This paper deals with robust iterative learning control design for uncertain single-input-single-output linear time-invariant systems. The design procedure is based upon solving the robust ...performance condition using the Youla parameterization and the mu-synthesis approach to obtain a feedback controller. Thereafter, a convergent iterative learning law is obtained by using the performance weighting function involved in the robust performance condition. Experimental results, on a CRS465 robot manipulator, are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed design method.
Since more than 1.9 billion adults worldwide are overweight, of which 600 million are obese,1 it is of vital importance to identify treatment strategies to help overweight and obese patients to lose ...weight and to improve long-term health. From a nutrition perspective, research has focussed on increasing the satiating power of the diet so that individuals feel full with fewer calories.2 A potentially effective class of functional foods, modulating appetite and food intake in such ways, is dietary fibre.3 However, although emerging evidence highlights the positive effects of dietary fibre on appetite and body weight, the methodological approaches are not always consistent and give rise to many uncertainties. It is therefore important to implement standardized experimental protocols to study the effect of fibre on appetite and ad libitum eating based on current knowledge of the mechanisms that control these processes. The aim of this perspective article is to highlight some methodological shortcomings which should be addressed when appetite is evaluated in dietary fibre research.
Systemic sclerosis is a connective tissue disease characterized by vasculopathy and progressive fibrosis, leading to multiorgan dysfunction. Given the complex and not fully elucidated pathogenesis, ...biomarkers of rapid disease progression and therapeutic response are lacking. Copeptin, which reflects vasopressin activity in serum, is used in diagnosing or prognosing different cardiometabolic conditions.
The aim of study was to investigate the concentration of copeptin in patients with systemic sclerosis and correlate it with specific clinical symptoms.
Serum copeptin was measured in patients with systemic sclerosis (34 women and 3 men; mean age 57.6 years) and in healthy individuals (n=30) using commercially available ELISA kits. According to the criteria of LeRoy our systemic sclerosis cohort consisted of 17 patients with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis (45.9%) and 20 diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis patients (54.1%). According to the criteria of LeRoy our systemic sclerosis cohort consisted of 17 patients with limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis (45.9%) and 20 diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis patients (54.1%). The median duration of the disease was 10 4-14 years.
We found significantly higher copeptin concentration in patients with systemic sclerosis (4.21 pmol/L 3.04-5.42) in comparison to control group (3.40 pmol/L 2.38-3.76, p<0.01). Copeptin significantly correlated with Raynaud's condition score (r=0.801, p<0.05). Patients with "late" capillaroscopic patterns had higher copeptin concentrations (5.37 pmol/L 4.29-8.06) than patients with "early" (2.43 pmol/L 2.25-3.20, p<0.05) and "active" patterns (3.93 pmol/L 2.92-5.16, p<0.05). Copeptin was found to be significantly higher in SSc patients with DUs (5.71 pmol/L IQR 4.85-8.06) when compared to SSc patients without DUs (3.31 pmol/L, 2.28-4.30, p<0.05). Additionally, copeptin concentration had good diagnostic accuracy in discriminating between patients with and without digital ulcers (AUC=0.863). Alprostadil decreased copeptin concentration from 4.96 4.02-6.01 to 3.86 pmol/L 3.17-4.63 (p<0.01) after 4-6 cycles of administration.
Our findings suggest that copeptin may be a promising biomarker of microcirculation alterations in systemic sclerosis.
Highlights • Model of Parkinson’s disease in respiratory research. • Nigrostriatal pathway degeneration modulates respiratory response to hypoxia. • The effects of dopaminergic D2 receptor blockade ...is abolished in parkinsonian rats.
This note demonstrates that the design of a robust iterative learning control is straightforward for uncertain linear time-invariant systems satisfying the robust performance condition. It is shown ...that once a controller is designed to satisfy the well-known robust performance condition, a convergent updating rule involving the performance weighting function can be directly obtained. It is also shown that for a particular choice of this weighting function, one can achieve a perfect tracking. In the case where this choice is not allowable, a sufficient condition ensuring that the least upper bound of the /spl Lscr//sub 2/-norm of the final tracking error is less than the least upper bound of the /spl Lscr//sub 2/-norm of the initial tracking error is provided. This sufficient condition also guarantees that the infinity-norm of the final tracking error is less than the infinity-norm of the initial tracking error.
Project-driven manufacturing, based on the make-to-order or the build-to-order principle and predominant in small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), calls for an efficient solution of large ...combinatorial problems, especially in such areas as task scheduling or resource management. This paper addresses the problem of finding a computationally effective approach to scheduling a new project subject to constraints imposed by a multi-project environment. A constraint programming (CP) modeling framework is discussed in the context of an efficient decomposition of the constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) and the evaluation of strategies for pruning the search tree. The proposed approach is illustrated through examples of its application to the evaluation of a new production order.
A semantic Web services architecture Burstein, M.; Bussler, C.; Finin, T. ...
IEEE internet computing,
09/2005, Volume:
9, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The semantic Web services initiative architecture (SWSA) committee has created a set of architectural and protocol abstractions that serve as a foundation for semantic Web service technologies. This ...article summarizes the committee's findings, emphasizing its review of requirements gathered from several different environments. We also identify the scope and potential requirements for a semantic Web services architecture.
Vitamin D supplementation practices (dose and frequency) are relatively unknown in the Scottish population, with no recent up-to-date data available. Reassessing current knowledge, practices, and ...awareness of vitamin D supplementation following a national health campaign in 2020 by Food Standards Scotland on vitamin D is warranted.
This article aims to present the knowledge and awareness of vitamin D, and current vitamin D supplementation practices in adults living in Scotland.
A cross-sectional study was performed between June and July 2022 using an online survey adapted from previous work on assessing knowledge of vitamin D in adults. Participants aged 18+, living in Scotland for ≥6 months were eligible to participate. Scores for knowledge were calculated as a percentage. Univariate associations between demographic and supplement use were established by
-test and logistic regression performed to predict factors associated with daily vitamin D intake.
Four hundred and three participants (72.7% female), mean age 36.4 (±14.2 years), completed the study. Awareness of vitamin D was very high (99.5%) but the mean overall knowledge score was poor (31.4 ± 15.3%), with those with a university degree more likely to have knowledge scores at/above the mean compared with those with lower levels of education,
(1, N = 393) 10.7, p = 0.001, odds ratio (OR) = 2.1 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7-2.7). Finally, 64.3% took vitamin D supplements, of which 37.5% took them daily during winter months, with only 7.4% taking the recommended daily dose.
The current study highlights the need to improve both knowledge of vitamin D and practices of vitamin D supplementation during the autumn and winter months in Scotland.
We present experimental support for a model of abalone nacre growth that is based on mineral bridges between successive aragonite tablets rather than on heteroepitaxial nucleation. Interlamellar ...sheets of organic polymers delineate the aragonite tablets but allow the tablets to grow mineral bridges through pores in the sheets. Atomic force microscope images of interlamellar organic sheets from flat pearls made by Haliotis rufescens (red abalone; marine gastropod mollusk) reveal a fibrous core and holes of 5−50 nm in diameter. Scanning ion conductance microscopy shows that these holes are actually pores through the interlamellar sheets. With the help of statistical analysis we can associate the pore-to-pore spacings in the interlamellar sheets with the observed offsets of successive nacre tablets. These results, supplemented by AFM, SEM, and TEM images, support and extend the model of biofabrication of gastropod nacre which is based on mineral bridges between the aragonite tablets.
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