ALBERT

Description: The preparation of carbon nanotube/metallic particle hybrids using pressed porous stainless steel pellets as a substrate is described. The catalytic growth of carbon nanotubes was carried out by CVD on a nickel catalyst obtained by impregnation of pellets with a highly dispersive colloidal solution of nickel acetate tetrahydrate in ethanol. Granular polyethylene was used as the carbon source. Metallic particles were deposited by thermal evaporation of Pt and Ag using pellets with grown carbon nanotubes as a base. The use of such composites as fuel cell electrodes is discussed.

Description: Pupylation, one of the most important posttranslational modifications of proteins, typically takes place when prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup) is attached to specific lysine residues on a target protein. Identification of pupylation substrates and their corresponding sites will facilitate the understanding of the molecular mechanism of pupylation. Comparing with the labor-intensive and time-consuming experiment approaches, computational prediction of pupylation sites is much desirable for their convenience and fast speed. In this study, a new bioinformatics tool named EnsemblePup was developed that used an ensemble of support vector machine classifiers to predict pupylation sites. The highlight of EnsemblePup was to utilize the Bi-profile Bayes feature extraction as the encoding scheme. The performance of EnsemblePup was measured with a sensitivity of 79.49%, a specificity of 82.35%, an accuracy of 85.43%, and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.617 using the 5-fold cross validation on the training dataset. When compared with other existing methods on a benchmark dataset, the EnsemblePup provided better predictive performance, with a sensitivity of 80.00%, a specificity of 83.33%, an accuracy of 82.00%, and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.629. The experimental results suggested that EnsemblePup presented here might be useful to identify and annotate potential pupylation sites in proteins of interest. A web server for predicting pupylation sites was developed.

Description: The problem of exponential stability for the uncertain neutral Markovian jump systems with interval time-varying delays and nonlinear perturbations is investigated in this paper. This study starts from the corresponding nominal systems with known and partially unknown transition rates, respectively. By constructing a novel augmented Lyapunov functional which contains triple-integral terms and fully utilizes the bound of the delay, the delay-range-dependent and rate-dependent exponential stability criteria are developed by the Lyapunov theory, reciprocally convex lemma, and free weighting matrices. Then, the results about nominal systems are extended to the uncertain case. Finally, numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

Description: The local fractional Schrödinger equations in the one-dimensional Cantorian system are investigated. The approximations solutions are obtained by using the local fractional series expansion method. The obtained solutions show that the present method is an efficient and simple tool for solving the linear partial differentiable equations within the local fractional derivative.

Description: An experiment of hydrogen preparation from steam-carbon reaction catalyzed by K2CO3 was carried out at 700°C, which was driven by the solar reaction system simulated with Xenon lamp. It can be found that the rate of reaction with catalyst is 10 times more than that without catalyst. However, for the catalytic reaction, there is no obvious change for the rate of hydrogen generation with catalyst content range from 10% to 20%. Besides, the conversion efficiency of solar energy to chemical energy is more than 13.1% over that by photovoltaic-electrolysis route. An analysis to the mechanism of catalytic steam-carbon reaction with K2CO3 is given, and an explanation to the nonbalanced [H2]/[CO + 2CO2] is presented, which is a phenomenon usually observed in experiment.

Description: The present paper investigates the reliability analysis of industrial systems by using vague lambda-tau methodology in which information related to system components is uncertain and imprecise in nature. The uncertainties in the data are handled with the help of intuitionistic fuzzy set (IFS) theory rather than fuzzy set theory. Various reliability parameters are addressed for strengthening the analysis in terms of degree of acceptance and rejection of IFS. Performance as well as sensitivity analysis of the system parameter has been investigated for accessing the impact of taking wrong combinations on its performance. Finally results are compared with the existing traditional crisp and fuzzy methodologies results. The technique has been demonstrated through a case study of bleaching unit of a paper mill.

Description: A classical issue in many applied fields is to obtain an approximating surface to a given set of data points. This problem arises in Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM), virtual reality, medical imaging, computer graphics, computer animation, and many others. Very often, the preferred approximating surface is polynomial, usually described in parametric form. This leads to the problem of determining suitable parametric values for the data points, the so-called surface parameterization. In real-world settings, data points are generally irregularly sampled and subjected to measurement noise, leading to a very difficult nonlinear continuous optimization problem, unsolvable with standard optimization techniques. This paper solves the parameterization problem for polynomial Bézier surfaces by applying the firefly algorithm, a powerful nature-inspired metaheuristic algorithm introduced recently to address difficult optimization problems. The method has been successfully applied to some illustrative examples of open and closed surfaces, including shapes with singularities. Our results show that the method performs very well, being able to yield the best approximating surface with a high degree of accuracy.

Description: This paper proposes a partial refactorization for faster nonlinear analysis based on sparse matrix solution, which is nowadays the default solution choice in finite element analysis and can solve finite element models up to millions degrees of freedom. Among various fill-in’s reducing strategies for sparse matrix solution, the graph partition is in general the best in terms of resultant fill-ins and floating-point operations and furthermore produces a particular graph of sparse matrix that prevents local change of entries from wide spreading in factorization. Based on this feature, an explicit partial triangular refactorization with local change is efficiently constructed with limited additional storage requirement in row-sparse storage scheme. The partial refactorization of the changed stiffness matrix inherits a big percentage of the original factor and is carried out only on partial factor entries. The proposed method provides a new possibility for faster nonlinear analysis and is mainly suitable for material nonlinear problems and optimization problems. Compared to full factorization, it can significantly reduce the factorization time and can make nonlinear analysis more efficient.

Description: Prediction of RNA structure is a useful process for creating new drugs and understanding genetic diseases. In this paper, we proposed a particle swarm optimization (PSO) and ant colony optimization (ACO) based framework (PAF) for RNA secondary structure prediction. PAF consists of crucial stem searching (CSS) and global sequence building (GSB). In CSS, a modified ACO (MACO) is used to search the crucial stems, and then a set of stems are generated. In GSB, we used a modified PSO (MPSO) to construct all the stems in one sequence. We evaluated the performance of PAF on ten sequences, which have length from 122 to 1494. We also compared the performance of PAF with the results obtained from six existing well-known methods, SARNA-Predict, RnaPredict, ACRNA, PSOfold, IPSO, and mfold. The comparison results show that PAF could not only predict structures with higher accuracy rate but also find crucial stems.

Description: The problem of robust fault tolerant control for continuous-time fractional-order (FO) systems with interval parameters and sensor faults of has been investigated. By establishing sensor fault model and state observer, an observer-based FO output feedback controller is developed such that the closed-loop FO system is asymptotically stable, not only when all sensor components are working well, but also in the presence of sensor components failures. Finally, numerical simulation examples are given to illustrate the application of the proposed design method.

Description: We study the lattice dynamical system of a nonlinear Boussinesq equation. We first verify the Lipschitz continuity of the continuous semigroup associated with the system. Then, we provide an estimation of the tail of the difference between two solutions of the system. Finally, we obtain the existence of an exponential attractor of the system.

