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Cooperative Deterministic Learning-Based Formation Control for a Group of Nonlinear Mechanical Systems Under Complete Uncertainty
Get PDFMulti-agent systems (MASs) have become a powerful approach for solving complex real-world problems due to their efficiency, scalability, and adaptability. MASs consist of multiple agents that collectively perform tasks, often requiring precise coordination, collision avoidance, and efficient navigation. Formation control is essential in such systems, regulating agents\u27 positions, velocities, and orientations to maintain specific patterns. Formation control methods are categorized into three approaches: (1) Behavioral, where agents follow predefined behaviors derived from subsolutions; (2) Leader-following, where agents maintain a configuration relative to designated leaders but are vulnerable to leader faults; and (3) Virtual structure, where agents follow a virtual leader, enhancing system robustness. These approaches operate under centralized or decentralized control. Most leader-following techniques assume linear time-invariant leader dynamics without inputs, limiting their ability to handle complex formation tracking tasks. Additionally, challenges related to dynamic variations in inertia remain unresolved. To address these issues, we propose a generalized leader dynamics model with a virtual leader subject to bounded time-varying external inputs. We develop a novel cooperative deterministic learning-based adaptive formation control scheme for nonlinear mechanical systems with uncertain dynamics. Our framework consists of two layers: (1) a cooperative nonlinear estimation protocol to estimate leader 24 states and (2) a cooperative deterministic learningbased formation control protocol using radial basis function neural networks (RBF NNs) for formation tracking and accurate learning of nonlinear dynamics. Numerical simulations confirm that our approach ensures formation tracking while achieving cooperative and accurate learning of system dynamics with guaranteed convergence and learning consensus
Between Sangate Aika and Bhumika: Finding Hansa Wadkar
Get PDFHansa Wadkar was a popular film star of Marathi cinema, who had established herself as an actress with considerable histrionic skills, essaying a range of roles in films belonging to a variety of genres during a career spanning several decades, before and after Indian Independence. Despite the success, Wadkar’s unconventional personal life was troubled and difficult. In the early seventies her autobiography, Sangate Aika (1970), was published. Subsequently, Shyam Benegal, a stalwart of the Indian New Wave, made Bhumika (1977) broadly based on Wadkar’s autobiography. The film’s realist framework underscored by its critique of patriarchy, succeeded in bringing Wadkar’s journey into the national discourse of women empowerment. This article is an attempt to read Sangate Aika and Bhumika together with the view to “finding” Hansa Wadkar, the female professional working in mid-century Marathi film industry, even as she participated in and contributed to the imagination and the making of the cinematic modernity of the region
Using media as a source in lessons: Media literacy methodology and Constructivist Media Decoding
Get PDFMedia literacy, beyond being an independent course, can be integrated into educational content at various levels through a structural approach that emphasizes questioning and understanding diverse perspectives. Students need tools to analyze diverse content critically, so it’s important to move away from traditional teacher-centered instruction. This paper examines a question-based approach to integrating media literacy into Turkish educational courses, emphasizing the Constructivist Media Decoding (CMD) method. The study highlights CMD’s potential to address gaps in Turkiye’s media literacy education, offering a detailed discussion of its theoretical background and benefits within the Turkish context. By illustrating CMD’s adaptability and value, this paper proposes its incorporation into curricula across all educational levels
Alma Link Resolver Referring Sources Report 2024-2025
Get PDFStatistics from 2024-2025 on the number of OpenURL requests made to the Alma link resolver for items held by the University of Rhode Island Libraries.
Information provided includes Source, Number of Requests, Number of Clicked Requests, % Clicks from Requests
Impact of apixaban, edoxaban, and rivaroxaban on international normalized ratio
Get PDFPoster presented by David Hwang, URI Pharm.D. Candidate 2026, and Professor Nicole Asal at the 2025 American College of Clinical Pharmacy Annual Meeting (virtual)
Disability and Human Trafficking: Prevention Education and Professional Training
Get PDFAim: This pilot study aimed to explore the intersection of disability and anti-trafficking prevention and training efforts from the perspectives of human trafficking survivors with disabilities and the professionals who work with them to inform further research.
Methods: The current study draws from in-depth interviews with seven participants, including two survivors and five professionals who regularly worked with human trafficking survivors with disabilities. Data analysis involved independent co-coding of transcribed interviews by a three-member research team to identify core themes and subthemes.
Results: The results showed a lack of human trafficking prevention education for people with disabilities, as well as disability inclusive training for professionals. Participants described the need for prevention education to be audience-tailored, accessible, and culturally humble. Participants described that professional training was lacking in both the inclusion of people with disabilities and accessibility, and highlighted the importance of training that includes culturally humble practices.
Implications: Prevention education necessitates consideration of the audience, including tailoring content and delivery to the audience (e.g., age/ disability type), making content accessible, and exercising cultural humility in learning about and modifying curriculum and delivery. Professional training requires inclusiveness of the heightened risk experienced by people with disabilities, as well as ways risks and signs may be distinct by disability type. Professional training should be accessible to professionals with disabilities and also include information about accessibility within organizations and culturally humble practices to better serve human trafficking survivors with disabilities
VOTING WITH THEIR (LEFT AND RIGHT) FEET: DO PARTISANS VALUE NEIGHBORHOOD ENVIRONMENTAL AMENITIES DIFFERENTLY?
Get PDFThere exists a consistent partisan gap in preferences for public spending on the environment, with approval being 20 to 40 percentage points higher for Democrats than Republicans. In this paper, we investigate whether there is a similar partisan gap present in residential preferences for environmental amenities. We link housing data, land use, and household characteristics, including voter registration, for three distinct housing markets, and we develop a residential sorting model to estimate marginal willingness-to-pay (MWTP) for residential proximity to conserved land, allowing for preference heterogeneity by partisanship as well as other household characteristics. For all households combined, we estimate average annual household MWTP for locations proximate to open space to range from 1,061 across the three markets. In our model that allows for heterogeneous preferences across groups, we find no evidence that Republicans’ MWTP is less than Democrats’ MWTP, and we statistically reject the magnitude of preference disparity found in voting studies. These findings establish a difference in relative preferences across venues that has implications for valuation research and political economy. To assess why relative preferences may differ across venues, we develop a simple theoretical model that applies to both housing and voting decisions and incorporates parameters for parochial altruism and tax aversion. Using prior estimates on partisan differences in key parameters, we find both intuitive and, to some extent, numerical support for the observed difference in relative preferences
