Optimal ϵ -stealthy attack in cyber-physical systems

This paper is concerned with the optimal stealthy attack problems of cyber-physical system, which is represented as discrete-time linear systems. It is considered that a deceptive attack assumed to be able to hijack and modify the nominal control signals from the controller-actuator channel with the metric of ? -stealthiness. Different from the existing literatures, some optimal attack strategies with objectives such that maintaining a fixed level of stealthiness and achieving the maximized performance degradation are designed under some constraints. It is further derived that the results of ours are more relaxed than some methods proposed before. Finally, some numerical simulations are given to illustrate the validity of the theoretical results.     

A novel control Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional methodology for simultaneous stabilization of a set of multiple time-delays nonlinear systems

This paper considers the simultaneous stabilization of a set of nonlinear systems, that involve uncertain nonlinearities besides multiple time-varying delays in the states. Under the assumption that the upper bounds of delays are known, a memoryless simultaneously stabilizing state feedback controller is presented by proposing a control Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (CL-KF) method. As required to establish the CL-KF approach, a systematic procedure is given to construct CL-KFs for the systems under consideration. By the obtained CL-KFs, a common stabilizing state feedback control law is established to drive all the systems to the origin. Examples are finally given to verify the benefit of the proposed design method.     

Electrophoretic separation of neurotransmitters on a polystyrene nano-sphere∕polystyrene sulphonate coated poly(dimethylsiloxane) microchannel

In this paper, a poly(dimethylsiloxane) microchip with amperometric detector was developed for the electrophoretic separation and determination of neurotransmitters. For increasing the separation efficiency, the microchannel is modified by polystyrene sulphonate∕polystyrene nano-sphere self-assembly coating. A stable electro-osmotic flow (EOF) and higher separation efficiency are obtained in proposed modified microchannel. Under optimized conditions, dopamine, epinephrine, catechol, and serotonin are acceptably baseline separated in this 3.5 cm length separation channel with the theoretical plate number from 4.6?×?10(4) to 2.1?×?10(5) per meter and resolution from 1.29 to 12.5. The practicability of proposed microchip is validated by the recovery test with cerebrospinal fluid as real sample which resulted from 91.7% to 106.5%.     

Electrophoretic separation of neurotransmitters on a polystyrene nano-sphere�Mpolystyrene sulphonate coated poly(dimethylsiloxane) microchannel

In this paper, a poly(dimethylsiloxane) microchip with amperometric detector was developed for the electrophoretic separation and determination of neurotransmitters. For increasing the separation efficiency, the microchannel is modified by polystyrene sulphonate∕polystyrene nano-sphere self-assembly coating. A stable electro-osmotic flow (EOF) and higher separation efficiency are obtained in proposed modified microchannel. Under optimized conditions, dopamine, epinephrine, catechol, and serotonin are acceptably baseline separated in this 3.5 cm length separation channel with the theoretical plate number from 4.6 × 10⁴ to 2.1 × 10⁵ per meter and resolution from 1.29 to 12.5. The practicability of proposed microchip is validated by the recovery test with cerebrospinal fluid as real sample which resulted from 91.7% to 106.5%.     

Beijing's West District Library Enhances International Cooperation

<正>The West District Library of Beijing is China’s first county/district-level public library granted with the member status of the International Federation of ...     

Bandpass sorting of heterogeneous cells using a single surface acoustic wave transducer pair

Separation and sorting of biological entities (viruses, bacteria, and cells) is a critical step in any microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device. Acoustofluidics platforms have demonstrated their ability to use physical characteristics of cells to perform label-free separation. Bandpass-type sorting methods of medium-sized entities from a mixture have been presented using acoustic techniques; however, they require multiple transducers, lack support for various target populations, can be sensitive to flow variations, or have not been verified for continuous flow sorting of biological cells. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first acoustic bandpass method that overcomes all these limitations and presents an inherently reconfigurable technique with a single transducer pair for stable continuous flow sorting of blood cells. The sorting method is first demonstrated for polystyrene particles of sizes 6, 10, and 14.5 μm in diameter with measured purity and efficiency coefficients above 75 ± 6% and 85 ± 9%, respectively. The sorting strategy was further validated in the separation of red blood cells from white blood cells and 1 μm polystyrene particles with 78 ± 8% efficiency and 74 ± 6% purity, respectively, at a flow rate of at least 1 μl/min, enabling to process finger prick blood samples within minutes.     

Optimum calibration of a parallel kinematic manipulator using digital indicators

This paper presents a calibration method for parallel manipulators using a measurement system specially installed on an external fixed frame. The external fixed frame is important as an error reference for calibration in certain operations, such as in the configuration of a parallel manip- ulator functioning as a machine tool where the workpiece is fixed to a worktable. The pose of the end-effector is mea- sured using three digital indicators installed on the external fixed frame. To enable measurement, the end-effector is assumed to be a plane large enough that all digital indicators could touch. The error is defined as the difference between the theoretical and actual readings of the digital indicators. The geometric parameters of the parallel manipulator are optimized to minimize this error. This calibration method is low cost and feasible for compensating geometric parameter errors for a parallel manipulator. Optimal pose selection for the calibration is achieved using a swarm intelligence search algorithm. The method is implemented on a prototype of a six degrees-of-freedom （DOFs） Gough-Stewart platform constructed to function as a machine tool.     

Student learning performance in online collaborative learning

Education and Information Technologies - Online collaborative learning (OCL) has received significant attention, but the ultimate goal of adopting OCL is neglected, especially in higher education...     

Innovative students’ academic advising for optimum courses’ selection and scheduling assistant: A Blockchain based use case

Education and Information Technologies - Advising students through their study plans is one of the essential steps towards academic success. The matching of students’ needs and courses...