Description: A novel scheme for fault-tolerant control is proposed in this paper, in which model reference adaptive control method is incorporated with control allocation to cope with simultaneous actuator failures, input saturation, and model mismatch in the flight system. In order to reduce performance degradation caused by actuator failures, the proposed scheme redistributes the control signal to healthy actuators and updates the weighting matrix based on actuator effectiveness. Because of saturation errors resulting from actuator constraints and model mismatch caused by abnormal changes in the system, the original reference model may not be appropriate. Under this circumstance, an adaptive reference model which can also provide satisfactory performance is designed. Simulations of a flight control example are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Description: A virtual channels scheduling algorithm with broad applicability based on movable boundary is proposed. According to the types of date sources, transmission time slots are divided into synchronous ones and asynchronous ones with a movable boundary between them. During the synchronous time slots, the virtual channels are scheduled with a polling algorithm; during the asynchronous time slots, the virtual channels are scheduled with an algorithm based on virtual channel urgency and frame urgency. If there are no valid frames in the corresponding VC at a certain synchronous time slot, a frame of the other synchronous VCs or asynchronous VCs will be transmitted through the physical channel. Only when there are no valid frames in all VCs would an idle frame be generated and transmitted. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm yields much lower scheduling delay and higher channel utilization ratio than those based on unmovable boundary or virtual channel urgency in many kinds of sources. Therefore, broad applicability can be achieved by the proposed algorithm.

Description: Self-localization is a basic skill for mobile robots in the dynamic environments. It is usually modeled as a state estimation problem for nonlinear system with non-Gaussian noise and needs the real-time processing. Unscented particle filter (UPF) can handle the state estimation problem for nonlinear system with non-Gaussian noise; however the computation of UPF is very high. In order to reduce the computation cost of UPF and meanwhile maintain the accuracy, we propose an adaptive unscented particle filter (AUPF) algorithm through relative entropy. AUPF can adaptively adjust the number of particles during filtering to reduce the necessary computation and hence improve the real-time capability of UPF. In AUPF, the relative entropy is used to measure the distance between the empirical distribution and the true posterior distribution. The least number of particles for the next step is then decided according to the relative entropy. In order to offset the difference between the proposal distribution, and the true distribution the least number is adjusted thereafter. The ideal performance of AUPF in real robot self-localization is demonstrated.

Description: This paper is the second in a series of papers considering symmetry properties of bosonic quantum systems over 2D graphs, with continuous spins, in the spirit of the Mermin-Wagner theorem. In the model considered here the phase space of a single spin is where is a -dimensional unit torus with a flat metric. The phase space of spins is , the subspace of formed by functions symmetric under the permutations of the arguments. The Fock space yields the phase space of a system of a varying (but finite) number of particles. We associate a space with each vertex of a graph satisfying a special bidimensionality property. (Physically, vertex represents a heavy “atom” or “ion” that does not move but attracts a number of “light” particles.) The kinetic energy part of the Hamiltonian includes (i) , the minus a half of the Laplace operator on , responsible for the motion of a particle while “trapped” by a given atom, and (ii) an integral term describing possible “jumps” where a particle may join another atom. The potential part is an operator of multiplication by a function (the potential energy of a classical configuration) which is a sum of (a) one-body potentials , , describing a field generated by a heavy atom, (b) two-body potentials , , showing the interaction between pairs of particles belonging to the same atom, and (c) two-body potentials , , scaled along the graph distance between vertices , which gives the interaction between particles belonging to different atoms. The system under consideration can be considered as a generalized (bosonic) Hubbard model. We assume that a connected Lie group acts on , represented by a Euclidean space or torus of dimension , preserving the metric and the volume in . Furthermore, we suppose that the potentials , , and are -invariant. The result of the paper is that any (appropriately defined) Gibbs states generated by the above Hamiltonian is -invariant, provided that the thermodynamic variables (the fugacity and the inverse temperature ) satisfy a certain restriction. The definition of a Gibbs state (and its analysis) is based on the Feynman-Kac representation for the density matrices.

Description: We prove a common fixed point theorem for two pairs of compatible and subsequentially continuous (alternately subcompatible and reciprocally continuous) mappings satisfying a general contractive condition in a metric space. Some illustrative examples are furnished to highlight the realized improvements. Our result improves the main result of Sedghi and Shobe (2007).

Description: Location estimation for object tracking is one of the important topics in the research of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Recently, many location estimation or position schemes in WSN have been proposed. In this paper, we will propose the procedure and modeling of location estimation for object tracking in WSN. The designed modeling is a simple scheme without complex processing. We will use Matlab to conduct the simulation and numerical analyses to find the optimal modeling variables. The analyses with different variables will include object moving model, sensing radius, model weighting value α, and power-level increasing ratio k of neighboring sensor nodes. For practical consideration, we will also carry out the shadowing model for analysis.

Description: This paper investigates the stability analysis problem for a class of discrete-time networked control systems (NCSs) with random time delays and packet dropouts based on unified Markov jump model. The random time delays and packet dropouts existed in feedback communication link are modeled by two independent Markov chains; the resulting closed-loop system is described by a new Markovian jump linear system (MJLS) with Markov delays. Sufficient conditions of the stochastic stability for NCSs is obtained by constructing a novel Lyapunov functional, and the mode-dependent output feedback controller design method is presented based on linear matrix inequality (LMI) technique. A numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Description: The rate-dependent hysteresis in giant magnetostrictive materials is a major impediment to the application of such material in actuators. In this paper, a relevance vector machine (RVM) model is proposed for describing the hysteresis nonlinearity under varying input current. It is possible to construct a unique dynamic model in a given rate range for a rate-dependent hysteresis system using the sinusoidal scanning signals as the training set input signal. Subsequently, a proportional integral derivative (PID) control scheme combined with a feedforward compensation is implemented on a giant magnetostrictive actuator (GMA) for real-time precise trajectory tracking. Simulations and experiments both verify the effectiveness and the practicality of the proposed modeling and control methods.

Description: Unlike its saturated counterparts, the mechanical behavior of an unsaturated soil depends not only upon its stress history but also upon its hydraulic history. In this paper, a soil-water characteristic relationship which is capable of describing the effect of capillary hysteresis is introduced to characterize the influence of hydraulic history on the skeletal deformation. The capillary hysteresis is viewed as a phenomenon associated with the internal structural rearrangements in unsaturated soils, which can be characterized by using a set of internal state variables. It is shown that both capillary hysteresis and plastic deformation can be consistently addressed in a unified theoretical framework. Within this context, a constitutive model of unsaturated soils is developed by generalizing the modified Cam-Clay model. A hardening function is introduced, in which both the matric suction and the degree of saturation are explicitly included as hardening variables, so that the effect of hydraulic history on the mechanical response can be properly addressed. The proposed model is capable of capturing the main features of the unsaturated soil behavior. The new model has a hierarchical structure, and, depending upon application, it can describe the stress-strain relation and the soil-water characteristics in a coupled or uncoupled manner.

