A LPV modeling of turbocharged spark-ignition automotive engine oriented to fault detection and isolation purposes

This paper illustrates the derivation of a linear parameter varying (LPV) model approximation of a turbocharged Spark-Ignition (SI) automotive engine and its usage in designing a model-based fault detection and isolation (FDI) scheme. The LPV approximation is derived from a detailed nonlinear mathematical model of the engine on the basis of the well known Jacobian approach. The resulting LPV representation is then exploited for synthesizing a bank of LPV-FDI $H_{\infty }/H_{?}$ Luenberger observers. Each observer is in charge of detecting a particular class of fault and is designed for having low sensitivity to all other exogenous inputs so as to allow an effective fault isolation. The adopted FDI scheme is gain-scheduled and exploits a set of engine variables, assumed to be measurable on-line, as a scheduling parameters. The goodness of the LPV approximation of the engine model and the effectiveness of the LPV-FDI architecture are demonstrated by several numerical simulations.     

Comparison of motor competence levels on two assessments across childhood

This study compared performances and motor delay classifications for the Test of Gross Motor Development-2nd edition (TGMD-2) and the Körperkoordinationstest Für Kinder (KTK) in a sample of 424 healthy children (47% girls) between 5 and 10 years of age. Low-to-moderate correlations (r range = 0.34–0.52) were found between assessments across age. In general, both boys and girls demonstrated higher raw scores across age groups. However, percentile scores indicated younger children outperformed older children, denoting a normative percentile-based decrease in motor competence (MC) in the older age groups. In total, the TGMD-2 and KTK classified 39.4% and 18.4% children, respectively, as demonstrating very low MC (percentile ≤5). In conclusion, the TGMD-2 classified significantly more children with motor delays than the KTK and the differences between children’s motor skill classification levels by these assessments became greater as the age groups increased. Therefore, the TGMD-2 may demonstrate more susceptibility to sociocultural influences and be more influenced by cumulative motor experiences throughout childhood. Low-to-moderate correlations between assessments also suggest the TGMD-2 and KTK may measure different aspects of MC. As such, it may be important to use multiple assessments to comprehensively assess motor competence.     

Stabilizing two-dimensional stochastic systems through sliding mode control

This paper presents a stabilizing control for two-dimensional stochastic differential equations. The stability concept in this study is the stability in probability. To ensure such a stability, the control is designed based on the sliding mode technique, and applied to account stochastic systems. This finding has a practical implication—the proposed control can be used to stabilize a real-time automotive electronic throttle valve. The proposed approach is verified by data collected from experiments.     

Measuring the academic reputation through citation networks via PageRank

The objective assessment of the prestige of an academic institution is a difficult and hotly debated task. In the last few years, different types of university rankings have been proposed to quantify it, yet the debate on what rankings are exactly measuring is enduring.To address the issue we have measured a quantitative and reliable proxy of the academic reputation of a given institution and compared our findings with well-established impact indicators and academic rankings. Specifically, we study citation patterns among universities in five different Web of Science Subject Categories and use the PageRank algorithm on the five resulting citation networks. The rationale behind our work is that scientific citations are driven by the reputation of the reference so that the PageRank algorithm is expected to yield a rank which reflects the reputation of an academic institution in a specific field. Given the volume of the data analysed, our findings are statistically sound and less prone to bias, than, for instance, ad–hoc surveys often employed by ranking bodies in order to attain similar outcomes. The approach proposed in our paper may contribute to enhance ranking methodologies, by reconciling the qualitative evaluation of academic prestige with its quantitative measurements via publication impact.