Design of a fast real-time LPV model predictive control system for semi-active suspension control of a full vehicle

This article is concerned with the control of a Semi-Active suspension system of a 7DOF Full Vehicle model, equipped with four Electro Rheological (ER) dampers, taking into account their incipient dissipativity constraints. Herein, a real-time, fast, advanced control structure is presented within the Model Predictive Control framework for Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) systems. The control algorithm is developed to provide a suitable trade-off between comfort and handling performances of the vehicle in a very limited sampling period ($T_s=5\text{ms}$), in view of a possible realtime implementation on a real vehicle. The control structure is tested and compared to other standard fast control approaches. Full nonlinear realistic simulation results illustrate the overall good operation and behaviour of the proposed control approach.     

美国一流社区学院办学特色对我国高职院校建设的启示——以圣莫尼卡社区学院为例

美国社区学院是美国高等教育的重要组成部分,其特色的职业教育体系远近闻名。以美国一个卓越社区学院——圣莫尼卡社区学院为例,通过对该校的办学理念、学科课程、教师队伍、筹资方式、教育职能等方面独特之处的详细介绍,给我国高职院校的建设发展以深刻启示。通过借鉴美国一流社区学院的建设发展经验,由此促进我国高职院校的高水平发展。     

探索MOOCs与现实课堂结合的教学模式——系统科学与圣塔菲网络课程的个案研究

从世界前沿的发展来看,MOOCs有三个值得关注的趋势：即把线上线下（020）的课程创新与体验有机结合起来;研究学科的特点和差异;注重方法的探索及方法论的创新。如何将三者有效整合,是当前推动MOOCs研究与实践深化发展所面临的一个重要课题。基于此．特意把圣塔菲研究所开设的两门MOOCs课程作为个案进行研究,基于跨学科的方法论视角、以师生对话的形式,展现了在网络课程新时空中教师和学生各自的体验、不同背景学习者之间的优势互补,揭示了信息时代建立教学相长、能者为师之新型师生关系和跨学科师生团队的重要性。特别是复杂性研究中所使用的建模工具NetLogo,此类“新工具”在网络课程新时空中开展跨学科研究和研究性学习的独特作用。Moocs是一个复杂的社会系统工程,复杂性研究、尤其是自组织理论等新思维及其方法论在MooCs研究乃至教育理论与实践创新发展中的价值和意义日益凸显,若以此指导MooCs与现实课堂的双向互动、协同创新,对实现教育信息化进程中的“深度融合”具有重要意义。     

Effects of televised modeling and active participation on rule-governed question production among native American preschool children

Preschool native-American children were randomly assigned to observation of TV modeling only, observation of TV modeling plus active participation, and control conditions to determine if providing an opportunity to perform behaviors displayed by televised models is more effective than observational learning alone in inducing preschool children's rule-governed production of causal questions. Performance of both experimental groups was significantly superior to controls at posttesting, but only the TV plus active participation group surpassed controls at retention testing. The TV modeling plus participation group asked significantly more causal questions than the TV modeling only group on posttest and retention trials. Implications are discussed for social learning theory and research for instructional programming for minority group children who are faced with the requirements of two cultures.     

Relationships among cooperation-competition and locus of control in social and academic situations among children in traditional and open classrooms

The relationships among cooperation-competition, perceptions of locus of control in social situations, and perceptions of locus of control in intellectual-academic situations was compared among 89 fourth- and fifth-grade students in traditional and open classrooms. Children from the open education setting displayed substantially more cooperative behavior on Madsen's marble-pull game than children from the traditional school. They also made significant gains in cooperative behavior from the first to the second trial, while the difference between trials was not significant for the traditional students. Traditional students displayed significantly higher internality for locus of control in academic settings, while perceptions of locus of control in social settings did not differ for the two groups. Academic and social locus of control judgments were significantly correlated for the open education students, but not for the students from traditional classrooms.     

Observing intercultural communication: A proposal of theory and method

Techniques for analyzing intercultural communication should minimize subjective intrusion by observers and maximize the potential benefit of analysis to communicators. Interchange between communicators is defined transactionally as events involving simultaneous change in (1) a communicator, (2) other communicators encountered by that communicator, and (3) what is known about these encounters. Interchange in dyadic communication is explained in terms of an ABX model, which is phenomenal rather than objective for an observer and in which X signifies mutual experience between communicators A and B. X is the focus of empirical investigation by the observer, who conducts parallel interviews with A and B and cross checks them. Comparison of different sets of interviews indicates which variables are persistent in intercultural communication. Research procedures are proposed for rigorous evaluation of the transactional model.     

Bring on the Dancing-Girls! (a Gadibus usque auroram)1

In Greece and Rome, Ionic rhythm appears to have been associated with erotic dances. A tune-type going with this rhythm is found in several of Alfonso's Cantigas (second half of the thirteenth century) and in folk music from around the Mediterranean, recorded from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. Could these tune-types (and their associated ground-basses) go back as far as Martial's Dancing-girls of Cádiz – and indeed to Euripides and Aristophanes? There is also a possible link with the kharjas of the Andalusian muwashsha.(h)āt, and a substantial connexion with the dance known from later sources as the Canaries. Not only is there evidence of a rhythm and associated melodic motive stretching over more than two millennia, but we can discern, even hear, parts of an unwritten tradition of improvised instrumental music and discover a harmonic vocabulary which mostly emerges on the written page only in the Renaissance.     

A Pretty Paella: The Alfonsine Cantigas de Santa Maria and their Connexions with Other Repertories

The collection of Cantigas de Santa Maria compiled by Alfonso X (el Sabio) (r. 1221–1284) is a gold mine of musical information; unfortunately, however, much fool's gold has also been found amongst its pages. The CSM have been argued to provide evidence that their music derives from plainchant (thus justifying “churchy” performances) yet also to manifest so many “Arab” traits as to support a “Turkish Delight” style of performance. True, there are occasional substantive links between one or other of these repertories, but these are infrequent and specific rather than numerous and general. A closer, judicious, scrutiny of the Cantigas reveals that they are neither the product of an ecclesiastical nor of an “Arab” kitchen, as it were, but a repertory (and iconography) whose careful examination yields up several surprising secrets, especially when reading between its lines. The CSM are neither fish nor fowl, and the collection contains few, if any, recipes for Lamb Ziryāb or for the Lenten fast. On the contrary, its dishes are, in common with Paella, suorum generis, belonging to a musical cuisine of their own, whose sum is indeed greater than the parts of their manifold influences.