Zero locations of an entire family of polytope polynomials

We extend the result of Soh to study the zeros of an entire family of polytope polynomials. We show that, under some conditions, zeros of the family of polynomials can be inferred from the zero locations of the vertex polynomials.     

Utility of Multivariate Analysis in Modeling the Effects of Raw Material Properties and Operating Parameters on Granule and Ribbon Properties Prepared in Roller Compaction

This article aimed to model the effects of raw material properties and roller compactor operating parameters (OPs) on the properties of roller compacted ribbons and granules with the aid of principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) projection. A database of raw material properties was established through extensive physical and mechanical characterization of several microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and lactose grades and their blends. A design of experiment (DoE) was used for ribbon production. PLS models constructed with only OP-modeled roller compaction (RC) responded poorly. Inclusion of raw material properties markedly improved the goodness of fit (R²?=?.897) and model predictability (Q²?=?0.72).     

Motion analytics of zebrafish using fine motor kinematics and multi-view trajectory

Zebrafish is a useful animal model for studying human diseases such as muscle disorders. However, manual monitoring of fish motion is time-consuming and prone to subjective variations. In this paper, an automatic fish motion analytics framework is proposed. The proposed framework could be exploited to help validate zebrafish models of transgenic zebrafish that express human genes carrying mutations which lead to muscle disorders, thus affecting their ability to swim normally. To differentiate between wild-type (normal) and transgenic zebrafish, the proposed framework consists of two approaches to exploit discriminative spatial–temporal kinematic features which are extracted to represent zebrafish movements. First, the proposed approach studies precise quantitative measurements of motor movement abnormalities using a camera with the capability to record videos with high frames rates (up to 1,000 frames per second). This differs from previous works, which only tracked each fish as a single point over time. Second, the proposed approach studies multi-view spatial–temporal swimming trajectories. This differs from previous works which typically only considered single-view analysis of fish swimming trajectories. The proposed motion features are then incorporated into a supervised classification approach to identify abnormal fish movements. Experimental results have shown that the proposed approach is capable of differentiating between wild-type and transgenic zebrafish, thus helping to validate the zebrafish models.     

Robust stability of impulsive periodic hybrid systems with dependent perturbations

This paper derives sufficient conditions for the stability of impulsive periodic hybrid systems with dependent perturbations. Bounds on the size of the polytope of uncertainties which still guarantees stability are derived.     

beta-adrenergic modulation of maxi-K channels in vascular smooth muscle via Gi through a membrane-delimited pathway

Direct modulation of large-conductance Ca2+-activated K+ (maxi-K) channel by receptor-associated G protein in rabbit mesenteric arterial smooth muscle cells was studied using the outside-out patch clamp technique. Applying a beta-adrenoceptor agonist (isoproterenol) increased maxi-K channel activity by 75%, and the effect was almost completely abolished by pretreating the cells with pertussis toxin but not with cholera toxin. When the antibody against Gi protein was present in the pipette solution the stimulatory effect of isoproterenol disappeared. These results suggest that beta-adrenoceptor stimulation increases maxi-K channel activity via a membrane-delimited pathway, probably through pertussis toxin-sensitive G protein (Gi).     

H ∞ and Robust Control of 2-D Systems in FM Second Model

This paper deals with output feedback stabilization and H control problems for two-dimensional (2-D) discrete linear systems without or with parameter uncertainty. The class of systems under investigation is described by the 2-D local state space Fornasini-Marchesini second model. We aim at designing a dynamical output feedback controller to achieve asymptotic stability and H performance for the 2-D system. It is shown that the design of output feedback controller can be recast into a convex optimization problem characterized by linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). The LMI solution is further extended to solve the robust stabilization problem for 2-D systems subject to norm-bounded uncertainty. The solutions for the H control and robust stabilization are applied to two application examples: thermal process control and robust stabilization of processes in Darboux equation.     

Integrated Optimization of Control System for Smart Cylindrical Shells Using Modified GA

In this paper, modeling of the vibration of cylindrical shell components of space structures incorporating piezoelectric sensor/actuators (S/As) for optimal vibration control is proposed and formulated. The parameters of the control system, which include the placement and sizing of the piezoelectric S/As and the feedback control gains, were considered as design variables and optimized simultaneously. The effect of the amount of piezoelectric patches was investigated as well. The criterion based on the maximization of energy dissipation was employed for the optimization of the control system. A modified real-encoded genetic algorithm (GA) dealing with various constraints has been developed and applied to search for the optimal placement and size of the piezoelectric patches as well as the optimal feedback control gains. The results of three numerical examples, which include a simply supported plate, a simply supported cylindrical shell, and a clamped-simply supported plate, demonstrated significant vibration suppression based on the optimal design of the control system. It was also found that for specific controlled vibration modes, the optimal distribution of the piezoelectric S/As should be located at the areas separated by the nodal lines to achieve the optimal control effect. This finding would be useful for the practical design of smart structures.     

Evaluation of plasma deposited silicon nitride thin films for microsystems technology

Plasma deposited silicon nitride thin films were deposited at temperatures between 150/spl deg/C and 300/spl deg/C. Diagnostic microstructures were fabricated from the thin films using bulk micromachining, and the strain was calculated from optical measurement of postbuckling deflection. The results indicate that the residual strain of the thin films is dominated by film-substrate thermal mismatch, with the coefficient of thermal expansion monotonically increasing with decreasing deposition temperature. Metal-insulator-metal devices of variable area were also fabricated to measure the dielectric constant, which was shown to be independent of deposition temperature. The importance of these results to microsystems technology (MST) was briefly discussed.     

Robust stability of perturbed switching systems by matrix measure

The robust stability of switching systems is a very difficult problem because of the difficulty in separating the perturbations of the models and the reset maps. In this paper, we apply matrix measure to separate the perturbations of the models and the reset maps. Then the conditions for robust stability of perturbed switching systems with structured perturbations can be readily derived. Sufficient conditions for robust stability of switching systems are proposed, and bounds for structured perturbations based on nonnegative matrices that still ensure stability are derived.