Assessing the Software Control Autonomy of System Functions in Safety-Critical Systems

Software Control Category (SCC) denotes the degree of control autonomy, command and control authority, and redundant fault tolerance software has over hazardous system functions of safety-critical systems. The use of SCC for determining the software contribution to system risks is a unique feature of the MIL-STD-882E System Safety Standard. A lower SCC designation means that the software system has a greater control autonomy over hazardous system functions, whereas SCC 1 means complete autonomous control. Software with greater control autonomy over hazardous system functions require greater effort to assure reliability and safety. Correct assessment of the SCC level of hazardous system functions is crucial for optimizing the safety property of a system developed under budget, schedule, and resource constraints. Beyond the categorical definitions provided by the MIL-STD-882E Standard, there is little information on conducting an SCC assessment. To close this knowledge gap, we present an SCC assessment method. Our paper will describe in detail the process and rules for assessing SCC. For illustration, we apply our method to assess the SCC of several safety-significant functions of an automobile’s brake-assist system

Path Planning Problems with Side Observations-When Colonels Play Hide-and-Seek

Resource allocation games such as the famous Colonel Blotto (CB) and Hide-and-Seek (HS) games are often used to model a large variety of practical problems, but only in their one-shot versions. Indeed, due to their extremely large strategy space, it remains an open question how one can efficiently learn in these games. In this work, we show that the online CB and HS games can be cast as path planning problems with side-observations (SOPPP): at each stage, a learner chooses a path on a directed acyclic graph and suffers the sum of losses that are adversarially assigned to the corresponding edges; and she then receives semi-bandit feedback with side-observations (i.e., she observes the losses on the chosen edges plus some others). We propose a novel algorithm, EXP3-OE, the first-of-its-kind with guaranteed efficient running time for SOPPP without requiring any auxiliary oracle. We provide an expected-regret bound of EXP3-OE in SOPPP matching the order of the best benchmark in the literature. Moreover, we introduce additional assumptions on the observability model under which we can further improve the regret bounds of EXP3-OE. We illustrate the benefit of using EXP3-OE in SOPPP by applying it to the online CB and HS games.Comment: Previously, this work appeared as arXiv:1911.09023 which was mistakenly submitted as a new article (has been submitted to be withdrawn). This is a preprint of the work published in Proceedings of the 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI

Development of deep reinforcement learning for inverted pendulum

This paper presents a modification of the deep Q-network (DQN) in deep reinforcement learning to control the angle of the inverted pendulum (IP). The original DQN method often uses two actions related to two force states like constant negative and positive force values which apply to the cart of IP to maintain the angle between the pendulum and the Y-axis. Due to the changing of too much value of force, the IP may make some oscillation which makes the performance system could be declined. Thus, a modified DQN algorithm is developed based on neural network structure to make a range of force selections for IP to improve the performance of IP. To prove our algorithm, the OpenAI/Gym and Keras libraries are used to develop DQN. All results showed that our proposed controller has higher performance than the original DQN and could be applied to a nonlinear system

Datasets of land use change and flood dynamics in the vietnamese mekong delta

This paper compiles the data associated with a research article published in STOTEN [1]. The data set represents figures, tables, and images illustrating the temporal and spatial distribution of land use and flood dynamics from 2000 to 2020 in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD). The MODIS imageries were freely accessed online via the NASA website [2] and processed to land use and flood maps based on the algorithms by Sakamoto et al. [3,4]. The MODIS products show a high validation with statistical data and radar satellites [1]. The datasets of flood map and land use, therefore, are available to scientists, engineers, and policy-makers in agricultural management associated with flood management in the VMD. They could be used for policy settings, household livelihood assessment as well as other economic analyses for the VMD region due to the change of land use and flooding dynamics

Potential Usage of Rice Husk Ash-Cement Based Soil in Subbase and Base Courses in Road Construction

This paper presents an experimental study of rice husk ash-cement-based soil for layers in roadway construction. Rice husk ash (RHA) used in this study is a by-product of rice milling. In this work, twelve proportion mixes were used in this work with varying quantities of RHA (0-30%) and Portland cement blended amounts of 4, 6, 8%. The specimens were prepared by the Proctor mould method, conditioned at room temperature, and tested in soaked and unsoaked conditions. Specified curing periods of 7, 14, 28 days were applied for all types of specimens. Some engineering tests were carried out such as proctor compaction, unconfined compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and the stiffness of stabilized soil. Test results indicated a general decrease in the maximum dry density (MDD) and increased optimum moisture content (OMC) with an increase in RHA content. Adding cement and RHA significantly improved the geotechnical properties of stabilized soils, including compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, elastic modulus. In addition, the combination of 80% soil and 20% RHA and 6% cement can be used as the optimum proportion which satisfied the grade 3 of soils stabilized with inorganic adhesive substances, chemical agents, or reinforced soil for road construction, as indicated in the current Vietnamese standard