Description: A new method for parameter sensitivity analysis of Lorenz equations is presented. The sensitivity equations are derived based on the staggered methods. Experimental results indicate that it is possible to determine effects of parameters on model variables so that we can eliminate the less effective ones. Robustness can also be verified in some confidence intervals by simply looking at the corresponding phase portraits. This enables us to control the system. Although the stability properties of the Lorenz equations are studied extensively, to the best knowledge of the authors, the PSA of Lorenz equations has not been considered which is the main goal of this paper.

Description: This paper addresses the problem of simultaneous identification of linear discrete time delay multivariable systems. This problem involves both the estimation of the time delays and the dynamic parameters matrices. In fact, we suggest a new formulation of this problem allowing defining the time delay and the dynamic parameters in the same estimated vector and building the corresponding observation vector. Then, we use this formulation to propose a new method to identify the time delays and the parameters of these systems using the least square approach. Convergence conditions and statistics properties of the proposed method are also developed. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed method. An application of the developed approach to compact disc player arm is also suggested in order to validate simulation results.

Description: Boundary layer flow through a porous medium over a stretching porous wall has seen solved with analytical solution. It has been considered two wall boundary conditions which are power-law distribution of either wall temperature or heat flux. These are general enough to cover the isothermal and isoflux cases. In addition to momentum, both first and second laws of thermodynamics analyses of the problem are investigated. The governing equations are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations. The transformed ordinary equations are solved analytically using homotopy analysis method. A comprehensive parametric study is presented, and it is shown that the rate of heat transfer increases with Reynolds number, Prandtl number, and suction to the surface.

Description: This study carries out numerical simulations to identify the magnitude of prestress force in a highway bridge by making use of the dynamic responses from moving vehicular loads. The prestressed bridges are modeled using four-node isoparametric flat shell element taking into account the transverse shearing deformation in the finite element model. The vehicle is modeled as a multiple degrees-of-freedom system. An approach based on dynamic response sensitivity-based finite element model updating is proposed to identify the elemental prestress force. The identified results are obtained iteratively with the penalty function method with regularization from the measured structural dynamic responses. A single-span prestressed Tee beam and two-span prestressed box-girder bridge are studied as two numerical examples. The effects of road surface roughness, measurement noise, and speed of moving vehicle on the identification results are investigated. Studies indicate that the proposed method is efficient and robust for prestress force identification. Good identified results can be obtained from several measured acceleration responses.

Description: This paper presents a novel way to formulate the triangular flat shell element. The basic analytical solutions of membrane and bending plate problem for anisotropy material are studied separately. Combining with the conforming displacement along the sides and hybrid element strategy, the triangular flat shell elements based on the analytical trial functions (ATF) for anisotropy material are formulated. By using the explicit integral formulae of the triangular element, the matrices used in proposed shell element are calculated efficiently. The benchmark examples showed the high accuracy and high efficiency.

Description: Considering the filtering problem of dynamic positioning (DP) ship for the slowly varying sea state, a multiple model adaptive observer (MMAO) for dynamic positioning ship is presented. The MMAO consists of a bank of nonlinear subobserver and a dynamic weighting signal generator, in which each sub-observer is designed based on different peak frequency of wave spectrum model. To improve the performance of the observer, subobserver using the measurement of position, velocity, and acceleration is used to update the estimated velocity of ship. The observer parameters are optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO). Finally, the method is verified effective by the computer simulation.

Description: A dual fractal reservoir transient flow model was created by embedding a fracture system simulated by a tree-shaped fractal network into a matrix system simulated by fractal porous media. The dimensionless bottom hole pressure model was created using the Laplace transform and Stehfest numerical inversion methods. According to the model's solution, the bilogarithmic type curves of the dual fractal reservoirs are illustrated, and the influence of different fractal factors on pressure transient responses is discussed. This semianalytical model provides a practical and reliable method for empirical applications.

Description: An accelerated multilevel aggregation method is presented for calculating the stationary probability vector of an irreducible stochastic matrix in PageRank computation, where the vector extrapolation method is its accelerator. We show how to periodically combine the extrapolation method together with the multilevel aggregation method on the finest level for speeding up the PageRank computation. Detailed numerical results are given to illustrate the behavior of this method, and comparisons with the typical methods are also made.

Description: This paper numerically investigates the magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer flow with heat and mass transfer of an incompressible upper-convected Maxwell fluid over a stretching sheet in the presence of viscous dissipation and thermal radiation as well as chemical reaction. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations by using suitable similarity transformations. The resultant highly nonlinear ordinary differential equations are then solved using spectral relaxation method. The results are obtained for velocity, temperature, concentration, skin friction, and Nusselt number. The effects of various material parameters on the flow with heat and mass transfer and the dimensionless variables are illustrated graphically and briefly discussed.

Description: Recently, in 2013, we proved that certain presentations present the Dunwoody -manifold groups. Since the Dunwoody -manifolds do not have a unique Heegaard diagram, we cannot determine a unique group presentation for the Dunwoody -manifolds. It is well known that every -knots in a lens space can be represented by the set of the 4-tuples (Cattabriga and Mulazzani (2004); S. H. Kim and Y. Kim (2012, 2013)). In particular, to determine a unique Heegaard diagram of the Dunwoody -manifolds, we proved the fact that the certain subset of representing all -bridge knots of -knots is determined completely by using the dual and mirror -decompositions (S. H. Kim and Y. Kim (2011)). In this paper, we show how to obtain the dual and mirror images of all elements in as the generalization of some results by Grasselli and Mulazzani (2001); S. H. Kim and Y. Kim (2011).

Description: The Exp-function method combined with -expansion method is employed to investigate the equation with -dependent coefficients. The solitary wave solutions and periodic wave solutions to the equation are constructed analytically under certain circumstances. The results presented in this paper improve the previous results.

Description: Recently, a new fruit fly optimization algorithm (FOA) is proposed to solve optimization problems. In this paper, we empirically study the performance of FOA. Six different nonlinear functions are selected as testing functions. The experimental results illustrate that FOA cannot solve complex optimization problems effectively. In order to enhance the performance of FOA, an improved FOA (named LGMS-FOA) is proposed. Simulation results and comparisons of LGMS-FOA with FOA and other metaheuristics show that LGMS-FOA can greatly enhance the searching efficiency and greatly improve the searching quality.

Description: A model of solid-water-air coupling in triphasic mixtures is compared with solid-water coupling in biphasic mixtures with an application to partially saturated porous media. Based on thermodynamics, the mathematical framework governing the behavior of a partially saturated soil is derived using balance equations, and the numerical implementation and drainage tests of a soil column are carried out to validate the obtained formulations. The role of the air phase in the hydro-mechanical behavior of triphasic mixtures can be analyzed from the interactions among multiple phases for the constitutive behavior of a solid skeleton, and the triphasic mixture model can be applied in geotechnical engineering problems, such as sequestration and air storage in aquifers.

