In this paper, we consider the cooperative output regulation of linear multi-agent systems under switching network. The problem can be viewed as a generalization of the leader-following consensus problem of multi-agent systems. Due to the limited information exchanges of different subsystems, the problem cannot be solved by the decentralized approach ...

At present, it is recognized that the Internet plays key role in universalization of opportunities in society in which we live. For people with disabilities, the content must be accessible in all websites, but the assistive technologies used must be adequate to the specific needs of people with disabilities. Dosvox ...

Surface transportation system is developing very fast in China and the number of vehicles is increasing quickly as well. This development creates a lot of problems on traffic safety and the number of accident is also increasing. In this paper, we made deep analysis of different possible causes of safety ...

A strong body of evidence demonstrates that education, prevention and intervention, in the context of HIV/AIDS, should take ethno-racial diversity into account. The current research focuses on the cultural sensitivity manifested by AIDS service organisation ASO professionals towards Francophone minority persons living with HIV/AIDS Francophone PHAs in the two main ...

Using disability theory as a framework and social science theories of identity to strengthen the arguments, this article explores empirically how working-age adults confront the medical diagnosis of hearing impairment. For most participants hearing impairment threatens the stability of social interaction and the construction of hearing disabled identities is seen ...

Stromules are extended by plastids but the underlying basis for their extension and retraction had not been understood until recently. Our live-imaging aided observations on coincident plastid stromule branching and ER tubule dynamics open out new areas of investigation relating to these rapid subcellular interactions. The addendum provides a testable ...

Abstract Alien species can be a major threat to ecological communities, but we do not know why some community types allow the entry of many more alien species than do others. Here, for the first time, we suggest that evolutionary diversity inherent to the constituent species of a community may ...

Despite many efforts, balance control of humanoid robots in the presence of unforeseen external or internal forces has remained an unsolved problem. The difficulty of this problem is a consequence of the high dimensionality of the action space of a humanoid robot, due to its large number of degrees of ...

The existing algorithms for the minimum concave cost network flow problems mainly focus on the single-source problems. To handle both the single-source and the multiple-source problem in the same way, especially the problems with dense arcs, a deterministic annealing algorithm is proposed in this paper. The algorithm is derived from ...

In the present article, we have presented the peristaltic flow of an Oldroyd 8-constant fluid in an endoscope. The governing equations for the flow problem are simplified using long wavelength and low Reynold's number approximations. The solutions of the simplified problem are calculated using (i) Homotopy analysis method and (ii) ...

Employee performance problems are essentially of 2 kinds: those that are motivational in origin and those resulting from skill deficiencies. Both kinds of problems are the province of the department manager. Performance problems differ from problems of conduct in that traditional disciplinary processes ordinarily do not apply. Rather, performance problems ...

Several theoretical models have shown that the range of motion of the hip joint is impaired in patients with femoroacetabular impingement, and that the acetabular cartilage is at risk of being damaged as a result of abnormal shear stresses, even during normal everyday activities. Computer aided technologies might add to ...

We propose a new approach to the problem of determining an ensemble of protein structures with a set of interatomic distance bounds in NMR protein modeling. Similarly to X-ray crystallography, we assume that the protein has an equilibrium structure and the atoms fluctuate around their equilibrium positions. Then, the problem ...

This study investigated the role of peer rejection and best friend's externalizing behavior in the development of externalizing behavior in 740 children followed annually from kindergarten (mean age = 6.2, SD = 0.46) to 3rd grade. Consistently across time, children's externalizing problems predicted peer rejection. Peer rejection, in turn, added to the prediction of ...

Abstract This letter presents a new, artificial-life-based view of the Collatz problem, a well-known mathematical problem about the behavior of a series of positive integers generated by a simple arithmetical rule. The Collatz conjecture asserts that this series always falls into a 4 ? 2 ? 1 cycle regardless of ...

We consider the inverse electrocardiographic problem of computing epicardial potentials from a body-surface potential map. We study how to improve numerical approximation of the inverse problem when the finite element method is used. Being ill-posed, the inverse problem requires different discretization strategies from its corresponding forward problem. We propose refinement ...

The purpose of this study was to identify and examine the dimensions of problem gambling behaviors associated with purchasing sports lottery in China. This was accomplished through the development and validation of the Scale of Assessing Problem Gambling (SAPG). The SAPG was initially developed through a comprehensive qualitative research process. ...

