Prescribed Performance Tracking Control of Time-Delay Nonlinear Systems With Output Constraints

The problem of prescribed performance tracking control for unknown time-delay nonlinear systems subject to output constraints is dealt with in this paper. In contrast with related works, only the most fundamental requirements, i.e., boundedness and the local Lipschitz condition, are assumed for the allowable time delays. Moreover, we focus on the case where the reference is unknown beforehand, which renders the standard prescribed performance control designs under output constraints infeasible. To conquer these challenges, a novel robust prescribed performance control approach is put forward in this paper.Herein, a reverse tuning function is skillfully constructed and automatically generates a performance envelop for the tracking error. In addition, a unified performance analysis framework based on proof by contradiction and the barrier function is established to reveal the inherent robustness of the control system against the time delays. It turns out that the system output tracks the reference with a preassigned settling time and good accuracy,without constraint violations. A comparative simulation on a two-stage chemical reactor is carried out to illustrate the above theoretical findings.

Perception-Based Assessment of the Factors Causing Delays in Construction Projects

Construction delay is a widespread issue in the construction industry of developing countries, and Nepal is no exception. These delays extend project durations and lead to cost overruns and disputes among stakeholders. To address this problem, this study aimed to identify and analyze the significant factors that contribute to construction project delays in Nepal. To gather data, a well-structured questionnaire was developed and administered to a sample of 100 participants, including contractors, consultants, and civil engineers. Various statistical tests were conducted to ensure the data’s integrity and consistency, such as reliability assessments and factor analyses. The findings of the study highlighted multiple factors contributing to delays in construction projects such as inadequate design, poor communication, and coordination among stakeholders, insufficient experience and planning by contractors, delays in material delivery and testing, labor-related problems including shortages and low qualifications, and external factors like regulatory changes and unforeseen circumstances. By identifying these major causes of construction project delays, this study presented insightful information that can contribute to the analysis and evaluation of project performance.

An Instrument Variable Model of the Impact of Financing Decisions on Performance of Small Businesses in Australia＇s Pre-global Financial Crisis

Firm level empirical research on the impact of financing decisions on small business performance is scarce in the Australian context. This study adopts an instrument variable （IV） approach to analyze the impact of financing decisions, in particular, equity or debt are obtained, on the performance of small businesses by using the panel data from Australian Bureau of Statistics （ABS） Business Longitudinal Database （BLD） 2004-2005, 2005-2006, and 2006-2007. Performance variables, i.e., sales and expenditure, are used as dependent variables. Equity and debt obtained are used as independent variables （or known as treatments）. IV includes size of the business, age of the business, number of locations, and industry division etc.. The results from IV modeling outperformed those obtained from OLS （Ordinary Least Squares）. Findings include： （1） financing has significantly positive impacts on the performance of small businesses in Australia; （2） equity and debt financing are used as alternatives, comparatively, equity financing is preferred; （3） capital purchases are largely funded by debt financing, while non-capital purchases and salary expenses are funded by equity financing; and （4） equity financing is more often used by firms with increasing capital purchases and declining non-capital purchases, while debt financing is used by firms with the opposite trends. The paper concludes with a discussion of the limitations of this research and future research＇s directions.

A Fully Adaptive Active Queue Management Method for Congestion Prevention at the Router Buffer

Active queue management(AQM)methods manage the queued packets at the router buffer,prevent buffer congestion,and stabilize the network performance.The bursty nature of the traffic passing by the network routers and the slake behavior of the existing AQM methods leads to unnecessary packet dropping.This paper proposes a fully adaptive active queue management(AAQM)method to maintain stable network performance,avoid congestion and packet loss,and eliminate unnecessary packet dropping.The proposed AAQM method is based on load and queue length indicators and uses an adaptive mechanism to adjust the dropping probability based on the buffer status.The proposed AAQM method adapts to single and multiclass traffic models.Extensive simulation results over two types of traffic showed that the proposed method achieved the best results compared to the existing methods,including Random Early Detection(RED),BLUE,Effective RED(ERED),Fuzzy RED(FRED),Fuzzy Gentle RED(FGRED),and Fuzzy BLUE(FBLUE).The proposed and compared methods achieved similar results with low or moderate traffic load.However,under high traffic load,the proposed AAQM method achieved the best rate of zero loss,similar to BLUE,compared to 0.01 for RED,0.27 for ERED,0.04 for FRED,0.12 for FGRED,and 0.44 for FBLUE.For throughput,the proposed AAQM method achieved the highest rate of 0.54,surpassing the BLUE method’s throughput of 0.43.For delay,the proposed AAQM method achieved the second-best delay of 28.51,while the BLUE method achieved the best delay of 13.18;however,the BLUE results are insufficient because of the low throughput.Consequently,the proposed AAQM method outperformed the compared methods with its superior throughput and acceptable delay.

Time Delay Characteristic of Industrial Wireless Networks Based on IEEE 802.15.4a

The IEEE 802.15.4a standard provides a framework for low-data-rate communication systems,typically sensor networks.In this paper,we established a realistic environment for the time delay characteristic of industrial network based on IEEE 802.15.4a.Several sets of practical experiments are conducted to study its various features,including the effects of 1） numeral wireless nodes,2） numeral data packets,3） data transmissions with different upper-layer protocols,4） physical distance between nodes,and 5） adding and reducing the number of the wireless nodes.The results show that IEEE 802.15.4a is suitable for some industrial applications that have more relaxed throughput requirements and time-delay.Some issues that could degrade the network performance are also discussed.

Robust H-infinity reliable control for a class of nonlinear uncertain neutral delay systems

This paper focuses on the robust H-infinity reliable control for a class of nonlinear neutral delay systems with uncertainties and actuator failures. We design a state feedback controller in terms of linear matrix inequality(LMI)such that the plant satisfies robust H-infinity performance for all admissible uncertainties, and actuator failures among a prespecified subset of actuators. An example is also given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Effect of car-body lower-center rolling on aerodynamic performance of a high-speed train

The interaction between the car-body vibration and aerodynamic performance of the train becomes more prominent motivated by the vehicle’s light-weighting design.To address this topic,this study firstly analyzes the posture characteristics of the car-body based on the previous full-scale test results.And then the aerodynamic performance under different vibration cases(different car-body roll angles)is studied with an improved delayed detached eddy simulation(IDDES).The results revealed that car-body rolling had a significant impact on the aerodynamic behavior of bogies,which significantly increased the lateral force and yaw moment of a bogie and further may have aggravated the operational instability of the train.The unbalanced distribution of the longitudinal pressure on both sides of the bogie caused by the car-body rolling motion was the primary cause for the bogie yaw moment increase.The tail vortex of the train was also affected by the car-body rolling,resulting in vertical jitter.

Factors Affecting Financial Performance of Tourism Destination Firms Listed on Stock Exchanges in China

Purpose:the aim of this research is to test the effect of financial ratio on the financial performance of tourism destination firms listed on stock exchange in China.The research selected ratios:current ratio(CR)as a dimension of liquidity,total asset turnover ratio(TATR)as a dimension of asset utilization,debt ratio(DE)as a dimension of leverage,natural logarithm of total asset(LNTA)as a dimension of firm size,GDP growth rate as a dimension of economic prosperity,and effective tax rate as a dimension of effective tax.This research will use return on asset(ROA),return on sales(ROS),return on equity(ROE)and sales growth(SG)to determine the financial performance.Since stock exchange founded in China,tourism destination firm developed very fast.However tourism destination listed firms have weakness financial performance.Design/methodology/approach:the research data collected from quarterly financial report,from 2012 Q1 to 2018 Q4.The secondary data has been analyzed by multiple regression.Finding:the result indicate that CR,TATR,GDP growth rate have positive impact on financial performance.While DE has negative impact on financial performance.And LNTA has a mix result with financial performance.Originality/value:This study led to the effect of financial ratios on tourism's financial performance since past researches with this aim were difficult to identify and certain references were not specifically linked to the topic.

Adaptive H_∞ Synchronization of Master-slave Systems with Mixed Time-varying Delays and Nonlinear Perturbations: An LMI Approach

This paper proposes an adaptive synchronization problem for the master and slave structure of linear systems with nonlinear perturbations and mixed time-varying delays comprising different discrete and distributed time delays. Using an appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, some delay-dependent sufficient conditions and an adaptation law including the master-slave parame- ters are established for designing a delayed synchronization law in terms of linear matrix inequalities（LMIs）. The time-varying controller guarantees the H ∞ synchronization of the two coupled master and slave systems regardless of their initial states. Particularly, it is shown that the synchronization speed can be controlled by adjusting the updated gain of the synchronization signal. Two numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.