Description: In the new decade, green investment decisions are attracting more interest in design supply chains due to the hidden economic benefits and environmental legislative barriers. In this paper, a supply chain network design problem with both economic and environmental concerns is presented. Therefore, a multiobjective optimization model that captures the trade-off between the total logistics cost and CO2 emissions is proposed. With regard to the complexity of logistic networks, a new multiobjective swarm intelligence algorithm known as a multiobjective Gravitational search algorithm (MOGSA) has been implemented for solving the proposed mathematical model. To evaluate the effectiveness of the model, a comprehensive set of numerical experiments is explained. The results obtained show that the proposed model can be applied as an effective tool in strategic planning for optimizing cost and CO2 emissions in an environmentally friendly automotive supply chain.

Description: This paper investigates the sampled-data stabilization problem of spacecraft relative positional holding with improved Lyapunov function approach. The classical Clohessy-Wiltshire equation is adopted to describe the relative dynamic model. The relative position holding problem is converted into an output tracking control problem using sampling signals. A time-dependent discontinuous Lyapunov functionals approach is developed, which will lead to essentially less conservative results for the stability analysis and controller design of the corresponding closed-loop system. Sufficient conditions for the exponential stability analysis and the existence of the proposed controller are provided, respectively. Finally, a simulation result is established to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.

Description: Cloud computing has become a popular topic for exploration in both academic and industrial research in recent years. In this paper, network behavior is analyzed to assess and compare the costs and risks associated with traditional local servers versus those associated with cloud computing to determine the appropriate deployment strategy. An analytic framework of a deployment strategy that involves two mathematical models and the analytical hierarchy process is proposed to analyze the costs and service level agreements of services involving using traditional local servers and platform as service platforms in the cloud. Two websites are used as test sites to analyze the costs and risks of deploying services in Google App Engine (GAE) (1) the website of Information and Finance of Management (IFM) at the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and (2) the NCTU website. If the examined websites were deployed in GAE, NCTU would save over 83.34% of the costs associated with using a traditional local server with low risk. Therefore, both the IFM and NCTU websites can be served appropriately in the cloud. Based on this strategy, a suggestion is proposed for managers and professionals.

Description: Meshing quality of the discrete model influences the accuracy, convergence, and efficiency of the solution for fractured network system in geological problem. However, modeling and meshing of such a fractured network system are usually tedious and difficult due to geometric complexity of the computational domain induced by existence and extension of fractures. The traditional meshing method to deal with fractures usually involves boundary recovery operation based on topological transformation, which relies on many complicated techniques and skills. This paper presents an alternative and efficient approach for meshing fractured network system. The method firstly presets points on fractures and then performs Delaunay triangulation to obtain preliminary mesh by point-by-point centroid insertion algorithm. Then the fractures are exactly recovered by local correction with revised dynamic grid deformation approach. Smoothing algorithm is finally applied to improve the quality of mesh. The proposed approach is efficient, easy to implement, and applicable to the cases of initial existing fractures and extension of fractures. The method is successfully applied to modeling of two- and three-dimensional discrete fractured network (DFN) system in geological problems to demonstrate its effectiveness and high efficiency.

Description: Ad hoc social networks are special social networks, such as ad hoc tactical social networks, ad hoc firefighter social networks, and ad hoc vehicular social networks. The social networks possess both the properties of ad hoc network and social network. One of the challenge problems in ad hoc social networks is opinion impact and consensus, and the opinion impact plays a key role for information fusion and decision support in ad hoc social networks. In this paper, consider the impact of physical and logical distance on the opinions of individuals or nodes in heterogeneous social networks; we present a general opinion impact model, discuss the local and global opinion impact models in detail, and point out the relationship between the local opinion impact model and the global opinion impact model. For understanding the opinion impact models easily, we use the general opinion impact model to ad hoc tactical social networks and discuss the opinion impact and opinion consensus for ad hoc tactical social networks in the end.

Description: Spatial competition plays important roles in economics, which attracts extensive research. This paper addresses spatial competitions along with horizontal product differentiations and entry deterrence. By the dynamic game theory model about one firm and a potential entrant with different cost in a linear city, this paper finds that both the higher fixed setup cost and the higher transportation cost deter entrants. To efficiently deter the entrants, the establisher is inclined to locating at the middle point of the linear city.

Description: We present several iterations for preconditioners introduced by Tarazaga and Cuellar (2009), and study the convergence of the method for solving a linear system whose coefficient matrix is positive definite matrices, and we also find that they complete very well with the SOR iteration, which is shown through numerical examples.

Description: With the rise in popularity of e-books, there is a growing need to reexamine the pricing strategy in the e-book supply chain. In this paper, we study two forms of pricing models widely used in the book industry: wholesale and agency pricing models. We first assume a stylized deterministic demand model in which the demand depends on the price, the degree of substitution, and the overall market potential. Subsequently, we employ the game theory to determine the price equilibriums and profit distribution under different pricing models. Finally, we explore the behavior of the publisher and the retailer under different preferences and degrees of substitution through a computational study. Our findings indicate that the e-book price will be lower under the agency pricing model than under the wholesale pricing model, which is counterintuitive. The publishers have higher incentives to adopt the agency pricing model than the wholesale pricing model. The agency pricing model benefits the whole system and can provide readers with books at lower prices. The degree of substitution between the two forms of books and the readers’ preference toward e-book will affect the books’ price and the profit distribution between the publisher and the retailers.

Description: The coupled momentum and heat transfer in unsteady, incompressible flow along a semi-infinite vertical porous moving plate adjacent to an isotropic porous medium with viscous dissipation effect are investigated. The Darcy-Forchheimer nonlinear drag force model which includes the effects of inertia drag forces is employed. The governing differential equations of the problem are transformed into a system of nondimensional differential equations which are solved numerically by the finite element method (FEM). The non-dimensional velocity and temperature profiles are presented for the influence of Darcy number, Forchheimer number, Grashof number, Eckert number, Prandtl number, plate velocity, and time. The Nusselt number is also evaluated and compared with finite difference method (FDM), which shows excellent agreement.

Description: Grouting technology has been widely used in all fields of geotechnical and civil engineering. Prospective engineering objectives including reinforcement of rock mass and groundwater leakage treatment can be achieved by grouting which will change the mechanical parameters of rock mass such as strength, elastic modulus, and coefficient of permeability. In this paper, rock mass is assumed as a composite material consisting of rock particles and random microcracks initially. Since part or all of the cracks will be filled with cement slurry after grouting, rock mass consists of rock particles, grout condensate, and some or no random microcracks after grouting. The damage constitutional law of the mesoscopic element is established based on the theory of mesoscopic damage mechanics. With the heterogeneity of the components of rock mass considered, the variation of mechanical characteristics of rock mass is studied before and after grouting. And the influence mechanism of grouting on rock mass is investigated at mesoscale level.

