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This paper presents two types of nonlinear controllers for an autonomous quadrotor helicopter. One type, a feedback linearization controller involves high-order derivative terms and turns out to be quite sensitive to sensor noise as well as modeling uncertainty. The second type involves a new approach to an adaptive sliding mode controller using input augmentation in order to account for the underactuated property of the helicopter, sensor noise, and uncertainty without using control inputs of large magnitude. The sliding mode controller performs very well under noisy conditions, and adaptation can effectively estimate uncertainty such as ground effects.

The Drosophila lymph gland, the larval hematopoietic organ comprised of prohemocytes and mature hemocytes, has been a valuable model for understanding mechanisms underlying hematopoiesis and immunity. Three types of mature hemocytes have been characterized in the lymph gland: plasmatocytes, lamellocytes, and crystal cells, which are analogous to vertebrate myeloid cells, yet molecular underpinnings of the lymph gland hemocytes have been less investigated. Here, we use single-cell RNA sequencing to comprehensively analyze heterogeneity of developing hemocytes in the lymph gland, and discover previously undescribed hemocyte types including adipohemocytes, stem-like prohemocytes, and intermediate prohemocytes. Additionally, we identify the developmental trajectory of hemocytes during normal development as well as the emergence of the lamellocyte lineage following active cellular immunity caused by wasp infestation. Finally, we establish similarities and differences between embryonically derived- and larval lymph gland hemocytes. Altogether, our study provides detailed insights into the hemocyte development and cellular immune responses at single-cell resolution.

A transparent paper made of chitin nanofibers (ChNF) is introduced and its utilization as a substrate for flexible organic light-emitting diodes is demonstrated. Given its promising macroscopic properties, biofriendly characteristics, and availability of the raw material, the utilization of the ChNF transparent paper as a structural platform for flexible green electronics is envisaged.

Nonlinear PID control systems for a quadrotor UAV are proposed to follow an attitude tracking command and a position tracking command. The control systems are developed directly on the special Euclidean group to avoid singularities of minimal attitude representations or ambiguity of quaternions. A new form of integral control terms is proposed to guarantee almost global asymptotic stability when there exist uncertainties in the quadrotor dynamics. A rigorous mathematical proof is given. Numerical example illustrating a complex maneuver, and a preliminary experimental result are provided. Recently, the dynamics of a quadrotor UAV is globally expressed on the special Euclidean group, SE(3), and nonlinear control systems are developed to track outputs