We propose a novel aerial manipulation platform, an omnidirectional aerial robot, that is capable of omnidirectional wrench generation with opportunistically distributed/aligned Sectional rotors. To circumvent the tight thrust margin and weight budget of currently available rotor and battery technologies, we propose a novel design optimization framework, which maximizes the minimumguaranteed control force/torque for any attitude while incorporating such important and useful aspects as interrotor aerointerference, anisotropic task requirement, gravity compensation, etc. We also provide a closed-form solution of infinity-norm optimal control allocation to avoid rotor saturation with the tight thrust margin. Further, we elaborate the notion of electronic speed controller induced singularity and devise a novel selective mapping algorithm to substantially subdue its destabilizing effect. Experiments are performed to validate the theory, which demonstrate such capabilities not possible with typical aerial manipulation systems, namely, separate translation and attitude control on SE(3), hybrid pose/wrench control with downward force of 60 N much larger than its own weight (2.6 kg), and peg-inhole teleoperation with a radial tolerance of 0.5 mm.

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Nanoparticles are primarily taken up by immune cells after systemic administration. Thus, they are considered an ideal drug delivery vehicle for immunomodulation. Because the spleen is the largest lymphatic organ and regulates the systemic immune system, there have been studies to develop spleen targeting nanoparticles for immunomodulation of cancer and immunological disorders. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) includes disorders involving chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract and is considered incurable despite a variety of treatment options. Hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) is one of the gasotransmitters that carries out anti-inflammatory functions and has shown promising immunomodulatory effects in various inflammatory diseases including IBD. Herein, we developed a delicately tuned H 2 S donor delivering liposome for spleen targeting (ST-H 2 S lipo) and studied its therapeutic effects in a dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) induced colitis model. We identified the ideal PEG type and ratio of liposome for a high stability, loading efficiency, and spleen targeting effect. In the treatment of the DSS-induced colitis model, we found that ST-H 2 S lipo and conventional long-circulating liposomes loaded with H 2 S donors (LC-H 2 S lipo) reduced the severity of colitis, whereas unloaded H 2 S donors did not. Furthermore, the therapeutic effect of ST-H 2 S lipo was superior to that of LC-H 2 S lipo due to its better systemic immunomodulatory effect than that of LC-H 2 S lipo. Our findings demonstrate that spleen targeting H 2 S lipo may have therapeutic potential for IBD.

The Theoretically Audible, but Practically Inaudible Range (TAPIR) is sound in the highest bandwidth of human hearing; it is barely perceptible by most people but can be transmitted and received by stereotypical transducers. The authors suggest the potential of TAPIR sound as a new medium for music, sonic arts and mobile media.

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