Pragmatism, Adaptation, and Total Quality Management: Philosophy and Science in the Service of Managing Continuous Improvement

Today’s engineering managers who use total quality management (TQM) face the challenge of moving it from adoption to seamless incorporation into their organizations. Both the application and the theory of TQM can be advanced through an examination of the philosophy of pragmatism and the sciences of adaptation. Pragmatism provides a philosophy that establishes a theory for incorporating TQM into engineers’ management practice; it derives its epistemology from actual experience. In essence, pragmatism suggests that practical experience, such as that gained from the continuous improvement of and experimentation with TQM, provides the basis for successful organizational performance. The sciences of adaptation identify the characteristics of organizations that promote successful adaptation. They suggest that incremental adjustments to ongoing change are the keys to effective and successful growth. This paper explores both philosophy and science to identify actions and attitudes that can enable the success of TQM in an organization.     

Efficient return algorithms for associated plasticity with multiple yield planes

A new return method for implicit integration of linear isotropic yield criteria is presented. The basic idea is to perform all the manipulations in the principal stress space and thereby achieve very simple formulae for calculating the plastic corrector stresses, based on the constant gradient of such criteria. The return formulae are in closed form and no iteration is required. The method accounts for three types of stress return: return to a single yield plane, to a discontinuity line at the intersection of two yield planes and to a discontinuity point at the intersection between three or more yield planes. The infinitesimal and the consistent elastoplastic constitutive matrix are calculated for each type of stress return, as are the conditions to ascertain which type of return is required. The method is exemplified with the Mohr–Coulomb yield criterion. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adaptive observers as nonlinear internal models

This paper shows how the theory of nonlinear adaptive observers can be effectively used in the design of internal models for nonlinear output regulation. The theory substantially enhances the existing results in the context of adaptive output regulation, by allowing for not necessarily stable zero dynamics of the controlled plant and by weakening the standard assumption of having the steady-state control input generated by a linear system.     

High accuracy path tracking for vehicles in presence of sliding: Application to farm vehicle automatic guidance for agricultural tasks

When designing an accurate automated guidance system for vehicles, a major problem is sliding and pseudo-sliding effects. This is especially the case in agricultural applications, where five-centimetre accuracy with respect to the desired trajectory is required, although the vehicles are moving on slippery ground. It has been established that RTK GPS was a very suitable sensor to achieve automated guidance with such high precision: several control laws have been designed for vehicles equipped with this sensor, and provide the expected guidance accuracy as long as the vehicles do not slide. In previous work, further control developments have been proposed to take sliding into account: guidance accuracy in slippery environments has been shown to be preserved, except transiently at the beginning/end of curves. In this paper, the design of this control law is first recalled and discussed. A Model Predictive Control method is then applied in order to preserve accuracy of guidance even during these curvature transitions. Finally, the overall control scheme is implemented, and improvements with respect to previous guidance laws are demonstrated through full-scale experiments.     

ON THE ROBUST GLOBAL STABILIZATION OF nth-ORDER REACTIONS

In this paper, we employ a nonlinear adaptive mechanism to globally stabilize n^th-order reactions.     

Susceptibility of Listeria monocytogenes strains to disinfectants and chlorinated alkaline cleaners at cold temperatures

Minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC), suspension and biofilm tests were used in evaluating the disinfecting efficacy of eight commercially available disinfectants and four chlorinated alkaline cleaners against 10 strains of Listeria monocytogenes at refrigerated temperatures. The adaptive response and cross-adaptation of L. monocytogenes to the disinfectants and chlorinated alkaline cleaners were investigated. The bactericidal components in the agents used were chlorine, quaternary ammonium compound (QAC), peracetic acid, ethanol and isopropanol. With some exceptions the disinfectants were efficient against the L. monocytogenes strains. One alkaline hypochlorite containing disinfectant was not efficient in the suspension and MIC tests at the lowest concentration recommended by the manufacturer. The chlorinated alkaline cleaners were effective against L. monocytogenes. A QAC-based disinfectant was found to be the least-effective agent on both glass bead-blasted polyethylene and stainless-steel surfaces. Adaptive and cross-adaptive responses of L. monocytogenes strains were observed towards the QAC-based agent, but over 2-fold increases to other agents were not observed. These results suggest that the adaptive responses of L. monocytogenes to disinfectants or chlorinated alkaline cleaners are of a minor concern.     

自适应比例因子模糊控制器在异步电动机调速系统中的应用

为了降低转子电阻变化对异步电动机矢量控制系统性能的影响，本文把自适应比例因子模糊控制器应用到了矢量控制系统中。介绍了自适应比例因子模糊控制方法的綦本原理，给出了使用自适应比例因子模糊控制器的异步电动机矢量控制系统的结构框图，对主模糊控制器和辅助模糊控制器进行了设计。仿真实验结果表明，采用这种控制方法的调速系统不仅具有优良的动态性能，而且对转子电阻变化具有很强的鲁棒性。     

Protecting against key-exposure: strongly key-insulated encryption with optimal threshold

Key-insulated encryption schemes use a combination of key splitting and key evolution to protect against key exposure. Existing schemes, however scale poorly, having cost proportional to the number t of time periods that may be compromised by the adversary, and thus are practical only for small values of t. Yet in practice t might be large. This paper presents a strongly key-insulated encryption scheme with optimal threshold. In our scheme, t need not be known in advance and can be as large as one less than the total number of periods, yet the cost of the scheme is not impacted. This brings key-insulated encryption closer to practice. Our scheme is based on the Boneh-Franklin identity-based encryption (IBE) scheme [9], and exploits algebraic properties of the latter. Another contribution of this paper is to show that (not strongly) key-insulated encryption with optimal threshold and allowing random-access key updates (which our scheme and all others known allow) is equivalent to a restricted form of IBE. This means that the connection between key-insulated encryption and IBE is not accidental. Supported in part by NSF grants CCR-0098123, ANR-0129617 and CCR-0208842, and by an IBM Faculty Partnership Development Award. Supported in part by an NSF graduate fellowship.     

An efficient return algorithm for non-associated plasticity with linear yield criteria in principal stress space

An efficient return algorithm for stress update in numerical plasticity computations is presented. The yield criterion must be linear in principal stress space and can be composed of any number of yield planes. Each of these yield planes may have an associated or non-associated flow rule. The stress return and the formation of the constitutive matrix is carried out in principal stress space. Here the manipulations simplify and rely on geometrical arguments. The singularities arising at the intersection of yield planes are dealt with in a straightforward way also based on geometrical considerations. The method is exemplified on non-associated Mohr–Coulomb plasticity throughout the paper.     

C/C + +源代码风格检测工具的实现

文中给出了评价C／C 源代码风格的规则分类和检查工具的总体结构，阐述了代码检查工具的核心技术——扩展词法分析和扩展语法分析，给出了代码检测工具的应用实例。