Stability analysis of bilinear systems under aperiodic sampled-data control

This note considers the problem of local stability of bilinear systems with aperiodic sampled-data linear state feedback control. The sampling intervals are time-varying and upper bounded. It is shown that the feasibility of some linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), implies the local asymptotic stability of the sampled-data system in an ellipsoidal region containing the equilibrium. The method is based on the analysis of contractive invariant sets, and it is inspired by the dissipativity theory. The results are illustrated by means of numerical examples.     

Semantic Web computing in industry

The Semantic Web has attracted significant attention during the last decade. On the one hand, many research groups have changed their focus towards Semantic Web research and research funding agencies particularly in Europe have explicitly mentioned Semantic Web in their calls for proposals. On the other hand, industry has also begun to watch developments with interest and a number of large companies have started to experiment with Semantic Web technologies to ascertain if these new technologies can be leveraged to add more value for their customers or internally within the company, while there are already several offers of vendors of Semantic Web solutions on the market. The essence of the Semantic Web is to structure Web-based information to make it more interoperable, machine-readable and thereafter to provide a means to relate various information concepts more easily and in a reusable way. The Semantic Web acts as an additional layer on the top of the Web, and is built around explicit representations of information concepts and their relationships such as ontologies and taxonomies. Furthermore, Semantic Web technologies are not only valuable on an open environment like the Web, but also in closed systems such as in industrial settings. Hence, these technologies can be efficiently deployed for domains including Web Services, Enterprise Application Integration, Knowledge Management and E-Commerce, fulfilling existing gaps in current applications. This paper focuses on this synthesis between Semantic Web technologies and systems problems within industrial applications. There will be a short review of Semantic Web standards, languages and technologies followed by a more detailed review of applications of Semantic Web computing in industry. The paper covers theoretical considerations as well as use cases and experience reports on the topic, and we also present some current challenges and opportunities in the domain.     

A state dependent sampling for linear state feedback

In this work, a new state-dependent sampling control enlarges the sampling intervals of state feedback control. We consider the case of linear time invariant systems and guarantee the exponential stability of the system origin for a chosen decay rate. The approach is based on LMIs obtained thanks to sufficient Lyapunov–Razumikhin stability conditions and follows two steps. In the first step, we compute a Lyapunov–Razumikhin function that guarantees exponential stability for all time-varying sampling intervals up to some given bound. This value can be used as a lower-bound of the state-dependent sampling function. In a second step, an off-line computation provides a mapping from the state-space into the set of sampling intervals: the state is divided into a finite number of regions, and to each of these regions is associated an allowable upper-bound of the sampling intervals that will guarantee the global (exponential or asymptotic) stability of the system. The results are based on sufficient conditions obtained using convex polytopes. Therefore, they involve some conservatism with respect to necessary and sufficient conditions. However, at each of the two steps, an optimization on the sampling upper-bounds is proposed. The approach is illustrated with numerical examples from the literature for which the number of actuations is shown to be reduced with respect to the periodic sampling case.     

Nanofluids for energetics: effect of stabilization on the critical heat flux at boiling

Investigation of aqueous nanofluids synthesized for the first time based on the natural alumosilicate attapulgite showed their high efficiency as heat-transfer agents and the ability to provide a more than twofold increase of the critical heat flux (CHF) as compared to that of the base liquid (pure water). It is shown that insignificant additives of sodium pyrophosphate, which produce disaggregation of nanoparticles and stabilization of attapulgite-containing nanofluids, significantly improve their thermal properties and heatexchange parameters. Several mechanisms are proposed for interpretation of the observed CHF growth. It is established that the use of attapulgite nanofluids not only allows higher CHF to be reached as compared to that of pure water, but also eliminates sudden onset of the boiling crisis.     

New Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-butylacrylate) Copolymer Biointerfaces and Their Characteristic Influence on Cell Behavior In Vitro

Designing and obtaining new synthetic smart biointerfaces with specific and controlled characteristics relevant for applications in biomedical and bioengineering domains represents one of the main challenges in these fields. In this work, Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) is used to obtain synthetic biointerfaces of poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide-butyl acrylate) p(NIPAM-BA) copolymer with different characteristics (i.e., roughness, porosity, wettability), and their effect on normal HEK 293 T and murine melanoma B16-F1 cells is studied. For this, the influence of various solvents (chloroform, dimethylsulfoxide, water) and fluence variation (250–450 mJ/cm²) on the morphological, roughness, wettability, and physico–chemical characteristics of the coatings are evaluated by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, contact angle measurements, Fourier-transform-IR spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Coatings obtained by the spin coating method are used for reference. No significant alteration in the chemistry of the surfaces is observed for the coatings obtained by both methods. All p(NIPAM-BA) coatings show hydrophilic character, with the exception of those obtained with chloroform at 250 mJ/cm². The surface morphology is shown to depend on both solvent type and laser fluence and it ranges from smooth surfaces to rough and porous ones. Physico–chemical and biological analysis reveal that the MAPLE deposition method with fluences of 350–450 mJ/cm² when using DMSO solvent is more appropriate for bioengineering applications due to the surface characteristics (i.e., pore presence) and to the good compatibility with normal cells and cytotoxicity against melanoma cells.     

Texture anisotropy technique in brain degenerative diseases

Structural alterations anisotropy-based measured for different areas for the most common types of dementia diseases could be a biomarker of brain impairment. The current work aims to assess whether texture anisotropy can discriminate both healthy versus Alzheimer’s and Pick’s patients based on regional evaluation while maintaining high predictive power. The investigated area is reduced from the whole-brain surface to three major lobes (i.e., frontal, temporal and parietal). A predictive model was proposed to associate a disease with a specific area in the brain based on the anisotropy values. Simultaneous analysis of 1680 measurements from 105 brain magnetic resonance images acquired as T2w and PD sequences was performed to establish the significance of the model. The cerebral calcinosis disease has been used as artificial ground truth. The association based on textural anisotropy between targeted diseases and control patients was performed by using Pearson’s correlation coefficients. A new proposed consistency index investigated the texture anisotropy relevance for all image’s types and all analyzed classes and regions. The validation study is based on area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve that depicted the overall diagnostic performance of the texture anisotropy in each region. The proposed model demonstrated that texture anisotropy is accurate solution in diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and Pick’s diseases when the investigated area is reduced to major lobes, with sensitivity >90% and specificity >80%.

     

Nucleation and Expansion During Extrusion and Microwave Heating of Cereal Foods

Expansion of biopolymer matrices is the basis for the production of a wide variety of cereal foods. A limited number of manufacturing processes provide practical solutions for the development of an impressive variety of expanded products, just by changing process variables. It is therefore essential that the mechanisms involved in expansion are well known and controlled. This paper summarizes the knowledge of nucleation and expansion in extruded and microwaved products available to date. The effect of processing conditions and properties of the biopolymeric matrix on nucleation and expansion are discussed. Moisture content enables the glassy polymeric matrix to turn into rubbery state at process temperatures, which allows superheated steam bubbles to form at nuclei and then expand, expansion being governed by the biaxial extensional viscosity of the matrix. Nucleation and expansion theories are presented along with quantitative data that support them.