Biomedical subjects

Chih-Min Lin

Publications and source records attributed to Chih-Min Lin.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

The delayed genotoxic effect of N-nitroso N-propoxur insecticide in mammalian cells.

The N-nitroso derivative of an extensively used insecticide, propoxur, consistently induced dose-responsive chromosome aberrations and sister-chromatid exchanges (SCEs) in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO-W8) cells. Further investigations indicated that post-treatment incubation with a regular 1.5-cell-cycle period did not offer an unbiased estimation of the genotoxicity of N-nitroso carbamate insecticides. The scale of chromosome aberration induction increased with extension of the post-treatment incubation period. Comparable phenomena were not found in CHO-AGT cells proficient for O(6)-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase. In CHO-W8 cells, pulsed-treatment of the insecticide in the 1st replication cycle showed higher SCE induction than in the 2nd cycle. Similar phenomenon was also found in SCE induced by N-nitroso derivatives from other carbamate insecticides including aldicarb, carbofuran and methomyl. Treated cells did not show significantly perturbed cell cycle progression until 12 h after treatment removal. Based on the above observations, the O(6)-methylguanine-DNA adduct is suggested to be the major lesion caused by the delayed genotoxic effect of N-methyl carbamate insecticides as described in this report.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Molecular signaling in feather morphogenesis.

The development and regeneration of feathers have gained much attention recently because of progress in the following areas. First, pattern formation. The exquisite spatial arrangement provides a simple model for decoding the rules of morphogenesis. Second, stem cell biology. In every molting, a few stem cells have to rebuild the entire epithelial organ, providing much to learn on how to regenerate an organ physiologically. Third, evolution and development ('Evo-Devo'). The discovery of feathered dinosaur fossils in China prompted enthusiastic inquiries about the origin and evolution of feathers. Progress has been made in elucidating feather morphogenesis in five successive phases: macro-patterning, micro-patterning, intra-bud morphogenesis, follicle morphogenesis and regenerative cycling.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Distinct mechanisms underlie pattern formation in the skin and skin appendages.

Patterns form with the break of homogeneity and lead to the emergence of new structure or arrangement. There are different physiological and pathological mechanisms that lead to the formation of patterns. Here, we first introduce the basics of pattern formation and their possible biological basis. We then discuss different categories of skin patterns and their potential underlying molecular mechanisms. Some patterns, such as the lines of Blaschko and Naevus, are based on cell lineage and genetic mosaicism. Other patterns, such as regionally specific skin appendages, can be set by distinct combinatorial molecular codes, which in turn may be set by morphogenetic gradients. There are also some patterns, such as the arrangement of hair follicles (hair whorls) and fingerprints, which involve genetics as well as stochastic epigenetic events based on physiochemical principles. Many appendage primordia are laid out in developmental waves. In the adult, some patterns, such as those involving cycling hair follicles, may appear as traveling waves in mice. Since skin appendages can renew themselves in regeneration, their size and shape can still change in the adult via regulation by hormones and the environment. Some lesion patterns are based on pathological changes involving the above processes and can be used as diagnostic criteria in medicine. Understanding the different mechanisms that lead to patterns in the skin will help us appreciate their full significance in morphogenesis and medical research. Much remains to be learned about complex pattern formation, if we are to bridge the gap between molecular biology and organism phenotypes.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Wavelet adaptive backstepping control for a class of nonlinear systems.

This paper proposes a wavelet adaptive backstepping control (WABC) system for a class of second-order nonlinear systems. The WABC comprises a neural backstepping controller and a robust controller. The neural backstepping controller containing a wavelet neural network (WNN) identifier is the principal controller, and the robust controller is designed to achieve L2 tracking performance with desired attenuation level. Since the WNN uses wavelet functions, its learning capability is superior to the conventional neural network for system identification. Moreover, the adaptation laws of the control system are derived in the sense of Lyapunov function and Barbalat's lemma, thus the system can be guaranteed to be asymptotically stable. The proposed WABC is applied to two nonlinear systems, a chaotic system and a wing-rock motion system to illustrate its effectiveness. Simulation results verify that the proposed WABC can achieve favorable tracking performance by incorporating of WNN identification, adaptive backstepping control, and L2 robust control techniques.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Missile guidance law design using adaptive cerebellar model articulation controller.

