The impact of the Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee(Rural Dibao)Program on child nutrition outcomes

The Rural Minimum Living Standard Guarantee(Rural Dibao)is an important unconditional cash transfer program to alleviate poverty in rural China.Despite the importance of children’s nutrition in breaking poverty cycles,little is known about the impact of Rural Dibao on child nutrition outcomes.Using China Family Panel Studies(CFPS),this paper examines the effects of Rural Dibao on child nutrition outcomes and investigates potential pathways and heterogeneous effects.We exploit propensity score matching and difference-in-differences techniques to evaluate the effects of the Rural Dibao program on child nutrition outcomes.Our results suggest that Rural Dibao significantly impacts the nutrition outcomes of children up to 15 years of age.Specifically,our results suggest that Rural Dibao improves child height-to-age z-scores by 1.05 standard deviations and lowers the probability of stunting by 11.9 percentage points.Additional analyses suggest that increased protein intake is the main pathway through which Rural Dibao participation contributes to better nutrition outcomes.We also find that the effect of the program is more pronounced among girls,children who are non-left-behind or live with highly educated mothers,and those from low-income families and poor areas.Our findings suggest that Rural Dibao participation helps improve child nutrition outcomes through improving diet quality.

Toward Trustworthy Decision-Making for Autonomous Vehicles:A Robust Reinforcement Learning Approach with Safety Guarantees

While autonomous vehicles are vital components of intelligent transportation systems,ensuring the trustworthiness of decision-making remains a substantial challenge in realizing autonomous driving.Therefore,we present a novel robust reinforcement learning approach with safety guarantees to attain trustworthy decision-making for autonomous vehicles.The proposed technique ensures decision trustworthiness in terms of policy robustness and collision safety.Specifically,an adversary model is learned online to simulate the worst-case uncertainty by approximating the optimal adversarial perturbations on the observed states and environmental dynamics.In addition,an adversarial robust actor-critic algorithm is developed to enable the agent to learn robust policies against perturbations in observations and dynamics.Moreover,we devise a safety mask to guarantee the collision safety of the autonomous driving agent during both the training and testing processes using an interpretable knowledge model known as the Responsibility-Sensitive Safety Model.Finally,the proposed approach is evaluated through both simulations and experiments.These results indicate that the autonomous driving agent can make trustworthy decisions and drastically reduce the number of collisions through robust safety policies.

Joint computation offloading and parallel scheduling to maximize delay-guarantee in cooperative MEC systems

The growing development of the Internet of Things(IoT)is accelerating the emergence and growth of new IoT services and applications,which will result in massive amounts of data being generated,transmitted and pro-cessed in wireless communication networks.Mobile Edge Computing(MEC)is a desired paradigm to timely process the data from IoT for value maximization.In MEC,a number of computing-capable devices are deployed at the network edge near data sources to support edge computing,such that the long network transmission delay in cloud computing paradigm could be avoided.Since an edge device might not always have sufficient resources to process the massive amount of data,computation offloading is significantly important considering the coop-eration among edge devices.However,the dynamic traffic characteristics and heterogeneous computing capa-bilities of edge devices challenge the offloading.In addition,different scheduling schemes might provide different computation delays to the offloaded tasks.Thus,offloading in mobile nodes and scheduling in the MEC server are coupled to determine service delay.This paper seeks to guarantee low delay for computation intensive applica-tions by jointly optimizing the offloading and scheduling in such an MEC system.We propose a Delay-Greedy Computation Offloading(DGCO)algorithm to make offloading decisions for new tasks in distributed computing-enabled mobile devices.A Reinforcement Learning-based Parallel Scheduling(RLPS)algorithm is further designed to schedule offloaded tasks in the multi-core MEC server.With an offloading delay broadcast mechanism,the DGCO and RLPS cooperate to achieve the goal of delay-guarantee-ratio maximization.Finally,the simulation results show that our proposal can bound the end-to-end delay of various tasks.Even under slightly heavy task load,the delay-guarantee-ratio given by DGCO-RLPS can still approximate 95%,while that given by benchmarked algorithms is reduced to intolerable value.The simulation results are demonstrated the effective-ness of DGCO-RLPS for delay guarantee in MEC.

Guarantee Strategy for the Safety of Agricultural Industry in Hunan Province

The safety of agricultural industry in Hunan Province shows an upward trend from"basically safe"to"very safe",but the state in the"safe"or"very safe"range is still unstable.In view of this,Hunan Province should guarantee the agricultural production ability,cultivate and enhance the core competitiveness of agriculture,firmly grasp the agricultural control power,attach importance to the export quality of agri-cultural products and other aspects to ensure the safety of agricultural industry.

Study on Urban Resilience Based on the Analysis of Supply Guarantee Facilities during Epidemic Closure—A Case Study of Shanghai in 2022

In the case of major public emergencies, the ability of cities to resist shocks becomes very important and reflects urban resilience. This paper selected the supply guarantee facilities during the city-wide lockdown of Shanghai during March-May 2022 due to COVID-19 pandemic as the research object. In this research, the per capita supply guarantee capacity and supply guarantee overlay intensity were analyzed based on the official list of facilities, and the actual role of the supply guarantee facilities was investigated through a public research questionnaire. The thermodynamic diagram map that was generated based on phone visits reflected the actual distribution of the population. Then the level of “supply guarantee resilience” was evaluated and graded for each district of Shanghai. It was concluded that the overall level of supply guarantee resilience was high in the central city, divergence in the near suburban districts, and generally low in the remote suburban districts. Based on this, the paper summarized the problems of supply guarantee revealed in Shanghai during the epidemic lockdown as well as proposed strategies to improve the resilience of similar scenarios in the future. With the help of big data and public research tools, this paper aimed to provide ways and methods to evaluate the resilience of cities under major public emergencies.

基于Assume-Guarantee搜索复用的C程序验证方法

提出了一种基于Assume-Guarantee搜索复用的验证方法,对C程序源代码进行验证.其思想是,在程序的每点处都引入一个保守假设条件,并假设从任意点出发,变量取值满足该点假设条件的所有执行路径都不会违背给定性质,然后根据这些假设条件遍历所有可能的执行路径以验证给定的时序安全性质,并在遍历的过程中验证这些假设条件是否满足,如果不满足,则不断对其精化和加强.验证方法总是在保证假设条件可靠的前提下尽量使用较弱的条件,使得大量的执行路径由于满足假设条件而可以搜索复用,从而降低验证代价.应用该方法验证了Linux操作系统中SSL协议的实现程序openssl-0.9.6c满足SSL协议的初始握手规范.实验结果表明,该方法具有良好的实用性和可扩展性.

Research on Guaranteed Scheduling Algorithms

Guaranteed scheduling is necessary for hard real time systems, because each process of them must meet their deadline, or a serious consequence will result.In this paper we discuss two guaranteed schedule algorithms:backtracking and branch and bound,introduce the process to find the optimal solution by both methods,propose the concept of logical node and physical node.Through some experiments for different process sets,we have made comparisons between the two algorithms in branch nodes,comparing time,topology of the search tree,memory size needed,etc.

Establishment of Safety Guarantee System of Mountainous Tourism——A Case Study of High and Higher Mountains

After summarizing researches on domestic and foreign tourism safety,it was found that there were few research results on mountainous tourism safety,especially tourism safety and tourism safety guarantee system of high and higher mountains with high risk.The paper had concluded hidden dangers and sources of safe accidents of mountainous tourism,and studied tourism safety guarantee system of high and higher mountains.Furthermore,it proposed that tourism safety guarantee system was composed of tourism safety policies and regulations,tourism precaution,tourism safety control,tourism safety rescue and tourism insurance;and finally pointed out components of each factor.

The Present Situation of Chattel Guarantee System and Its Improvements—Taking the Angle of American Uniform Commercial Code(UCC)

Although there are appropriate stipulations for the chattel guarantees in the law of China, this guarantee system could not adapt to the request of economy's development because of the following reasons: the scope of chattel guarantees is narrow according to relevant stipulations; the transaction cost of the chattel is high; mortgage registration of chattel is in a mess; lack of efficiently executive guarantee system, etc. To counter the problems existing in the present Chinese chattel guarantee system, in this article, the author proposed some corresponding suggestions and countermeasures, hoping to perfect the chattel guarantee system in China.

Decentralized robust guaranteed cost control for a class of interconnected singular large-scale systems with time-delay and parameter uncertainty

The decentralized robust guaranteed cost control problem is studied for a class of interconnected singular large-scale systems with time-delay and norm-bounded time-invariant parameter uncertainty under a given quadratic cost performance function. The problem that is addressed in this study is to design a decentralized robust guaranteed cost state feedback controller such that the closed-loop system is not only regular, impulse-free and stable, but also guarantees an adequate level of performance for all admissible uncertainties. A sufficient condition for the existence of the decentralized robust guaranteed cost state feedback controllers is proposed in terms of a linear matrix inequality （LMI） via LMI approach. When this condition is feasible, the desired state feedback decentralized robust guaranteed cost controller gain matrices can be obtained. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Guaranteed Cost Consensus for High-dimensional Multi-agent Systems With Time-varying Delays

Guaranteed cost consensus analysis and design problems for high-dimensional multi-agent systems with time varying delays are investigated. The idea of guaranteed cost con trol is introduced into consensus problems for high-dimensiona multi-agent systems with time-varying delays, where a cos function is defined based on state errors among neighboring agents and control inputs of all the agents. By the state space decomposition approach and the linear matrix inequality(LMI)sufficient conditions for guaranteed cost consensus and consensu alization are given. Moreover, a guaranteed cost upper bound o the cost function is determined. It should be mentioned that these LMI criteria are dependent on the change rate of time delays and the maximum time delay, the guaranteed cost upper bound is only dependent on the maximum time delay but independen of the Laplacian matrix. Finally, numerical simulations are given to demonstrate theoretical results.

Delay-independent robust guaranteed-cost control for uncertain linear neutral systems

This article concerns the delay-independent guaranteed-cost control problem via memoryless state feedback for a class of neutral-type systems with structural uncertainty and a given quadratic cost function. New delay-independent conditions for the existence of the guaranteed-cost controller are presented in the term of LMIs. An algorithm involving optimization is proposed to design a controller achieving an optimal guaranteed-cost, such that, the system can be stabilized for all admissible uncertainties. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed method.

The eco-environmental guarantee for China's urbanization process

Studying the change of resources consumption and eco-environmental carrying capacity are of importance to the sustainable development of urbanization.Based on the China's economic and social statistical data from 1950 to 2006,the ecological footprint,eco-logical footprint intensity,ecological deficit and surplus,and eco-environment quality com-prehensive index are calculated,the correlation between urbanization and eco-environmental change is analyzed and the eco-environmental guarantee for China's urbanization in 2030 is forecasted.The major results could be summarized as follows:(1) there is a positive linear relation between urbanization and ecological footprint,negative linear relation between ur-banization and ecological footprint intensity,ecological deficit and surplus and the negative exponential relation between urbanization and eco-environment quality comprehensive index.(2) By 2030,the urbanization level will reach 61.32%,the ecological deficit will increase to 42.2866×108 hm2 and the eco-environment quality comprehensive index will drop to 0.3016 on the condition that the total quantity ecological footprint achieves 55.9348×108 hm2.(3) Under the existing urban development pattern,the ecological overload will be more serious in the next 24 years.Constructing the reasonable industrial structure and establishing the intensive resources utilization system to alleviate the eco-environmental pressure are the tough challenges in China's urbanization process.

Guaranteed cost control with constructing switching law of uncertain discrete-time switched systems

A guaranteed cost control problem for a class of linear discrete-time switched systems with norm-bounded uncertainties is considered in this article. The purpose is to construct a switching rule and design a state feedback control law, such that, the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable and the closed-loop cost function value is not more than a specified upper bound for all admissible uncertainties under the constructed switching rule. A sufficient condition for the existence of guaranteed cost controllers and switching rules is derived based on the Lyapunov theory together with the linear matrix inequality （LMI） approach. Furthermore, a convex optimization problem with LMI constraints is formulated to select the suboptimal guaranteed cost controller. A numerical example demonstrates the validity of the proposed design approach.

Robust reliable guaranteed cost control for uncertain singular systems with time-delay

The robust reliable guaranteed cost control for uncertain singular delay systems with actuator failures and a given quadratic cost function is studied. The system under consideration involves constant time-delay and norm-bounded parameter uncertainties. The purpose is to design state feedback controllers which can tolerate actuator failure, such that the closed-loop system is stable, and the specified cost function has an upper bound for all admissible uncertainties. The sufficient conditions for the solvability of this problem are obtained by a linear matrix inequality （LMI） method. Furthermore, a numerical example is given to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.

Non-fragile guaranteed cost control of discrete-time fuzzy bilinear system

This paper focuses on the problem of non-fragile guaranteed cost control for a class of T-S discrete-time fuzzy bilinear systems（DFBS）.Based on the parallel distributed compensation（PDC） approach,the sufficient conditions are derived such that the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable and the cost function value is no more than a certain upper bound in the presence of the additive controller gain perturbations.The non-fragile guaranteed cost controller can be obtained by solving a set of bilinear matrix inequalities（BMIs）.The Van de Vusse model is utilized to demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Beaconless Position-based Routing with Guaranteed Delivery for Wireless Ad hoc and Sensor Networks

Existing position-based routing algorithms, where packets are forwarded in the geographic direction of the destination, normally require that the forwarding node should know the positions of all neighbors in its transmission range. This information on direct neighbors is gained by observing beacon messages that each node sends out periodically. Several beaconless greedy routing schemes have been proposed recently. However, none of the existing beaconless schemes guarantee the delivery of packets. Moreover, they incur communication overhead by sending excessive control messages or by broadcasting data packets. In this paper, we describe how existing localized position based routing schemes that guarantee delivery can be made beaconless, while preserving the same routes. In our guaranteed delivery beaconless routing scheme, the next hop is selected through the use of control RTS/CTS messages and biased timeouts. In greedy mode, the neighbor closest to destination responds first. In recovery mode, nodes closer to the source will select shorter timeouts, so that other neighbors, overhearing CTS packets, can eliminate their own CTS packets if they realize that their link to the source is not part of Gabriel graph. Nodes also cancel their packets after receiving data message sent by source to the selected neighbor. We analyze the behavior of our scheme on our simulation environment assuming ideal MAC, following GOAFR+ and GFG routing schemes. Our results demonstrate low communication overhead in addition to guaranteed delivery.

Guaranteed Cost Active Fault-tolerant Control of Networked Control System with Packet Dropout and Transmission Delay

The problem of guaranteed cost active fault-tolerant controller （AFTC） design for networked control systems （NCSs） with both packet dropout and transmission delay is studied in this paper. Considering the packet dropout and transmission delay, a piecewise constant controller is adopted. With a guaranteed cost function, optimal controllers whose number is equal to the number of actuators are designed, and the design process is formulated as a convex optimal problem that can be solved by existing software. The control strategy is proposed as follows： when actuator failures appear, the fault detection and isolation unit sends out the information to the controller choosing strategy, and then the optimal stabilizing controller with the smallest guaranteed cost value is chosen. Two illustrative examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. By comparing with the existing methods, it can be seen that our method has a better performance.

Nonfragile guaranteed cost control for Delta operator-formulated uncertain time-delay systems

With consideration that the controller parameters may vary from the designed value when the controller is realized, based on Lyapunov stability theory, a design method of nonfragile guaranteed cost control for a class of Delta operator-formulated uncertain time-delay systems is studied. A sufficient condition for the existence of the nonfragile guaranteed cost controller is given. A numeric example is then given to illustrate the effectiveness and the feasibility of the designed method. The results show that even if the parameters of the designed controller are of variations, the closed-loop system is still asymptotically stable and the super value of the cost function can also be obtained, while the closed-loop system will be unstable if the variations of the controller parameters are not considered when the controller is designed. The nonfragile guaranteed cost controller derived from the traditional shift operator method may cause the closed-loop system to be unstable, while the nonfragile guaranteed cost controller based on Delta operator method can avoid the unstable problem of the closed-loop system.

Supply Chain Finance Decision Analysis with a Partial Credit Guarantee Contract

The innovation of supply chain financial services can alleviate the plight of SMEs financing difficulties. In the aspect of supply chain finance model, there is a credit guarantee financing model, which is different from the simple external financing and internal financing mode of supply chain. Based on this, this paper studies the decision-making of supply chain finance under the partial credit guarantee of core enterprises. First of all, the paper constructs a simple supply chain financing model, consisting of a bank, a core enterprise and a retailer. And then, considering the credit guarantee financing model, calculate the expected profit function. Stackelberg game model is used to give the optimal decision of each subject in decentralized system and the optimal decision in centralized system. Finally, in order to make a more specific and detailed study on the profit and decision-making based on the credit guarantee financing model, the important parameters of the model are analyzed. Through the calculation, it is proved that under the credit guarantee of the core enterprise, the retailer has the optimal ordering strategy, and the core enterprise has the best wholesale price. The influences of the partial credit guarantee coefficient and the retailer’s loan coefficient on the supply chain finance decision-making are also studied.