Fractional variational problems depending on indefinite integrals and with delay

The aim of this paper is to exhibit a necessary and sufficient condition of optimality for functionals depending on fractional integrals and derivatives, on indefinite integrals and on presence of time delay. We exemplify with one example, where we nd analytically the minimizer.

Instabilities in threshold-diffusion equations with delay

The introduction of delays into ordinary or partial differential equation models is well known to facilitate the production of rich dynamics ranging from periodic solutions through to spatio-temporal chaos. In this paper we consider a class of scalar partial differential equations with a delayed threshold nonlinearity which admits exact solutions for equilibria, periodic orbits and travelling waves. Importantly we show how the spectra of periodic and travelling wave solutions can be determined in terms of the zeros of a complex analytic function. Using this as a computational tool to determine stability we show that delays can have very different effects on threshold systems with negative as opposed to positive feedback. Direct numerical simulations are used to confirm our bifurcation analysis, and to probe some of the rich behaviour possible for mixed feedback.

Inverted decoupling internal model control for square stable multivariable time delay systems

This paper presents a new tuning methodology of the main controller of an internal model control structure for n×n stable multivariable processes with multiple time delays based on the centralized inverted decoupling structure. Independently of the system size, very simple general expressions for the controller elements are obtained. The realizability conditions are provided and the specification of the closed-loop requirements is explained. A diagonal filter is added to the proposed control structure in order to improve the disturbance rejection without modifying the nominal set-point response. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated through different simulation examples in comparison with other works.

Delay discounting in mild cognitive impairment

Introduction : Patients with mild cognitive impairme nt (MCI) may make suboptimal decisions particularly in complex situations, and thi s could be due to temporal discounting, the tendency to prefer immediate rewards over delayed but larger rewards. The present study proposes to evaluate intertemporal prefere nces in MCI patients as compared to healthy controls. Method : Fifty-five patients with MCI and 57 h ealthy controls underwent neuropsy- chological evaluation and a delay discounting questionnaire, which evaluates three para- meters: hyperbolic discounting ( k ), the percentage of choices for delayed and later rewards (%LL), and response consistency (Acc). Results : No significant differences were found in the delay discounting questionnaire between MC I patients and controls for the three reward sizes considered, small, medium, and large, using both k and %LL parameters. There were also no differences in the response consistency, Acc, between the two groups. Conclusions : Patients with MCI perform similarly to healthy controls in a delay discounting task. Memory deficits do not notably affect intertemporal preferences.

H-infinity control design for time-delay linear systems: a rational transfer function based approach

The aim of this paper is to present new results on H-infinity control synthesis for time-delay linear systems. We extend the use of a finite order LTI system, called comparison system to H-infinity analysis and design. Differently from what can be viewed as a common feature of other control design methods available in the literature to date, the one presented here treats time-delay systems control design with classical numeric routines based on Riccati equations arisen from H-infinity theory. The proposed algorithm is simple, efficient and easy to implement. Some examples illustrating state and output feedback design are solved and discussed in order to put in evidence the most relevant characteristic of the theoretical results. Moreover, a practical application involving a 3-DOF networked control system is presented.

Method of numerical correction of errors occasioned by delay of records during the monitoring of environmental variables of interest for animal production

As condições de ambiente térmico e aéreo, no interior de instalações para animais, alteram-se durante o dia, devido à influência do ambiente externo. Para que análises estatísticas e geoestatísticas sejam representativas, uma grande quantidade de pontos distribuídos espacialmente na área da instalação deve ser monitorada. Este trabalho propõe que a variação no tempo das variáveis ambientais de interesse para a produção animal, monitoradas no interior de instalações para animais, pode ser modelada com precisão a partir de registros discretos no tempo. O objetivo deste trabalho foi desenvolver um método numérico para corrigir as variações temporais dessas variáveis ambientais, transformando os dados para que tais observações independam do tempo gasto durante a aferição. O método proposto aproximou os valores registrados com retardos de tempo aos esperados no exato momento de interesse, caso os dados fossem medidos simultaneamente neste momento em todos os pontos distribuídos espacialmente. O modelo de correção numérica para variáveis ambientais foi validado para o parâmetro ambiental temperatura do ar, sendo que os valores corrigidos pelo método não diferiram pelo teste Tukey, a 5% de probabilidade dos valores reais registrados por meio de dataloggers.

