Modeling fatigue of ascending stair evacuation with modified fine discrete floor field cellular automata

Fatigue even increases the complexity of the pedestrian dynamics which is regarded as a kind of nonlinear system, and might have a significant negative impact on the crowd evacuation. However, it has never been investigated completely and properly. Thus, the fine discrete floor field cellular automata model is modified by integrating the fatigue function to explore the influence of fatigue on the crowd ascending evacuation. The simulation fits well with the empirical data and the observations quantitatively and qualitatively, indicating the model captures the main features of evacuation considering fatigue impact. As a prediction, without merging streams, compared with the case of walking in constant speed, when fatigue is considered, it takes 71.4% longer for all persons to enter the stairs and 87.2% longer to evacuate. With merging streams, fatigue has little impact on the inflow, while it makes the total evacuation time 84.2% longer.     

Persistence of sums of correlated increments and clustering in cellular automata

Let $T$ be the first return time to $(?\infty ,0]$ of sums of increments given by a functional of a stationary Markov chain. We determine the asymptotic behavior of the survival probability, $\mathbb{P}(T\ge t)～C{t}^{?1∕2}$ for an explicit constant $C$. Our analysis is based on a connection between the survival probability and the running maximum of the time-reversed process, and relies on a functional central limit theorem for Markov chains. As applications, we recover known clustering results for the 3-color cyclic cellular automaton and the Greenberg–Hastings model, and we prove a new clustering result for the 3-color firefly cellular automaton.     

Corresponding Angle Feedback in an innovative weighted transportation system

The optimal information feedback has a significant effect on many socioeconomic systems like stock market and traffic systems aiming to make full use of resources. In this Letter, we study dynamics of traffic flow with real-time information. The influence of a feedback strategy named Corresponding Angle Feedback Strategy (CAFS) is introduced, based on a two-route scenario in which dynamic information can be generated and displayed on the board to guide road users to make a choice. Our model incorporates the effects of adaptability into the cellular automaton models of traffic flow and simulation results adopting this optimal information feedback strategy have demonstrated high efficiency in controlling spatial distribution of traffic patterns compared with the other three information feedback strategies, i.e., vehicle number and flux.     

A Chemically Fuelled Molecular Automaton Displaying Programmed Migration of Zn2+ Between Alternative Binding Sites

A molecular system comprising a cationic zinc complex and an amino acid-derived ambident ligand having phosphate and carboxylate binding sites undergoes a series of rearrangements in which the metal cation migrates autonomously from one site to another. The location of the metal is identified by the circular dichroism spectrum of a ligated bis(2-quinolylmethyl)-(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (BQPA) chromophore, which takes a characteristic shape at each binding site. Migration is fuelled by the decomposition of trichloroacetic acid to CO₂ and CHCl₃, which progressively neutralises the acidity of the system as a function of time, revealing in sequence binding sites of increasing basicity. The migration rate responds to control by variation of the temperature, water content and triethylamine concentration, while an excess of fuel controls the duration of an induction period before the migration event.     

Naphthalimide-rhodamine based fluorescent probe for ratiometric sensing of cellular pH

The pH values of lysosomes in cancer cells is slightly lower than that in normal cells, which can be used to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells. According to this, a naphthalimide-rhodamine based fluorescent probe(hereafter referred to as RBN) with a pK_a of 4.20 was designed and synthesized for ratiometric sensing of cellular pH via fluorescence resonance energy transfer(FRET), which can respond to different pH precisely through ratiometric fluorescence intensity(Ⅰ_(577)/Ⅰ_(540)). RBN can be employed to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells on the basis of different fluorescent response, in particular, RBN showed excellent water solubility and low cell toxicity, all these are quite significant for potential application in cancer diagnose and therapy.     

Guanidinoamidized linear polyethyleneimine for gene delivery

Guanidine was introduced to low molecular weight linear polyethyleneimine(LPEI) via amide groups, to explore the effect of both guanidine degree and pendant chain length on its transfection behavior. The resulting guanidinoamidized LPEIs(GLPEIs) could dramatically reduce LPEI's toxicity, enhance its DNA-packaging capability, cellular uptake and therefore transfection efficiency. These polyplexes were taken up very efficiently via caveolae-mediated endocytosis and their transfection efficiencies in ovarian cancer cells were significantly improved compared to native LPEI10 k polyplexes. Among these GLPEIs, LPEI-C3-G100 showed higher DNA affinity even than LPEI25 k and the highest transfection efficiency, probably due to the optimization of polymer chain flexibility. Of notice, LPEI-C3-G100 polyplexes could more effectively accumulate into cytoplasm than LPEI25 k, although the transfection efficiency of LPEI-C3-G100 polyplexes was not superior to that of LPEI25 k polyplexes, which would be probably attributed to the more efficient release of LPEI25 k polyplexes than LPEI-C3-G100 polyplexes in the cytoplasm.     

面向变厚度柔性轧制工艺的帽型梁横向冲击吸能优化设计

作为汽车主要吸能构件的帽型梁的吸能提升设计是备受关注的问题.研究表明,通过优化薄壁结构的厚度可有效提升吸能性能,但复杂的厚度分布造成制造困难.针对可实现厚度调控的工艺,发展易制造的结构设计方法极为必要.本文基于变厚度柔性轧制工艺(variable gauge rolling, VGR)可实现厚度调控的特点,发展建立帽型梁横向冲击吸能优化设计方法.基于变厚度柔性轧制工艺生产的柔性轧制板(tailor rolled blanks, TRB)的特点,将受横向冲击的帽型薄壁梁设计成沿轴线分段变厚度、分段间设梯度过渡段的结构形式,通过调整各段厚度、分段位置和过渡层梯度变化规律,实现性能的优化.以应变能密度分布均匀为优化准则、基于混合元胞自动机(hybird cellular automata, HCA)方法构建优化模型和求解方法,并在迭代过程中施加满足轧制约束的过滤函数,使结构满足轧制工艺要求.其中,轧制约束的过滤函数由粒子群算法自动寻找.基于本文方法,具体设计了柔性轧制帽型梁横向冲击吸能最优的分段位置、各段厚度及过渡段厚度的梯度过渡方式,设计结果验证了方法的有效性.      

On the Cellular Indecomposable Property of Semi-Fredholm Operators

The authors prove that an operator with the cellular indecomposable property has no singular points in the semi-Fredholm domain, by applying the 4 × 4 matrix model of semi-Fredholm operators due to Fang in 2004. This result fills a gap in the result of Olin and Thomson in 1984.