102 research outputs found
Fault detection and isolation of malicious nodes in MIMO Multi-hop Control Networks
A MIMO Multi-hop Control Network (MCN) consists of a MIMO LTI system where
the communication between sensors, actuators and computational units is
supported by a (wireless) multi-hop communication network, and data flow is
performed using scheduling and routing of sensing and actuation data. We
provide necessary and sufficient conditions on the plant dynamics and on the
communication protocol configuration such that the Fault Detection and
Isolation (FDI) problem of failures and malicious attacks to communication
nodes can be solved.Comment: 6 page
Optimal co-design of control, scheduling and routing in multi-hop control networks
A Multi-hop Control Network consists of a plant where the communication
between sensors, actuators and computational units is supported by a (wireless)
multi-hop communication network, and data flow is performed using scheduling
and routing of sensing and actuation data. Given a SISO LTI plant, we will
address the problem of co-designing a digital controller and the network
parameters (scheduling and routing) in order to guarantee stability and
maximize a performance metric on the transient response to a step input, with
constraints on the control effort, on the output overshoot and on the bandwidth
of the communication channel. We show that the above optimization problem is a
polynomial optimization problem, which is generally NP-hard. We provide
sufficient conditions on the network topology, scheduling and routing such that
it is computationally feasible, namely such that it reduces to a convex
optimization problem.Comment: 51st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, 2012. Accepted for
publication as regular pape
Feedback stabilization of dynamical systems with switched delays
We analyze a classification of two main families of controllers that are of
interest when the feedback loop is subject to switching propagation delays due
to routing via a wireless multi-hop communication network. We show that we can
cast this problem as a subclass of classical switching systems, which is a
non-trivial generalization of classical LTI systems with timevarying delays. We
consider both cases where delay-dependent and delay independent controllers are
used, and show that both can be modeled as switching systems with unconstrained
switchings. We provide NP-hardness results for the stability verification
problem, and propose a general methodology for approximate stability analysis
with arbitrary precision. We finally give evidence that non-trivial design
problems arise for which new algorithmic methods are needed
Obesity and the Mediterranean Diet: A Review of Evidence of the Role and Sustainability of the Mediterranean Diet
Several different socio-economic factors have caused a large portion of the population to adopt unhealthy eating habits that can undermine healthcare systems, unless current trends are inverted towards more sustainable lifestyle models. Even though a dietary plan inspired by the principles of the Mediterranean Diet is associated with numerous health benefits and has been demonstrated to exert a preventive effect towards numerous pathologies, including obesity, its use is decreasing and it is now being supplanted by different nutritional models that are often generated by cultural and social changes. Directing governments' political actions towards spreading adherence to the Mediterranean Diet's principles as much as possible among the population could help to tackle the obesity epidemic, especially in childhood. This document intends to reiterate the importance of acting in certain age groups to stop the spread of obesity and proceeds with a critical review of the regulatory instruments used so far, bearing in mind the importance of the scientific evidence that led to the consideration of the Mediterranean Diet as not just a food model, but also as the most appropriate regime for disease prevention, a sort of complete lifestyle plan for the pursuit of healthcare sustainability
What kind of hepatitis
Finding one major hepatotropic virus may not be enough to identify the aetiology of liver disease when risk factors are present, particularly in patients with past or present infection with other viral agents, or chronic liver disease. The pathogenic process in these cases is often complex. In the five cases we report, acute hepatitis (initiated by halothane, cytomegalovirus or Epstein-Barr virus) preceded the reactivation of hepatitis B infection, and these events occurred in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection. Each case demonstrates how several viruses can be implicated in the development of hepatitis, either as single agents or via cross-activation of T cells. The nosography of hepatitis, therefore, and the optimum therapeutic choices, can puzzle the clinical team
Nature of Charge Carriers in a High Electron Mobility Naphthalenediimide Based Semiconducting Copolymer
The nature of charge carriers in recently developed high mobility semiconducting donor-acceptor polymers is debated. Here, localization due to charge relaxation is investigated in a prototypal system, a good electron transporting naphthalenediimide based copolymer, by means of current-voltage I-V electrical characteristics and charge modulation spectroscopy (CMS) in top-gate field-effect transistors (FETs), combined with density functional theory (DFT) and time dependent DFT (TDDFT) calculations. In particular, pristine copolymer films are compared with films that underwent a melt-annealing process, the latter leading to a drastic change of the microstructure. Despite the packing modification, which involves also the channel region, both the electron mobility and the energy of polaronic transitions are substantially unchanged upon melt-annealing. The polaron absorption features can be rationalized and reproduced by TDDFT calculations for isolated charged oligomers. Therefore, it is concluded that in such a high electron mobility copolymer the charge transport process involves polaronic species which are intramolecular in nature and, from a more general point of view, that interchain delocalization of the polaron is not necessary to sustain charge mobilities in the 0.1 to 1 cm2 V–1 s–1 range. These findings contribute to the rationalization of the charge transport process in the recently developed class of donor-acceptor π-conjugated copolymers featuring high charge mobilities and complex morphologies
Dripping Faucet Dynamics Clarified by an Improved Mass-Spring Model
An improved mass-spring model for a dripping faucet is presented. The model
is constructed based on the numerical results which we recently obtained from
fluid dynamical calculations. Both the fluid dynamical calculations and the
present mass-spring model exhibit a variety of complex behavior including
transition to chaos in good agreement with experiments. Further, the
mass-spring model reveals fundamental dynamics inherent in the dripping faucet
system.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure
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