Rule-based tools for the configuration of ambient intelligence systems: a comparative user study

Multimedia Tools and Applications - This paper describes a 63-participant user study that compares two widely known systems supporting end users in creating trigger-action rules for the Internet of...     

Hyper-arc consistency of polynomial constraints over finite domains using the modified Bernstein form

This paper describes an algorithm to enforce hyper-arc consistency of polynomial constraints defined over finite domains. First, the paper describes the language of so called polynomial constraints over finite domains, and it introduces a canonical form for such constraints. Then, the canonical form is used to transform the problem of testing the satisfiability of a constraint in a box into the problem of studying the sign of a related polynomial function in the same box, a problem which is effectively solved by using the modified Bernstein form of polynomials. The modified Bernstein form of polynomials is briefly discussed, and the proposed hyper-arc consistency algorithm is finally detailed. The proposed algorithm is a subdivision procedure which, starting from an initial approximation of the domains of variables, removes values from domains to enforce hyper-arc consistency.     

Turbulent premixed flame model based on a recent dispersion model

A model of turbulent premixed combustion is formulated based on a recent dispersion model and on earlier flame models. The dispersion model accounts for the effect of velocity correlation on turbulent dispersion without using parameters that are explicitly dependent on time or space. The earlier flame models are used as a basis for formulating an appropriate chemical source term. The resulting model is more general than the earlier models.The proposed model and one of the earlier models are validated against various experimental flames. It is shown that the proposed model is more accurate and requires less calibration. Furthermore, the proposed model is tested successfully against general criteria for premixed combustion modeling formulated in earlier works. It is therefore concluded that the dispersion model is a useful tool for premixed combustion modeling.     

Stepwise dissection and visualization of the catalytic mechanism of haloalkane dehalogenase LinB using molecular dynamics simulations and computer graphics

The different steps of the dehalogenation reaction carried out by LinB on three different substrates have been characterized using a combination of quantum mechanical calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. This has allowed us to obtain information in atomic detail about each step of the reaction mechanism, that is, substrate entrance and achievement of the near-attack conformation, transition state stabilization within the active site, halide stabilization, water molecule activation and subsequent hydrolytic attack on the ester intermediate with formation of alcohol, and finally product release. Importantly, no bias or external forces were applied during the whole procedure so that both intermediates and products were completely free to sample configuration space in order to adapt to the plasticity of the active site and/or search for an exit. Differences in substrate reactivity were found to be correlated with the ease of adopting the near-attack conformation and two different exit pathways were found for product release that do not interfere with substrate entrance. Additional support for the different entry and exit pathways was independently obtained from an examination of the enzyme's normal modes.     

Simple robust autotuning rules for 2-DoF PI controllers

This paper addresses the problem of providing simple tuning rules for a Two-Degree-of-Freedom (2-DoF) PI controller (PI(2)) with robustness considerations. The introduction of robustness as a matter of primary concern is by now well established among the control community. Among the different ways of introducing a robustness constraint into the design stage, the purpose of this paper is to use the maximum sensitivity value as the design parameter. In order to deal with the well known performance/robustness tradeoff, an analysis is conducted first that allows the determination of the lowest closed-loop time constant that guarantees a desired robustness. From that point, an analytical design is conducted for the assignment of the load-disturbance dynamics followed by the tuning of the set-point weight factor in order to match, as much as possible, the set-point-to-output dynamics according to a first-order-plus-dead-time dynamics. Simple tuning rules are generated by considering specific values for the maximum sensitivity value. These tuning rules, provide all the controller parameters parameterized in terms of the open-loop normalized dead-time allowing the user to select a high/medium/low robust closed-loop control system. The proposed autotuning expressions are therefore compared with other well known tuning rules also conceived by using the same robustness measure, showing that the proposed approach is able to guarantee the same robustness level and improve the system time performance.     

Information systems for enhancing social experience in a conference context: A sensor based approach

We combine Auto Identification and Web technologies in an extensible on-site event support system for enhancing experience of conference organizers as well as participants. Our system enables users to authenticate themselves using RFID badges and to access interactive, Web-based services via a touchscreen PC. The developed services aim at supporting social interactions of participants, and thus validate the promising usage directions of the combination of offline social networks and the online social Web. The main hypothesis of our work is that: ??A sensor based information system can truly enhance social conference experience.?? Technically, we have investigated employment of Web 2.0 technologies in social, sensor and mobile technologies enabled systems at conferences and events. This article gives an overview of the overall system and its evaluation via a user survey and usage log data collected during the Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC) 2010 and similar international conferences, altogether with several hundred participants.     

Fusion of three sensory modalities for the multimodal characterization of red wines

This work represents the first attempt to develop a sensory system, specifically designed for the characterization of wines, which combines three sensory modalities: an array of gas sensors, an array of electrochemical liquid sensors, and an optical system to measure color by means of CIElab coordinates. This new analytical tool, that has been called "electronic panel," includes not only sensors, but also hardware (injection system and electronics) and the software necessary for fusing information from the three modules. Each of the three sensory modalities (volatiles, liquids, and color) has been designed, tested, and optimized separately. The discrimination capabilities of the system have been evaluated on a database consisting of six red Spanish wines prepared using the same variety of grape (tempranillo) but differing in their geographic origins and aging stages. Sensor signals from each module have been combined and analyzed using pattern recognition techniques. The results of this work show that the discrimination capabilities of the system are significantly improved when signals from each module are combined to form a multimodal feature vector.     

A Mixed Closure-CSP Method for Solving Scheduling Problems

Scheduling problems can be viewed as a set of temporal metric and disjunctive constraints and so they can be formulated in terms of CSP techniques. In the literature, there are CSP-based methods which sequentially interleave search efforts with the application of consistency enforcing mechanisms and variable/ordering heuristics. Therefore, the number of backtrackings needed to obtain a solution is reduced. In this paper, we propose a new method that effectively integrates the CSP process into a limited closure process: not by interleaving them but rather as a part of the same process. Such an integration allows us to define more informed heuristics. These heuristics are used to limit the complete closure process to a maximum number of disjunctions, thereby reducing its complexity while at the same time reducing the search space. Some open disjunctive solutions can be maintained in the CSP process, limiting the number of backtrackings necessary, and avoiding having to know all the problem constraints in advance. Our experiments with flow-shop and job-shop instances show that this approach obtains a feasible solution/optimal solution without having to use backtracking in most cases. We also analyze the behaviour of our algorithm when some constraints are known dynamically and we demonstrate that it can provide better results than a pure CSP process.     

A Lagrange duality characterisation for stability under arbitrary switching in switched positive linear systems

The present communication is concerned with uniform exponential stability, under arbitrary switching, in discrete-time switched positive linear systems. Lagrange duality is used in order to obtain a new characterisation for uniform exponential stability which is in terms of sets of inequalities involving each of the matrices that represent the modes of the system. These sets of inequalities are shown to generalise the classical linear Lyapunov inequality that characterises, in positive matrices, the property of being Schur. Each solution to these sets of inequalities is shown to provide a representation, in terms of a number of linear functionals, for a common Lyapunov function for the switched positive linear system. A result is further presented which conveys to, a conservative upper bound on the minimum required number of linear functionals (in the above mentioned representation), and also to a method for computing them. Our proof for the aforementioned characterisation is based on another (equivalent) characterisation, in terms of the solvability of a dynamic programming equation associated to the switched positive linear system, which is also reported in the paper. In particular, it is shown that the associated dynamic programming equation has at most one solution. And this solution is shown to be convex, monotonic, positively homogeneous, and it yields a common Lyapunov function for the switched positive linear system.