Optimal vaccine scheduling in cancer immunotherapy

Cancer immunotherapy aims at stimulating the immune system to react against cancer stealth capabilities. It consists of repeatedly injecting small doses of a tumor-associated molecule one wants the immune system to recognize, until a consistent immune response directed against the tumor cells is observed.

We have applied the theory of optimal control to the problem of finding the optimal schedule of injections of an immunotherapeutic agent against cancer. The method employed works for a general ODE system and can be applied to find the optimal protocol in a variety of clinical problems where the kinetics of the drug or treatment and its influence on the normal physiologic functions have been described by a mathematical model.

We show that the choice of the cost function has dramatic effects on the kind of solution the optimization algorithm is able to find. This provides evidence that a careful ODE model and optimization schema must be designed by mathematicians and clinicians using their proper different perspectives.     

Normality of the maximum principle for nonconvex constrained Bolza problems

We consider a Bolza optimal control problem with state constraints. It is well known that under some technical assumptions every strong local minimizer of this problem satisfies first order necessary optimality conditions in the form of a constrained maximum principle. In general, the maximum principle may be abnormal or even degenerate and so does not provide a sufficient information about optimal controls. In the recent literature some sufficient conditions were proposed to guarantee that at least one maximum principle is nondegenerate, cf. [A.V. Arutyanov, S.M. Aseev, Investigation of the degeneracy phenomenon of the maximum principle for optimal control problems with state constraints, SIAM J. Control Optim. 35 (1997) 930–952; F. Rampazzo, R.B. Vinter, A theorem on existence of neighbouring trajectories satisfying a state constraint, with applications to optimal control, IMA 16 (4) (1999) 335–351; F. Rampazzo, R.B. Vinter, Degenerate optimal control problems with state constraints, SIAM J. Control Optim. 39 (4) (2000) 989–1007]. Our aim is to show that actually conditions of a similar nature guarantee normality of every nondegenerate maximum principle. In particular we allow the initial condition to be fixed and the state constraints to be nonsmooth. To prove normality we use J. Yorke type linearization of control systems and show the existence of a solution to a linearized control system satisfying new state constraints defined, in turn, by linearization of the original set of constraints along an extremal trajectory.     

增强型延迟反馈法控制低维混沌系统的解析研究

基于时间延迟反馈控制混沌系统的方法,提出一种增强型控制方案,并利用分析延迟系统产生Hopf分支条件的方法,给出这种方案控制低维连续自治混沌系统时,在达到控制目标的条件下,控制参数的一般解析关系.将这一方案和分析方法应用到两个混沌模型中,结果表明:采用修正的方案可以明显地改善控制混沌的效果和质量;解析分析的结果与实际数值计算的结果一致. 关键词： 延迟反馈 混沌控制 Hopf分支     

On Characterizations of Proper Efficiency for Nonconvex Multiobjective Optimization

In this paper, nonconvex multiobjective optimization problems are studied. New characterizations of a properly efficient solution in the sense of Geoffrion's are established in terms of the stability of one scalar optimization problem and the existence of an exact penalty function of a scalar constrained program, respectively. One of the characterizations is applied to derive necessary conditions for a properly efficient control-parameter pair of a nonconvex multiobjective discrete optimal control problem with linear constraints.     

基于Web的图书馆管理系统访问控制策略

针对基于Web的图书馆管理系统资源访问控制的动态性问题，提出了一种基于角色的访问控制策略描述方案．通过对基于Web的图书馆管理系统访问控制管理影响因素和访问控制需求的分析，结合NIST基于角色的访问控制统一模型标准，构造了一种基于角色的访问控制元模型．并在这一元模型的基础上，提出了一种紧凑的基于角色的访问控制XML策略描述语言框架．结果表明该访问控制策略描述语言框架适合表述动态环境下对图书馆资源的访问策略，提高了基于Web的图书馆管理系统资源访问的安全性．     

Singlet versus triplet dynamics of β-carotene studied by quantum control spectroscopy

Biomolecules very often present complex energy deactivation networks with overlapping electronic absorption bands, making their study a difficult task. This can be especially true in transient absorption spectroscopy when signals from bleach, excited state absorption and stimulated emission contribute to the signal. However, quantum control spectroscopy can be used to discriminate specific electronic states of interest by applying specifically designed laser pulses. Recently, we have shown the control of energy flow in bacterial light-harvesting using shaped pump pulses in the visible and the selective population of pathways in carotenoids using an additional depletion pulse in the transient absorption technique. Here, we apply a closed-loop optimization approach to β-carotene using a spatial light modulator to decipher the energy flow network after a multiphoton excitation with a shaped ultrashort pulse in the near-IR. After excitation, two overlapping bands were detected and identified as the S₁ state and the first triplet state T₁. Using the transient absorption signal at a specific probe delay as feedback, the triplet signal could be optimized over the singlet contribution.     

Generic Transport Aft-body Drag Reduction using Active Flow Control

Active flow-separation control is an effective and efficient mean for drag reduction and unsteady load alleviation resulting from locally or massively separated flow. Such a situation occurs in configurations where the aerodynamic performance is of secondary importance to functionality. The performance of heavy transport helicopters and aeroplanes, having a large, and almost flat, aft loading ramp suffer from the poor aerodynamics of the aft body. Hence, a combined experimental and numerical investigation was undertaken on a generic transport aeroplane/helicopter configuration. The experimental study provided surface pressures, direct drag measurements, surface and smoke flow visualization. The baseline flow was numerically analyzed, using finite volume solutions of the RANS equations. The baseline flow around the model was insensitive to the Reynolds number in the range it was tested. The flow separating from the aft body was characterized by two main sources of drag and unsteadiness. The first is a separation bubble residing at the lower ramp corner and the second is a pair of vortex systems developing and separating from the sides of the ramp. As the model incidence is decreased, the pair of vortex systems also penetrates deeper towards the centerline of the ramp, decreasing the pressure and increasing the drag. As expected, the ramp lower corner bubble was highly receptive to periodic excitation introduced from four addressable piezo-fluidic actuators situated at the ramp lower corner. Total drag was reduced by 3–11%, depending on the model incidence. There are indications that the flow in the wake of the model is also significantly steadier when the bubble at the lower ramp corner is eliminated. The vortex system is tighter and steadier when the ramp-corner bubble is eliminated.     

Performance Analysis for Mobile Ad Hoc Network in Random Graph Models with Spatial Reuse

In this paper,we present a random graph model with spatial reuse for a mobile ad hoc network(MANET) based on the dynamic source routing protocol.Many important performance parameters of theMANET are obtained,such as the average flooding distance (AFD),the probability generating function of theflooding distance,and the probability of a flooding route to be symmetric.Compared with the random graphmodel without spatial reuse,this model is much more effective because it has a smaller value of AFD and alarger probability for finding a symmetric valid route.     

Stratifiable Families of Extremals and Sufficient Conditions for Optimality in Optimal Control Problems

It is shown that, if a parametrized fämily of extremals F can be stratified in a way compatible with the flow map generated by F, then those trajectories of the family which realize the minimal values of the cost in F are indeed optimal in comparison with all trajectories which lie in the region R covered by the trajectories of F. It is not assumed that F is a field covering the state space injectively. As illustration, an optimal synthesis is constructed for a system where the flow of extremals exhibits a simple cusp singularity.     

混凝土动态劈裂拉伸试验的数值模拟

采用LS-DYNA有限元编码程序，对混凝土的动态劈裂拉伸试验进行了数值模拟，给出了混凝土试样在不同类型加载情况下应力分布之间的差异，证实了动态劈裂拉伸试验的有效性，提出了改进试验方法的若干结论．