The application of neural networks in active suspension

This thesis considers the application of neural networks to automotive suspension systems. In particular their ability to learn non-linear feedback control relationships. The speed of processing, once trained, means that neural networks open up new opportunities and allow increased complexity in the control strategies employed. The suitability of neural networks for this task is demonstrated here using multilayer perceptron, (MLP) feed forward neural networks applied to a quarter vehicle simulation model. Initially neural networks are trained from a training data set created using a non-linear optimal control strategy, the complexity of which prohibits its direct use. They are shown to be successful in learning the relationship between the current system states and the optimal control. [Continues.

An Eighteenth-Century French Snuffbox as an Object of Social Status

Includes bibliographical reference

Missouri, Heart of the Nation Art, Commerce, and Civic Pride

"In the painting Note from St. Louis by Lawrence Beall Smith, a shoeshine boy pauses during his working day to gaze at The Meeting of the Rivers, a recently installed fountain. Connecting St. Louis with ancient Greek and Roman cultures, Carl Milles's fountain greets visitors to St. Louis as they arrive at and depart from Union Station. The fountain symbolizes the confluence of two mighty rivers, the Mississippi and the Missouri, and heralds the importance of these rivers for the mythos of Missouri. The shoeshine boy has parked his kit at his side on the pavement and stands contemplating a sculpture of a putto struggling with a gargantuan fish. Jets of water arch over and around this tableau. The shoeshine boy embodies what some felt art could do -- elevate the morals and sensibilities of the working and middle class with a promise of personal transformation."--First paragraph.Includes bibliographical reference

Big ideas in little boxes : nation building in three nineteenth-century American parlor games by Milton Bradley and Company

Milton Bradley and Company manufactured its first game, The Checkered Game of Life, in 1860, only months before the American Civil War broke out. Soon after, it produced the Myriopticon A Historical Panorama of the Rebellion, and the Historiscope A Panorama and History of America. Producing "moral, instructive and entertaining home amusements" proved to be good business for the company. This dissertation investigates the behaviors, beliefs, assumptions and worldview of midnineteenth-century American society just before and after the American Civil War through the examination of three parlor amusements. Grounding my analysis in the religious, social, visual and material culture of the time, I ask the question: Why would buying and playing these games appeal to families right after the conclusion of the Civil War, at a time when the nation and families struggled to reconstruct themselves? My findings suggest playing these three parlor amusements accomplished at least three ends: reaffirmed the woman's role in the moral education of children and families, confirmed the desire for a united nation, and side stepped any engagement with change in the social and political ideology of that newly united nation. My analysis reveals that the three parlor games I studied acted as guardians of the ideals already established and enshrined in the American origin story told since the late 1700s and retold in the Historiscope.Includes bibliographical reference

Creation of Transnational Administrative Structures Governing Internet Communication, The

As the world becomes more economically integrated, increasing numbers of problems arise that are best handled through international treaties and transnational regulatory structures.4 For example, there have been concerns regarding the safety of products shipped from developing countries. These concerns have involved manufactured products, but have been particularly evident with food. Numerous examples can be found. The Japanese “discovered high levels of pesticides in imported spinach,” and U.S. “pets died from eating [imported] pet food contaminated with toxic chemicals.” In France, pesticides were discovered in fish imported from Africa, prompting the French government to suspend the importation of all fishes from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. This suspension was upheld by the French Council of State which held that it was impossible to trace the origin of imported fishes, and therefore that it was permissible to forbid the importation of all fishes from the affected countries. Between the U.S. and the European Union, there have been disputes regarding U.S. beef laced with natural and synthetic hormones

Human Geography: The World

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