ROBUSTNESS OF HYBRID NEUTRAL DIFFERENTIAL SYSTEMS PERTURBED BY NOISE

This paper considers a given neutral functional system under regime switching whose solution grows at most polynomially. Can the system tolerate Brownian noise and colour noise to preserve the polynomial growth if the system is subject to another environment noise？ The answer is positive. This paper shows that environmental noise and regime switching work together to make the original neutral differential system whose solution grows at most polynomially become a new neutral functional differential system whose solution will still preserve polynomial growth. This indicates that this neutral functional differential system can tolerate small noise without losing the property of polynomial growth, which implies robustness. This paper also proves that the criterion is suitable to neutral delay system which is as a special case of functional system. Finally, two examples are given to illustrate the main theory.     

MULTIPLICITY-PRESERVING TRIANGULAR SET DECOMPOSITION OF TWO POLYNOMIALS

In this paper, a multiplicity-preserving triangular set decomposition algorithm is proposed for a system of two polynomials, which involves only computing the primitive polynomial remainder sequence of two polynomials once and certain GCD computations. The algorithm decomposes the unmixed variety defined by two polynomials into square free and disjoint （for non-vertical components, see Definition 4） algebraic cycles represented by triangular sets which may have negative multiplicities. Thus, the authors can count the multiplicities of the non-vertical components. In the bivariate case, the amthors give a complete algorithm to decompose tile system into zeros represented by triangular sets with multiplicities. The authors also analyze the complexity of the algorithm in the bivariate ease. The authors implement the algorithm and show the effectiveness of the method with extensive experiments.     

Memetic algorithm for multi-mode resource-constrained project scheduling problems

A memetic algorithm （MA） for a multi-mode resourceconstrained project scheduling problem （MRCPSP） is proposed. We use a new fitness function and two very effective local search procedures in the proposed MA. The fitness function makes use of a mechanism called ＂strategic oscillation＂ to make the search process have a higher probability to visit solutions around a ＂feasible boundary＂. One of the local search procedures aims at improving the lower bound of project makespan to be less than a known upper bound, and another aims at improving a solution of an MRCPSP instance accepting infeasible solutions based on the new fitness function in the search process. A detailed computational experiment is set up using instances from the problem instance library PSPLIB. Computational results show that the proposed MA is very competitive with the state-of-the-art algorithms. The MA obtains improved solutions for one instance of set J30.     

Global minimization of adaptive local image fitting energy for image segmentation

The active contour model based on local image fitting （LIF） energy is an effective method to deal with intensity inhomo- geneities, but it always conflicts with the local minimum problem because LIF has a nonconvex energy function form. At the same time, the parameters of LIF are hard to be chosen for better per- formance. A global minimization of the adaptive LIF energy model is proposed. The regularized length term which constrains the zero level set is introduced to improve the accuracy of the bound- aries, and a global minimization of the active contour model is presented, in addition, based on the statistical information of the intensity histogram, the standard deviation σ with respect to the truncated Gaussian window is automatically computed according to images. Consequently, the proposed method improves the performance and adaptivity to deal with the intensity inhomo- geneities. Experimental results for synthetic and real images show desirable performance and efficiency of the proposed method.     

WHO WON THE 2008 OLYMPICS？ A MULTICRITERIA DECISION OF MEASURING INTANGIBLES

It often happens that at the end of Olympics games the medals won by more than one country are many and close in total number as in the 2008 games where China won 100 medals with many gold ones and the United States won 110 medals but with a lesser number of gold medals. The question is： Although it is often done arbitrarily, is there a way to quantify the values of gold, silver and bronze medals legitimately to resolve this concern？ This short exposition shows that there is by using the author＇s theory for the measurement of intangibles, the Analytic Hierarchy Process.     

Asymptotic and stable proper ties of general stochastic functional differential equations

The asymptotic and stable properties of general stochastic functional differential equations are investigated by the multiple Lyapunov function method, which admits non-negative up-per bounds for the stochastic derivatives of the Lyapunov functions, a theorem for asymptotic properties of the LaSal e-type described by limit sets of the solutions of the equations is obtained. Based on the asymptotic properties to the limit set, a theorem of asymptotic stability of the stochastic functional differential equations is also established, which enables us to construct the Lyapunov functions more easily in application. Particularly, the wel-known classical theorem on stochastic stability is a special case of our result, the operator LV is not required to be negative which is more general to fulfil and the stochastic perturbation plays an important role in it. These show clearly the improvement of the traditional method to find the Lyapunov functions. A numerical simulation example is given to il ustrate the usage of the method.     

Interactive multigraph visualization and exploration with a two-phase strategy

While it is very reasonable to use a multigraph consisting of multiple edges between vertices to represent various relationships, the multigraph has not drawn much attention in research. To visualize such a multigraph, a clear layout representing a global structure is of great importance, and interactive visual analysis which allows the multiple edges to be adjusted in appropriate ways for detailed presentation is also essential. A novel interactive two-phase approach to visualizing and exploring multigraph is proposed. The approach consists of two phases： the first phase improves the previous popular works on force-directed methods to produce a brief drawing for the aggregation graph of the input multigraph, while the second phase proposes two interactive strategies, the magnifier model and the thematic-oriented subgraph model. The former highlights the internal details of an aggregation edge which is selected interactively by user, and draws the details in a magnifying view by cubic Bezier curves; the latter highlights only the thematic subgraph consisting of the selected multiple edges that the user concerns. The efficiency of the proposed approach is demonstrated with a real-world multigraph dataset and how it is used effectively is discussed for various potential applications.     

Adaptive actuator failure compensation and disturbance rejection scheme for spacecraft

An adaptive actuator failure compensation scheme is proposed for attitude tracking control of spacecraft with unknown disturbances and uncertain actuator failures. A new feature of this adaptive control scheme is the adaptation of the failure pattern parameter estimates, as well as the failure signal parameter estimates, for direct adaptive actuator failure compensation. Based on an adaptive backstepping control design, the estimates of the disturbance parameters are used to solve the disturbance rejection problem. The unknown disturbances are compensated completely with the stability of the whole closed-loop system. The scheme is not only able to accommodate uncertain actuator failures, but also robust against unknown external disturbances. Simulation results verify the desired adaptive actuator failure compensation performance.     

FAMILIES OF p-ARY SEQUENCES WITH LOW CORRELATION AND LARGE LINEAR COMPLEXITY

This paper generalizes a method of generating shift sequences in the interleaved construc- tion proposed by Gong. With the new shift sequences, some new families of p-ary sequences with desired properties can be obtained. A lower bound on the number of new families of binary sequences is also established.     

Spectral analysis and stabilization of a coupled wave-ODE system

In this paper, an interconnected wave-ODE system with K-V damping in the wave equation and unknown parameters in the ODE is considered. It is found that the spectrum of the system operator is composed of two parts： Point spectrum and continuous spectrum. The continuous spectrum consists of an isolated point 1 1/d, and there are two branches of the asymptotic eigenvalues： The first branch is accumulating towards 1 -2, and the other branch tends to -∞. It is shown that there is a sequence of generalized eigenfunctions, which forms a Riesz basis for the Hilbert state space. As a consequence, the spectrum-determined growth condition and exponential stability of the system are concluded.     

Spiking neural P systems with anti-spikes and without annihilating priority as number acceptors

Spiking neural P systems with anti-spikes （ASN P systems） are variant forms of spiking neural P systems, which are inspired by inhibitory impulses/spikes or inhibitory synapses. The typical feature of ASN P systems is when a neuron contains both spikes and anti-spikes, spikes and anti-spikes wil immediately annihilate each other in a maximal way. In this paper, a restricted variant of ASN P systems, cal ed ASN P systems without anni-hilating priority, is considered, where the annihilating rule is used as the standard rule, i.e., it is not obligatory to use in the neuron associated with both spikes and anti-spikes. If the annihilating rule is used in a neuron, the annihilation wil consume one time unit. As a result, such systems using two categories of spiking rules （identified by （a, a） and （a,a^-）） can achieve Turing completeness as number accepting devices.     

