Global adaptive output feedback controllers with application to non‐linear friction compensation

In this paper, we consider a class of non‐linear systems in which a set of constant parameters is unknown and some state variables are not available for measurement. For such systems we provide a constructive procedure for the solution of the global adaptive tracking problem with dynamic partial state feedback. We illustrate an application of the control strategy to the adaptive non‐linear friction compensation of a DC motor servomechanism. We improve previous results in tow directions: we allow for a subset of the unmeasurable states to enter in a system non‐linearly; we consider systems which are linearly parametrized with respect to a set of unknown constant parameters. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Word-fragment cuing: The lexical search hypothesis.

In four experiments we evaluated aspects of the hypothesis that word-fragment completion depends on the results of lexical but not semantic search. Experiment 1 showed that the number of meaningful associates linked to a studied word does not affect its recovery when the test cue consists of letters and spaces for missing letters. Experiments 2 and 3 showed retroactive interference effects in fragment completion when words in a second list were lexically related to words in a first list but not when the words in the second list were meaningfully related. Experiment 4 indicated that for studied words, instructions to search at the word level facilitated completion performance and that instructions to generate letters to fill missing spaces had no effect. Other findings indicate that completion was affected by the number of words lexically related to the fragment and by the number of letters missing from the fragment. In general, experimental manipulations that focused on lexical characteristics were effective, and those that focused on semantic characteristics were ineffective. The findings support the conclusion that word fragments engender a lexical search process that does not depend on retrieving encoded meaning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of tension during drying on the structure and mechanics of poly(p-phenylene benzobisthiazole) fibers

The effect of tension during drying on the structure and mechanics of poly(p-phenylene benzobisthiazole) (PBT) fibers has been investigated. The application of tension during drying on PBT fibers spun from anisotropic solutions of PBT/Polyphosphoric acid (PPA) results in an enhancement of tensile modulus and yield strength with a reduction in strain to break. The alterations in the tensile properties can be attributed to the straightening of the wet fibrillar network and the reduction in the axial compressive stresses which develop during drying. Modifications in the mechanical behavior of PBT fibers through tension drying can be achieved regardless of the initial spin draw ratio of the fiber. Additionally, tension drying provides a means to maximize the potential stiffness of PBT fibers which have a low spin draw ratio. Lastly, these investigations show that in the processing of PBT fibers, preventing the onset of buckling and aligning the wet fibrillar network with tension during drying is more effective in enhancing the tensile properties than straightening the dried buckled fibers.     

Smoothing the electromagnetic heating pattern in polymers

In the production of polymers, particles and fibers are often added for coloring and/or improvement of mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. Carefully choosing the electrical properties and size of these additives can allow manipulation of the electrical properties of the composite so that the material can then be heated in both the electric and magnetic fields. Heating can be induced by fields at microwave frequences, where the electric and magnetic fields tend to be concentrated in different regions, or by fields that are quasistatic. These features add a degree of freedom in smoothing the total heating pattern. Models for predicting the electrical properties with the addition of particles or fibers are developed and verified experimentally. Engineering guidelines are established in choosing the electrical properties and size of the additives. Experimentally, a rectangular cavity at 2.45 GHz is used to heat a casting resin with a 5.7 micrometer aluminum powder additive, demonstrating the dramatic smoothing in the heating, pattern made possible by using these additives. Some examples are also suggested to indicate the use of this technique in quasistatic heating configurations.     

Consistent structure determination of a noisy measurement system model

This paper describes a fast and accurate method for defining the structure of a noisy measurement system model without a previous parameters evaluation. The procedure is based on the following steps: (i) choosing a stable system structure; (ii) determing the real model order; (iii) estimating the model parameters. In (i) a value of the model order greater than the supposed one is assumed; in (ii), in order to determine the real structure, samples of the input/output signals of the actual model and the over-parametrised one are used; in (iii), by means of unbiased identification techniques, the model parameters are evaluated. The proposed method can be used both in batch and real-time processing. Experimental results concerning a single input-single output linear process with different model order and noise statistical properties are given.     

The fourth amendment and emerging communications technologies

The key US Supreme Court case that addresses the constitutionality of government surveillance is nearly four decades old. This overview considers how technological developments have strained the prevailing legal framework and highlights areas for reform.     

Internet user behavior: compared study of the access traces and application to the discovery of communities

With an ever-increasing emphasis on human activity (idea exchange, shopping, gaming, etc.) being mediated through the data network, the understanding of Internet users' behavior has become a rising challenge. Research dealing with the analysis and modeling of Internet user behavior can be roughly split in to two main approaches. The first is based on sociocognitive observation of users' practices in a standardized context. The second approach focuses on the analysis of productions and the traces of users' activity. This paper relates to the latter approach and presents a comparative analysis of Internet navigation traces (URLs versus keywords) to characterize individual or group-of-users' behavior when accessing the Web. The proposed models are based on the study of accesses redundancy seen as global static parameters and from the angle of time evolution. We also study the use of these models, in particular, to categorize a population of users in communities of interests. This study enables us to draw some conclusions on the compared performances of the two kinds of trace exploitation, as raw information, as well as the self-similar properties of the models.