Evaluation of Intersection Performance Under Atc System in Wuhan

In order to accurately evaluate the implementation of Area Traffic Control (ATC) system, two situations were compared in this paper, i.e., comparison of intersection performance under two different operation conditions before and after the application of ATC system. Based on floating car theorem, this paper investigated the average intersection delay and the average vehicle stop times. During the traffic investigation, ArcGIS, GPS, VC++ and other technologies have been applied. In addition, the evaluation indices of intersection performance average intersection delay and average vehicle stop times (Guiyan Jiang et al., 2006) were selected and compared. The results showed that both average intersection delay and average vehicle stop times have been reduced after the implementation of ATC system. Improvement of traffic condition is more obvious under cooperative control status. This paper provided a reference for testing the performance of intersections under ATC system.

Performance analysis of a class of networked control systems under data rate constraints

In networked control system (NCS) where control loop is closed over communication network, limited data rate may deteriorate control performance even destabilize the control system. In this paper, performance analysis of a typical second-order control system with data rate constraints is conducted, and the concept of critical data rate (CDR) is presented. In order to find the CDR in NCS, an approximate searching method is proposed to guarantee acceptable control performance.

ON PERFORMANCE OF APPLICATION TRIGGERING ARCHITECTURE IN IMS NETWORK

The modeling of Application Triggering Architecture （ATA） in the IP Multimedia Sub- system （IMS） is presented. The session setup delay and system throughput are employed as the measurement to investigate the performance of ATA and the Serving Call Session Control Punction （S-CSCF）. With theoretical analysis and simulation results, we find that, the number of the ASs （Application Servers）, the use of the subsequent Filter Criteria （sFC） and the arrival rate have heavy impact on the session setup delay and the S-CSCF is the major bottleneck in IMS network. The results are useful in constructing IMS network. At last, we propose several possible solutions to reduce the session setup delay and decrease the load of the S-CSCF.

Performance Evaluation of Flows with Diverse Traffic and Transmission Rates in IEEE 802.11 WLAN

IEEE 802.11 WLAN cannot guarantee the QoS of applications, thus admission control has been proposed as an essen-tial solution to enhance the QoS. Packet delay and throughput are commonly employed as assessment criterions to determine whether a new connection can be admitted into the WLAN. Considering the real network condition, the analytical model is presented in this paper, which is aimed to evaluate the packet delay and throughput performance of IEEE 802.11 WLAN in nonsaturated conditions, taking into account diverse transmission rates and diverse traffic flows (i.e. flows with different packet sizes and arrival rates) simultaneously. This model is based on Markov chain and the theoretical predictions are verified by simulation in OPNET 14.5. We also analyze the influences of transmission rate diversity and traffic flow diversity on throughput performance. It is observed that, the presence of even one station with lower transmission rate can cause a considerable degradation in throughput performance of all the stations when they have the same packet size and arrival rate. Higher system throughput can be achieved if lower transmission rate stations transmit packets with smaller size or arrival rate.

ESG performance and cost of debt

We analyze China Securities Index Co.,Ltd.(CSI)environmental,social and governance(ESG)scoring data,which incorporate Chinese characteristics,to assess the impact of ESG performance on corporate debt financing costs.Our findings indicate that better CSI ESG scores are correlated with lower debt financing costs.Additionally,improvements in local environmental execution enhance the effect of CSI ESG scores on debt financing costs.However,this effect diminishes with increased internal control quality and marketization.Governance has the greatest impact on reducing debt financing costs,followed by social and environmental factors.Superior CSI ESG scores reduce corporate debt financing costs by enhancing debt repayment capacity and reducing information asymmetry.Economic consequence analysis confirms that lower financing costs,driven by improved ESG performance,significantly enhance total factor productivity and firm value.CSI ESG scores also significantly impact bank loans but not corporate bond financing.