Description: We are concerned with the Cauchy problem connected with the Helmholtz equation. We propose a numerical method, which is based on the Helmholtz representation, for obtaining an approximate solution to the problem, and then we analyze the convergence and stability with a suitable choice of regularization method. Numerical experiments are also presented to show the effectiveness of our method.

Description: This paper is devoted to robust output feedback tracking control design for a class of switched nonlinear cascade systems. The main goal is to ensure the global input-to-state stable (ISS) property of the tracking error nonlinear dynamics with respect to the unknown structural system uncertainties and external disturbances. First, a nonlinear observer is constructed through state transformation to reconstruct the unavailable states, where only one parameter should be determined. Then, by virtue of the nonlinear sliding mode control (SMC), a discontinuous nonlinear output feedback controller is designed using a backstepping like design procedure to ensure the ISS property. Finally, an example is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Description: Adjusting and controlling the relative humidity (RH) inside package is crucial for ensuring the quality of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) of fresh produce. In this paper, an improved kinetic model for predicting the RH in MAP was developed. The model was based on heat exchange and gases mass transport phenomena across the package, gases heat convection inside the package, and mass and heat balances accounting for the respiration and transpiration behavior of fresh produce. Then the model was applied to predict the RH in MAP of fresh Lentinula edodes (one kind of Chinese mushroom). The model equations were solved numerically using Adams-Moulton method to predict the RH in model packages. In general, the model predictions agreed well with the experimental data, except that the model predictions were slightly high in the initial period. The effect of the initial gas composition on the RH in packages was notable. In MAP of lower oxygen and higher carbon dioxide concentrations, the ascending rate of the RH was reduced, and the RH inside packages was saturated slowly during storage. The influence of the initial gas composition on the temperature inside package was not much notable.

Description: The problem of restricted three bodies is considered. The treatment is carried out within the framework of the post-Newtonian approximation. The primaries also are assumed to be radiant sources. The locations of the collinear points are computed. Series forms of these locations are obtained as new results. A Mathematica program is constructed so as to draw the locations of collinear points versus the whole range of the mass ratio taking into account the photo-gravitational effects and/or the relativistic corrections. Analyses of these figures are addressed.

Description: The energy cost of a rail transport system is very big especially for the tractions of trains in its daily operation. Continual effort on decreasing the traction energy cost intensities of various rail transport modes has been made by many researchers and practitioners on different aspects for a long time. From the rail transport operation perspective, this study reviews such energy-saving research mainly focusing on the optimizations of train coasting schemes, the rational designs and utilizations of track alignments, the ameliorations of train attributes, and the improvements of system operations. According to the review work, it is confirmed that in sound responses to distinct track alignments, dynamically optimizing control programs of trains with their reasonably improved attributes ought to be further studied in view of the systematic transport operation of a rail line or network in an integrated manner as much as possible in the future research on traction energy saving of rail transport.

Description: This paper studies the solutions of second-order linear matrix equations on time scales. Firstly, the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a solution of characteristic equation are introduced; then two diverse solutions of characteristic equation are applied to express general solution of the matrix equations on time scales.

Description: The class of probability distributions possessing the almost-lack-of-memory property appeared about 20 years ago. It reasonably took place in research and modeling, due to its suitability to represent uncertainty in periodic random environment. Multivariate version of the almost-lack-of-memory property is less known, but it is not less interesting. In this paper we give the copula of the bivariate almost-lack-of-memory (BALM) distributions and discuss some of its properties and applications. An example shows how the Marshal-Olkin distribution can be turned into BALM and what is its copula.

Description: Interactional characteristics between WT wheelchair robot and stair environment are analyzed, and possible patterns of WT wheelchair robot during the stair-climbing process are summarized, with the criteria of the wheelchair robot for determining the pattern proposed. Aiming at WT wheelchair robot's complicated mechanism with holonomic constraints and combined with the computed torque method, a novel control law that is called active tension control is presented for holonomic or nonholonomic robotic systems, by which the wheelchair robot with a holonomic or nonholonomic mechanism can track the reference input of the constraint forces of holonomic or nonholonomic constraints as well as tracking the reference input of the generalized coordinate of each joint. A stateflow module of Matlab is used to simulate the entire stair-climbing process for WT wheelchair robot. A comparison of output curve with the reference input curve of each joint is made, with the effectiveness of the presented control law verified.

Description: Adaptive synchronization control is proposed for a new complex dynamical network model with nonidentical nodes and nonderivative and derivative couplings. The distributed adaptive learning laws of periodically time-varying and constant parameters and distributed adaptive control are designed. The new method which can obtain the synchronization error of closed-loop complex network system is asymptotic convergence in the sense of square error norm. What is more, the coupling matrix is not assumed to be symmetric or irreducible. Finally, a simulation example shows the feasibility and effectiveness of the approach.

Description: The seismic control of power transmission tower-line coupled system subjected to multicomponent excitations is studied in this paper. The schematic of tuned mass damper is introduced, and equations of motion of a system with tuned mass damper under multi-component excitations are proposed. Three-dimensional finite tower-line system models are created based on practical engineering in studying the response of this system without and with control. The time domain analysis takes into account geometric nonlinearity due to finite deformation. The optimal design of the transmission tower-line system with tuned mass damper is obtained according to different mass ratio. The effects of wave travel, coherency loss, and different site conditions on the system without and with control are investigated, respectively.

Description: Generally, time complexity of algorithms for content-based image retrial is extremely high. In order to retrieve images on large-scale databases efficiently, a new way for retrieving based on Hadoop distributed framework is proposed. Firstly, a database of images features is built by using Speeded Up Robust Features algorithm and Locality-Sensitive Hashing and then perform the search on Hadoop platform in a parallel way specially designed. Considerable experimental results show that it is able to retrieve images based on content on large-scale cluster and image sets effectively.

Description: Nonlinear targeted energy transfer (TET) is applied to suppress the excessive vibration of an axially moving string with transverse wind loads. The coupling dynamic equations used are modeled by a nonlinear energy sink (NES) attached to the string to absorb vibrational energy. By a two-term Galerkin procedure, the equations are discretized, and the effects of vibration suppression by numerical methods are demonstrated. Results show that the NES can effectively suppress the vibration of the axially moving string with transverse wind loadings, thereby protecting the string from excessive movement.

Description: This paper proposed a parameter matching method based on the energy storage unit, the accumulator in the parallel hydraulic hybrid excavator (PHHE). The working condition, system structure, and control strategy of the excavator were all considered. It took the 20-ton series PHHE as the example and displayed the parameter matching course of the main components: engine, accumulator, and hydraulic secondary regulatory pump. Their installed powers were reduced after the matching course. Furthermore, the parameters of the PHHE system were optimized with the genetic algorithm to get the most suitable values for system initialization. By analyzing the simulation results, it could be concluded that the parameter matching method had an impressive improvement of the energy saving under the same working condition and brought obscure influence to the mechanism dynamics.

