Recent advances and challenges in the recovery and purification of cellular exosomes

Exosomes are nanovesicles secreted by most cellular types that carry important biochemical compounds throughout the body with different purposes, playing a preponderant role in cellular communication. Because of their structure, physicochemical properties and stability, recent studies are focusing in their use as nanocarriers for different therapeutic compounds for the treatment of different diseases ranging from cancer to Parkinson's disease. However, current bioseparation protocols and methodologies are selected based on the final exosome application or intended use and present both advantages and disadvantages when compared among them. In this context, this review aims to present the most important technologies available for exosome isolation while discussing their advantages and disadvantages and the possibilities of being combined with other strategies. This is critical since the development of novel exosome‐based therapeutic strategies will be constrained to the effectiveness and yield of the selected downstream purification methodologies for which a thorough understanding of the available technological resources is needed.     

准移动闭塞系统的元胞自动机模型及列车延迟传播规律的研究

在NaSch模型的基础上，针对铁路交通的特点提出一种用于模拟准移动闭塞系统的元胞自动机模型.应用该模型模拟了准移动闭塞系统列车延迟传播的交通现象，分析了准移动闭塞系统中的轨道定位单元长度、发车时间间隔、初始延迟时间等因素对列车延迟传播的影响. 关键词： 元胞自动机 交通流 准移动闭塞     

Simulation of the nonlinear vibration of a string using the Cellular Automata based on the reflection rule

In this study, the nonlinear dynamic responses of a string are simulated using the Cellular Automata method based on the reflection rule. In the case of nonlinear systems, the velocity of wave propagation is not constant and depends on the amplitude. A new treatment of the dynamic time step is proposed for the Cellular Automata method considering the effect of the propagation velocity. As numerical examples, first, the dynamic responses of a string with linear characteristic are simulated using the Cellular Automata method. A typical resonance curve can be obtained. Second, the dynamic responses of a string with nonlinear characteristic are simulated using the proposed method. Some characteristic types of vibration can be obtained. It is concluded that the linear and nonlinear dynamic responses of a string may be obtained by simulation using the Cellular Automata method.     

Ergodic properties and thermodynamic behavior of elementary reversible cellular automata. I. Basic properties

This is the first part of a series devoted to the study of thermodynamic behavior of large dynamical systems with the use of a family of fully-discrete and conservative models named elementary reversible cellular automata (ERCAs). In this paper, basic properties such as conservation laws and phase space structure are investigated in preparation for the later studies. ERCAs are a family of one-dimensional reversible cellular automata having two Boolean variables on each site. Reflection and Boolean conjugation symmetries divide them into 88 equivalence classes. For each rule, additive conserved quantities written in a certain form are regarded as a kind of energy, if they exist. By the aid of the discreteness of the variables, every ERCA satisfies the Liouville theorem or the preservation of phase space volume. Thus, if an energy exists in the above sense, statistical mechanics of the model can formally be constructed. If a locally defined quantity is conserved, however, it prevents the realization of statistical mechanics. The existence of such a quantity is examined for each class and a number of rules which have at least one energy but no local conservation laws are selected as hopeful candidates for the realization of thermodynamic behavior. In addition, the phase space structure of ERCAs is analyzed by enumerating cycles exactly in the phase space for systems of comparatively small sizes. As a result, it is revealed that a finite ERCA is not ergodic, that is, a large number of orbits coexist on an energy surface. It is argued that this fact does not necessarily mean the failure of thermodynamic behavior on the basis of an analogy with the ergodic nature of infinite systems.     

交通灯控制下城市主干道双车道多速元胞自动机交通流模型研究

提出一个城市主干道双车道多速元胞自动机交通流模型，此模型采用开放性 边界条件，在考虑诸多实际因素影响情况下，研究了主干道中车站的设置、交通灯绿信比对 车流量和车流速度的影响.计算机模拟所得到的基本图（流量 速度图）能较好地反映在交 通灯控制下城市主干道交通流真实状况. 关键词： 元胞自动机模型 交通流 主干道     

具有时滞的细胞神经网络的全局指数稳定性

利用Liapunov函数方法,结合积分不等式技巧,分析了时滞细胞神经网络的平衡点存在的唯一性和全局指数稳定性,保证时滞细胞神经网络全局指数稳定的一个新的充分判据被得到.所得判据比已有文献具有更少的限制,为实际应用提供了方便.     

A cellular automaton technique for modelling of a binary dendritic growth with convection

A two-dimensional model for the simulation of a binary dendritic growth with convection has been developed in order to investigate the effects of convection on dendritic morphologies. The model is based on a cellular automaton (CA) technique for the calculation of the evolution of solid/liquid (s/l) interface. The dynamics of the interface controlled by temperature, solute diffusion and Gibbs–Thomson effects, is coupled with the continuum model for energy, solute and momentum transfer with liquid convection. The solid fraction is calculated by a governing equation, instead of some approximate methods such as lever rule method [A. Jacot, M. Rappaz, Acta Mater. 50 (2002) 1909–1926.] or interface velocity method [L. Nastac, Acta Mater. 47 (1999) 4253; L. Beltran-Sanchez, D.M. Stefanescu, Mat. and Mat. Trans. A 26 (2003) 367.]. For the dendritic growth without convection, mesh independency of simulation results is achieved. The simulated steady-state tip velocity are compared with the predicted values of LGK theory [Lipton, M.E. Glicksmanm, W. Kurz, Metall. Trans. 18(A) (1987) 341.] as a function of melt undercooling, which shows good agreement. The growth of dendrite arms in a forced convection has been investigated. It was found that the dendritic growth in the upstream direction was amplified, due to larger solute gradient in the liquid ahead of the s/l interface caused by melt convection. In the isothermal environment, the calculated results under very fine mesh are in good agreement with the Oseen–Ivanstov solution for the concentration-driven growth in a forced flow.     

Widrow-cellular neural network and optoelectronic implementation

A new type of optoelectronic cellular neural network has been developed by providing the capability of coefficients adjusment of cellular neural network (CNN) using Widrow based perceptron learning algorithm. The new supervised cellular neural network is called Widrow-CNN. Despite the unsupervised CNN, the proposed learning algorithm allows to use the Widrow-CNN for various image processing applications easily. Also, the capability of CNN for image processing and feature extraction has been improved using basic joint transform correlation architecture. This hardware application presents high speed processing capability compared to digital applications. The optoelectronic Widrow-CNN has been tested for classic CNN feature extraction problems. It yields the best results even in case of hard feature extraction problems such as diagonal line detection and vertical line determination.     

On a free group of transformations defined by an automaton

We prove that three automorphisms of the rooted binary tree defined by a certain 3-state automaton generate a free non-Abelian group of rank 3. Both authors are supported by the NSF grants DMS-0308985 and DMS-0456185. Yaroslav Vorobets is supported by a Clay Research Scholarship.