather orientations changed by electric current.

During chicken skin development, each feather bud exhibits its own polarity, but a population of buds organizes with a collective global orientation. We used embryonic dorsal skin, with buds aligned parallel to the rostral-caudal body axis, to explore whether exogenous electric fields affect feather polarity. Interestingly, brief exogenous current exposure prior to visible bud formation later altered bud orientations. Applying electric pulses perpendicular to the body rostral-caudal axis realigned bud growth in a collective swirl, resembling an electric field pointing toward the anode. Perturbed buds show normal molecular expression and morphogenesis except for their altered orientation. Epithelial-mesenchymal recombination demonstrates the effects of exogenous electric fields are mediated through the epithelium. Small-molecule channel inhibitor screens show Ca2+ channels and PI3 Kinase are involved in controlling feather bud polarity. This work reveals the importance of bioelectricity in organ development and regeneration and provides an explant culture platform for experimentation.

One-Year Follow-Up in a Phase 1/2a Clinical Trial of an Allogeneic RPE Cell Bioengineered Implant for Advanced Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Purpose: To report 1-year follow-up of a phase 1/2a clinical trial testing a composite subretinal implant having polarized human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells on an ultrathin parylene substrate in subjects with advanced non-neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NNAMD). Methods: The phase 1/2a clinical trial included 16 subjects in two cohorts. The main endpoint was safety assessed at 365 days using ophthalmic and systemic exams. Pseudophakic subjects with geographic atrophy (GA) and severe vision loss were eligible. Low-dose tacrolimus immunosuppression was utilized for 68 days in the peri-implantation period. The implant was delivered to the worst seeing eye with a custom subretinal insertion device in an outpatient setting. A data safety monitoring committee reviewed all results. Results: The treated eyes of all subjects were legally blind with a baseline best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) of ≤ 20/200. There were no unexpected serious adverse events. Four subjects in cohort 1 had serious ocular adverse events, including retinal hemorrhage, edema, focal retinal detachment, or RPE detachment, which was mitigated in cohort 2 using improved hemostasis during surgery. Although this study was not powered to assess efficacy, treated eyes from four subjects showed an increased BCVA of >5 letters (6-13 letters). A larger proportion of treated eyes experienced a >5-letter gain when compared with the untreated eye (27% vs. 7%; P = not significant) and a larger proportion of nonimplanted eyes demonstrated a >5-letter loss (47% vs. 33%; P = not significant). Conclusions: Outpatient delivery of the implant can be performed routinely. At 1 year, the implant is safe and well tolerated in subjects with advanced dry AMD. Translational Relevance: This work describes the first clinical trial, to our knowledge, of a novel implant for advanced dry AMD.

Spots and stripes: pleomorphic patterning of stem cells via p-ERK-dependent cell chemotaxis shown by feather morphogenesis and mathematical simulation.

A key issue in stem cell biology is the differentiation of homogeneous stem cells towards different fates which are also organized into desired configurations. Little is known about the mechanisms underlying the process of periodic patterning. Feather explants offer a fundamental and testable model in which multi-potential cells are organized into hexagonally arranged primordia and the spacing between primordia. Previous work explored roles of a Turing reaction-diffusion mechanism in establishing chemical patterns. Here we show that a continuum of feather patterns, ranging from stripes to spots, can be obtained when the level of p-ERK activity is adjusted with chemical inhibitors. The patterns are dose-dependent, tissue stage-dependent, and irreversible. Analyses show that ERK activity-dependent mesenchymal cell chemotaxis is essential for converting micro-signaling centers into stable feather primordia. A mathematical model based on short-range activation, long-range inhibition, and cell chemotaxis is developed and shown to simulate observed experimental results. This generic cell behavior model can be applied to model stem cell patterning behavior at large.

Type-2 Fuzzy Hybrid Controller Network for Robotic Systems.

Dynamic control, including robotic control, faces both the theoretical challenge of obtaining accurate system models and the practical difficulty of defining uncertain system bounds. To facilitate such challenges, this paper proposes a control system consisting of a novel type of fuzzy neural network and a robust compensator controller. The new fuzzy neural network is implemented by integrating a number of key components embedded in a Type-2 fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) and a brain emotional learning controller (BELC) network, thereby mimicking an ideal sliding mode controller. The system inputs are fed into the neural network through a Type-2 fuzzy inference system (T2FIS), with the results subsequently piped into sensory and emotional channels which jointly produce the final outputs of the network. That is, the proposed network estimates the nonlinear equations representing the ideal sliding mode controllers using a powerful compensator controller with the support of T2FIS and BELC, guaranteeing robust tracking of the dynamics of the controlled systems. The adaptive dynamic tuning laws of the network are developed by exploiting the popular brain emotional learning rule and the Lyapunov function. The proposed system was applied to a robot manipulator and a mobile robot, demonstrating its efficacy and potential; and a comparative study with alternatives indicates a significant improvement by the proposed system in performing the intelligent dynamic control.

Hybrid Neural Network Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller Design for Non-linear Dynamic Time-Varying Plants.

This study proposes a hybrid method to control dynamic time-varying plants that comprises a neural network controller and a cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC). The neural-network controller reduces the range and quantity of the input. The cerebellar-model articulation controller is the main controller and is used to compute the final control output. The parameters for the structure of the proposed network are adjusted using adaptive laws, which are derived using the steepest-descent gradient approach and back-propagation algorithm. The Lyapunov stability theory is applied to guarantee system convergence. By using the proposed combination architecture, the designed CMAC structure is reduced, and it makes it easy to design the network size and the initial membership functions. Finally, numerical-simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Ultra-broadband near-infrared emission CuInS2/ZnS quantum dots with high power efficiency and stability for the theranostic applications of mini light-emitting diodes.

