Unknown Input Estimation Techniques in Networks and Applications to Open Channel Hydraulic Systems

This thesis is divided in two fundamental parts, namely, the Part I, in which the theoretical background of the UIO, Consensus Algorithms and Decentralized Systems is discussed; after a collection of algorithms is presented. In the Part II, some important applicative problems are addressed and solved by means of the proposed approaches. More specifically, as for the Part I, in Chapter 1 the fundamentals regarding the matrix and graph theory are recalled. In the subsequent Chapter 2 the attention is focused on the strong observability approach, and its main features are described. Chapter 3 refers to the presentation of the Consensus algorithm, while in Chapter 4 an estimation algorithm is recalled, which allows the estimation of the state in an “overlapped” system also in presence of Unknown Inputs (in Chapter 5), which are estimated as well. In the Part II the estimation problems of flow ad infiltration, in open channel hydraulic sys- tem are solved, using a UIO approach(in Chapters 6). In Chapters 7, considering open channel hydraulic system, the UIO approach is used to solve a problem of fault detection and compensation

Rice landscape management for raising water productivity, conserving resources, and improving livelihoods, in upper catchments of the Mekong and Red River basins

The project validated and disseminated a large number of improved rice-based cropping systems technologies suited to upland agro-ecologies. These improved technologies have good potentials to raise the productivity of water, land, and labor. The innovative strategies employed by the project including the paradigm of landscape management, multi-institutional partnership, multidisciplinary teamwork, farmer participatory approach to technology validation, and community-based seed production led to successful generation and dissemination of technologies. Initial monitoring to adoption of technologies showed good indications of spread and promising impacts on food security, poverty reduction, and environmental protection

Conservation ecology and phylogenetics of the Indus River dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor)

The historical range of the Indus River dolphin has declined by 80% since the 19th century and has been fragmented into 17 river sections by construction of irrigation barrages. Dolphin sighting and interview surveys showed that river dolphins persist in six river sections, have been extirpated from ten, and are of unknown status in the remaining section. Logistic regression and survival modelling showed that low dry season river discharge was the primary factor responsible for the Indus dolphins range decline. Abundance of the three largest Indus dolphin subpopulations was estimated using tandem vessel-based direct counts, corrected for missed animals using conditional likelihood capture-recapture models. The entire subspecies was estimated to number between 1550-1750 in 2006. Dolphin encounter rates within the Guddu-Sukkur subpopulation (10.35/km) were the highest reported for any river dolphin and direct counts suggest that this subpopulation may have been increasing in abundance since the 1970s when hunting was banned. The dry season habitat selection of Indus dolphins was explored using Generalised Linear Models of dolphin distribution and abundance in relation to river geomorphology, and channel geometry in cross-section. Channel cross-sectional area was shown to be the most important factor determining dolphin presence. Indus dolphins avoided channels with small cross-sectional area <700m2, presumably due to the risk of entrapment and reduced foraging opportunities. The phylogenetics of Indus and Ganges River dolphins was explored using Mitochondrial control region sequences. Genetic diversity was low, and all 20 Indus River dolphin samples were identical. There were no haplotypes shared by Indus and Ganges River dolphins, phylogenetic trees demonstrated reciprocal monophyletic separation and Bayesian modelling suggested that the two dolphin populations diverged approximately 0.66 million years ago. Declining river flows threaten Indus dolphins especially at the upstream end of their range, and it is important to determine how much water is required to sustain a dolphin population through the dry season. Fisheries interactions are an increasing problem that will be best addressed through localised, community-based conservation activities

The Chittagong story: studies on the ecology of rat floods and bamboo masting

Rodent population outbreaks due to the 50-year cycle of gregarious flowering and seed masting of Melocanna baccifera were first noted in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh during the crop production cycle of 2008. The wave of flowering has steadily moved southward through the region each year, with seed masting still occurring in some areas of the CHT during 2010. Because of a lack of surveillance, it is not yet known whether all Melocanna bamboo forests across the region have now initiated flowering. Ecological surveys carried out during the masting event have provided some preliminary evidence that nearly all rodent species are able to exploit Melocanna bamboo seeds as a food resource, with nearly 30% of the seed fallen in forests damaged by rodents. Breeding potential of the predominant species found, Rattus rattus, appears to confirm that aseasonal breeding occurs due to the abundant supply of bamboo seed during masting events. These preliminary results obtained from ongoing research surveys are discussed in the context of the management response to the regional famine triggered by the severe crop damage caused by rodent population outbreaks