Description: The implementation of pairwise decomposition is discussed on an interconnected system with uncertainties. Under the concept of system inclusion, two systems with the same expanded system achieved by the same expand transformation are considered as approximations. It is proven that a coordinated controller can be found to stabilize both the two systems. This controller is contracted from the coordinated controller of expanded system, with each pairwise subsystem having information structure constraint taken into consideration. At last, this controller design process is applied on a four-area power system treated as a group of subsystems with information structure constraints.

Description: The periodic solution of fractional oscillation equation with periodic input is considered in this work. The fractional derivative operator is taken as, where the initial time is ; hence, initial conditions are not needed in the model of the present fractional oscillation equation. With the input of the harmonic oscillation, the solution is derived to be a periodic function of time t with the same circular frequency as the input, and the frequency of the solution is not affected by the system frequency c as is affected in the integer-order case. These results are similar to the case of a damped oscillation with a periodic input in the integer-order case. Properties of the periodic solution are discussed, and the fractional resonance frequency is introduced.

Description: The deterministic flowshop model is one of the most widely studied problems; whereas its stochastic equivalent has remained a challenge. Furthermore, the preemptive online stochastic flowshop problem has received much less attention, and most of the previous researches have considered a nonpreemptive version. Moreover, little attention has been devoted to the problems where a certain time penalty is incurred when preemption is allowed. This paper examines the preemptive stochastic online flowshop with the objective of minimizing the expected makespan. All the jobs arrive overtime, which means that the existence and the parameters of each job are unknown until its release date. The processing time of the jobs is stochastic and actual processing time is unknown until completion of the job. A heuristic procedure for this problem is presented, which is applicable whenever the job processing times are characterized by their means and standard deviation. The performance of the proposed heuristic method is explored using some numerical examples.

Description: By using a change of variables, we get new equations, whose respective associated functionals are well defined in and satisfy the geometric hypotheses of the mountain pass theorem. Using this fact, we obtain a nontrivial solution.

Description: The flight scheduling is a real-time optimization problem. Whenever the schedule is disrupted, it will not only cause inconvenience to passenger, but also bring about a large amount of operational losses to airlines. Especially in case an irregular flight happens, the event is unanticipated frequently. In order to obtain an optimal policy in airline operations, this paper presents a model in which the total delay minutes of passengers are considered as the optimization objective through reassigning fleets in response to the irregular flights and which takes into account available resources and the estimated cost of airlines. Owing to the uncertainty of the problem and insufficient data in the decision-making procedure, the traditional modeling tool (probability theory) is abandoned, the uncertainty theory is applied to address the issues, and an uncertain programming model is developed with the chance constraint. This paper also constructs a solution method to solve the model based on the classical Hungarian algorithm under uncertain conditions. Numerical example illustrates that the model and its algorithm are feasible to deal with the issue of irregular flight recovery.

Description: We study symmetric successive overrelaxation (SSOR) method for absolute complementarity problems. Solving this problem is equivalent to solving the absolute value equations. Some examples are given to show the implementation and efficiency of the method.

Description: By using surjectivity theorem of pseudomonotone and coercive operators rather than the KKM theorem and fixed point theorem used in recent literatures, we obtain some conditions under which a system of generalized variational-hemivariational inequalities concerning set-valued mappings, which includes as special cases many problems of hemivariational inequalities studied in recent literatures, is solvable. As an application, we prove an existence theorem of solutions for a system of generalized variational-hemivariational inequalities involving integrals of Clarke's generalized directional derivatives.

Description: This paper studies the moving finite element methods for the space-time fractional differential equations. An optimal convergence rate of the moving finite element method is proved for the space-time fractional differential equations.

Description: Mononobe-Okabe (M-O) method is still employed as the first option to estimate lateral earth pressures during earthquakes by geotechnical engineers. Considering some simple assumptions and using a closed form method, M-O solves the equations of equilibrium and suggests seismic active and passive lateral earth pressures. Therefore, the results are true in its assumption range only, and in many other practical cases, M-O method is not applicable. Noncontinues backfill slopes, cohesive soils, and rising water behind the wall are some well-known examples in which the M-O theory is irrelevant. Using the fundamental framework of M-O method, this study proposes an iterative method to overcome the limits of the M-O method. Based on trial and error process, the proposed method is able to cover many of the defects which regularly occur in civil engineering when M-O has no direct answer.

Description: The reliability of discrete element method (DEM) numerical simulations is significantly dependent on the particle-scale parameters and boundary conditions. To verify the DEM models, two series of biaxial compression tests on ellipse-shaped steel rods are used. The comparisons on the stress-strain relationship, strength, and deformation pattern of experiments and simulations indicate that the DEM models are able to capture the key macro- and micromechanical behavior of inherently anisotropic granular materials with high fidelity. By using the validated DEM models, the boundary effects on the macrodeformation, strain localization, and nonuniformity of stress distribution inside the specimens are investigated using two rigid boundaries and one flexible boundary. The results demonstrate that the boundary condition plays a significant role on the stress-strain relationship and strength of granular materials with inherent fabric anisotropy if the stresses are calculated by the force applied on the wall. However, the responses of the particle assembly measured inside the specimens are almost the same with little influence from the boundary conditions. The peak friction angle obtained from the compression tests with flexible boundary represents the real friction angle of particle assembly. Due to the weak lateral constraints, the degree of stress nonuniformity under flexible boundary is higher than that under rigid boundary.

Description: The existence results of global asymptotic stability of the solution are proved for functional integral equation of mixed type. The measure of noncompactness and the fixed-point theorem of Darbo are the main tools in carrying out our proof. Furthermore, some examples are given to show the efficiency and usefulness of the main findings.

Description: We use the bifurcation method of dynamical systems to study the bifurcations of traveling wave solutions for the Kundu equation. Various explicit traveling wave solutions and their bifurcations are obtained. Via some special phase orbits, we obtain some new explicit traveling wave solutions. Our work extends some previous results.

Description: Software maintenance, especially bug prediction, plays an important role in evaluating software quality and balancing development costs. This study attempts to use several quantitative network metrics to explore their relationships with bug prediction in terms of software dependency. Our work consists of four main steps. First, we constructed software dependency networks regarding five dependency scenes at the class-level granularity. Second, we used a set of nine representative and commonly used metrics—namely, centrality, degree, PageRank, and HITS, as well as modularity—to quantify the importance of each class. Third, we identified how these metrics were related to the proneness and severity of fixed bugs in Tomcat and Ant and determined the extent to which they were related. Finally, the significant metrics were considered as predictors for bug proneness and severity. The result suggests that there is a statistically significant relationship between class’s importance and bug prediction. Furthermore, betweenness centrality and out-degree metric yield an impressive accuracy for bug prediction and test prioritization. The best accuracy of our prediction for bug proneness and bug severity is up to 54.7% and 66.7% (top 50, Tomcat) and 63.8% and 48.7% (top 100, Ant), respectively, within these two cases.