Dynamic Performance of High Speed Solenoid Valve with Parallel Coils

The methods of improving the dynamic performance of high speed on/off solenoid valve include increasing the magnetic force of armature and the slew rate of coil current, decreasing the mass and stroke of moving parts. The increase of magnetic force usually leads to the decrease of current slew rate, which could increase the delay time of the dynamic response of solenoid valve. Using a high voltage to drive coil can solve this contradiction, but a high driving voltage can also lead to more cost and a decrease of safety and reliability. In this paper, a new scheme of parallel coils is investigated, in which the single coil of solenoid is replaced by parallel coils with same ampere turns. Based on the mathematic model of high speed solenoid valve, the theoretical formula for the delay time of solenoid valve is deduced. Both the theoretical analysis and the dynamic simulation show that the effect of dividing a single coil into N parallel sub-coils is close to that of driving the single coil with N times of the original driving voltage as far as the delay time of solenoid valve is concerned. A specific test bench is designed to measure the dynamic performance of high speed on/off solenoid valve. The experimental results also prove that both the delay time and switching time of the solenoid valves can be decreased greatly by adopting the parallel coil scheme. This research presents a simple and practical method to improve the dynamic performance of high speed on/off solenoid valve.

Improved H_∞ control for networked control systems with network-induced delay and packet dropout

The H_∞ performance analysis and controller design for linear networked control systems(NCSs) are presented.The NCSs are considered a linear continuous system with time-varying interval input delay by assuming that the sensor is time-driven and the logic Zero-order-holder(ZOH) and controller are event-driven.Based on this model,the delay interval is divided into two equal subintervals for H_∞ performance analysis.An improved H_∞ stabilization condition is obtained in linear matrix inequalities(LMIs) framework by adequately considering the information about the bounds of the input delay to construct novel Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals(LKFs).For the purpose of reducing the conservatism of the proposed results,the bounds of the LKFs differential cross terms are properly estimated without introducing any slack matrix variables.Moreover,the H_∞ controller is reasonably designed to guarantee the robust asymptotic stability for the linear NCSs with an H_∞ performance level γ.Numerical simulation examples are included to validate the reduced conservatism and effectiveness of our proposed method.

Effect of seismic retrofit of bridges on transportation networks

The objective of this research is to determine the effect earthquakes have on the performance of transportation network systems.To do this,bridge fragility curves,expressed as a function of peak ground acceleration(PGA)and peak ground velocity(PGV),were developed.Network damage was evaluated under the 1994 Northridge earthquake and scenario earthquakes.A probabilistic model was developed to determine the effect of repair of bridge damage on the improvement of the network performance as days passed after the event.As an example,the system performance degradation measured in terms of an index,'Drivers Delay,'is calculated for the Los Angeles area transportation system,and losses due to Drivers Delay with and without retrofit were estimated.

Cascade control based on minimum sensitivity in outer loop for processes with time delay

A new cascade control program was proposed based on modified internal model control to handle stable,unstable and integrating processes with time delay.The program had totally four controllers of which the secondary loop had two controllers and the primary loop had two controllers.The two secondary loop controllers were designed using IMC technique.They were decoupled completely and could be adjusted independently,which avoided the undesirable influence on performance of the primary controllers.The main controller in the primary loop was devised as a PID using the method of minimum sensitivity,which could guarantee not only the nominal performance but also the robust stability of the system.A setpoint filter was added in the primary loop to improve the tracking performance.All the controllers of the two closed-loops were designed analytically,and could be adjusted and optimized by single parameter respectively.Simulations were carried out on three various processes with time delay,and the results show that the proposed method can provide a better performance of both set-point tracking and disturbance rejection and robustness against parameters perturbation.

A FAST SEAMLESS HANDOVER SCHEME AND ITS CDT OPTIMIZATION FOR PING-PONG TYPE OF MOVEMENT

In mobile IPv6 networks, the ping-pong type of movement brings about frequent handovers and thus increases signaling burden. This letter proposes a fast seamless handover scheme where the access router keeps the mobile node's old reservation till the offline Count Down Timer (CDT) expires in order to reduce handover signaling and delay while the mobile node returns in a very short period of time. Based upon a pois son mobility model, an simple expression for CDT optimization is given out for the scheme to achieve the best cost performance of resource reservation.

Towards SDN Based Queuing Delay Estimation

As one of Qo S(Quality of Service) metrics, delay is critical important to delay sensitive applications, such as interactive video, network game and online surgery. In this paper, we exploit SDN(Software Defined Networking) advantages to solve delay Qo S problem. Our work mainly focuses on SDN based queuing delay estimation with real traffic and end-to-end delay control. First, we propose a queuing estimation model and extended it for end-to-end delay of the whole path. It is proved to be feasible and accurate with experimental results in SDN environment. Second, in order to demonstrate the use of our proposed model, we also implement an end-to-end delay control application in SDN. It fulfills specific delay Qo S requirements by dynamically switching flows to a suitable queue based on estimation results and delay requirements.