Optimal binary codes from one-lee weight codes and two-lee weight projective codes over ℤ4

This paper investigates the structures and properties of one-Lee weight codes and two-Lee weight projective codes over Z4.The authors first give the Pless identities on the Lee weight of linear codes over Z4.Then the authors study the necessary conditions for linear codes to have one-Lee weight and two-Lee projective weight respectively,the construction methods of one-Lee weight and two-Lee weight projective codes over Z4 are also given.Finally,the authors recall the weight-preserving Gray map from（Z4n,Lee weight）to（F2（2n）,Hamming weight）,and produce a family of binary optimal oneweight linear codes and a family of optimal binary two-weight projective linear codes,which reach the Plotkin bound and the Griesmer bound.     

Robust bounded control for uncertain flight dynamics using disturbance observer

The robust bounded flight control scheme is developed for the uncertain longitudinal flight dynamics of the fighter with control input saturation invoking the backstepping technique. To enhance the disturbance rejection ability of the robust flight control for fighters, the sliding mode disturbance observer is designed to estimate the compounded disturbance including the unknown external disturbance and the effect of the control input saturation. Based on the backstepping technique and the compounded disturbance estimated output, the robust bounded flight control scheme is proposed for the fighter with the unknown external disturbance and the control input saturation. The closed-loop system stability under the developed robust bounded flight control scheme is rigorously proved using the Lyapunov method and the uniformly asymptotical convergences of all closed-loop signals are guaranteed. Finally, simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed robust bounded flight control scheme for the uncertain longitudinal flight dynamics of the fighter.     

Exact inference for two exponential populations with competing risks data

In a reliability comparative test, the joint censoring model is usually adopted to evaluate the performances of units with the same facility. However, most researchers ignore the pos- sibility that there is more than one factor for the failure when a test unit fails. To solve this problem, we consider a joint Type-II hybrid censoring model for the analysis of exponential competing failure data. Based on the maximum likelihood theory, we compute the maximum likelihood estimators （MLEs） of parameters and then obtain the condition ensuring MLEs existence for every unknown parameter. Then we derive the conditional exact distributions and corresponding moment properties for parameters by the moment generating function （MGF）. A Monte-Carlo simulation is conducted to compare the performances of different ways. And finally, we conduct a numerical example to illustrate the proposed method.     

Optimal redundancy allocation for reliability systems with imperfect switching

The problem of stochastically allocating redundant com- ponents to increase the system lifetime is an important topic of reliability. An optimal redundancy allocation is proposed, which maximizes the expected lifetime of a reliability system with sub- systems consisting of components in parallel. The constraints are minimizing the total resources and the sizes of subsystems. In this system, each switching is independent with each other and works with probability p. Two optimization problems are studied by an incremental algorithm and dynamic programming technique respectively. The incremental algorithm proposed could obtain an approximate optimal solution, and the dynamic programming method could generate the optimal solution,     

Multi-agent consensus with time-varying delays and switching topologies

The consensus problems of multi-agents with time-varying delays and switching topologies are studied. First, assume that an agent receives state information from its neighbors with fixed communication delays and processes its own state information with time-varying self-delay respectively. The state time-delay feedback is introduced into the existing consensus protocol to begenerate an improved protocol. Then a sufficient condition is derived which can make the system with time-varying self-delays achieve the consensus. On this basis, a specific form of consensus equilibrium influenced by the initial states of agents, time-delays and state feedback intensity is figured out. In addition, the multi-agent consensus is considered with time-varying topologies. Finally, simulations are presented to il ustrate the validity of theoretical results.     

