Real-time Shaping Research Articles

Real-time (re)shaping of cardiac action potentials by an opto-electronic feedback control system in the multicellular setting

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – EU funding. Main funding source(s): European Research Council Starting Grant and Consolidator Grant to Daniël A Pijnappels Background The membrane potential (Vm) in cardiomyocytes fulfills essential regulatory roles in various biological functions, including not only action potential (AP) propagation and mechanical contraction, but also homeostatic regulation. In-depth studies into these roles have been severely hampered by the lack of research methods allowing full control over Vm, especially in multicellular cardiac preparations. Purpose We aimed to unlock new research possibilities by the development of an experimental system (APqr) capable of full Vm control, including instantaneous modulation of AP morphology on a multicellular levelin the multicellular setting. Methods Monolayers of immortalized human atrial myocytes (hiAMs, n=7) were genetically modified to express the blue light-activatable cation channel Cheriff and the red light-sensitive inward chloride pump Jaws for depolarizing and re- or hyperpolarizing effects, respectively. Real-time Vm readout was obtained by patch clamp electrophysiology. Deviations of Vm from reference values were calculated by a custom closed-coop controller. A 470-nm and a 617-nm LED were modulated by the controller in a Vm deviation-dependent manner, selectively activating Cheriff or Jaws. Electrical disturbances were introduced by application of 4-aminopyridien (4AP, 200 µM) or a preprogrammed blue-light pulse creating abnormal cation influx during the repolarization phase of the hiAM AP. Results Average AP durations at 90% repolarization (APD90) increased by 82.4 ms following 4AP application and by 362.5 ms in the presence of light-induced abnormal cation influx compared to control conditions. APqr reduced these APD90 differences to 1.9 ms and 4.6 ms on average, with Vm deviations less than 2.5 mV in 74.7% and 94.4% of the time, respectively. APqr could also be applied for the enforcement of arbitrary AP shapes. In these experiments, reference Vm values consisted of APs recorded from hiAM monolayers exposed to drugs with APD-prolonging (4AP) or shortening (carbachol) effects. APqr was able to enforce these reference APs on hiAM monolayers with high accuracy, with Vm deviations less than 2.5 mV in 95.8% and 94.4% of the time, respectively. Conclusions APqr preserves AP morphologies in the presence of electrical perturbations of different origin without any prior knowledge of the disturbance and enforces arbitrary AP morphologies with high accuracy in an immediate and self-regulatory manner. Collectively, these results set the stage for the refinement and application of opto-electronic control systems to enable in-depth investigation into the regulatory roles of the membrane potential in health and disease.

Contribution of Dynamic Rheology Coupled to FTIR and Raman Spectroscopies to the Real-Time Shaping Ability of a Hyperbranched Polycarbosilane.

In the field of non-oxide ceramics, the polymer-derived ceramic (PDC) approach appears to be very promising, especially for obtaining easily shaped and homogeneous materials in terms of structure and composition. However, in order to reach a suitable form during the process, it is often necessary to study the rheology of preceramic polymers while they are modified during polymerisation or crosslinking reactions. Given this need in the understanding of the real-time rheology of macromolecules during their synthesis, a rheometer coupled with both an infrared spectrometer and a Raman probe is described as a powerful tool for monitoring in situ synthesised polycarbosilanes. Indeed, this original device allows one to control the viscosity of a hyberbranched polycarbosilane from defined difunctional and tetrafunctional monomers. Meanwhile, it links this evolution to structural modifications in the macromolecular structure (molar masses, dispersity and conformation), based on SEC-MALS analyses, synchronised by the monomer conversion determined by using Raman and infrared spectroscopies, a common denominator of the aforementioned instrumental platform.

Real-time shaping of entangled photons by classical control and feedback.

Quantum technologies hold great promise for revolutionizing photonic applications such as cryptography. Yet, their implementation in real-world scenarios is challenging, mostly because of sensitivity of quantum correlations to scattering. Recent developments in optimizing the shape of single photons introduce new ways to control entangled photons. Nevertheless, shaping single photons in real time remains a challenge due to the weak associated signals, which are too noisy for optimization processes. Here, we overcome this challenge and control scattering of entangled photons by shaping the classical laser beam that stimulates their creation. We discover that because the classical beam and the entangled photons follow the same path, the strong classical signal can be used for optimizing the weak quantum signal. We show that this approach can increase the length of free-space turbulent quantum links by up to two orders of magnitude, opening the door for using wavefront shaping for quantum communications.

Reconfigurable microfluidics: real-time shaping of virtual channels through hydrodynamic forces.