To address challenging flexible docking problems, a number of docking algorithms pregenerate large collections of candidate conformers. To remove the redundancy from such ensembles, a central problem in this context is to report a selection of conformers maximizing some geometric diversity criterion. We make three contributions to this problem. First, ...

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of communication competence in terms of predicting conflict style, job satisfaction, job stress, and job burnout among 221 healthcare workers. The results indicated that higher communication competence scores were predictive of integrating and obliging conflict styles among healthcare workers ...

The capacity for a complex inner life--encompassing inner speech, imaginative reverie, and unarticulated moods--is an essential feature of living with illness and a principal means through which people interpret, understand, and manage their condition. Nevertheless, anthropology lacks a generally accepted theory or methodological framework for understanding how interiority relates to ...

Evolution has long been understood as the driving force for many problems of medical interest. The evolution of drug resistance in HIV and bacterial infections is recognized as one of the most significant emerging problems in medicine. In cancer therapy, the evolution of resistance to chemotherapeutic agents is often the ...

Kempe, C., Gustafson, S. & Samuelsson, S. (2011). A longitudinal study of early reading difficulties and subsequent problem behaviors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. It is generally believed that early academic failure in school develops into a downward spiral of negative motivational and behavioral consequences. In this study, children with reading ...

We set up an infrared-based moment problem to obtain estimates of the masses of the scalar, pseudoscalar, and tensor glueballs in Euclidean Yang-Mills theories using the refined Gribov-Zwanziger (RGZ) version of the Landau gauge, which takes into account nonperturbative physics related to gauge copies. Employing lattice input for the mass ...

Rudolf Leuckart's 1851 pamphlet Ueber den Polymorphismus der Individuen (On the polymorphism of individuals) stood at the heart of naturalists' discussions on biological individuals, parts and wholes in mid-nineteenth-century Britain and Europe. Our analysis, which accompanies the first translation of this pamphlet into English, situates Leuckart's contribution to these discussions ...

As we may know well, uniqueness of the Support Vector Machines (SVM) solution has been solved. However, whether Support Vector Data Description (SVDD), another best-known machine learning method, has a unique solution or not still remains unsolved. Due to the fact that the primal optimization of SVDD is not a ...

The multi-state perfect phylogeny problem is a classic problem in computational biology. When no perfect phylogeny exists, it is of interest to find a set of characters to remove in order to obtain a perfect phylogeny in the remaining data. This is known as the character removal problem. We show ...

It has been recently argued that adiabatic quantum optimization would fail in solving NP-complete problems because of the occurrence of exponentially small gaps due to crossing of local minima of the final Hamiltonian with its global minimum near the end of the adiabatic evolution. Using perturbation expansion, we analytically show ...

This case report describes the treatment of a 9-year old boy, who had his maxillary central incisors extruded by noncontrolled elastic mechanics to close a diastema. The article describes the consequences of this movement and how the problem was solved with controlled intrusion.

In the case that a system is affected by fuzzy factors, a fuzzy optimal-control problem is proposed. A fuzzy optimal-control problem for a multistage fuzzy system is considered to optimize the expected value of a fuzzy objective function subject to a multistage fuzzy system where, at every stage, the system ...

Formation of a chiral mesostructured porphyrin-silica hybrid with cylindrical helical stacking of anionic porphyrins was achieved by the aid of cationic organosilane. The enantiopurity of the hybrid was dramatically enhanced by a small amount of (R)-1,1'-bi-2-naphthol or its enantiomer.

How do people decide to abandon a problem? Participants were presented with unsolvable water jar problems, having been accurately informed of the prior probability of solvability. Across three experiments, we discovered effects of prior probability of solvability and of problem size (number of distinct problem states) on measures of effort ...

To monitor microbial community dynamics in a semi-industrial-scale lignocellulosic biofuel reactor system and to improve our understanding of the microbial communities involved in the MixAlco™ biomass conversion process. Reactor microbial communities were characterized at six time points over the course of an 80-day, mesophilic, semi-industrial-scale fermentation using community qPCR and ...

The gene duplication (GD) problem seeks a species tree that implies the fewest gene duplication events across a given collection of gene trees. Solving this problem makes it possible to use large gene families with complex histories of duplication and loss to infer phylogenetic trees. However, the GD problem is ...

