Data-based Fault Tolerant Control for Affine Nonlinear Systems Through Particle Swarm Optimized Neural Networks

In this paper, a data-based fault tolerant control(FTC) scheme is investigated for unknown continuous-time(CT)affine nonlinear systems with actuator faults. First, a neural network(NN) identifier based on particle swarm optimization(PSO) is constructed to model the unknown system dynamics. By utilizing the estimated system states, the particle swarm optimized critic neural network(PSOCNN) is employed to solve the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation(HJBE) more efficiently.Then, a data-based FTC scheme, which consists of the NN identifier and the fault compensator, is proposed to achieve actuator fault tolerance. The stability of the closed-loop system under actuator faults is guaranteed by the Lyapunov stability theorem. Finally, simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed method.

A Tailor-made Data Quality Approach for Higher Educational Data

Purpose: This paper relates the definition of data quality procedures for knowledge organizations such as Higher Education Institutions. The main purpose is to present the flexible approach developed for monitoring the data quality of the European Tertiary Education Register(ETER) database, illustrating its functioning and highlighting the main challenges that still have to be faced in this domain.Design/methodology/approach: The proposed data quality methodology is based on two kinds of checks, one to assess the consistency of cross-sectional data and the other to evaluate the stability of multiannual data. This methodology has an operational and empirical orientation. This means that the proposed checks do not assume any theoretical distribution for the determination of the threshold parameters that identify potential outliers, inconsistencies, and errors in the data. Findings: We show that the proposed cross-sectional checks and multiannual checks are helpful to identify outliers, extreme observations and to detect ontological inconsistencies not described in the available meta-data. For this reason, they may be a useful complement to integrate the processing of the available information.Research limitations: The coverage of the study is limited to European Higher Education Institutions. The cross-sectional and multiannual checks are not yet completely integrated.Practical implications: The consideration of the quality of the available data and information is important to enhance data quality-aware empirical investigations, highlighting problems, and areas where to invest for improving the coverage and interoperability of data in future data collection initiatives.Originality/value: The data-driven quality checks proposed in this paper may be useful as a reference for building and monitoring the data quality of new databases or of existing databases available for other countries or systems characterized by high heterogeneity and complexity of the units of analysis without relying on pre-specified theoretical distributions.

贝宁信息自由法:一项案例研究

提高信息透明度是许多政府的第一要务。现在越来越多的国家通过了获取公文的法案。虽然颁布信息自由法并不等同于信息公开透明,但是可能标志着政府提高开放程度的意愿。迄今为止,多数研究都聚焦于已有此类法律的国家,尤其是欧洲和北美国家,而非洲却鲜有研究成果。本文致力于在已有研究基础上介绍贝宁的情况。研究问题集中于信息获取的发展历程,在该国推行更强有力的法律所面临的障碍,以及政府对于透明度的期望。本文所涉数据由访谈获得,访谈对象包括市民社会组织、一名负责公文的贝宁官员,以及一些国家部门的工作人员。研究结果表明了文化背景和体制差异如何对透明度变革造成影响、全球化意识和渠道的重要性,以及贝宁目前的实践如何对公文获取方式产生影响。