Habitat II and the improvement of public transport in developing countries

The article reviews the challenges facing cities in the twenty-first century, with particular attention to the role that public transport can play in the healthy development of large cities. The paper addresses the most important applications of the “sustainability” concept to the choice of mass public transportation modes for urban areas.     

Networked event-triggered control: an introduction and research trends

A physical system can be studied as either continuous time or discrete-time system depending upon the control objectives. Discrete-time control systems can be further classified into two categories based on the sampling: (1) time-triggered control systems and (2) event-triggered control systems. Time-triggered systems sample states and calculate controls at every sampling instant in a periodic fashion, even in cases when states and calculated control do not change much. This indicates unnecessary and useless data transmission and computation efforts of a time-triggered system, thus inefficiency. For networked systems, the transmission of measurement and control signals, thus, cause unnecessary network traffic. Event-triggered systems, on the other hand, have potential to reduce the communication burden in addition to reducing the computation of control signals. This paper provides an up-to-date survey on the event-triggered methods for control systems and highlights the potential research directions.     

Decentralized sliding-mode output-feedback control of interconnected discrete-delay systems

Global decentralized discrete sliding mode control of a class of interconnected system using only output information is considered in this paper. Matched and unmatched uncertainties as well as known and unknown interconnections are treated. Bounded time-varying delays are considered within the subsystems and through interconnections. The stability of the reduced-order interconnected systems is analyzed using the Lyapunov–Kraszovskii approach and a novel reachability condition of the composite sliding surfaces is established. The resultant dynamics are proved to be globally asymptotically stable. Simulations show the efficacy of the proposed scheme.     

filtering for switched discrete‐time systems under asynchronous switching: A dwell‐time dependent Lyapunov functional method

In this article, the filtering problem for switched discrete‐time linear systems under asynchronous switching is addressed in the framework of dwell time, where ‘asynchronous switching’ covers more general and practical cases, for example, the switching lags caused by mode identification process are taken into consideration. Firstly, a novel dwell‐time dependent Lyapunov function (DTDLF) is introduced to solve stability and ?₂ gain analysis problems. The main advantage of DTDLF approach is that the derived conditions are all convex in system matrices, so it is convenient to be applied into filter design with performance instead of weighted performance as many other previous results. Thus, on the basis of DTLDF, a dwell‐time dependent filter with time‐varying structure is proposed to achieve the desirable non‐weighted filtering performance. It is notable that the proposed approach can also easily characterize the relationships among filtering performance, dwell time, and asynchronous time. Two examples are provided to validate the theoretical findings in this paper. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Authenticity Assessment of Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Evaluation of Desmethylsterols and Triterpene Dialcohols

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) has a long history of economic adulteration, the detection of which presents significant challenges due to the diverse composition of cultivars grown around the world and the limitations of existing methods for detecting adulteration. In this study, using Method COI/T.20/Doc. No. 30/Rev. 1 of the International Olive Council, the authenticity of 88 market samples of EVOO was evaluated by comparing total sterol contents, desmethylsterol composition, and contents of triterpene dialcohols (erythrodiol and uvaol) with purity criteria specified in the United States Standards for grades of olive oil and olive‐pomace oil. Three of the 88 samples labeled as EVOO failed to meet purity criteria, indicating possible adulteration with commodity oil and/or solvent‐extracted olive oil. Detection of adulteration was also evaluated by spiking an EVOO sample with commodity oil at the 10 % level. As expected, eight of the spiked samples (canola, corn, hazelnut, peanut, safflower, soybean, and sunflower oils, and palm olein) failed to meet purity criteria. Two of the three samples spiked with 10 % hazelnut oil went undetected for adulteration. Overall, a low occurrence rate of adulteration (<5 %), based on purity criteria for desmethylsterols and triterpene dialcohols, was detected for the 88 products labeled as EVOO.     