Broadband near-infrared CuInS2/ZnS quantum dots with up to 94.8% quantum yield were synthesized with fast precursor decomposition leading to monomer conversion improvement. In the mini-LED package, the device showed high power efficiency and stability was also demonstrated with a penetration test and vein imaging showing its potential biomedical application in the theranostics field.

An Improved Fuzzy Brain Emotional Learning Model Network Controller for Humanoid Robots.

The brain emotional learning (BEL) system was inspired by the biological amygdala-orbitofrontal model to mimic the high speed of the emotional learning mechanism in the mammalian brain, which has been successfully applied in many real-world applications. Despite of its success, such system often suffers from slow convergence for online humanoid robotic control. This paper presents an improved fuzzy BEL model (iFBEL) neural network by integrating a fuzzy neural network (FNN) to a conventional BEL, in an effort to better support humanoid robots. In particular, the system inputs are passed into a sensory and emotional channels that jointly produce the final outputs of the network. The non-linear approximation ability of the iFBEL is achieved by taking the BEL network as the emotional channel. The proposed iFBEL works with a robust controller in generating the hand and gait motion of a humanoid robot. The updating rules of the iFBEL-based controller are composed of two parts, including a sensory channel followed by the updating rules of the conventional BEL model, and the updating rules of the FNN and the robust controller which are derived from the "Lyapunov" function. The experiments on a three-joint robot manipulator and a six-joint biped robot demonstrated the superiority of the proposed system in reference to a conventional proportional-integral-derivative controller and a fuzzy cerebellar model articulation controller, based on the more accurate and faster control performance of the proposed iFBEL.

Robust Adaptive Recurrent Cerebellar Model Neural Network for Non-linear System Based on GPSO.

A robust adaptive recurrent cerebellar model articulation controller (RARC) neural network for non-linear systems using the genetic particle swarm optimization (GPSO) algorithm is presented in this study. The RARC is used as the principal tracking controller and the robust compensation controller is designed to recover the residual of the approximation error. In the RARC neural network, the steepest descent gradient method and the Lyapunov function are used for deriving the adaptive law parameter of the system. Besides, the learning rates play an important role in these adaptive laws and they have a great effect on the functions of control systems. In this paper, the combination of the genetic algorithm with the mutation particle swarm optimization algorithm is applied to seek for the optimal learning rates of the RARC adaptation laws. The numerical simulations about the inverted pendulum system as well as the robot manipulator system are given to confirm the effectiveness and practicability of the GPSO-RARC-based control system. Compared with other control schemes, the proposed control scheme is testified to be reliable and can obtain the optimal parameter about the learning rates and the minimum root mean square error for non-linear systems.

Wavelet Fuzzy Brain Emotional Learning Control System Design for MIMO Uncertain Nonlinear Systems.

This paper aims to present a novel efficient scheme in order to more effectively control the multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) uncertain nonlinear systems. A wavelet fuzzy brain emotional learning controller (WFBELC) model is proposed, which is comprises the benefit of wavelet function, fuzzy theory and brain emotional neural network. When it is used as the main tracking controller for a MIMO uncertain nonlinear systems, the performances of the system, such as the approximation ability, the learning performance and the convergence rate, will be effectively improved. Meanwhile, the gradient descent method is used to adjust the parameters online of WFBELC and the Lyapunov function is employed to guarantee the rapid convergence of the control systems. For the sake of the further illustrating the superiority of this model, two examples of uncertain nonlinear systems, a Duffing-Holmes chaotic system and a Chua's chaotic circuit, are studied. After compared with other models, the test results show that the proposed model can be applied to obtain more satisfactory control performance and be more suitable to deal with the influence of the uncertainty of the MIMO nonlinear systems.

A bioengineered retinal pigment epithelial monolayer for advanced, dry age-related macular degeneration.

Retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) dysfunction and loss are a hallmark of non-neovascular age-related macular degeneration (NNAMD). Without the RPE, a majority of overlying photoreceptors ultimately degenerate, leading to severe, progressive vision loss. Clinical and histological studies suggest that RPE replacement strategies may delay disease progression or restore vision. A prospective, interventional, U.S. Food and Drug Administration-cleared, phase 1/2a study is being conducted to assess the safety and efficacy of a composite subretinal implant in subjects with advanced NNAMD. The composite implant, termed the California Project to Cure Blindness-Retinal Pigment Epithelium 1 (CPCB-RPE1), consists of a polarized monolayer of human embryonic stem cell-derived RPE (hESC-RPE) on an ultrathin, synthetic parylene substrate designed to mimic Bruch's membrane. We report an interim analysis of the phase 1 cohort consisting of five subjects. Four of five subjects enrolled in the study successfully received the composite implant. In all implanted subjects, optical coherence tomography imaging showed changes consistent with hESC-RPE and host photoreceptor integration. None of the implanted eyes showed progression of vision loss, one eye improved by 17 letters and two eyes demonstrated improved fixation. The concurrent structural and functional findings suggest that CPCB-RPE1 may improve visual function, at least in the short term, in some patients with severe vision loss from advanced NNAMD.