To break the current paradigm in microfluidics that directly links device design to functionality, we introduce microfluidic "virtual channels" that can be dynamically shaped in real-time. A virtual channel refers to a flow path within a microfluidic flow cell, guiding an injected reagent along a user-defined trajectory solely by hydrodynamic forces. Virtual channels dynamically reproduce key microfluidic functionality: directed transport of minute volumes of liquid, splitting, merging and mixing of flows. Virtual channels can be formed directly on standard biological substrates, which we demonstrate by sequential immunodetection at arrays of individual reaction sites on a glass slide and by alternating between local and global processing of surface-adherent cell-block sections. This approach is simple, versatile and generic enough to form the basis of a new class of microfluidic techniques.

Dynamic pressure based mid-course guidance scheme for hypersonic boost-glide vehicle

In this study, a guidance scheme for an aerodynamically controlled hypersonic boost-glide class of flight vehicle is proposed. In this work, optimum glide dynamic pressure corresponding to maximum L/ D throughout the flight is calculated and a mid-course guidance law formulation to track the dynamic pressure while suppressing phugoid oscillations is proposed for real-time flight trajectory shaping. Efficacy of the proposed guidance scheme has been demonstrated through simulation studies. Robustness analysis on the proposed guidance algorithm is carried out using Monte Carlo technique. Lastly, a pattern search algorithm-based offline generated maximum L/ D optimal trajectory existing in literature, which meets minimum dynamic pressure, maximum airframe skin temperature, as well as other in-flight and terminal constraints is used as reference trajectory to evaluate the performance of the proposed guidance scheme.

Layer potential approach for fast eigenvalue characterization of the Helmholtz equation with mixed boundary conditions

Our goal is to propose an efficient approach to characterize the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Helmholtz equation with mixed (Dirichlet and Neumann) boundary conditions. Our approach is based on layer potentials. We extend the eigenvalue characterization known for Neumann boundary conditions to the case of mixed boundary conditions. The problem is motivated by the need of such methods for real-time wave-field shaping by electronically tunable surfaces.

Progress and plan of KSTAR plasma control system upgrade

The plasma control system (PCS) has been one of essential systems in annual KSTAR plasma campaigns: starting from a single-process version in 2008, extensive upgrades are done through the previous 7 years in order to achieve major goals of KSTAR performance enhancement. Major implementations are explained in this paper. In consequences of successive upgrades, the present KSTAR PCS is able to achieve ∼48s of 500kA plasma pulses with full real-time shaping controls and real-time NB power controls. It has become a huge system capable of dealing with 8 separate categories of algorithms, 26 actuators directly controllable during the shot, and real-time data communication units consisting of +180 analog channels and +600 digital input/outputs through the reflective memory (RFM) network. The next upgrade of the KSTAR PCS is planned in 2015 before the campaign. An overview of the upgrade layout will be given for this paper. The real-time system box is planned to use the CERN MRG-Realtime OS, an ITER-compatible standard operating system. New hardware is developed for faster real-time streaming system for future installations of actuators/diagnostics.

Design and fabrication of a catheter magnetic navigation system for cardiac arrhythmias

In the past decade, remotely controlled catheter ablation has emerged as a novel approach to reduce fluoroscopy exposure and provide stable and reproducible catheter movement during cardiac surgeries for arrhythmias, and many groups have obtained very promising achievements in this research field. Meanwhile, the catheter magnetic navigation system (MNS) is very competitive among these catheter navigation systems since there are no moving parts in the magnet system. A catheter MNS that provides real-time navigation of the catheter in the beating heat is under development in the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The catheter navigation system consists of eight spherically aligned electromagnets that generate the dynamically shaped magnetic field around the torso of the subject, eight four-phase high-current power supplies that excite the eight electromagnets to generate the needed magnetic field in time, and programmed magnetic navigation software that transfers the control signal to the electromagnets on the basis of the designated directions given by the joystick. The real-time shaping of the magnetic field functions for the 3-D direction change of a magnetized electrophysiology ablation catheter in the beating heart. EnSite-NavX™ 3-D electroanatomic mapping system is employed to integrate with the MNS. Detailed design, fabrication, and test of the remotely controlled MNS (RCMNS) are mainly introduced herein, and preliminary study on animals using RCMNS is on the way.

