The control parameterization method for nonlinear optimal control: A survey

The control parameterization method is a popular numerical technique for solving optimal control problems. The main idea of control parameterization is to discretize the control space by approximating the control function by a linear combination of basis functions. Under this approximation scheme, the optimal control problem is reduced to an approximate nonlinear optimization problem with a finite number of decision variables. This approximate problem can then be solved using nonlinear programming techniques. The aim of this paper is to introduce the fundamentals of the control parameterization method and survey its various applications to non-standard optimal control problems. Topics discussed include gradient computation, numerical convergence, variable switching times, and methods for handling state constraints. We conclude the paper with some suggestions for future research

The Sparrow Question: Social and Scientific Accord in Britain, 1850-1900.

During the latter-half of the nineteenth century, the utility of the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) to humankind was a contentious topic. In Britain, numerous actors from various backgrounds including natural history, acclimatisation, agriculture and economic ornithology converged on the bird, as contemporaries sought to calculate its economic cost and benefit to growers. Periodicals and newspapers provided an accessible and anonymous means of expression, through which the debate raged for over 50 years. By the end of the century, sparrows had been cast as detrimental to agriculture. Yet consensus was not achieved through new scientific methods, instruments, or changes in practice. This study instead argues that the rise and fall of scientific disciplines and movements paved the way for consensus on "the sparrow question." The decline of natural history and acclimatisation stifled a raging debate, while the rising science of economic ornithology sought to align itself with agricultural interests: the latter overwhelmingly hostile to sparrows

“Behind folding shutters in Whittingehame House”: Alice Blanche Balfour (1850–1936) and amateur natural history

During the rise of professional biology in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, individual naturalists continued to develop private collections by modest means and often within their own homes. Despite the increasing opportunities for women to participate in the sciences, the number of women entomologists remained relatively few. The amateur entomological career of Alice Blanche Balfour, the younger sister of Arthur James Balfour, first Earl of Balfour, reveals how a confluence of personal and social factors shaped a gentlewoman\u27s capacity to pursue her interests in natural history. This paper revises earlier images of Alice Balfour by presenting her as an accomplished amateur naturalist who balanced her avocation with the responsibility of managing the daily domestic affairs of estate

Preliminary analysis of the Hodgson Collection at the Zoological Society of London

While serving as Britain's diplomatic representative in Nepal between 1820 and 1843, Brian Houghton Hodgson (1801–1894) amassed a unique collection of paintings of Nepalese birds and mammals. A pioneer of nineteenth-century zoology, Hodgson's collection of images is one of the most important of its kind, providing crucial information for modern taxonomists and conservationists working in the Himalayan region. It is also an important and hitherto largely untapped source for the historian of science, indicating that Hodgson and other colonial naturalists, while geographically remote from London's scientific institutions, were fully engaged with London's scientific culture in the 1820s and 1830s. This paper outlines the extent of the Zoological Society of London's Hodgson holdings and the context of their creation. It draws parallels between the scientific content of Hodgson's images and the Quinarian system of natural classification, revising the established view of Hodgson as a wholly descriptive naturalist and opening the collection to new interpretations

Abschaetzung des Potentials erneuerbarer Energiequellen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

SIGLECopy held by FIZ Karlsruhe; available from UB/TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman