483 research outputs found
The Negro in France
Full text linkThis historical study examines the black experience in Metropolitan France from the 1600s to 1960. Shelby T. McCloy explores the literary and cultural contributions of people of color to French society—from Alexandre Dumas to Rene Maran—and charts their political ascension.
Shelby T. McCloy, professor of history at the University of Kentucky, is the author of several books and articles on European history.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_black_studies/1001/thumbnail.jp
Time Delay Margin Analysis for Model Reference Adaptive Flight Control Laws: A Bounded Linear Stability Approach and Application to Aeroservoelasticity Models
No full textAdaptive control theory and the aerospace industry share a long and bountiful history which has led to innovative developments within modern control theory as well as the boldest industry promises for future generations of aircraft. Unfortunately, as we venture into the realm of adaptive control, commonly used robustness metrics, such as the phase margin, are lost. This fact, in addition with the lack of a well-established framework for control design, validation and verification raises an issue known as the certification problem of adaptive control. Oftentimes, theory can only take us as far as guaranteeing stability under limited conditions. The next step would be to develop quantifiable margins, or metrics, which can be translated into certifiable terms.A 2010 NASA study titled “Elastically Shaped Future Air Vehicle Concept” [1] pushes the aerospace industry towards fuel efficiency and the integration of lighter composite materials for new generations of aircraft. In turn this leads to flexible designs that show higher wing tip deflections and oscillations. A novelty control surface architecture – the Variable Camber Continuous Trailing Edge Flap (VCCTEF) – is being developed to assist in active flutter suppression and enable wing shaping control in order to improve cruise flight efficiency.The work developed in this thesis and during an internship working with the Adaptive Control and Evolvable Systems (ACES) team at NASA Intelligent Systems Division revisits the certification problem of adaptive control in the aerospace industry within the context of the VCCTEF project. In particular, we focus the time delay margin as an inherently critical stability metric for flight adaptive control and integrate time domain estimation methods with simulation driven certificates into an hybrid framework to create a linear moving time window model – the Bounded Linear Asymptotic Stability (BLAS) model for Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) flight software used by the ACES team, including the Optimal Control Modification (OCM) introduced to guarantee transient response characteristics. Alternative time domain methods such as the Lyapunov-Krasovskii (L-K) are implemented in a Sum-of-Squares (SOS) framework for revision and discussion.Mechanical Engineering | Systems and Contro
Algorithmic study of 2-interval graphs
No full textInterval graphs play an important role in graph theory and have intensively been studied for over sixty years due to their wide range of applications and because most NP-hard problems on general graphs become solvable in linear time on interval graphs. However, the class of interval graphs is restricted and does not even contain a cycle of length 4. To overcome this drawback, we study some generalisations of interval graphs where instead of considering one interval on one real line for each vertex we consider d intervals on d different real lines and take the union of each lines (d-track graphs) or t intervals on the same real line (t-interval graphs). Nevertheless, most problems now become NP-hard as shown for Vertex Cover, Clique Cover, Biclique Cover or even APX-hard in the case of Feedback Vertex Set. This is even the case if we add some restrictions on the length of the intervals. We also give a bound on the unit track number of any interval graph (number of tracks needed so that all the intervals have the same length). Furthermore, we study the relationship between the classes of d-track graphs and t-interval graphs with the length of the intervals restricted or not. Finally, we also consider taking the intersection of d tracks (boxicity d graphs) and show that is it not more or less restrictive than taking the union of d tracks
CASD-NMR: Critical Assessment of Automated Structure Determination by NMR
No full textWe report the completion of the first comparison of automated NMR protein structure calculation methods and announce its continuation in the form of an ongoing, community-wide experiment: CASD-NMR (Critical Assessment of Automated Structure Determination of Proteins by NMR). CASD-NMR is open for any laboratory to participate and/or to submit targets.Peer reviewe
Discutindo a proposta contemporânea de uma teoria das virtudes intelectuais colmo teoria do conhecimento
Full text linkDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Filosofia e Ciências Hmanas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia, Florianópolis, 2013.Abstract: This research seeks to expand the discussion of central problems of traditional epistemology, as knowledge and justification. In contemporary epistemology the nature of knowledge has been subject to different interpretations by two approaches: internalists and externalists. In this context, an approach based on the concepts of intellectual virtues was introduced as a possible solution to the impasse between internalism and externalism in epistemology. This work has of object to study the discussion of how the intellectual virtues appear as a successful proposal to the problem of knowledge. To do so far will need an understanding of the analogies between discourse ethics and epistemology. The composition of this work was distributed in the introduction, first, second and third chapters and remarks. We reserve the first chapter to detail the differences between approaches of virtue and the other competing conceptions. In this respect, epistemology turns his attention to the proposed Linda Zagzebski, contemporary epistemologist, justifying the viability of his conception by considering the intellectual virtue as the main normative component of justified belief and knowledge. The second chapter presents the design proposed of Zagzebski's pure virtue, inspired by the Aristotelian model of acquisition of virtues, the nature of virtue and eudaimonia. Also in the second chapter, it is approached on the thesis of this author about the author of this thesis definition of knowledge as cognitive contact with the reality of what sorts of "acts of intellectual virtue The third chapter is to discuss about the motivation of Zagzebski in replacing the term true belief for cognitive contact with reality, presenting her criticism of internalist and externalist approaches, mainly to reliabilism, as well as the critical imposed by internalism and externalism to addressing the epistemic virtues, especially the design of Zagzebski. As remarks, the observations are presented, on the possibilities and limits of the thesis of Linda Zagzebski
Comparison of model predictive control strategies for a fluidized catalytic cracker
No full textInternational audienceA FCC model is used to compare five different Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategies. The FCC process is a complex petrochemical unit with catalyst recycling that makes its behaviour highly nonlinear. The FCC comprises a riser, a separator and a regenerator with important heat coupling due to the endothermic cracking reactions of gas oil in the riser and the exothermic combustion reactions in the regenerator. The riser and the regenerator exhibit fast and slow dynamics respectively. The temperatures at riser top and in the regenerator should be controlled by manipulation of catalyst and air flow rates. All these nonlinear and coupled characteristics render the multivariable control problem difficult and thus the FCC process constitutes a valuable benchmark for comparing control strategies. Here, the performances of Dynamic Matrix Control, Quadratic Dynamic Matrix Control, MPC control with penalty on the outputs, NonLinear MPC control, Observer Based MPC control are compared
Les Fables de La Fontaine Dynamitées!
No full textThose of us wondering if the creators of this work really mean "blown up!" get our answer on the back cover with its prominent word "BOUM!!!" Ten fables are offered, as the beginning T of C shows, but now with different titles like "La course folle"; "Bataille dans la savane"; and "La star international." Right after each title, we see La Fontaine's traditional verse fable, but then a prose story begins on the one part of the page, with an accompanying illustration stretching across the rest of the two page spread. In TH, the tortoise accepts the challenge because her five children like surprises. The hare diverts from the course to watch a film, "Les Aventures du Super-Lapin!" The tortoise's children cheer her on all the way, while the hare stops to do some dancing with friends. Only after all this activity does the hare enjoy a siesta. The fable is true to La Fontaine but expanded in its detail. So it goes in the other nine fables. GA features a wannabee chanteuse and an ant who works as a night guard in a big department store. The grasshopper gets a job in the store but prefers singing to working and quits work and becomes a street singer. She is a hit and ants come to see her perform in concert. But of course winter comes. The grasshopper finds herself begging the ant to come into the store to get warm. In a twist not in La Fontaine, the ant relents: "Allez, pour cet hiver, je vous accueille. Mais faites attention l'année prochaine!" Perrette swings her breakable jug of milk around, even while she is enjoying dancing in an amusement park. These are engaging developments of the traditional fables. The illustrations keep pace with the lively narrative. Of all the delightful artist's treats to accompany these exploded tales, perhaps the disguised wolf lurking around young animals (103) is best. 149 pages. 7" x 10¼".Language note: FrenchAlexandre Jardi
Lagging Behind: Productivity and the Good Fortune of Canadian Provinces
Full text linkThe good fortune of bountiful natural resources is not enough to ensure rising incomes for Canadians in the long term. Growing labour productivity is the most important determinant of future economic welfare and on that measure, Canada is falling behind its major trading partners. Increasing labour productivity does not mean workers working harder for less money, a common canard. It means more investment in one of three factors: 1) human capital (education or other learning); 2) physical capital (plants or other infrastructure); or 3) technology. Just as an individual’s income is in the long-run dependent on how productive he or she is, so too is that of the nation as a whole. If Canada fails to improve its productivity, the incomes of both individual Canadians and the nation as a whole will fall behind those of other developed countries.Economic Growth and innovation, Canadian provinces, labour productivity
Falling for lions: transformations of the vampire character in literature
Full text linkDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras/Inglês e Literatura Correspondente, Florianópolis, 2013A Literatura Gótica é responsável por dar vida à criaturas que têm assombrado o sonho das pessoas e alimentado a imaginação de muitos por mais de um século. Entretanto, nenhuma dessas criaturas tivera a chance de estar no centro das atenções como o vampiro contemporâneo. Na primeira década do século XXI, Edward Cullen, o vampiro adolescente criado pela americana Stephenie Meyer em Crepúsculo (2005), capturou o coração de uma legião de jovens leitores ao redor do planeta. O personagem de Crepúsculo é responsável por fazer com que vampiros e, consequentemente a ficção gótica, receber atenção renovada por parte do público leitor, permitindo a proliferação de livros com temáticas vampirescas, especialmente aqueles que são direcionados aos jovens adultos. Edward também exemplifica uma nova personificação de vampiro que guarda pouca semelhança com Drácula, do romance homônimo de Bram Stoker, publicado em 1897. A análise das mudanças físicas e de personalidade que colocam Drácula e Edward em lados opostos da mesma moeda constitui o foco principal da presente investigação, que também se compromete a explorar as mudanças já sinalizadas em Louis e Lestat, do best-seller Entrevista com o Vampiro, de Anne Rice, em 1976. Além disso, esta pesquisa defende que Edward é um herói apesar de sua natureza vil. Nesta mudança de paradigma está, possivelmente, a explicação para a popularidade de Edward Cullen e o personagem vampiresco contemporâneo. Parece que os vampiros vieram para ficar. E não apenas sob a luz do luarAbstract : Gothic Literature is responsible for producing creatures that have haunted people's dreams and have fostered the imagination of many for more than a century. However, none of such creatures have ever been in the spotlight as the contemporary vampire. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Edward Cullen, the teenager vampire from American author Stephenie Meyer's literary phenomenon Twilight (2005), has captured the hearts of a generation of young readers from all over the planet. The Twilight character is responsible for making vampires, and therefore Gothic fiction receive renewed attention from the readership, allowing a proliferation of vampire-related novels, especially those that are aimed at young adults. Edward also epitomizes a new depiction of the vampire character that bears little resemblance to Dracula, from Bram Stoker's eponymous novel, published in 1897. The analysis of the physical aspects and personality traits that place Dracula and Edward on different sides of the same coin are the core of the present investigation, which is also committed to explore the changes already signalized in the Ricean vampires Louis and Lestat, from the 1976 best-seller Interview with the Vampire. In addition, this research claims that Edward is a hero despite his villainous nature. In such change of paradigm lies, arguably, the explanation for the popularity of Edward Cullen and the contemporary vampire character, signalizing that the bloodsuckers are here to stay. And not just under moonligh
Behavioral Aspects of Bargaining and Pricing.
Full text linkSome remarkable results of the studies in this thesis are that individual behavior seems to be rather well described by theories taking the (im)patience of agents into account. Fairness considerations are found to play an important role not only in bargaining situations but also in competitive markets. At the same time, the impact of fairness varies with the institutional setting. Finally, investigation into the variation of trust accross the Dutch population suggests that age and education affect a basic trust propensity.
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