Structure-Preserving Model Reduction of Physical Network Systems

This paper considers physical network systems where the energy storage is naturally associated to the nodes of the graph, while the edges of the graph correspond to static couplings. The first sections deal with the linear case, covering examples such as mass-damper and hydraulic systems, which have a structure that is similar to symmetric consensus dynamics. The last section is concerned with a specific class of nonlinear physical network systems; namely detailed-balanced chemical reaction networks governed by mass action kinetics. In both cases, linear and nonlinear, the structure of the dynamics is similar, and is based on a weighted Laplacian matrix, together with an energy function capturing the energy storage at the nodes. We discuss two methods for structure-preserving model reduction. The first one is clustering; aggregating the nodes of the underlying graph to obtain a reduced graph. The second approach is based on neglecting the energy storage at some of the nodes, and subsequently eliminating those nodes (called Kron reduction).</p

Digital Signal Processing (Second Edition)

This book provides an account of the mathematical background, computational methods and software engineering associated with digital signal processing. The aim has been to provide the reader with the mathematical methods required for signal analysis which are then used to develop models and algorithms for processing digital signals and finally to encourage the reader to design software solutions for Digital Signal Processing (DSP). In this way, the reader is invited to develop a small DSP library that can then be expanded further with a focus on his/her research interests and applications. There are of course many excellent books and software systems available on this subject area. However, in many of these publications, the relationship between the mathematical methods associated with signal analysis and the software available for processing data is not always clear. Either the publications concentrate on mathematical aspects that are not focused on practical programming solutions or elaborate on the software development of solutions in terms of working ‘black-boxes’ without covering the mathematical background and analysis associated with the design of these software solutions. Thus, this book has been written with the aim of giving the reader a technical overview of the mathematics and software associated with the ‘art’ of developing numerical algorithms and designing software solutions for DSP, all of which is built on firm mathematical foundations. For this reason, the work is, by necessity, rather lengthy and covers a wide range of subjects compounded in four principal parts. Part I provides the mathematical background for the analysis of signals, Part II considers the computational techniques (principally those associated with linear algebra and the linear eigenvalue problem) required for array processing and associated analysis (error analysis for example). Part III introduces the reader to the essential elements of software engineering using the C programming language, tailored to those features that are used for developing C functions or modules for building a DSP library. The material associated with parts I, II and III is then used to build up a DSP system by defining a number of ‘problems’ and then addressing the solutions in terms of presenting an appropriate mathematical model, undertaking the necessary analysis, developing an appropriate algorithm and then coding the solution in C. This material forms the basis for part IV of this work. In most chapters, a series of tutorial problems is given for the reader to attempt with answers provided in Appendix A. These problems include theoretical, computational and programming exercises. Part II of this work is relatively long and arguably contains too much material on the computational methods for linear algebra. However, this material and the complementary material on vector and matrix norms forms the computational basis for many methods of digital signal processing. Moreover, this important and widely researched subject area forms the foundations, not only of digital signal processing and control engineering for example, but also of numerical analysis in general. The material presented in this book is based on the lecture notes and supplementary material developed by the author for an advanced Masters course ‘Digital Signal Processing’ which was first established at Cranfield University, Bedford in 1990 and modified when the author moved to De Montfort University, Leicester in 1994. The programmes are still operating at these universities and the material has been used by some 700++ graduates since its establishment and development in the early 1990s. The material was enhanced and developed further when the author moved to the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Loughborough University in 2003 and now forms part of the Department’s post-graduate programmes in Communication Systems Engineering. The original Masters programme included a taught component covering a period of six months based on two semesters, each Semester being composed of four modules. The material in this work covers the first Semester and its four parts reflect the four modules delivered. The material delivered in the second Semester is published as a companion volume to this work entitled Digital Image Processing, Horwood Publishing, 2005 which covers the mathematical modelling of imaging systems and the techniques that have been developed to process and analyse the data such systems provide. Since the publication of the first edition of this work in 2003, a number of minor changes and some additions have been made. The material on programming and software engineering in Chapters 11 and 12 has been extended. This includes some additions and further solved and supplementary questions which are included throughout the text. Nevertheless, it is worth pointing out, that while every effort has been made by the author and publisher to provide a work that is error free, it is inevitable that typing errors and various ‘bugs’ will occur. If so, and in particular, if the reader starts to suffer from a lack of comprehension over certain aspects of the material (due to errors or otherwise) then he/she should not assume that there is something wrong with themselves, but with the author

