Model reference control of LPV systems

This paper deals with the problem of model reference control for linear parameter varying (LPV) systems. The LPV systems under consideration depend on a set of parameters that are bounded and available online. The main contribution of this paper is to design an LPV model reference control scheme for LPV systems whose state-space matrices depend affinely on a set of time-varying parameters that are bounded and available online. The design problem is divided into two subproblems: the design of the coefficient matrices of the controller and the design of the gain of the state feedback controller for LPV systems. The singular value decomposition is used to obtain the coefficient matrices, while the linear matrix inequality methodology is used to obtain the parameter-dependent state feedback gain of the control scheme. A simple numerical example is used to illustrate the proposed design and a coupled-tank process example is used to demonstrate the usefulness and practicality of the proposed design. Simulation and experimental results indicate that the proposed scheme works well.     

Social anxiety in E-Learning: Scale validation and socio-demographic correlation study

Education and Information Technologies - During the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, over 1.5 billion students worldwide have been deprived of access to traditional learning....     

Digital Divide and Caste in Rural Pakistan

This study examined how caste influences adoption of information and communication technologies. It entailed a survey of 2750 farmers, who were interviewed in person, in rural Punjab (Pakistan), and two different methods for data analysis—data mining and indices-based statistical analysis. The analysis shows digital divides at the caste level. Furthermore, it shows that old and new technologies diffuse differently among castes.     

A framework for portal implementation: A case for Saudi organizations

Portals provide an aggregated and personalized view of information through a large application integrating information, people, and processes across organizational boundaries. As such, portals can significantly impact organizations, completely changing how they work and operate. In addition, many critical success factors can affect portals at any stage of implementation. Many organizations lack suitable frameworks for implementing portals to ensure success in the organization, customer satisfaction, and employee morale. To address this gap, we proposed a comprehensive framework to develop and operate portal projects by considering specific critical success factors. We have evaluated and compared this work with previous work in the same field, more accurate and significant results.     

Expert Systems used in the identification of misconceptions and assessment in school science: a review and proposed development

From research carried out over the last 20 years, there is now a wealth of data on the identification of students' misconceptions in various topics within science education. Much of the data in the form of questions and students' answers, and analysis of the data is well documented. Within this same period there have been major developments in the programming and use of microcomputer based expert system shells which can use formalised expert knowledge to mimic the processes normally carried out by a human expert. It seems that the two areas of research could, in the fuure, be brought together to provide support for teachers in using the research findings to support the individualised and targeted teaching of students in the classroom. A recent literature search, however, has shown the dearth of activity in this field. This paper reviews the situation at the present time and suggests how the two activities could be united.     

Adjuvant effects of saponins on animal immune responses

Vaccines require optimal adjuvants including immunopotentiator and delivery systems to offer long term protection from infectious diseases in animals and man. Initially it was believed that adjuvants are responsible for promoting strong and sustainable antibody responses. Now it has been shown that adjuvants influence the isotype and avidity of antibody and also affect the properties of cell-mediated immunity. Mostly oil emulsions, lipopolysaccharides, polymers, saponins, liposomes, cytokines, ISCOMs (immunostimulating complexes), Freund’s complete adjuvant, Freund’s incomplete adjuvant, alums, bacterial toxins etc., are common adjuvants under investigation. Saponin based adjuvants have the ability to stimulate the cell mediated immune system as well as to enhance antibody production and have the advantage that only a low dose is needed for adjuvant activity. In the present study the importance of adjuvants, their role and the effect of saponin in immune system is reviewed.     

Critical Analysis of Primary Literature in a Master’s-Level Class: Effects on Self-Efficacy and Science-Process Skills

The ability to think analytically and creatively is crucial for success in the modern workforce, particularly for graduate students, who often aim to become physicians or researchers. Analysis of the primary literature provides an excellent opportunity to practice these skills. We describe a course that includes a structured analysis of four research papers from diverse fields of biology and group exercises in proposing experiments that would follow up on these papers. To facilitate a critical approach to primary literature, we included a paper with questionable data interpretation and two papers investigating the same biological question yet reaching opposite conclusions. We report a significant increase in students’ self-efficacy in analyzing data from research papers, evaluating authors’ conclusions, and designing experiments. Using our science-process skills test, we observe a statistically significant increase in students’ ability to propose an experiment that matches the goal of investigation. We also detect gains in interpretation of controls and quantitative analysis of data. No statistically significant changes were observed in questions that tested the skills of interpretation, inference, and evaluation.