Finite settling time stabilisation: the robust SISO case

This article deals with the problem of robustness to multiplicative plant perturbations for the case of finite settling time stabilisation (FSTS) of single input single output (SISO), linear, discrete-time systems. FSTS is a generalisation of the deadbeat control and as in the case of deadbeat control the main feature of FSTS is the placement of all closed-loop poles at the origin of the z-plane. This makes FSTS sensitive to plant perturbations hence, the need of robust design. An efficient robustness index is introduced and the problem is reduced to a finite linear programme where all the benefits of the simplex method, such as effectiveness, efficiency and ability to provide complete solution to the optimisation problem, can be exploited

Study of the Regeneration Cleaning of Used Mineral Oils – Ecotoxicological Properties and Biodegradation

The aim of the study was to establish and compare the model of the biodegradability and ecotoxicological properties of oil samples in aqueous environment.The unused new mineral oil Turbinol and used (after 1 year of usage) recovered oil Turbinol purified by the electrostatical method were the tested samples. For the determination of the ecotoxicological properties, the test organisms used were seeds of Sinapis alba L. and the small aquatic crustaceans Daphnia magna. Preliminary tests were positive and determined the acute toxicity with the values of IC50 and EC50. Biodegradability was determined by the manometric method, in tests which lasted 28 days. Tests of toxicity were positive, and the samples were found to be hard to biodegrade. Determination of the oil composition by gas chromatography with mass detection (GC – MS); found that the composition of the electrostatically cleaned oil is comparable to the new oil, which is confirmed by the results obtained with the response inhibition in selected tests. Regeneration extends the oil life, reducing the cost of disposal of waste oils, saving fossil raw materials, thus belonging to the environmentally friendly techniques. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Tableaux for Policy Synthesis for MDPs with PCTL* Constraints

Markov decision processes (MDPs) are the standard formalism for modelling sequential decision making in stochastic environments. Policy synthesis addresses the problem of how to control or limit the decisions an agent makes so that a given specification is met. In this paper we consider PCTL*, the probabilistic counterpart of CTL*, as the specification language. Because in general the policy synthesis problem for PCTL* is undecidable, we restrict to policies whose execution history memory is finitely bounded a priori. Surprisingly, no algorithm for policy synthesis for this natural and expressive framework has been developed so far. We close this gap and describe a tableau-based algorithm that, given an MDP and a PCTL* specification, derives in a non-deterministic way a system of (possibly nonlinear) equalities and inequalities. The solutions of this system, if any, describe the desired (stochastic) policies. Our main result in this paper is the correctness of our method, i.e., soundness, completeness and termination.Comment: This is a long version of a conference paper published at TABLEAUX 2017. It contains proofs of the main results and fixes a bug. See the footnote on page 1 for detail

IAPT chromosome data 31

Marhold, Karol. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Botany. Science and Biodiversity Centre. Bratislava, Slovak Republic.Kučera, Jaromír. Slovak Academy of Sciences. Institute of Botany. Science and Biodiversity Centre. Bratislava, Slovak Republic.Melo, Camila Aguiar. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Instituto de Biociências. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular. Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.Almeida, Erton Mendonça de. Federal University of Paraíba. Department of Biological Sciences. Areia, Paraíba, Brazil.Alves, Lânia Isis Ferreira. Instituto Nacional do Semi Árido (INSA). Campina Grande, Paraíba, Brazil.An’kova, Tatyana V. Central Siberian Botanical Garden SB RAS. Zolotodolinskaya Str. Novosibirsk, Russia.Bered, Fernanda. Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Genética e Biologia Molecular. Instituto de Biociências. Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.Rua, Gabriel Hugo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambiente. Cátedra de Botánica Sistemática. Buenos Aires, Argentina.1374-1380IAPT Chromosome Data is a regular column in Taxon that publishes vouchered chromosome counts and ploidy level estimates, providing that the contributions fulfil some basic quality requirements

Nuclear physics for cultural heritage

We report about the expert review, published by the Nuclear Physics Division of the European Physical Society (NPD EPS), which aims to provide the public with a popular and accessible account of the latest developments in the field of nuclear physics application for cultural heritage. The contributions from a range of leading specialists explain how applied atomic and nuclear techniques can be used to obtain information that can help us to understand the way of life in ancient times and how they can be used to conserve cultural heritage treasures. This topical review draws heavily on European work and is extensively illustrated with important discoveries and examples from archaeology, pre-history, history, geography, culture, religion and curation. It outlines key advances in a wide range of cross-disciplinary techniques and has been written with the minimum of technical detail so as to be accessible by as wide as possible audience. The large number of groups and laboratories working in the study and preservation of cultural heritage using mainly nuclear physics methods across Europe indicates the enormous effort and importance paid by society to this activity

Using network science in the language sciences and clinic

A number of variables—word frequency, word length—have long been known to influence language processing. We briefly review the effects in speech perception and production of two more recently examined variables: phonotactic probability and neighborhood density. We then describe a new approach to study language, network science, which is an interdisciplinary field drawing from mathematics, computer science, physics, and other disciplines. In this approach, nodes represent individual entities in a system (i.e., phonological word-forms in the lexicon), links between nodes represent relationships between nodes (i.e., phonological neighbors), and various measures enable researchers to assess the micro-level (i.e., the individual word), the macro-level (i.e., characteristics about the whole system), and the meso-level (i.e., how an individual fits into smaller sub-groups in the larger system). Although research on individual lexical characteristics such as word-frequency has increased our understanding of language processing, these measures only assess the “micro-level.” Using network science, researchers can examine words at various levels in the system, and how each word relates to the many other words stored in the lexicon. Several new findings using the network science approach are summarized to illustrate how this approach can be used to advance basic research as well as clinical practice

An optimization principle for deriving nonequilibrium statistical models of Hamiltonian dynamics

A general method for deriving closed reduced models of Hamiltonian dynamical systems is developed using techniques from optimization and statistical estimation. As in standard projection operator methods, a set of resolved variables is selected to capture the slow, macroscopic behavior of the system, and the family of quasi-equilibrium probability densities on phase space corresponding to these resolved variables is employed as a statistical model. The macroscopic dynamics of the mean resolved variables is determined by optimizing over paths of these probability densities. Specifically, a cost function is introduced that quantifies the lack-of-fit of such paths to the underlying microscopic dynamics; it is an ensemble-averaged, squared-norm of the residual that results from submitting a path of trial densities to the Liouville equation. The evolution of the macrostate is estimated by minimizing the time integral of the cost function. The value function for this optimization satisfies the associated Hamilton-Jacobi equation, and it determines the optimal relation between the statistical parameters and the irreversible fluxes of the resolved variables, thereby closing the reduced dynamics. The resulting equations for the macroscopic variables have the generic form of governing equations for nonequilibrium thermodynamics, and they furnish a rational extension of the classical equations of linear irreversible thermodynamics beyond the near-equilibrium regime. In particular, the value function is a thermodynamic potential that extends the classical dissipation function and supplies the nonlinear relation between thermodynamics forces and fluxes