An overview of KSTAR results

Since the first H-mode discharges in 2010, the duration of the H-mode state has been extended and a significantly wider operational window of plasma parameters has been attained. Using a second neutral beam (NB) source and improved tuning of equilibrium configuration with real-time plasma control, a stored energy of Wtot ∼ 450 kJ has been achieved with a corresponding energy confinement time of τE ∼ 163 ms. Recent discharges, produced in the fall of 2012, have reached plasma βN up to 2.9 and surpassed the n = 1 ideal no-wall stability limit computed for H-mode pressure profiles, which is one of the key threshold parameters defining advanced tokamak operation. Typical H-mode discharges were operated with a plasma current of 600 kA at a toroidal magnetic field BT = 2 T. L–H transitions were obtained with 0.8–3.0 MW of NB injection power in both single- and double-null configurations, with H-mode durations up to ∼15 s at 600 kA of plasma current. The measured power threshold as a function of line-averaged density showed a roll-over with a minimum value of ∼0.8 MW at . Several edge-localized mode (ELM) control techniques during H-mode were examined with successful results including resonant magnetic perturbation, supersonic molecular beam injection (SMBI), vertical jogging and electron cyclotron current drive injection into the pedestal region. We observed various ELM responses, i.e. suppression or mitigation, depending on the relative phase of in-vessel control coil currents. In particular, with the 90° phase of the n = 1 RMP as the most resonant configuration, a complete suppression of type-I ELMs was demonstrated. In addition, fast vertical jogging of the plasma column was also observed to be effective in ELM pace-making. SMBI-mitigated ELMs, a state of mitigated ELMs, were sustained for a few tens of ELM periods. A simple cellular automata (‘sand-pile’) model predicted that shallow deposition near the pedestal foot induced small-sized high-frequency ELMs, leading to the mitigation of large ELMs. In addition to the ELM control experiments, various physics topics were explored focusing on ITER-relevant physics issues such as the alteration of toroidal rotation caused by both electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) and externally applied 3D fields, and the observed rotation drop by ECRH in NB-heated plasmas was investigated in terms of either a reversal of the turbulence-driven residual stress due to the transition of ion temperature gradient to trapped electron mode turbulence or neoclassical toroidal viscosity (NTV) torque by the internal kink mode. The suppression of runaway electrons using massive gas injection of deuterium showed that runaway electrons were avoided only below 3 T in KSTAR. Operation in 2013 is expected to routinely exceed the n = 1 ideal MHD no-wall stability boundary in the long-pulse H-mode (⩾10 s) by applying real-time shaping control, enabling n = 1 resistive wall mode active control studies. In addition, intensive works for ELM mitigation, ELM dynamics, toroidal rotation changes by both ECRH and NTV variations, have begun in the present campaign, and will be investigated in more detail with profile measurements of different physical quantities by techniques such as electron cyclotron emission imaging, charge exchange spectroscopy, Thomson scattering and beam emission spectroscopy diagnostics.

Multivariable model-based shape control for the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX)

Plasma current, position and shape control is a challenging problem due to the strong coupling between the different parameters describing the shape of the plasma. By leveraging the availability of rtEFIT, this paper proposes a robust model-based multi-input–multi-output (MIMO) controller to provide real-time shaping, position stabilization and current regulation in NSTX. The proposed controller is composed of three loops: the first loop is devoted to plasma current regulation, the second loop is dedicated to plasma radial and vertical position stabilization, and the third loop is used to control the plasma shape. This control approach transforms the shape control problem into an output tracking problem. The goal is the minimization of a quadratic cost function that describes the tracking error in steady state. A singular value decomposition (SVD) of the nominal plasma model is carried out to decouple and identify the most relevant control channels. The H ∞ technique is used to minimize the tracking errors and optimize input efforts. Computer simulation results illustrate the performance of the robust model-based shape controller, showing potential for improving the performance of present non-model-based controllers.

A Study on Dynamic Performance of Precise XY Stages Using Real-Time Input Shaping

Reducing residual vibration is very crucial to enhance the speed and precision of XY stages which are often employed by manufacturing/measuring machines. Input shaping is known to be a very effective tool for suppressing such residual vibration without introducing any complicated sensors and feedback control. This paper investigated the effects of input command discretization parameters in real-time input shaping, such as discretizing interval and duration time, on the dynamic performance of a XY stage equipped with servo motors. A simulation model is established to investigate the dynamic performance of the XY stage. In order to evaluate the real-time input shaping parameters on the performance of the XY stage, two fundamental input shaping schemes, ZV(zero vibration) and ZVD(zero vibration and derivative), are implemented and tested with the discretizing interval and duration time varied. The experimental results provide a strategy to gain better performance.

A fast, programmable, stand-alone pulse generator emulating spectroscopy nuclear events

The design of a fast, programmable, stand-alone pulse generator emulating spectroscopy nuclear events is described. The generator is one unit in a system aiming to test the validity of the simulation and theoretical work relating to the shaping, acquisition, and processing of spectroscopy signals in different experimental situations arising from different technical and scientific fields. The generator output, which also includes piled-up shapes, can be used in many different ways. For example, it can be used: (1) as an input to a charge sensitive preamplifier and shaping amplifier system; (2) as an input to a module for real-time digital shaping of spectroscopy pulses; and (3) it can generate a digital sequence emulating a digitally sampled analog pulse. The signals that it can emulate include those from simple charge sensitive preamplifiers, from more refined analog shapers, and the signals generated directly from scintillation detectors. The main element of the generator is the Analog Devices 21060, a fast and flexible digital signal processor (DSP). This paper considers various generator configurations arising from the need to reach a compromise among generator speed, shape resolution, and memory requirements. It is possible to program both the emulated average counting rate and the time interval between two consecutive samples (tns) using a predetermined pulse shape. The minimum tns value is equal to 10 ns in parallel configurations.