Description: Thermomechanical coupling problems with imperfect thermal contact are analyzed in the present paper with discontinuous Galerkin finite element method. The imperfect thermal contact condition is characterized by thermal contact resistance. The whole thermomechanical coupling problem is solved alternatively with the thermal subproblem and mechanical subproblem. Thermal contact resistance is introduced directly with the interface numerical flux of the present discontinuous Galerkin finite element method without using interface element as traditional continuous Galerkin finite element method does. Numerical results show the accuracy and feasibility of the present discontinuous Galerkin finite element method in solving thermomechanical coupling problems with imperfect thermal contact.

Description: Control valves play important roles in the control of the mixed-gas pressure in the combined cycle power plants (CCPP). In order to clarify the influence of coupling between the structure and the fluid system at the control valve, the coupling mechanism was presented, and the numerical investigations were carried out. At the same operating condition in which the pressure oscillation amplitude is greater when considering the coupling, the low-order natural frequencies of the plug assembly of the valve decrease obviously when considering the fluid-structure coupling action. The low-order natural frequencies at 25% valve opening, 50% valve opening, and 75% valve opening are reduced by 11.1%, 7.0%, and 3.8%, respectively. The results help understand the processes that occur in the valve flow path leading to the pressure control instability observed in the control valve in the CCPP.

Description: To achieve Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) by using gestures, a continuous gesture recognition approach based on Multilayer Hidden Markov Models (MHMMs) is proposed, which consists of two parts. One part is gesture spotting and segment module, the other part is continuous gesture recognition module. Firstly, a Kinect sensor is used to capture 3D acceleration and 3D angular velocity data of hand gestures. And then, a Feed-forward Neural Networks (FNNs) and a threshold criterion are used for gesture spotting and segment, respectively. Afterwards, the segmented gesture signals are respectively preprocessed and vector symbolized by a sliding window and a K-means clustering method. Finally, symbolized data are sent into Lower Hidden Markov Models (LHMMs) to identify individual gestures, and then, a Bayesian filter with sequential constraints among gestures in Upper Hidden Markov Models (UHMMs) is used to correct recognition errors created in LHMMs. Five predefined gestures are used to interact with a Kinect mobile robot in experiments. The experimental results show that the proposed method not only has good effectiveness and accuracy, but also has favorable real-time performance.

Description: By introducing the probability function describing latency of infected cells, we unify some models of viral infection with latent stage. For the case that the probability function is a step function, which implies that the latency period of the infected cells is constant, the corresponding model is a delay differential system. The model with delay of latency and two types of target cells is investigated, and the obtained results show that when the basic reproduction number is less than or equal to unity, the infection-free equilibrium is globally stable, that is, the in-host free virus will be cleared out finally; when the basic reproduction number is greater than unity, the infection equilibrium is globally stable, that is, the viral infection will be chronic and persist in-host. And by comparing the basic reproduction numbers of ordinary differential system and the associated delayed differential system, we think that it is necessary to elect an appropriate type of probability function for predicting the final outcome of viral infection in-host.

Description: We introduce the modular continuous g-Riesz basis to improve one existing result for continuous g-Riesz basis in Hilbert -modules, and then we study the equivalency relations between continuous g-frames in Hilbert -modules, and, in particular, we obtain two necessary and sufficient conditions under which two continuous g-frames are similar. Finally, we generalize a stability result for alternate duals of g-frames in Hilbert spaces to alternate duals of continuous g-frames in Hilbert -modules.

Description: We study the existence of ground state solutions of the periodic discrete coupled nonlinear Schrödinger lattice by using the Nehari manifold approach combined with periodic approximations. We show that both of the components of the ground state solutions are not zero.

Description: By applying the properties of Schur complement and some inequality techniques, some new estimates of diagonally and doubly diagonally dominant degree of the Schur complement of Ostrowski matrix are obtained, which improve the main results of Liu and Zhang (2005) and Liu et al. (2012). As an application, we present new inclusion regions for eigenvalues of the Schur complement of Ostrowski matrix. In addition, a new upper bound for the infinity norm on the inverse of the Schur complement of Ostrowski matrix is given. Finally, we give numerical examples to illustrate the theory results.

Description: This paper is concerned with the problem of the existence, uniqueness, and global exponential stability of almost periodic solution for neutral-type Cohen-Grossberg neural networks with time delays. Based on fixed point theory and Lyapunov functional, several sufficient conditions are established for the existence, uniqueness, and global exponential stability of almost periodic solution for the above system. Finally, an example and numerical simulations are given to illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our main results.

Description: This paper has implemented nonlinear control strategy for the single tilt tri-rotor aerial robot. Based on Newton-Euler’s laws, the linear and nonlinear mathematical models of tri-rotor UAVs are obtained. A numerical analysis using Newton-Raphson method is chosen for finding hovering equilibrium point. Back-stepping nonlinear controller design is based on constructing Lyapunov candidate function for closed-loop system. By imitating the linguistic logic of human thought, fuzzy logic controllers (FLCs) are designed based on control rules and membership functions, which are much less rigid than the calculations computers generally perform. Effectiveness of the controllers design scheme is shown through nonlinear simulation model on each channel.

Description: von Karman originally deduced his spectrum of wind speed fluctuation based on the Stokes-Navier equation. Taking into account, the practical issues of measurement and/or computation errors, we suggest that the spectrum can be described from the point of view of the golden ratio. We call it the golden ratio phenomenon of the von Karman spectrum. To depict that phenomenon, we derive the von Karman spectrum based on fractional differential equations, which bridges the golden ratio to the von Karman spectrum and consequently provides a new outlook of random data following the von Karman spectrum in turbulence. In addition, we express the fractal dimension, which is a measure of local self-similarity, using the golden ratio, of random data governed by the von Karman spectrum.

Description: In this paper, we consider a single-index varying-coefficient model with application to longitudinal data. In order to accommodate the within-group correlation, we apply the block empirical likelihood procedure to longitudinal single-index varying-coefficient model, and prove a nonparametric version of Wilks’ theorem which can be used to construct the block empirical likelihood confidence region with asymptotically correct coverage probability for the parametric component. In comparison with normal approximations, the proposed method does not require a consistent estimator for the asymptotic covariance matrix, making it easier to conduct inference for the model's parametric component. Simulations demonstrate how the proposed method works.

Description: We study nonsmooth multiobjective fractional programming problem containing local Lipschitz exponential -invex functions with respect to and . We introduce a new concept of nonconvex functions, called exponential -invex functions. Base on the generalized invex functions, we establish sufficient optimality conditions for a feasible point to be an efficient solution. Furthermore, employing optimality conditions to perform Mond-Weir type duality model and prove the duality theorems including weak duality, strong duality, and strict converse duality theorem under exponential -invexity assumptions. Consequently, the optimal values of the primal problem and the Mond-Weir type duality problem have no duality gap under the framework of exponential -invexity.

Description: A dynamic model was proposed for a honeycomb paperboard cushioning packaging system with critical component. Then the coupled equations of the system were solved by the variational iteration method, from which the conditions for inner-resonance were obtained, which should be avoided in the cushioning packaging design.