An adaptive cerebellar model articulation controller (CMAC) is proposed for command to line-of-sight (CLOS) missile guidance law design. In this design, the three-dimensional (3-D) CLOS guidance problem is formulated as a tracking problem of a time-varying nonlinear system. The adaptive CMAC control system is comprised of a CMAC and a compensation controller. The CMAC control is used to imitate a feedback linearization control law and the compensation controller is utilized to compensate the difference between the feedback linearization control law and the CMAC control. The online adaptive law is derived based on the Lyapunov stability theorem to learn the weights of receptive-field basis functions in CMAC control. In addition, in order to relax the requirement of approximation error bound, an estimation law is derived to estimate the error bound. Then the adaptive CMAC control system is designed to achieve satisfactory tracking performance. Simulation results for different engagement scenarios illustrate the validity of the proposed adaptive CMAC-based guidance law.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2004

Morphogenesis of chicken liver: identification of localized growth zones and the role of beta-catenin/Wnt in size regulation.

During development and regeneration, new cells are added and incorporated to the liver parenchyma. Regulation of this process contributes to the final size and shape of the particular organs, including the liver. We identified the distribution of liver growth zones using an embryonic chicken model because of its accessibility to experimentation. Hepatocyte precursors were first generated all over the primordia surrounding the vitelline blood vessel at embryonic day 2 (E2), then became limited to the peripheral growth zones around E6. Differentiating daughter cells of the peripheral hepatocyte precursors were shown by DiI microinjection to be laid inward and were subsequently organized to form the hepatic architecture. At E8, hepatocyte precursor cells were further restricted to limited segments of the periphery, called localized growth zones (LoGZ). Adhesion and signaling molecules in the growth zone were studied. Among them, beta-catenin and Wnt 3a were highly enriched. We overexpressed constitutively active beta-catenin using replication competent avian sarcoma (RCAS) virus. Liver size increased about 3-fold with an expanded hepatocyte precursor cell population. In addition, blocking beta-catenin activity by either overexpression of dominant-negative LEF1 or overexpression of a secreted Wnt inhibitor Dickkopf (DKK) resulted in decreased liver size with altered liver shape. Our data suggest that (1) the duration of active growth zone activity modulates the size of the liver; (2) a shift in the position of the localized growth zone helps to shape the liver; and (3) beta-catenin/Wnt are involved in regulating growth zone activities during liver development.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Distinct Wnt members regulate the hierarchical morphogenesis of skin regions (spinal tract) and individual feathers.

Skin morphogenesis occurs in successive stages. First, the skin forms distinct regions (macropatterning). Then skin appendages with particular shapes and sizes form within each region (micropatterning). Ectopic DKK expression inhibited dermis formation in feather tracts and individual buds, implying the importance of Wnts, and prompted the assessment of individual Wnt functions at different morphogenetic levels using the feather model. Wnt 1, 3a, 5a and 11 initially were expressed moderately throughout the feather tract then were up-regulated in restricted regions following two modes: Wnt 1 and 3a became restricted to the placodal epithelium, then to the elongated distal bud epidermis; Wnt 5a and 11 intensified in the inter-tract region and interprimordia epidermis or dermis, respectively, then appeared in the elongated distal bud dermis. Their role in feather tract formation was determined using RCAS mediated misexpression in ovo at E2/E3. Their function in periodic feather patterning was examined by misexpression in vitro using reconstituted E7 skin explant cultures. Wnt 1 reduced spinal tract size, but enhanced feather primordia size. Wnt 3a increased dermal thickness, expanded the spinal tract size, reduced interbud domain spacing, and produced non-tapering "giant buds". Wnt 11 and dominant negative Wnt 1 enhanced interbud spacing, and generated thinner buds. In cultured dermal fibroblasts, Wnt 1 and 3a stimulated cell proliferation and activated the canonical beta-catenin pathway. Wnt 11 inhibited proliferation but stimulated migration. Wnt 5a and 11 triggered the JNK pathway. Thus distinctive Wnts have positive and negative roles in forming the dermis, tracts, interbud spacing and the growth and shaping of individual buds.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Adaptive hybrid control for linear piezoelectric ceramic motor drive using diagonal recurrent CMAC network.

