Search Results (3)

Accurate State-of-Charge estimation is crucial for applications that utilise lithium-ion batteries. In real-time scenarios, battery models tend to present significant uncertainty, making it desirable to jointly estimate both the State of Charge and relevant unknown model parameters. However, parameter estimation typically necessitates that the battery input signals induce a persistence of excitation property, a need which is often not met in practical operations. This document introduces a joint state of charge/parameter estimator that relaxes this stringent requirement. This estimator is based on the Generalized Parameter Estimation-Based Observer framework. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time it has been applied in the context of lithium-ion batteries. Its advantages are demonstrated through simulations. Full article

(1) Background and Purpose: Ebola virus (EBOV) is the causative agent of Ebola virus disease (EVD), which causes extremely high mortality and widespread epidemics. The only glycoprotein (GP) on the surface of EBOV particles is the key to mediating viral invasion into host cells. DNA vaccines for EBOV are in development, but their effectiveness is unclear. The lack of immune characteristics resides in antigenic MHC class II reactivity. (2) Methods: We selected MHC-II molecules from four human leukocyte antigen II (HLA-II) superfamilies with 98% population coverage and eight mouse H2-I alleles. IEDB, NetMHCIIpan, SYFPEITHI, and Rankpep were used to screen MHC-II-restricted epitopes with high affinity for EBOV GP. Further immunogenicity and conservation analyses were performed using VaxiJen and BLASTp, respectively. EpiDock was used to simulate molecular docking. Cluster analysis and binding affinity analysis of EBOV GP epitopes and selected MHC-II molecules were performed using data from NetMHCIIpan. The selective GP epitopes were verified by the enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay using splenocytes of BALB/c (H2d), C3H, and C57 mice after DNA vaccine pVAX-GP_EBO immunization. Subsequently, BALB/c mice were immunized with Protein-GP_EBO, plasmid pVAX-GP_EBO, and pVAX-LAMP/GP_EBO, which encoded EBOV GP. The dominant epitopes of BALB/c (H-2-I-AdEd genotype) mice were verified by the enzyme-linked immunospot (ELISpot) assay. It is also used to evaluate and explore the advantages of pVAX-LAMP/GP_EBO and the reasons behind them. (3) Results: Thirty-one HLA-II-restricted and 68 H2-I-restricted selective epitopes were confirmed to have high affinity, immunogenicity, and conservation. Nineteen selective epitopes have cross-species reactivity with good performance in MHC-II molecular docking. The ELISpot results showed that pVAX-GP_EBO could induce a cellular immune response to the synthesized selective peptides. The better immunoprotection of the DNA vaccines pVAX-LAMP/GP_EBO coincides with the enhancement of the MHC class II response. (4) Conclusions: Promising MHC-II-restricted candidate epitopes of EBOV GP were identified in humans and mice, which is of great significance for the development and evaluation of Ebola vaccines. Full article

The full-information state feedback controller is usually used for regulating the output voltage of converters. Sufficient sensors should be adopted to measure all of the states. However, the extensive use of current sensors not only increases the cost of the overall system, but also affects the reliability. In this paper, the sensorless control problem of DC–DC boost converters is addressed to avoid the need for the current sensor. First, a PI passivity-based control (PI-PBC) is proposed to stabilize this converter. The main feature of this design is that the exponential convergence of the system is guaranteed. Afterward, a generalized parameter estimation-based observer (GPEBO) is presented to estimate the inductor current with the finite-time convergence (FTC). By adding this estimate in the above PI-PBC, a sensorless controller is developed. Thanks to this FTC, the exponential convergence of an overall closed-loop system is ensured. Finally, the simulation and experimental results are given to assess the performance of the proposed controller. Full article