Shallow water source localization using a mobile shor t horizontal array

This paper presents an approach to the challenging is- sue of passive source localization in shallow water using a mobile short horizontal linear array with length less than ten meters. The short array can be conveniently placed on autonomous underwa- ter vehicles and deployed for adaptive spatial sampling. However, the use of such small aperture passive sonar systems makes it difficult to acquire sufficient spatial gain for localizing long-range sources. To meet the requirement, a localization approach that employs matched-field based techniques that enable the short ho- rizontal linear array is used to passively localize acoustic sources in shallow water. Furthermore, the broadband processing and inter-position processing provide robustness against ocean en- vironmental mismatch and enhance the stability of the estimation process. The proposed approach＇s ability to localize acoustic sources in shallow water at different signal-to-noise ratios is examined through the synthetic test cases where the sources are located at the endfire and some other bearing of the mobile short horizontal linear array. The presented results demonstrate that the positional parameters of the estimated source build up over time as the array moves at a low speed along a straight line at a constant depth.     

Adaptive link layer security architecture for telecommand communications in space networks

Impressive advances in space technology are enabling complex missions, with potentially significant and long term impacts on human life and activities. In the vision of future space exploration, communication links among planets, satel ites, spacecrafts and crewed vehicles wil be designed according to a new paradigm, known as the disruption tolerant networking. In this scenario, space channel peculiarities impose a massive reengineering of many of the protocols usually adopted in terrestrial networks; among them, security solutions are to be deeply reviewed, and tailored to the specific space requirements. Security is to be provided not only to the payload data exchanged on the network, but also to the telecommands sent to a spacecraft, along possibly differentiated paths. Starting from the secure space telecommand design developed by the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems as a response to agency-based requirements, an adaptive link layer security architecture is proposed to address some of the chal enges for future space networks. Based on the analysis of the communication environment and the error diffusion properties of the authentication algorithms, a suitable mechanism is proposed to classify frame retransmission requests on the basis of the originating event （error or security attack） and reduce the impact of security operations. An adaptive algorithm to optimize the space control protocol, based on estimates of the time varying space channel, is also presented. The simulation results clearly demonstrate that the proposed architecture is feasible and efficient, especially when facing malicious attacks against frame transmission.     

Elastic pointer directory organization for scalable shared memory multiprocessors

In the field of supercomputing, one key issue for scal-able shared-memory multiprocessors is the design of the directory which denotes the sharing state for a cache block. A good direc-tory design intends to achieve three key attributes： reasonable memory overhead, sharer position precision and implementation complexity. However, researchers often face the problem that gain-ing one attribute may result in losing another. The paper proposes an elastic pointer directory （EPD） structure based on the analysis of shared-memory applications, taking the fact that the number of sharers for each directory entry is typical y smal . Analysis re-sults show that for 4 096 nodes, the ratio of memory overhead to the ful-map directory is 2.7%. Theoretical analysis and cycle-accurate execution-driven simulations on a 16 and 64-node cache coherence non uniform memory access （CC-NUMA） multiproces-sor show that the corresponding pointer overflow probability is reduced significantly. The performance is observed to be better than that of a limited pointers directory and almost identical to the ful-map directory, except for the slight implementation complex-ity. Using the directory cache to explore directory access locality is also studied. The experimental result shows that this is a promis-ing approach to be used in the state-of-the-art high performance computing domain.     

Low side lobe pattern synthesis using projection method with genetic algorithm for truncated cone conformal phased arrays

A hybrid method for synthesizing antenna＇s three dimensional （3D） pattern is proposed to obtain the low sidelobe feature of truncated cone conformal phased arrays. In this method, the elements of truncated cone conformal phased arrays are projected to the tangent plane in one generatrix of the truncated cone. Then two dimensional （2D） Chebyshev amplitude distribution optimization is respectively used in two mutual vertical directions of the tangent plane. According to the location of the elements, the excitation current amplitude distribution of each element on the conformal structure is derived reversely, then the excitation current amplitude is further optimized by using the genetic algorithm （GA）. A truncated cone problem with 8x8 elements on it, and a 3D pattern desired side lobe level （SLL） up to 35 dB, is studied. By using the hybrid method, the optimal goal is accomplished with acceptable CPU time, which indicates that this hybrid method for the low sidelobe synthesis is feasible.