Description: Good track geometry state ensures the safe operation of the railway passenger service and freight service. Railway transportation plays an important role in the Chinese economic and social development. This paper studies track irregularity standard deviation time series data and focuses on the characteristics and trend changes of track state by applying clustering analysis. Linear recursive model and linear-ARMA model based on wavelet decomposition reconstruction are proposed, and all they offer supports for the safe management of railway transportation.

Description: Hybrid suspension system with permanent magnet and electromagnet consumes little power consumption and can realize larger suspension gap. But realizing stable suspension of hybrid magnet is a tricky problem in the suspension control sphere. Considering from this point, we take magnetic flux signal as a state variable and put this signal back to suspension control system. So we can get the hybrid suspension mathematical model based on magnetic flux signal feedback. By application of MIMO feedback linearization theory, we can further realize linearization of the hybrid suspension system. And then proportion, integral, differentiation, magnetic flux density B (PIDB) controller is designed. Some hybrid suspension experiments have been done on CMS04 magnetic suspension bogie of National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in China. The experiments denote that the new hybrid suspension control algorithm based on magnetic flux signal feedback designed in this paper has more advantages than traditional position-current double cascade control algorithm. Obviously, the robustness and stability of hybrid suspension system have been enhanced.

Description: We propose the conception and evaluation indexes of emergency logistics network connecting reliability to construct evaluation index system of complex network reliability, and describe these indexes quantitatively to evaluate the network connecting reliability. Moreover, the network topological model and the simulation methods of reliability measurement when the network is under attack are present. Finally, we take three classical emergency logistics networks as examples, and through emulation analysis we obtain the connecting reliability changing situation of these three networks under random attack, the changing curve of the ratio of effective demand nodes and emergence supply mileage of emergency logistics network with same network density but different forms, and then evaluate the emergency logistics network connecting reliability. This can provide references for the designing of emergency logistics network with high reliability and analysis means for research in other fields.

Description: A new vibration model is built by introducing the head-cover vibration transfer path based on a previous analysis of the vertical vibration model for hydropower station units and powerhouses. This research focuses on disturbance- and parameter-related transfer paths in a practical situation. In a complex situation, the application of the stochastic perturbation method is expanded using an algebra synthesis method the Hadamard product, and theoretical analyses, and numerical simulations of transfer paths in the new vibration model are carried out through the expanded perturbation method. The path transfer force, the path transmissibility, and the path disturbance ranges in the frequency domain are provided. The results indicate that the methods proposed in this study can efficiently reduce the disturbance range and can accurately analyze the transfer paths of hydraulic-source vertical vibration in hydropower stations.

Description: This paper investigates exponential stability in mean square of singular Markovian jump systems with saturating actuators and time-varying delay. The statistical property of the Markov process is fully used to derive the differential of the function. By using a delay decomposition method, a mode-dependent Lyapunov-Krasovskii function is established. A sufficient condition is proposed for exponential stability in mean square of the system designing the memoryless state feedback. A numerical example shows that the approach proposed is effective.

Description: Nonlinear integrable couplings of super Broer-Kaup-Kupershmidt hierarchy based upon an enlarged matrix Lie super algebra were constructed. Then its super Hamiltonian structures were established by using super trace identity, and the conserved functionals were proved to be in involution in pairs under the defined Poisson bracket. As its reduction, nonlinear integrable couplings of the classical integrable hierarchy were obtained.

Description: When machine-type communication (MTC) devices perform the long-term evolution (LTE) attach procedure without bit rate limitations, they may produce congestion in the core network. To prevent this congestion, the LTE standard suggests using group-based policing to regulate the maximum bit rate of all traffic generated by a group of MTC devices. However, previous studies on the access point name-aggregate maximum bit rate based on group-based policing are relatively limited. This study proposes a multistage control (MSC) mechanism to process the operations of maximum bit rate allocation based on resource-use information. For performance evaluation, this study uses a Markov chain with to analyze MTC application in a 3GPP network. Traffic flow simulations in an LTE system indicate that the MSC mechanism is an effective bandwidth allocation method in an LTE system with MTC devices. Experimental results show that the MSC mechanism achieves a throughput 22.5% higher than that of the LTE standard model using the group-based policing, and it achieves a lower delay time and greater long-term fairness as well.

Description: We consider a discrete fractional boundary value problem of the form where , , , and is a continuous function. The existence of at least one solution is proved by using Krasnoselskii's fixed point theorem and Leray-Schauder's nonlinear alternative. Some illustrative examples are also presented.

Description: By using the bifurcation method of dynamical systems and the method of phase portraits analysis, we consider a two-component Degasperis-Procesi equation: , , the existence of the peakon, solitary wave and smooth periodic wave is proved, and exact parametric representations of above travelling wave solutions are obtained in different parameter regions.

Description: This paper is concerned with control for linear positive discrete-time systems. Positive systems are characterized by nonnegative restriction on systems’ variables. This restriction results in some remarkable results which are available only for linear positive systems. One of them is the celebrated diagonal positive definite matrix solutions to some existed well-known results for linear systems without nonnegative restriction. We provide an alternative proof for criterion of norm by using separating hyperplane theorem and Perron-Frobenius theorem for nonnegative matrices. We also consider control problem for linear positive discrete-time systems via state feedback. Necessary and sufficient conditions for such problem are presented under controller gain with and without nonnegative restriction, and then the desired controller gains can be obtained from the feasible solutions.

Description: We give explicit expressions of of two matrices and , in terms of , , , and , , under the condition that , and apply the result to finding an explicit representation for the Drazin inverse of some block matrix.

Description: A line search filter SQP method for inequality constrained optimization is presented. This method makes use of a backtracking line search procedure to generate step size and the efficiency of the filter technique to determine step acceptance. At each iteration, the subproblem is always consistent, and it only needs to solve one QP subproblem. Under some mild conditions, the global convergence property can be guaranteed. In the end, numerical experiments show that the method in this paper is effective.

Description: The present work focuses on the optimal design of nonlinear mechanical systems by using heuristic optimization methods. In this context, the nonlinear optimization problem is devoted to a two-degree-of-freedom nonlinear damped system, constituted of a primary mass attached to the ground by a linear spring and a secondary mass attached to the primary system by a nonlinear spring. This arrangement forms a nonlinear dynamic vibration absorber (nDVA), which is used in this contribution as a representative example of a nonlinear mechanical system. The sensitivity analysis of the suppression bandwidth, namely, the frequency range over which the ratio of the main mass displacement amplitude to the amplitude of the forcing function is less than unity, with respect to the design variables that characterize the nonlinear system based on the first order finite differences is presented. For illustration purposes the optimization problem is written as to maximize the suppression bandwidth by using three recent bioinspired optimization methods: Bees Colony Algorithm, Firefly Colony Algorithm, and Fish Swarm Algorithm. The results are compared with other evolutionary strategies.