Adaptive Control of Flexible Structures with Uncertain Dynamics and Uncertain Disturbance Spectra

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97105/1/AIAA2012-4437.pd

Data protection, safeguarding and the protection of children's privacy: exploring local authority guidance on parental photography at school events

Should parents be allowed to take photographs at school events? Media reports suggest that increasingly schools are answering no to this question, either prohibiting or imposing stringent restrictions upon such photography. The legal justifications for such restrictions are, however, unclear. Accordingly, in 2013 freedom of information requests were sent to local education authorities across England, Scotland and Wales, the aim being to determine what advice local education authorities provide to schools in relation to parental photography at school events, and to identify how education authorities’ understandings of the law influence the advice they offer. That research reveals that local education authorities’ understandings of the law vary significantly and that where authorities do not fully appreciate the extent of the legal obligations arising this may have significant repercussions for the children concerned

Late sign language exposure does not modulate the relation between spatial language and spatial memory in deaf children and adults

Prior work with hearing children acquiring a spoken language as their first language shows that spatial language and cognition are related systems and spatial language use predicts spatial memory. Here, we further investigate the extent of this relationship in signing deaf children and adults and ask if late sign language exposure, as well as the frequency and the type of spatial language use that might be affected by late exposure, modulate subsequent memory for spatial relations. To do so, we compared spatial language and memory of 8-year-old late-signing children (after 2 years of exposure to a sign language at the school for the deaf) and late-signing adults to their native-signing counterparts. We elicited picture descriptions of Left-Right relations in Turkish Sign Language (Türk İşaret Dili) and measured the subsequent recognition memory accuracy of the described pictures. Results showed that late-signing adults and children were similar to their native-signing counterparts in how often they encoded the spatial relation. However, late-signing adults but not children differed from their native-signing counterparts in the type of spatial language they used. However, neither late sign language exposure nor the frequency and type of spatial language use modulated spatial memory accuracy. Therefore, even though late language exposure seems to influence the type of spatial language use, this does not predict subsequent memory for spatial relations. We discuss the implications of these findings based on the theories concerning the correspondence between spatial language and cognition as related or rather independent systems

Determination of Physiological, Biochemical and Molecular Effects of Zinc Stress on the Growth of Sunflower Seedlings (Helianthus annuus L.)

Heavy metal contamination is an important environmental problem all over the world. High concentrations of heavy metals cause permanent damage stocells and tissues. In this study, the toxic effects of zincheavy metal in sunflower plant in population and molecular parameters were investigated. The effects of zincheavymetalon sunflower seedlings were determined using the changes in population parameters; rootlength, dry weight, and total solubleprotein content. Total protein content of sunflower plants was determined in a relationship in the opposite direction increasing the amount of metal concentrations. Genotoxic effects of heavymetal of zinc on sunflower plants were revealed by using changes in genomic template stability (GTS). According to analyses, serious changes in genomic template stability were detected and these results were compared with the growth, dry weight and total soluble protein content of the seedlings grown at various zinc concentrations. Also, it was seen that the genomic template stability significantly affected the primary root length, root dry weight and root total soluble protein content. Positive correlations were observed between physiological, biochemical and molecular parameters in sunflower seedlings under zinc stress.In conclusion, a comparison between physiological, biochemical and molecular parameters shows that zinc is a genotoxic agent for sunflower plants

Real-Time Numerical Differentiation of Sampled Data Using Adaptive Input and State Estimation

Real-time numerical differentiation plays a crucial role in many digital control algorithms, such as PID control, which requires numerical differentiation to implement derivative action. This paper addresses the problem of numerical differentiation for real-time implementation with minimal prior information about the signal and noise using adaptive input and state estimation. Adaptive input estimation with adaptive state estimation (AIE/ASE) is based on retrospective cost input estimation, while adaptive state estimation is based on an adaptive Kalman filter in which the input-estimation error covariance and the measurement-noise covariance are updated online. The accuracy of AIE/ASE is compared numerically to several conventional numerical differentiation methods. Finally, AIE/ASE is applied to simulated vehicle position data generated from CarSim.Comment: This paper is under review at the International Journal of Contro

Kinematics-Based Sensor Fault Detection for Autonomous Vehicles Using Real-Time Numerical Differentiation

Sensor fault detection is of extreme importance for ensuring the safe operation of vehicles. This paper introduces a novel approach to detecting and identifying faulty sensors. For ground vehicles confined to the horizontal plane, this technique is based on six kinematics-based error metrics that are computed in real time by using onboard sensor data encompassing compass, radar, rate gyro, and accelerometer measurements as well as their derivatives. Real-time numerical differentiation is performed by applying the adaptive input and state estimation (AIE/ASE) algorithm. Numerical examples are provided to assess the efficacy of the proposed methodology

Robust Sampled-Data Adaptive Control of the Rohrs Counterexamples

Abstract-We revisit the Rohrs counterexamples within the context of sampled-data adaptive control. In particular, retrospective cost adaptive control (RCAC) is applied to the sampled continuous-time plant with unmodeled high-frequency dynamics, which involves nonminimum-phase (NMP) sampling zeros. It is shown that, without knowledge of these NMP zeros, RCAC stabilizes the uncertain plant and asymptotically follows the sinusoidal command

Assessment of knowledge and attitudes toward Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) amongst Turkish medical faculty students

Background: Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies are becoming increasingly  acceptable to the general public and are increasingly used around the world. The international rise in focus  on CAM and the increased incorporation of CAM into medical curricula make it important to gain insight into the knowledge and attitudes of medical students about CAM and its integration in the medical curriculum.Materials and Methods: In this present study, we attempt to investigate the Cerrahpasa medical faculty students’ knowledge, attitude and practices of the students on CAM. The study used a primary  cross-sectional data collection from students of Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty, Istanbul University, in  2012-2013 academic years.Results: Students’ knowledge of CAM between classes was also compared. There were also statistically  significant differences about the knowledge of those methods (acupuncture, acupressure, yoga, reiki, prayer, meditation massage, dietary, spa). Prayer was the most known modality in all medical classes’ students (first year students: 254, sixth year students: 192). The students who participated in the study stated that 433 (%59.4) have some knowledge about the acupuncture (first year students: 229, sixth  year students: 204). Acupressure was found to be at least known methods for CAM (first year students:  313, sixth year students: 282).Conclusion: Medical students in our faculty had limited knowledge about CAM therapies. Medical  students also have an understanding of the importance of CAM education in the medical curriculum, specifically how it will positively influence professional attitude and stimulate the doctor–patient relationship.Key words: Medical, Students, Complementary and Alternative Medicine