Coalitional model predictive control for systems of systems

An aspect so far rarely contemplated in distributed control problems is the explicit consideration of individual (local) interests of the components of a complex system. Indeed, the focus of the majority of the literature about distributed control has been the overall system performance. While on one hand this permitted to address fundamental properties of centralized control, such as system-wide optimality and stability, one the other hand it implied assuming unrestricted cooperation across local controllers. However, when dealing with multi-agent systems with a strong heterogeneous character, cooperation between the agents cannot be taken for granted (due to, for example, logistics, market competition), and selfish interests may not be neglected. Another critical point that must be kept into consideration is the diversity characterizing systems of systems (SoS), yielding very complex interactions between the agents involved (one example of such system is the smart grid). In order to tackle such inherent aspects of SoS, the research presented in this thesis has been concerned with the development of a novel framework, the coalitional control, that extends the scope of advanced control methods (in particular MPC) by drawing concepts from cooperative game theory that are suited for the inherent heterogeneity of SoS, providing as well an economical interpretation useful to explicitly take into account local selfish interests. Thus, coalitional control aims at governing the association/dissociation dynamics of the agents controlling the system, according to the expected benefits of their possible cooperation. From a control theoretical perspective, this framework is founded on the theory of switched systems and variable structure/topology networked systems, topics that are recently experiencing a renewed interest within the community. The main concepts and challenges in coalitional control, and the links with cooperative network game theory are presented in this document, tracing a path from model partitioning to the control schemes whose principles delineate the idea of coalitional control. This thesis focuses on two basic architectures: (i) a hierarchically supervised evolution of the coalitional structure, and (ii) a protocol for autonomous negotiation between the agents, with specific mechanisms for benefit redistribution, leading to the emergence of cooperating clusters.Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado U

The vestibular system: a spatial reference for bodily self-consciousness

Self-consciousness is the remarkable human experience of being a subject: the “I”. Self- consciousness is typically bound to a body, and particularly to the spatial dimensions of the body, as well as to its location and displacement in the gravitational field. Because the vestibular system encodes head position and movement in three-dimensional space, vestibular cortical processing likely contributes to spatial aspects of bodily self- consciousness. We review here recent data showing vestibular effects on first-person perspective (the feeling from where “I” experience the world) and self-location (the feeling where “I” am located in space). We compare these findings to data showing vestibular effects on mental spatial transformation, self-motion perception, and body representation showing vestibular contributions to various spatial representations of the body with respect to the external world. Finally, we discuss the role for four posterior brain regions that process vestibular and other multisensory signals to encode spatial aspects of bodily self-consciousness: temporoparietal junction, parietoinsular vestibular cortex, ventral intraparietal region, and medial superior temporal region. We propose that vestibular processing in these cortical regions is critical in linking multisensory signals from the body (personal and peripersonal space) with external (extrapersonal) space. Therefore, the vestibular system plays a critical role for neural representations of spatial aspects of bodily self-consciousness

The Medieval Globe 1 (2014) - Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death

The plague organism (Yersinia pestis) killed an estimated 40% to 60% of all people when it spread rapidly through the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe in the fourteenth century: an event known as the Black Death. Previous research has shown, especially for Western Europe, how population losses then led to structural economic, political, and social changes. But why and how did the pandemic happen in the first place? When and where did it begin? How was it sustained? What was its full geographic extent? And when did it really end? Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World is the first to synthesize the new evidence and research methods that are providing fresh answers to these crucial questions. It was only in 2011, thanks to ancient DNA recovered from remains unearthed in London’s East Smithfield cemetery, that the full genome of the plague pathogen was identified. This single-celled organism probably originated 3000-4000 years ago and has caused three pandemics in recorded history: the Justinianic (or First) Plague Pandemic, around 541-750; the Black Death (Second Plague Pandemic), conventionally dated to the 1340s; and the Third Plague Pandemic, usually dated from around 1894 to the 1930s. This ground-breaking book brings together scholars from the humanities and social and physical sci­ences to address the question of how recent work in genetics, zoology, and epi­de­miology can enable a rethinking of the Black Death\u27s global reach and its larger historical significance. It forms the inaugural double issue of The Medieval Globe, a new journal sponsored by the Program in Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This issue of The Medieval Globe is published with the support of the World History Center at the University of Pittsburgh

TMG 1 (2014): Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World: Rethinking the Black Death, ed. Monica Green

The plague organism (Yersinia pestis) killed an estimated 40% to 60% of all people when it spread rapidly through the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe in the fourteenth century: an event known as the Black Death. Previous research has shown, especially for Western Europe, how population losses then led to structural economic, political, and social changes. But why and how did the pandemic happen in the first place? When and where did it begin? How was it sustained? What was its full geographic extent? And when did it really end? Pandemic Disease in the Medieval World is the first book to synthesize the new evidence and research methods that are providing fresh answers to these crucial questions. It was only in 2011, thanks to ancient DNA recovered from remains unearthed in London’s East Smithfield cemetery, that the full genome of the plague pathogen was identified. This single-celled organism probably originated 3000-4000 years ago and has caused three pandemics in recorded history: the Justinianic (or First) Plague Pandemic, around 541-750; the Black Death (Second Plague Pandemic), conventionally dated to the 1340s; and the Third Plague Pandemic, usually dated from around 1894 to the 1930s. This ground-breaking book brings together scholars from the humanities and social and physical sci­ences to address the question of how recent work in genetics, zoology, and epi­de­miology can enable a rethinking of the Black Death\u27s global reach and its larger historical significance. It forms the inaugural double issue of The Medieval Globe, a new journal sponsored by the Program in Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This issue of The Medieval Globe is published with the support of the World History Center at the University of Pittsburgh.https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_globe/1000/thumbnail.jp