An automotive engine oil viscosity sensor

For the evaluation of the condition of automotive engine oil, the oil's viscosity is one of the most important parameters. Using microacoustic viscosity sensors, an oil-viscosity measurement can be performed on-board. In this contribution, we discuss the behavior of the viscosity of engine oil, its temperature dependence, and the resulting representation in terms of output signals of microacoustic viscosity sensors. These considerations are illustrated by means of measurement results obtained for used oil samples, which have been obtained from test cars and fresh oil samples out of different viscosity classes. Finally, the detection of the viscosity increase due to soot contamination is demonstrated.     

Alcohol in Munich secondary school students--a study for dissemination of experiences, knowledge, attitude and behavior

The Munich Community Health Service (Medical School-Service Department) conducted an alcohol prevention project in ten public secondary schools. The 423 pupils (11-17 years of age) filled in a questionnaire on alcohol and discussed it afterwards under the guidance of a school physician and a teacher using guideline information. The results of the survey are presented in this paper. Additionally, suggestions for transferring the results to conceptualize and carry out preventive measures are made. The results indicate that the first experience with alcohol occurred early in life. One-fifth of the sample had already tried alcohol at the age of six. Immediate effects of alcohol (e.g. state of drunkenness) were experienced by 35.7 percent of the sample group. Kiosks, shops, and beverage stores were named most frequently as sources for alcohol. The sources of social support varied with respect to sex and age. With increasing age of the children, parents were contacted less frequently whereas the role of peers increased. The present results supply possible paths of action for the development of successful prevention strategies, e.g. by pointing out the early age of onset as well as specific sources of alcohol acquisition.     

Proton exchange membranes by radiation grafting of styrene onto fep films. III. Structural investigation

Structural investigation on proton-exchange membranes, obtained by the radiation grafting of styrene onto FEP films and subsequent sulfonation, was carried out by differential scanning calorimetry. The membrane crystallinity was found to show a decreasing trend with increasing degree of grafting. The melting temperature of all the membranes also showed a slight decrease as compared to the ungrafted FEP. The results have been explained in terms of the cumulative effect of the decrease in the crystalline/amorphous ratio by the incorporation of amorphous polystyrene grafts and of disruption of spherulitic crystallites of the FEP component in the membranes. The glass transition temperature of the membranes with different water contents was also evaluated. A correlation of the glass transition temperature with the residual water in dried membranes was established. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Brain-computer communication: motivation, aim, and impact of exploring a virtual apartment.

The step away from a synchronized or cue-based brain-computer interface (BCI) and from laboratory conditions towards real world applications is very important and crucial in BCI research. This work shows that ten naive subjects can be trained in a synchronous paradigm within three sessions to navigate freely through a virtual apartment, whereby at every junction the subjects could decide by their own, how they wanted to explore the virtual environment (VE). This virtual apartment was designed similar to a real world application, with a goal-oriented task, a high mental workload, and a variable decision period for the subject. All subjects were able to perform long and stable motor imagery over a minimum time of 2 s. Using only three electroencephalogram (EEG) channels to analyze these imaginations, we were able to convert them into navigation commands. Additionally, it could be demonstrated that motivation is a very crucial factor in BCI research; motivated subjects perform much better than unmotivated ones.     

Reward revision and the average reward markov decision process

Summary We integrate two numerical procedures for solving the average reward Markov decision process (MDP), standard successive approximations and modified policy iteration with reward revision. Reward revision is the process of revising the reward structure of a second, more computationally desirable MDP so as to produce, in the limit, an optimality equation having a fixed point identical to that associated with the original MDP. A numerical study indicates that for MDP's having a non-sparse transition structure with a small number of relatively large entries per row, the addition of reward revision can have significant computational benefits.

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Zusammenfassung Zur Lösung Markovscher Entscheidungsprozesse (MDP) mit Durchschnitts-Kriterium werden zwei numerische Verfahren, nämlich sukzessive Approximation und modifizierte Politik-Iteration, mit einer Transformation, der sogenannten 'Reward-Revision, kombiniert. Bei dieser Transformation werden die Übergangswahrscheinlichkeiten so abgeändert (ausgedünnt), daß das neue Modell sich numerisch günstiger verhält. Dazu müssen die einstufigen Erträge so revidiert werden, daß die Optimalitäts-Gleichung des neuen Modells im Limes mit der des ursprünglichen übereinstimmt. Numerische Untersuchungen zeigen, daß für MDP mit stark besetzten Übergangsmatrizen, bei denen nur an wenigen Stellen je Zeile große Werte stehen, die Anwendung von 'Reward Revision zu wesentlichen Einsparungen an Rechenaufwand führen kann.

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Research supported by NSF Grant ECS-8319355     

Exploring single electrode reactions in polymer electrolyte fuel cells

Utilising a pseudo-reference electrode in polymer electrolyte fuel cells allows for the separation of anodic and cathodic contributions to the entire cell impedance. Modelling the impedance responses by using equivalent circuits inhibits the investigation of kinetic parameters of the basic electrochemical reactions, which take place at single electrode-electrolyte interfaces. Therefore, we evaluate single electrode impedance measurements by a kinetic model, which is based on specific reaction pathways, either for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) or the hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR). As a consequence, it is possible to obtain kinetic parameters for the specific reaction of interest. Furthermore, the information gained from the single electrode impedance measurements and the kinetic model can give insight into single reactions steps. In particular, the ORR has to include a chemical step in the reaction pathway.     

Optimality of robust disturbance‐feedback strategies

In this paper, robust disturbance‐feedback strategies for finite time‐horizon problems are studied. Linear discrete‐time systems subject to linear control, state constraints, and quadratic objective functions are considered. In addition, persistent disturbances, which enter the system additively and are contained in a polytopic set, act on the system. The synthesis of robust strategies leads in the case of the traditional robust state‐feedback and open‐loop min–max strategies to, respectively, nonconvex problems or conservatism. However, robust disturbance‐feedback problems can easily be reformulated as convex problems and solved by tractable linear matrix inequalities. Hence this approach bypasses the nonconvexity issue while maintaining the advantages of feedback strategies. As a key result, it is shown that both sources of conservatism attributed to this approach, namely, the relaxation method and the affine parametrization, can be removed at the expense of an increase in computational effort. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An LMI approach to synthesis subject to almost asymptotic regulation constraints

A multi-objective controller synthesis problem is considered in which an output is to be regulated approximately by assuring a bound on the steady-state peak amplification in response to an infinite-energy disturbance, while also guaranteeing a desired level of performance measured in terms of the worst-case energy gain from a finite-energy input to a performance output. Relying on a characterization of the controllers with which almost asymptotic regulation is accomplished, the problem of guaranteeing the desired level of performance is reduced to solving a system of linear matrix inequalities subject to a set of linear equality constraints. Based on the solution of this system, a procedure is outlined for the construction of a suitable controller whose order is equal to the order of the plant plus the order of the exogenous system.