Synthesis and isolation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">trans</Emphasis>-7, <Emphasis Type="Italic">cis</Emphasis>-9 octadecadienoic acid and other CLA isomers by base conjugation of partially hydrogenated γ-linolenic acid

CLA is of considerable interest because of reported potentially beneficial effects in animal studies. CLA, while not yet unambiguously defined, is a mixture of octadecadienoic acids with conjugated double bonds. The major isomer in natural products is generally considered to be cis-9,trans-11-octadecadienoic acid (c9, t11), which represents >75% of the total CLA in most cases. Other isomers are drawing increased attention. The t7,c9 isomer, which is often the second-most prevalent CLA in natural products, has been reported to represent as much as 40% of total CLA in milk from cows fed a high-fat diet. The need for a reference material became apparent in a recent study directed specifically at measuring t7,c9-CLA in milk, plasma, and rumen. A suitable standard mixture was produced by stirring 0.5 g of γ-linolenic acid (all cis-6,9, 12-C_18∶3) with 100 mL of 10% hydrazine hydrate in methanol for 2.5 h at 45°C. The solution was diluted with H₂O and acidified with HCl. The resulting partially hydrogenated FA were extracted with ether/petroleum ether, dried with Na₂SO₄, and conjugated by adding of 6.6% KOH in ethlylene glycol and heating for 1.5 h at 150–160°C. Approximately 20 mg each of cis-6, trans-8; trans-7, cis-9; cis-9, trans-11; and rans-10, cis-12 were obtained along with other FA. Methyl esters (FAME) of these four cis/trans isomers were resolved by Ag⁺HPLC (UV 233) and partially resolved by GC/(MS or FID) (CP-Sil 88). Treatment of these FAME with I₂ yielded all possible cis/trans (geometric) isomers for the four positions 6,8; 7,9; 9,11; and 10,12.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Cationic Surfactants Based on N‐Hexamethylenetetramine as Active Microfouling Agents

Four cationic surfactants of quaternary hexammonium silane chloride based on hexamethylenetetramine and alkyl chloride were synthesized. The chemical structures of the prepared cationic surfactants were elucidated using Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy and mass spectrometry analysis. The surface and thermodynamic properties of the prepared surfactants were also studied. The performance of these cationic surfactants as microfouling agents against two strains of Gram‐negative bacteria, namely, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli, and two strains of Gram‐positive bacteria, namely, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis, were evaluated as antimicrobial agents. The results showed that the maximum antimicrobial activity was detected for N‐hexamethylenetetramine‐N‐ethyl silane ammonium trichloride (Ah). The maximum and minimum antimicrobial activities were 73 and 60 % against S. aureus and E. coli, respectively, at a concentration of 5 mg/l, pH 7, and 37 °C.     

Microstructure Effects on the Superconducting Properties of YBa2Cu3 – x M x O7 – δ (M = Ag, Hg)

The properties of YBa₂Cu_{3 – x} Ag _x O_{7 –} and YBa₂Cu_{3 – x} Hg _x O_{7 –} (0 < x 0.5) solid solutions were studied. The solute concentration is shown to have a significant effect on the superconducting transition temperature, density, and grain size of the solid solutions. The difference in the composition dependences of the properties of the solid solutions is interpreted in terms of the crystal-chemical behavior of the Ag and Hg ions.     

A two-level implicit scheme for the numerical solution of the linearized vorticity equation

A numerical scheme is developed to study the stability of the linearized vorticity equations. The linear growth rates of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities resulting from a velocity shear are calculated numerically. The theory of neutrally stable waves, in two dimensions, is extended to include the cases where the stream function is zero or periodic at the boundary, and is verified numerically for the case of a velocity profile having the shape of a cosine function. The instability growth rates of the oscillations in the neighbourhood of the neutrally stable waves are calculated numerically and are shown to be in very good agreement with the theory. The results are also of interest in relation to studies on the instabilities of a two-dimensional guiding-centre plasma, and also in the study of the diocotron instability in electronics.