Potential Usage of Rice Husk Ash-Cement Based Soil in Subbase and Base Courses in Road Construction

This paper presents an experimental study of rice husk ash-cement-based soil for layers in roadway construction. Rice husk ash (RHA) used in this study is a by-product of rice milling. In this work, twelve proportion mixes were used in this work with varying quantities of RHA (0-30%) and Portland cement blended amounts of 4, 6, 8%. The specimens were prepared by the Proctor mould method, conditioned at room temperature, and tested in soaked and unsoaked conditions. Specified curing periods of 7, 14, 28 days were applied for all types of specimens. Some engineering tests were carried out such as proctor compaction, unconfined compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, and the stiffness of stabilized soil. Test results indicated a general decrease in the maximum dry density (MDD) and increased optimum moisture content (OMC) with an increase in RHA content. Adding cement and RHA significantly improved the geotechnical properties of stabilized soils, including compressive strength, splitting tensile strength, elastic modulus. In addition, the combination of 80% soil and 20% RHA and 6% cement can be used as the optimum proportion which satisfied the grade 3 of soils stabilized with inorganic adhesive substances, chemical agents, or reinforced soil for road construction, as indicated in the current Vietnamese standard

Solving Differential-Algebraic Equations in Power Systems Dynamics with Quantum Computing

Power system dynamics are generally modeled by high dimensional nonlinear differential-algebraic equations due to a large number of generators, loads, and transmission lines. Thus, its computational complexity grows exponentially with the system size. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the alternative computing approach, particularly the use of quantum computing algorithms to solve the power system dynamics. Leveraging a symbolic programming framework, we convert the power system dynamics' DAEs into an equivalent set of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). Their data can be encoded into quantum computers via amplitude encoding. The system's nonlinearity is captured by Taylor polynomial expansion and the quantum state tensor whereas state variables can be updated by a quantum linear equation solver. Our results show that quantum computing can solve the dynamics of the power system with high accuracy whereas its complexity is polynomial in the logarithm of the system dimension.Comment: 6 pages, 8 figures, conference pape

Factors influencing the willingness-to-pay of internet users in Vietnam for the fee-based online contents

The aim of this study is to identify key factors that influence the willingness-to-pay (WTP) of Internet users in Vietnam for fee-based online contents. The study collects 309 suitable questionnaires filled by internet users over 18 years old and living in Vietnam, who frequently use online contents and have ideally made payment for online contents. The analysis results indicate that the willingness-to-pay for the fee-based online contents of Vietnamese users are influenced by their attitudes toward paying and ethical self-efficacy for online piracy. The study also identifies the antecedents of attitude, which include the perceived benefits of usefulness and enjoyment, the perceived sacrifice of the fee, social influences from other people, and especially the free mentality. The study then suggests managerial implications to online content providers in enhancing WTP for the fee-based online contents in Vietnam

SCREENING ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF VIETNAMESE PLANT EXTRACTS AGAINST HUMAN PATHOGENIC BACTERIA

Objectives: Infectious diseases caused by bacteria are a leading cause of death worldwide. Hence, the objectives of the study are aimed to evaluate the antibacterial activity against five human pathogenic bacteria of methanolic extracts from 66 plants collected from Vietnam. Methods: The broth microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of methanol extracts of 66 plant species against five bacterial strains. Results: In this study, all the plant extracts were active against at least one train with MIC values ranging from 24 to 2048 μg/mL. Twenty-five plant extracts were active against all three Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus cereus, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus). Of these, the extracts of Macaranga trichocarpa (Rchb. f. and Zoll.) Mull. Arg. (Euphorbiaceae), Calophyllum inophyllum L. (Clusiaceae) and Caryodaphnopsis baviensis (Lecomte) Airy Shaw (Lauraceae) exhibited the highest antibacterial activity (MIC =24–128 μg/mL), followed by extracts of Betula alnoides Buch.- Ham. e × . D. Don (Betulaceae), Acronychia pedunculata (L.) Miq. (Rutaceae), Croton alpinus A. Chev. ex Gagnep. (Euphorbiaceae) (MIC =64–256 μg/mL). Furthermore, the extract of Rhus chinensis Mill. (Anacardiaceae) and Annona reticulata L. (Annonaceae) exhibited potent antibacterial activity against the two Bacillus species (MIC =32–64 μg/mL). Conclusion: Results of this study reveal that plant extracts from Vietnam have highly antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria. These results suggest that Vietnamese plant extracts may be a rich source of antibacterial drugs