A parameter optimization approach to controller partitioning for integrated flight/propulsion control application

A parameter optimization framework is presented to solve the problem of partitioning a centralized controller into a decentralized hierarchical structure suitable for integrated flight/propulsion control implementation. The controller partitioning problem is briefly discussed and a cost function to be minimized is formulated, such that the resulting 'optimal' partitioned subsystem controllers will closely match the performance (including robustness) properties of the closed-loop system with the centralized controller while maintaining the desired controller partitioning structure. The cost function is written in terms of parameters in a state-space representation of the partitioned sub-controllers. Analytical expressions are obtained for the gradient of this cost function with respect to parameters, and an optimization algorithm is developed using modern computer-aided control design and analysis software. The capabilities of the algorithm are demonstrated by application to partitioned integrated flight/propulsion control design for a modern fighter aircraft in the short approach to landing task. The partitioning optimization is shown to lead to reduced-order subcontrollers that match the closed-loop command tracking and decoupling performance achieved by a high-order centralized controller

Can paradise be affordable?

Hawaii ; Housing - Prices

Spatial summation of individual cones in human color vision.

The human retina contains three classes of cone photoreceptors each sensitive to different portions of the visual spectrum: long (L), medium (M) and short (S) wavelengths. Color information is computed by downstream neurons that compare relative activity across the three cone types. How cone signals are combined at a cellular scale has been more difficult to resolve. This is especially true near the fovea, where spectrally-opponent neurons in the parvocellular pathway draw excitatory input from a single cone and thus even the smallest stimulus projected through natural optics will engage multiple color-signaling neurons. We used an adaptive optics microstimulator to target individual and pairs of cones with light. Consistent with prior work, we found that color percepts elicited from individual cones were predicted by their spectral sensitivity, although there was considerable variability even between cones within the same spectral class. The appearance of spots targeted at two cones were predicted by an average of their individual activations. However, two cones of the same subclass elicited percepts that were systematically more saturated than predicted by an average. Together, these observations suggest both spectral opponency and prior experience influence the appearance of small spots

Missouri Tax Credits

Missouri's first tax credit was authorized in 1973 and many more have been adopted in the following years. Some of these programs have expired or have been eliminated from the statutes; however, the majority of the programs are still active today (Joint Committee on Tax Policy 2009, “Tax Credits in Missouri”). A tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction, satisfaction, or payment of tax liability. Recently, the amount of tax credits that have been authorized, issued, and redeemed has grown and has had a significant impact on the state's general revenue collections, the state's fund which pays for most of Missouri's expenditures. Some policy-makers have concerns that this unchecked growth could lead to a state fiscal crisis in the future. This policy brief will explore the history of tax credits, many of the features that tax credits have, and the impact that the tax credits have had on the state's budget in the past and may have on the fiscal situation of the state in the future.Includes bibliographical reference

CD versus DVD: The Ultimate Portable Storage Battle

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph.Over the years, changes in technology have contributed to shaping the way in which we live our lives. From the invention of the light bulb to that of the television set and computer, nothing remains the same once a technological advance has come about. Currently, another technological advance is preparing to change the way we live our lives. This new device is known as the DVD player and it is attempting to replace the CD player in the electronic multimedia world

Missouri Historic Preservation Tax Credit

The federal government offers an incentive to rehabilitate designated buildings that are older than 50 years. Missouri authorized a tax credit with the same purpose, the Missouri Historic Preservation Tax Credit, in Senate Bill 1 of the second 1997 extraordinary session. Shortly after the state program was approved by the legislature, Carolyn Toft, the Executive Director of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, compared the program to publicly financed sports stadiums and said, “this is precisely the kind of incentive that brings the things we hear about when people are discussing sports palaces… bit by bit you can put a community or a main street or a neighborhood back together” (Young, 1997). The federal and state programs have been used to redevelop old buildings in small and large cities throughout Missouri. Since the state program was created, the use of the program and the cost to the state has grown significantly.Includes bibliographical reference

Christianity as a Double-Edged Sword in Colonial Africa

Christian missionaries were among the first Europeans to move into Africa. They came on a mission to save the souls of a seemingly primitive population, an attitude that was further enabled and encouraged by recently developed ethnocentric philosophies of scientific racism. Within this social climate, missionaries not only felt obligated to assimilate Africans toward Christian religious practice, but also toward European ways of living. The result, coincidentally or not, was an undermining of African culture that is thought by many scholars to have aided in the successful takeover by colonial governments in the region. Christian virtues of passivity and humility encouraged a sense complacency within the established hegemonic structure while also leading Africans to believe that their suffering within these conditions strengthened their relationship with God. Over time, however, many Africans became fed up with the institutionalized oppression inherent within the colonial system. Often beginning their lives within the missionary establishment, African revolutionaries began sprouting up throughout the continent, emboldened by a new hybrid form of Christianity that more often cited its egalitarian virtues to condemn the injustice against their people. African Independent Churches were equally spiritual and political --- providing a platform for uprising against social injustice as well as a sense of identity formed in solidarity and unification. While many scholars have argued that missionaries and colonial governments were bedfellows at the onset of the colonial period, Africans took their initial teachings and formed them to create a religion that was all their own --- one that interwove virtues of traditional African society and more modernized virtues aimed to help overcome the injustice of colonial oppression

METHOD FOR SUPPORTING LARGE-SCALE INVENTORY FOR IN-APP PURCHASES ON MOBILE DEVICES

A method for supporting large-scale inventory for in-app purchases on mobile devices is described. A server device receives, from a user device associated with a first user account, a user request to purchase a first product item and maps the first product item to a first pricing tier. The server device selects, from a set of product identifiers corresponding to the first pricing tier, a first product identifier that is unused by the first user account. The server device transmits, to a marketplace server, the first product identifier and the first pricing tier to purchase the first product item. The server device enters, into a user-level transaction table, a first entry including an indication of the first product item, the first product identifier, and a first lifetime for the purchase and removes the first entry from the user-level transaction table upon expiration of the first lifetime

In-Band Speed Test for Livestreams

A method for in-band speed test for live streams is described. A user device opens a network connection for transmitting of a video item as a livestream, captures video data and audio data, encapsulates the video data and the audio data in one or more unused virtual channels, transmits the one or more unused virtual channels as stream data, determines network conditions based on transmission of the stream data, and sets quality of the video item to be transmitted as the livestream based on the network conditions. The server device receives the stream data including the video data and the audio data in the one or more unused virtual channels and discards the video data and the audio data in the one or more unused virtual channels