Mathematical and Numerical Aspects of Dynamical System Analysis

From Preface: This is the fourteenth time when the conference “Dynamical Systems: Theory and Applications” gathers a numerous group of outstanding scientists and engineers, who deal with widely understood problems of theoretical and applied dynamics. Organization of the conference would not have been possible without a great effort of the staff of the Department of Automation, Biomechanics and Mechatronics. The patronage over the conference has been taken by the Committee of Mechanics of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Ministry of Science and Higher Education of Poland. It is a great pleasure that our invitation has been accepted by recording in the history of our conference number of people, including good colleagues and friends as well as a large group of researchers and scientists, who decided to participate in the conference for the first time. With proud and satisfaction we welcomed over 180 persons from 31 countries all over the world. They decided to share the results of their research and many years experiences in a discipline of dynamical systems by submitting many very interesting papers. This year, the DSTA Conference Proceedings were split into three volumes entitled “Dynamical Systems” with respective subtitles: Vibration, Control and Stability of Dynamical Systems; Mathematical and Numerical Aspects of Dynamical System Analysis and Engineering Dynamics and Life Sciences. Additionally, there will be also published two volumes of Springer Proceedings in Mathematics and Statistics entitled “Dynamical Systems in Theoretical Perspective” and “Dynamical Systems in Applications”

SIMULATING SEISMIC WAVE PROPAGATION IN TWO-DIMENSIONAL MEDIA USING DISCONTINUOUS SPECTRAL ELEMENT METHODS

We introduce a discontinuous spectral element method for simulating seismic wave in 2- dimensional elastic media. The methods combine the flexibility of a discontinuous finite element method with the accuracy of a spectral method. The elastodynamic equations are discretized using high-degree of Lagrange interpolants and integration over an element is accomplished based upon the Gauss-Lobatto-Legendre integration rule. This combination of discretization and integration results in a diagonal mass matrix and the use of discontinuous finite element method makes the calculation can be done locally in each element. Thus, the algorithm is simplified drastically. We validated the results of one-dimensional problem by comparing them with finite-difference time-domain method and exact solution. The comparisons show excellent agreement

Factors Influencing Customer Satisfaction towards E-shopping in Malaysia

Online shopping or e-shopping has changed the world of business and quite a few people have decided to work with these features. What their primary concerns precisely and the responses from the globalisation are the competency of incorporation while doing their businesses. E-shopping has also increased substantially in Malaysia in recent years. The rapid increase in the e-commerce industry in Malaysia has created the demand to emphasize on how to increase customer satisfaction while operating in the e-retailing environment. It is very important that customers are satisfied with the website, or else, they would not return. Therefore, a crucial fact to look into is that companies must ensure that their customers are satisfied with their purchases that are really essential from the ecommerce’s point of view. With is in mind, this study aimed at investigating customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed among students randomly selected from various public and private universities located within Klang valley area. Total 369 questionnaires were returned, out of which 341 questionnaires were found usable for further analysis. Finally, SEM was employed to test the hypotheses. This study found that customer satisfaction towards e-shopping in Malaysia is to a great extent influenced by ease of use, trust, design of the website, online security and e-service quality. Finally, recommendations and future study direction is provided. Keywords: E-shopping, Customer satisfaction, Trust, Online security, E-service quality, Malaysia