Maximal-entropy driven determination of weights in least-square approximation

We exploit the idea to use the maximal-entropy method, successfully tested in information theory and statistical thermodynamics, to determine approximating function's coefficients and squared errors' weights simultaneously as output of one single problem in least-square approximation. We provide evidence of the method's capabilities and performance through its application to representative test cases by working with polynomials as a first step. We conclude by formulating suggestions for future work to improve the version of the method we present in this paper.Comment: 15 pages, 1 table, 10 figures. Accepted in Mathematical Methods in the Applied Sciences. Changes: fixed typo in Eq. (27

Surveillance of paediatric exposures to liquid laundry detergent pods in Italy

Objective To analyse paediatric exposures to pod and traditional laundry detergents in Italy and changes in exposure trends. Methods Analyses of a series of patients aged <5 years and exposed to laundry detergents between September 2010 and June 2015, identified by the National Poison Control in Milan. Results In comparison with patients exposed to traditional laundry detergents (n=1150), a higher proportion of those exposed to pods (n=1649) were managed in hospital (68% vs 42%), had clinical effects (75% vs 22%) and moderate/high severity outcomes (13% vs <1%). Exposure rates were stable over time for traditional detergents (average 0.65 cases/day), but an abrupt decline in major company pods was seen in December 2012, 4 months after the introduction of opaque outer packaging (from 1.03 to 0.36 cases/day and from 1.88 to 0.86 cases/million units sold). The odds of clinical effects was higher for exposure to pods than for traditional detergents (OR=10.8; 95% CI 9.0 to 12.9). Among patients exposed to pods, the odds of moderate/high severity outcomes was four times higher for children aged <1 years than for the other age groups (OR=3.9; 95% CI 2.2 to 7.0). Ten children exposed to laundry detergent pods had high severity outcomes while no children exposed to traditional laundry detergents developed high severity effects. Conclusions The study confirms that exposure to laundry detergent pods is more dangerous than exposure to traditional detergents. In Italy, 4 months after the introduction of opaque outer packaging by a major company, product-specific exposure rates decreased sharply, suggesting that reducing visibility of laundry detergent pods may be an effective preventive measure. Further efforts are needed to improve safety

Local knowledge to support environmental resource management in data-poor regions

EnThe importance of shared decision-making processes in water management derives from the awareness of the inadequacy of traditional–i.e.engineering–approaches in dealing with complex and ill-structured problems.It is becoming increasingly obvious that traditional problem solving and decision support techniques,based on optimisation and factual knowledge,need to be combined with stakeholder-based policy design and implementation.The aim of our research is the definition of a Community-based Decision Support System (CBDSS),able to facilitate integration of local and scientific knowledge.The system has been applied to support public involvement in the drawing up of the river Idro management plan

Applied Trajectory Design for close-proximity operations of Asteroid CubeSat Mission

In this paper, a practical approach to the trajectory design for asteroid exploration missions with CubeSats is presented. When applied trajectories are sought, operative concerns and uncertainties affecting the spacecraft dynamics must be considered during the design process. Otherwise, trajectories that are possible on paper might become unfeasible when real-world constraints are considered. The risk of such eventualities leads to the urge of extending the trajectory design focus on the uncertainties affecting the dynamics and on the operative constraints derived by ground operations. This is especially true when targeting highly perturbed environments such as small bodies with low-cost solutions as CubeSats, whose capabilities in deep-space are still unknown. The case study presented is the Milani CubeSat which will be launched in 2024 with Hera in the frame of the AIDA mission

An entropy-based approach for a robust least squares spline approximation

We consider the weighted least squares spline approximation of a noisy dataset. By interpreting the weights as a probability distribution, we maximize the associated entropy subject to the constraint that the mean squared error is prescribed to a desired (small) value. Acting on this error yields a robust regression method that automatically detects and removes outliers from the data during the fitting procedure, by assigning them a very small weight. We discuss the use of both spline functions and spline curves. A number of numerical illustrations have been included to disclose the potentialities of the maximal-entropy approach in different application fields.Comment: 11 color picture

Model-Free Plant Tuning

Given a static plant described by a differentiable input-output function, which is completely unknown, but whose Jacobian takes values in a known polytope in the matrix space, this paper considers the problem of tuning (i.e., driving to a desired value) the output, by suitably choosing the input. It is shown that, if the polytope is robustly nonsingular (or has full rank, in the nonsquare case), then a suitable tuning scheme drives the output to the desired point. The proof exploits a Lyapunov-like function and applies a well-known game-theoretic result, concerning the existence of a saddle point for a min-max zero-sum game. When the plant output is represented in an implicit form, it is shown that the same result can be obtained, resorting to a different Lyapunov-like function. The case in which proper input or output constraints must be enforced during the transient is considered as well. Some application examples are proposed to show the effectiveness of the approach

239 Surveillance of toxic exposures to liquid laundry detergents in pods in Italy

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