This paper presents an adaptive hybrid control system using a diagonal recurrent cerebellar-model-articulation-computer (DRCMAC) network to control a linear piezoelectric ceramic motor (LPCM) driven by a two-inductance two-capacitance (LLCC) resonant inverter. Since the dynamic characteristics and motor parameters of the LPCM are highly nonlinear and time varying, an adaptive hybrid control system is therefore designed based on a hypothetical dynamic model to achieve high-precision position control. The architecture of DRCMAC network is a modified model of a cerebellar-model-articulation-computer (CMAC) network to attain a small number of receptive-fields. The novel idea of this study is that it employs the concept of diagonal recurrent neural network (DRNN) in order to capture the system dynamics and convert the static CMAC into a dynamic one. This adaptive hybrid control system is composed of two parts. One is a DRCMAC network controller that is used to mimic a conventional computed torque control law due to unknown system dynamics, and the other is a compensated controller with bound estimation algorithm that is utilized to recover the residual approximation error for guaranteeing the stable characteristic. The effectiveness of the proposed driving circuit and control system is verified with hardware experiments under the occurrence of uncertainties. In addition, the advantages of the proposed control scheme are indicated in comparison with a traditional integral-proportional (IP) position control system.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2004

Adaptive CMAC-based supervisory control for uncertain nonlinear systems.

An adaptive cerebellar-model-articulation-controller (CMAC)-based supervisory control system is developed for uncertain nonlinear systems. This adaptive CMAC-based supervisory control system consists of an adaptive CMAC and a supervisory controller. In the adaptive CMAC, a CMAC is used to mimic an ideal control law and a compensated controller is designed to recover the residual of the approximation error. The supervisory controller is appended to the adaptive CMAC to force the system states within a predefined constraint set. In this design, if the adaptive CMAC can maintain the system states within the constraint set, the supervisory controller will be idle. Otherwise, the supervisory controller starts working to pull the states back to the constraint set. In addition, the adaptive laws of the control system are derived in the sense of Lyapunov function, so that the stability of the system can be guaranteed. Furthermore, to relax the requirement of approximation error bound, an estimation law is derived to estimate the error bound. Finally, the proposed control system is applied to control a robotic manipulator, a chaotic circuit and a linear piezoelectric ceramic motor (LPCM). Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme for uncertain nonlinear systems.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2004

Integument pattern formation involves genetic and epigenetic controls: feather arrays simulated by digital hormone models.

Pattern formation is a fundamental morphogenetic process. Models based on genetic and epigenetic control have been proposed but remain controversial. Here we use feather morphogenesis for further evaluation. Adhesion molecules and/or signaling molecules were first expressed homogenously in feather tracts (restrictive mode, appear earlier) or directly in bud or inter-bud regions ( de novo mode, appear later). They either activate or inhibit bud formation, but paradoxically colocalize in the bud. Using feather bud reconstitution, we showed that completely dissociated cells can reform periodic patterns without reference to previous positional codes. The patterning process has the characteristics of being self-organizing, dynamic and plastic. The final pattern is an equilibrium state reached by competition, and the number and size of buds can be altered based on cell number and activator/inhibitor ratio, respectively. We developed a Digital Hormone Model which consists of (1) competent cells without identity that move randomly in a space, (2) extracellular signaling hormones which diffuse by a reaction-diffusion mechanism and activate or inhibit cell adhesion, and (3) cells which respond with topological stochastic actions manifested as changes in cell adhesion. Based on probability, the results are cell clusters arranged in dots or stripes. Thus genetic control provides combinational molecular information which defines the properties of the cells but not the final pattern. Epigenetic control governs interactions among cells and their environment based on physical-chemical rules (such as those described in the Digital Hormone Model). Complex integument patterning is the sum of these two components of control and that is why integument patterns are usually similar but non-identical. These principles may be shared by other pattern formation processes such as barb ridge formation, fingerprints, pigmentation patterning, etc. The Digital Hormone Model can also be applied to swarming robot navigation, reaching intelligent automata and representing a self-re-configurable type of control rather than a follow-the-instruction type of control.

Animals↗