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The integration of control systems with modern information technologies has posed potential security threats for critical infrastructures. The communication channels of the control system are vulnerable to malicious jamming and Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks, which lead to severe timedelays and degradation of control performances. In this paper, we design resilient controllers for cyber-physical control systems under DoS attacks. We establish a coupled design framework which incorporates the cyber configuration policy of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) and the robust control of dynamical system. We propose design algorithms based on value iteration methods and linear matrix inequalities for computing the optimal cyber security policy and control laws. We illustrate the design principle with an example from power systems. The results are corroborated by numerical examples and simulations.

In this work, two series of linear-comb and star-comb well defined graft poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) have been synthesized conveniently by one-pot ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of L-lactide using functionalized polybutadiene macroinitiators. The used organocatalyst of 1, 8-diazabicyclo[5,4,0]undec-7-ene (DBU) allows the polymerization of L-lactide proceeds rapidly at room temperature. Kinetic studies of the ROP reaction in this system indicate a first-order kinetic in monomer concentration.1 H NMR and GPC techniques are employed to characterize the synthesized polymers, validating the formation of desired comb structures with controllable chain length. Linear-comb and star-comb graft PLLA were comparatively studied as well as with linear PLLA by DSC and POM. The results reveal that comb structure makes a remarkable improvement of PLLA crystallization ability in both crystallinity and growth rate of spherulites. Furthermore, the more compacted star-comb structure imposes restriction on chain mobility, which weakens the growth effect to some extent. It is found that the glass transition temperature (Tg) and melting temperature (Tm) significantly depend on the side chain length and backbone structure. Rheological studies of both melt and instinct viscosity of the solution show that star-comb PLLA has the lowest hydrodynamic volume compared with linear-comb PLLA and linear PLLA.Polylactide (PLA) derived from renewable resources has drawn significant attention due to its well biodegradable/biocompatible properties and the other concerns associated with the use of petroleum-based products. 1-3 High molecular weight PLA and its copolymers are one of the most widely utilized polymers in the field of biomedical materials 4-8 . Due to the extremely high mechanical strength, it has been used as commodity and industrial materials as well as clinically in medical applications, 9-10 orthopaedic screw, 11-12 scaffolds, 13-15 etc.PLA can be directly prepared from lactic acid by polycondensation under azeotropic distillation conditions referred as poly(lactic acid) [16][17][18] . Ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of lactide is another effective route to synthesize PLA with higher molecular weight and lower polydispersity 19 . Stannous octoate (Sn(Oct)2) is the most common catalyst for ROP of lactide 20 . However, tin based catalysts are less than ideal from both chemical and biological perspective. The organic catalysts now appear as viable substitutes for classical metallic catalysts 21-23 .Non-metallic ROP processes are demanded for sustainable and environmentally friendly products, especially in microelectronic 24 and biomedical 25-26 applications. In 2001, Hedrick et al. first reported N-heterocyclic carbenes as novel metal-free nucleophilic catalysts for the ROP of cyclic ester monomers 27 . Among those catalysts, the commercial available amidine and guanidine (such as 1,5,7-triazabicyclo[4,4,0]dec-5-ene (TBD) and 1,8-diazabicyclo[5,4,0]undec-7-ene (DBU)) provide better control of molecular weight and highly efficient at room...

Compared with conventional image sensors, event cameras have been attracting attention thanks to their potential in environments under fast motion and high dynamic range (HDR). To tackle the lost‐track issue due to fast illumination changes under HDR scene such as tunnels, an object tracking framework has been presented based on event count images from an event camera. The framework contains an offline‐trained detector and an online‐trained tracker which complement each other: The detector benefits from pre‐labelled data during training, but may have false or missing detections; the tracker provides persistent results for each initialised object but may suffer from drifting issues or even failures. Besides, process and measurement equations have been modelled, and a Kalman fusion scheme has been proposed to incorporate measurements from the detector and the tracker. Self‐initialisation and track maintenance in the fusion scheme ensure autonomous real‐time tracking without user intervene. With self‐collected event data in urban driving scenarios, experiments have been conducted to show the performance of the proposed framework and the fusion scheme.

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To search for nano-drug preparations with high efficiency in tumor treatment, we evaluated the drug-loading capacity and cell-uptake toxicity of three kinds of nanoparticles (NPs). Pullulan was grafted with ethylenediamine and hydrophobic groups to form hydrophobic cholesterol-modified amino-pullulan (CHAP) conjugates. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance were used to identify the CHAP structure and calculate the degree of substitution of the cholesterol group. We compared three types of NPs with close cholesterol hydrophobic properties: CHAP, cholesterol-modified pullulan (CHP), and cholesterol-modified carboxylethylpullulan (CHCP), with the degree of substitution of cholesterol of 2.92%, 3.11%, and 3.46%, respectively. As compared with the two other NPs, CHAP NPs were larger, 263.9 nm, and had a positive surface charge of 7.22 mV by dynamic light-scattering measurement. CHAP NPs showed low drug-loading capacity, 12.3%, and encapsulation efficiency of 70.8%, which depended on NP hydrophobicity and was affected by surface charge. The drug release amounts of all NPs increased in the acid media, with CHAP NPs showing drug-release sensitivity with acid change. Cytotoxicity of HeLa cells was highest with mitoxantrone-loaded CHAP NPs on MTT assay. CHAP NPs may have potential as a high-efficiency drug carrier for tumor treatment.

Novel carbon quantum dot (CQD)-modified BiOI photocatalysts were prepared via a facile hydrothermal process. The CQD-modified BiOI materials were characterized by multiple techniques. The CQD with an average size around several nanometers was distributed on the surface of BiOI microsphere. Its photocatalytic activity was investigated sufficiently by the photodegradation of methylene orange (MO). The results showed that the CQD/BiOI 1.5 wt.% sample exhibited the optimum photocatalytic activity, which was 2.5 times that of the pure BiOI. This improvement was attributed to the crucial role of CQDs, which could be acted as a photocenter for absorbing solar light, charge separation center for suppressing charge recombination.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1262-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Puerarin, a known isoflavone, is commonly found as a Chinese herb medicine. It is widely used in China to treat cardiac diseases such as angina, cardiac infarction and arrhythmia. However, its cardioprotective mechanism remains unclear. In this study, puerarin significantly prolonged ventricular action potential duration (APD) with a dosage dependent manner in the micromolar range on isolated rat ventricular myocytes. However, submicromolar puerarin had no effect on resting membrane potential (RMP), action potential amplitude (APA) and maximal velocity of depolarization (Vmax) of action potential. Only above the concentration of 10 mM, puerarin exhibited more aggressive effect on action potential, and shifted RMP to the positive direction. Millimolar concentrations of puerarin significantly inhibited inward rectified K+ channels in a dosage dependent manner, and exhibited bigger effects upon Kir2.1 vs Kir2.3 in transfected HEK293 cells. As low as micromolar range concentrations of puerarin significantly inhibited Kv7.1 and IKs. These inhibitory effects may due to the direct inhibition of puerarin upon channels not via the PKA-dependent pathway. These results provided direct preclinical evidence that puerarin prolonged APD via its inhibitory effect upon Kv7.1 and IKs, contributing to a better understanding the mechanism of puerarin cardioprotection in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases.