A Supervisor for Control of Mode-switch Process

Many processes operate only around a limited number of operation points. In order to have adequate control around each operation point, and adaptive controller could be used. When the operation point changes often, a large number of parameters would have to be adapted over and over again. This makes application of conventional adaptive control unattractive, which is more suited for processes with slowly changing parameters. Furthermore, continuous adaptation is not always needed or desired. An extension of adaptive control is presented, in which for each operation point the process behaviour can be stored in a memory, retrieved from it and evaluated. These functions are co-ordinated by a ¿supervisor¿. This concept is referred to as a supervisor for control of mode-switch processes. It leads to an adaptive control structure which quickly adjusts the controller parameters based on retrieval of old information, without the need to fully relearn each time. This approach has been tested on experimental set-ups of a flexible beam and of a flexible two-link robot arm, but it is directly applicable to other processes, for instance, in the (petro) chemical industry

EEG pattern of human calmness during listening to Al-Quran recitation and soft instrumental music

Emotions is a really importance and powerful in human life this is because it can affect the brain which is the most importance organ in human organic system. Good emotion will gives a good effect towards the brain and human while the bad emotion will be vice versa from the good emotion. This is the reasons why emotion needs to manage wisely. Calmness is the one thing that people always seek off after having a hard time or stress. Music has a great effect towards human mind and body. It has proven that listening to music increase the alpha wave level associated to the increase of relaxation. Music is one of therapy that beneficial the people who experiencing depression, stress or anxiety. This research used al�Quran recitation of Surah al-Shua’ara and soft instrumental music as the material to simulate the brain to generate the calmness. There are 10 subject were recorded the EEG signal during listening to al-Quran recitation and soft instrumental music by using Emotiv Insight equipment. The raw data of EEG will undergo analysing process by using SPSS software to test the accurately of the data. The objective of this research is to compare the calmness between the Al-Quran recitation and soft instrumental music. As the result, it is found that most of the subjects were calm during listening to al-Quran recitation compared to the soft instrumental music, but still the soft instrumental music gives calmness towards the listener this is because alpha wave level is low during listening to them compared to beta wave level. In conclusion, al-Quran recitation gives calmness towards the listener compared to the soft instrumental music

A new index of financial conditions

We use factor augmented vector autoregressive models with time-varying coefficients and stochastic volatility to construct a financial conditions index that can accurately track expectations about growth in key US macroeconomic variables. Time-variation in the model’s parameters allows for the weights attached to each financial variable in the index to evolve over time. Furthermore, we develop methods for dynamic model averaging or selection which allow the financial variables entering into the financial conditions index to change over time. We discuss why such extensions of the existing literature are important and show them to be so in an empirical application involving a wide range of financial variables