Torque control strategy for an axial flux switched reluctance machine

This paper reflects the work done to design a torque control strategy for an axial flux switched reluctance machine. The general electrical model is first presented but as the switched reluctance machine behaves nonlinearly1 a (three-dimensional) finite element method characterization is performed, so the nonlinearity may be considered. Once the machine is characterized in FEM a Simulink model is developed where a torque control strategy is proposed. Then, both the machine and the control are experimentally tested. The control setting, and the obtained real performance results are also presented in this document. Finally, the most outstanding conclusions about the control strategy are captured. Main difficulties encountered during the implementation of the control strategy are also collected

A technique for automatic real time scoring of several simultaneous sleep electroencephalograms

Automatic real-time scoring of simultaneous sleep electroencephalogram

Analysis of spontaneous MEG activity in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease using spectral entropies and statistical complexity measures

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Over the last few years, a considerable effort has been devoted to exploring new biomarkers. Nevertheless, a better understanding of brain dynamics is still required to optimize therapeutic strategies. In this regard, the characterization of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is crucial, due to the high conversion rate from MCI to AD. However, only a few studies have focused on the analysis of magnetoencephalographic (MEG) rhythms to characterize AD and MCI. In this study, we assess the ability of several parameters derived from information theory to describe spontaneous MEG activity from 36 AD patients, 18 MCI subjects and 26 controls. Three entropies (Shannon, Tsallis and Rényi entropies), one disequilibrium measure (based on Euclidean distance ED) and three statistical complexities (based on Lopez Ruiz–Mancini–Calbet complexity LMC) were used to estimate the irregularity and statistical complexity of MEG activity. Statistically significant differences between AD patients and controls were obtained with all parameters (p < 0.01). In addition, statistically significant differences between MCI subjects and controls were achieved by ED and LMC (p < 0.05). In order to assess the diagnostic ability of the parameters, a linear discriminant analysis with a leave-one-out cross-validation procedure was applied. The accuracies reached 83.9% and 65.9% to discriminate AD and MCI subjects from controls, respectively. Our findings suggest that MCI subjects exhibit an intermediate pattern of abnormalities between normal aging and AD. Furthermore, the proposed parameters provide a new description of brain dynamics in AD and MCI

A Theory of Emergence and Entropy in Systems of Systems

Systems of Systems (SOS) meet vital needs in our society by providing capabilities that are not possible by their discrete components or subsystems. Some SOS are engineered to produce predictable results, yet they can still display emergent behavior. These behaviors are often considered negative because they are not a function of the design. However, emergent behavior can also be serendipitous and produce unexpected positive results. The authors formalize a theory of emergence based on entropy. The theory has explanatory value for emergence as an ontological and phenomenological concept in systems of systems. © 2013 The Authors

Multi-Agent Architecture with Support to Quality of Service and Quality of Control

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15381-5_17Multi Agent Systems (MAS) are one of the most suitable frameworks for the implementation of intelligent distributed control system. Agents provide suitable flexibility to give support to implied heterogeneity in cyber-physical systems. Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Control (QoC) parameters are commonly utilized to evaluate the efficiency of the communications and the control loop. Agents can use the quality measures to take a wide range of decisions, like suitable placement on the control node or to change the workload to save energy. This article describes the architecture of a multi agent system that provides support to QoS and QoC parameters to optimize de system. The architecture uses a Publish-Subscriber model, based on Data Distribution Service (DDS) to send the control messages. Due to the nature of the Publish-Subscribe model, the architecture is suitable to implement event-based control (EBC) systems. The architecture has been called FSACtrlThe architecture described in this article is a part of the coordinated project SIDIRELI: Distributed Systems with Limited Resources. Control Kernel and Coordination. Education and Science Department, Spanish Government and FEDER funds.Poza-Lujan, J.; Posadas-Yagüe, J.; Simó Ten, JE. (2010). Multi-Agent Architecture with Support to Quality of Service and Quality of Control. En Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning – IDEAL 2010. Springer Verlag (Germany). 137-144. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-15381-5_17S137144Lee, E.A.: Cyber Physical Systems: Design Challenges. In: 11th IEEE Symposium on Object Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing, pp. 363–369 (2008)Siegel, J.: CORBA 3: Fundamentals and Programming. OMG (2000)FIPA. FIPA-QoS (2002), http://www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00094Object Management Group (OMG): Data Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems, v1.1. Document formal (2005-12-04)Posadas, J.L., Poza, J.L., Simó, J.E., Benet, G., Blanes, F.: Agent Based Distributed Architecture for Mobile Robot Control. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 21(6), 805–823 (2008)Aurrecoechea, C., Campbell, A.T., Hauw, L.: A Survey of QoS Architectures. Multimedia Systems Journal, Special Issue on QoS Architecture 6(3), 138–151 (1998)Pardo-Castellote, G.: OMG Data-Distribution Service: architectural overview. In: Proceedings of 23rd International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems Workshops, Providence, USA, vol. 19(22), pp. 200–206 (2003)International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Terms and Definitions Related to Quality of Service and Network Performance Including Dependability. ITU-T Recommendation E.800 (0894) (1994)Sánchez, J., Guarnes, M.Á., Dormido, S.: On the Application of Different Event-Based Sampling Strategies to the Control of a Simple Industrial Process. Sensors 9, 6795–6818 (2009)Dorf, R.C., Bishop, R.H.: Modern Control Systems, 11th edn. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (2008)Poza, J.L., Posadas, J.L., Simó, J.E.: Middleware with QoS Support to Control Intelligent Systems. In: 2th International Conference on Advanced Engineering Computing and Applications in Sciences, ADVCOMP, pp. 211–216 (2008)Poza, J.L., Posadas, J.L., Simó, J.E.: From the Queue to the Quality of Service Policy: A Middleware Implementation. In: Omatu, S., Rocha, M.P., Bravo, J., Fernández, F., Corchado, E., Bustillo, A., Corchado, J.M. (eds.) IWANN 2009. LNCS, vol. 5518, pp. 432–437. Springer, Heidelberg (2009