Wagstaff (2010) reviews and comments on two recent papers by Pekala et al. (2010a, 2010b), concluding that "many of the problems relating to the definition and conceptualization of terms associated with hypnosis... may stem from insufficient attention to the role of suggestion and expectancies in producing hypnotic phenomena, and an ...

We solve the monomer-dimer problem on a nonbipartite lattice, a simple quartic lattice with cylindrical boundary conditions, with a single monomer residing on the boundary. Due to the nonbipartite nature of the lattice, the well-known method of solving single-monomer problems with a Temperley bijection cannot be used. In this paper, ...

Natural systems are a source of inspiration for computer algorithms designed to solve optimisation problems. Yet most 'nature-inspired' algorithms take only superficial inspiration from biology, and little is known about how real biological systems solve difficult problems. Moreover, ant algorithms, neural networks and similar methods are usually applied to static ...

Abstract:Background: Youth violence in general and gang violence in particular continues to be a pernicious problem facing the majority of large U.S. cities. Attempts to reduce youth violence are hindered by the absence of a shared framework that crosses multiple disciplines.Objective: The goal of the Youth Violence Systems Project (YVSP) ...

Current human and experimental studies are indicating an association between stress and hearing problems; however potential risk factors have not been established. Hearing problems are projected to become among the top ten disabilities according to the WHO in the near future. Therefore a better understanding of the relationships between stress ...

The way we talk about complex and abstract ideas is suffused with metaphor. In five experiments, we explore how these metaphors influence the way that we reason about complex issues and forage for further information about them. We find that even the subtlest instantiation of a metaphor (via a single ...

The rate of suicides in road traffic fatalities is estimated at 1-8% depending on the investigated study material. Especially single-car accidents, for which no technical reason or driving error is apparent, are considered suspicious. The elucidation of suicides in road traffic is difficult if there are no relevant clues such ...

Community assembly models, usually constructed for food webs, are an important component of our understanding of how ecological communities are formed. However, models for mutualistic community assembly are still needed, especially because these communities are experiencing significant anthropogenic disturbances that affect their biodiversity. Here, we present a unique network model ...

Implementation of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) has always a step-zero, i.e., an initial phase when the idea is incepted, communicated and negotiated among stakeholders. What happens during this phase is likely to have an impact later on. If not done right, the management of the MPA may encounter problems at ...

In 398 twin pairs belonging to the population-based Italian Registry, we investigated by the monozygotic twin intrapair differences model and bivariate designs whether the phenotypic correlations between CBCL/6-18 problem behaviours and competencies could better be accounted for by direct, causal effects, or by the presence of latent etiological factors, acting ...

This comment addresses critics on the claimed stability of solution to the accelerated-predator-satiety Lotka-Volterra predator-prey problem, proposed by Dubey al. (2010. A solution to the accelerated-predator-satiety Lotka-Volterra predator-prey problem using Boubaker polynomial expansion scheme. Journal of Theoretical Biology 264, 154-160). Critics are based on incompatibilities between the claimed asymptotic behavior ...

ACCESSIBLE SUMMARY: • Obesity has become an important health problem because of the gradually increasing incidence seen within all age groups. People with obesity problems are affected lifespan and health negatively. • Obesity can be described as disease that affects lifespan and health negatively, because of body fat deposition. • ...

This study examined the association of problem behavior with neurotransmitter deficiency in adolescents, which would provide new insights into behavioral problems. A total of 1259 students of the seventh grade from 4 middle schools in Wuhan city located in the central China were recruited. With the approval of school and ...

The major purpose of this study was to identify the types and frequency of caregiving problems and associated stress and coping effectiveness. Secondary purposes were (a) to examine changes in problem frequency, stress, and coping effectiveness over time and (b) to identify relationships between problem stress and personal, illness, coping, ...

It is known that the sphere-packing problem and the number-variance problem (closely related to an optimization problem in number theory) can be posed as energy minimizations associated with an infinite number of point particles in d-dimensional Euclidean space R(d) interacting via certain repulsive pair potentials. We reformulate the covering and ...

Incorporating new information into a knowledge base is an important problem which has been widely investigated. In this paper, we study this problem in a formal framework for reasoning about actions and change. In this framework, action domains are described in an action language whose semantics is based on the ...

Classification is a very useful statistical tool for information extraction. In particular, multicategory classification is commonly seen in various applications. Although binary classification problems are heavily studied, extensions to the multicategory case are much less so. In view of the increased complexity and volume of modern statistical problems, it is ...