148 research outputs found
Time scale modeling for consensus in sparse directed networks with time-varying topologies
The paper considers the consensus problem in large networks represented by
time-varying directed graphs. A practical way of dealing with large-scale
networks is to reduce their dimension by collapsing the states of nodes
belonging to densely and intensively connected clusters into aggregate
variables. It will be shown that under suitable conditions, the states of the
agents in each cluster converge fast toward a local agreement. Local agreements
correspond to aggregate variables which slowly converge to consensus. Existing
results concerning the time-scale separation in large networks focus on fixed
and undirected graphs. The aim of this work is to extend these results to the
more general case of time-varying directed topologies. It is noteworthy that in
the fixed and undirected graph case the average of the states in each cluster
is time-invariant when neglecting the interactions between clusters. Therefore,
they are good candidates for the aggregate variables. This is no longer
possible here. Instead, we find suitable time-varying weights to compute the
aggregate variables as time-invariant weighted averages of the states in each
cluster. This allows to deal with the more challenging time-varying directed
graph case. We end up with a singularly perturbed system which is analyzed by
using the tools of two time-scales averaging which seem appropriate to this
system
Dynamical problems and phase transitions
Issued as Financial status report, Technical reports [nos. 1-12], and Final report, Project B-06-68
The role of the central chemoreceptor in causing periodic breathing.
In a previous publication (Fowler et aL, 1993), we reduced the classical cardiorespiratory control model of (Grodins et aL, 1967) to a much simpler form, which we then used to study the phenomenon of periodic breathing. In particular, cardiac output was assumed constant, and a single (constant) delay representing arterial blood transport time between lung and brain was included in the model. In this paper we extend this earlier work, both by allowing for the variability in transport delays, due to the dependence of cardiac output on blood gas concentrations, and also by including further delays in the system. In addition, we extensively discuss the physiological implications of parameter variations in the model; several novel mechanisms for periodic breathing in clinical situations are proposed. The results are discussed in the light of recent observational studies. Keywords: Periodic breathing; Cheyne-Stokes respiration; heart-rate variability*, differential-delay equations. 1
Estimation and control of non-linear and hybrid systems with applications to air-to-air guidance
Issued as Progress report, and Final report, Project no. E-21-67
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