Nanosized superconducting constrictions

Nanowires of lead between macroscopic electrodes are produced by means of an STM. Magnetic fields may destroy the superconductivity in the electrodes, while the wire remains in the superconducting state. The properties of the resulting microscopic Josephson junctions are investigated.Comment: 3 pages,3 eps figures include

EEG characterization of the Alzheimer's disease continuum by means of multiscale entropies

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder with high prevalence, known for its highly disabling symptoms. The aim of this study was to characterize the alterations in the irregularity and the complexity of the brain activity along the AD continuum. Both irregularity and complexity can be studied applying entropy-based measures throughout multiple temporal scales. In this regard, multiscale sample entropy (MSE) and refined multiscale spectral entropy (rMSSE) were calculated from electroencephalographic (EEG) data. Five minutes of resting-state EEG activity were recorded from 51 healthy controls, 51 mild cognitive impaired (MCI) subjects, 51 mild AD patients (ADMIL), 50 moderate AD patients (ADMOD), and 50 severe AD patients (ADSEV). Our results show statistically significant differences (p-values < 0.05, FDR-corrected Kruskal-Wallis test) between the five groups at each temporal scale. Additionally, average slope values and areas under MSE and rMSSE curves revealed significant changes in complexity mainly for controls vs. MCI, MCI vs. ADMIL and ADMOD vs. ADSEV comparisons (p-values < 0.05, FDR-corrected Mann-Whitney U-test). These findings indicate that MSE and rMSSE reflect the neuronal disturbances associated with the development of dementia, and may contribute to the development of new tools to track the AD progression.This research was supported by European Commission and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) under project “Análisis y correlación entre el genoma completo y la actividad cerebral para la ayuda en el diagnóstico de la enfermedad de Alzheimer” (Cooperation Programme Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal, POCTEP 2014-2020); by “Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades” and FEDER under projects PGC2018-098214-A-I00 and DPI2017-84280-R; and by “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação” and FEDER under projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274 and UID/MAT/00144/2013

Absence of charge backscattering in the nonequilibrium current of normal-superconductor structures

We study the nonequilibrium transport properties of a normal-superconductor-normal structure, focussing on the effect of adding an impurity in the superconducting region. Current conservation requires the superfluid velocity to be nonzero, causing a distortion of the quasiparticle dispersion relation within the superconductor. For weakly reflecting interfaces we find a regime of intermediate voltages in which Andreev transmission is the only permitted mechanism for quasiparticles to enter the superconductor. Impurities in the superconductor can only cause Andreev reflection of these quasiparticles and thus cannot degrade the current. At higher voltages, a state of gapless superconductivity develops which is sensitive to the presence of impurities.Comment: Latex file, 11 pages, 2 figures available upon request [email protected], to be published in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

Evolution of equity norms in small-world networks

The topology of interactions has been proved very influential in the results of models based on learning and evolutionary game theory. This paper is aimed at investigating the effect of structures ranging from regular ring lattices to random networks, including small-world networks, in a model focused on property distribution norms. The model considers a fixed and finite population of agents who play the Nash bargaining game repeatedly. Our results show that regular networks promote the emergence of the equity norm, while less-structured networks make possible the appearance of fractious regimes. Additionally, our analysis reveals that the speed of adoption can also be affected by the network structureSpanish MICINN Projects CSD2010-00034 SimulPast CONSOLIDER-INGENIO 2010 , TIN2008-06464-C03-02 and DPI2010-16920, and by the Junta de Castilla y León, References BU034A08 and GREX251-200