Structural controls on basin- and crustal-scale fluid flow and resulting mineral reactions

This preface summarizes the main contents of the special issue Structural Controls on Basin- and Crustal-Scale Fluid Flow and Resulting Mineral Reactions, organized by topic. The description of contributions starts with those addressing crustal-scale processes, followed by studies of relatively shallower fluid flow mechanisms and their consequences. The final subsection summarizes contributions on structural controls on mineral reactions, as well as those evaluating how they impact geothermal reservoir properties

A class of predefined-time stable dynamical systems

This article introduces predefined-time stable dynamical systems which are a class of fixed-time stable dynamical systems with settling time as an explicit parameter that can be defined in advance. This concept allows for the design of observers and controllers for problems that require to fulfil hard time constraints. An example is encountered in the fault detection and isolation problem, where mode detection in a timely manner needs to be guaranteed in order to apply a recovery action. Furthermore, through the notion of strong predefined-time stability, the approach hereinafter presented permits to overcome the problem of overestimation of the convergence time bound encountered in previous methods for the analysis of finite-time stable systems, where the stabilization time is often an unbounded function of the initial conditions of the system. A Lyapunov analysis is provided together with a detailed discussion of the applications to consensus and first order sliding mode controller design

Silicon-based three-dimensional microstructures for radiation dosimetry in hadrontherapy

In this work, we propose a solid-state-detector for use in radiation microdosimetry. This device improves the performance of existing dosimeters using customized 3D-cylindrical microstructures etched inside silicon. The microdosimeter consists of an array of micro-sensors that have 3D-cylindrical electrodes of 15 μm diameter and a depth of 5 μm within a silicon membrane, resulting in a well-defined micrometric radiation sensitive volume. These microdetectors have been characterized using an 241Am source to assess their performance as radiation detectors in a high-LET environment. This letter demonstrates the capability of this microdetector to be used to measure dose and LET in hadrontherapy centers for treatment plan verification as part of their patient-specific quality control program

Non-Singular Predefined-Time Stable Manifolds

In this paper it is introduced a class of non-singular manifolds with predefinedtime stability. That is, for a given dynamical system with its trajectories constrained to this manifold it can be shown predefined-time stability to the origin. In addition, the function that defines the manifold and its derivative along the system trajectories are continuous, therefore no singularities are presented for the system evolution once the constrained motion starts. The problem of reaching the proposed manifold is solved by means of a continuous predefined-time stable controller. The proposal is applied to the predefined-time exact tracking of fully actuated and unperturbed mechanical systems. It is assumed the availability of the state and the desired trajectory as well as its two first derivatives. As an example, the proposed solution is applied over a two-link planar manipulator and numerical simulations are conducted to show its performance.ITESO, A.C.CINVESTAV-IP

Predefined-time tracking of a class of mechanical systems

In this paper the problem of predefined-time exact tracking of fully actuated and unperturbed mechanical systems is solved by means of a continuous controller. It is assumed the availability of the state and the desired trajectory as well as its two first derivatives. This is accomplished introducing the idea of second-order predefined-time stable systems, which is based on the nested application of the first-order predefined-time stabilizing function. As an example, the proposed solution is applied over a two-link planar manipulator and numerical simulations are conducted to show its performance.ITESO, A.C.CINVESTA

Predefined-time stabilization of high order systems

The aim of this paper is to introduce a controller that stabilizes a class of arbitrary order systems in predefined-time. The proposed controller is designed with basis on the block-control principle yielding in a nested structure similar to high order sliding mode algorithms and terminal sliding mode algorithms. For this case, it is assumed the availability of the state and the absence of perturbations. Numerical simulations expose the desired performance of this controller

On the least upper bound for the settling time of a class of fixed-time stable systems

This paper deals with the convergence time analysis of a class of fixed-time stable systems with the aim to provide a new non-conservative upper bound for its settling time. Our contribution is threefold. First, we revisit a well-known class of fixed-time stable systems showing the conservatism of the classical upper estimate of the settling time. Second, we provide the smallest constant that uniformly upper bounds the settling time of any trajectory of the system under consideration. Then, introducing a slight modification of the previous class of fixed-time systems, we propose a new predefined-time convergent algorithm where the least upper bound of the settling time is set a priori as a parameter of the system. This calculation is a valuable contribution toward online differentiators, observers, and controllers in applications with real-time constraints

A comparison of Microtops II and satellite ozone measurements in the period 2001-2011

Daily average total ozone Microtops measurements obtained during several campaigns conducted from 2001 to 2011 at latitudes from 31 to 68°N and in different seasons are compared with satellite observations. The Microtops ozone is derived using different wavelength combinations (Channel I, 305.5/312.5 nm; Channel II, 312.5/320 nm; and Channel III, 305.5/312.5/320 nm). Satellite data from TOMS, OMI, GOME, and GOME-2 are used in the comparison. The three Microtops channels show a high correlation with the satellite retrievals. Channel I shows the best results and produces a mean bias deviation (MBD) less than 2.14% with respect to TOMS, OMI and GOME. The MBD increases to 3% in the comparison against GOME-2, due to the small number of available data. In addition, the total ozone content provided by Channel I displays the more stable behavior during the ten-year period. The Channel III total ozone shows MBD values smaller than those observed for Channel I. However the Channels II and III present a larger variability and show a larger spread of the data. Consequently, Channel I appears as the best option for long term measurements with Microtops