Fluidic flow delay by ionogel passive pumps in microfluidic paper-based analytical devices

[EN] A new concept for fluid flow manipulation in microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (m-PADs) is presented by introducing ionogel materials as passive pumps. m-PADs were fabricated using a new doubleside contact stamping process and ionogels were precisely photopolymerised at the inlet of the m-PADs.The ionogels remain mainly on the surface of the paper and get absorbed in the superficial paper-fibers allowing for the liquid to flow from the ionogel into the paper easily. As a proof of concept the fluid flowand mixing behaviour of two different ionogels mPADs were compared with the non-treated mPADs.It was demonstrated that both ionogels highly affect the fluid flow by delaying the flow due to their different physical and chemical properties and water holding capacities.

Effects of the Use of the Educreations Application in the Reading Comprehension of an Adolescent with Autism and Speech Delay

Comprehension is one of the most challenging aspects of reading for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The present paper describes an action research that intends to investigate the effect of the use of the Educreations application in the reading comprehension of a 19-year-old boy with ASD and speech delay.

Effects of the Use of the Educreations Application in the Reading Comprehension of an Adolescent with Autism and Speech Delay

This paper is the final proposal that accompanies the poster presentation of the action research "Effects of the Use of the Educreations Application in the Reading Comprehension of an Adolescent with Autism and Speech Delay" in the 2015 South Florida Research Education Conference.

Examination of the Effect of Time Delay on Fragmentation

The main objective of blasting is to produce optimum fragmentation for downstream processing. Fragmentation is usually considered optimum when the average fragment size is minimum and the fragmentation distribution as uniform as possible. One of the parameters affecting blasting fragmentation is believed to be time delay between holes of the same row. Although one can find a significant number of studies in the literature, which examine the relationship between time delay and fragmentation, their results have been often controversial. The purpose of this work is to increase the level of understanding of how time delay between holes of the same row affects fragmentation. Two series of experiments were conducted for this purpose. The first series involved tests on small scale grout and granite blocks to determine the moment of burden detachment. The instrumentation used for these experiments consisted mainly of strain gauges and piezoelectric sensors. Some experiments were also recorded with a high speed camera. It was concluded that the time of detachment for this specific setup is between 300 and 600 μs. The second series of experiments involved blasting of a 2 meter high granite bench and its purpose was the determination of the hole-to-hole delay that provides optimum fragmentation. The fragmentation results were assessed with image analysis software. Moreover, vibration was measured close to the blast and the experiments were recorded with high speed cameras. The results suggest that fragmentation was optimum when delays between 4 and 6 ms were used for this specific setup. Also, it was found that the moment at which gases first appear to be venting from the face was consistently around 6 ms after detonation.

STAR Modeling of Pulmonary Tuberculosis Delay-Time in Diagnosis

Understanding what characterizes patients who suffer great delays in diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis is of great importance when establishing screening strategies to better control TB. Greater delays in diagnosis imply a higher chance for susceptible individuals to become infected by a bacilliferous patient. A Structured Additive Regression model is attempted in this study in order to potentially contribute to a better characterization of bacilliferous prevalence in Portugal. The main findings suggest the existence of significant regional differences in Portugal, with the fact of being female and/or alcohol dependent contributing to an increased delay-time in diagnosis, while being dependent on intravenous drugs and/or being diagnosed with HIV are factors that increase the chance of an earlier diagnosis of pulmonary TB. A decrease in 2010 to 77% on treatment success in Portugal underlines the importance of conducting more research aimed at better TB control strategies.

A black foot extract can delay downy mildew progress in grapevine under greenhouse conditions.

2011

Dynamical models in neuroscience: the delay FitzHugh-Nagumo equation

Il primo modello matematico in grado di descrivere il prototipo di un sistema eccitabile assimilabile ad un neurone fu sviluppato da R. FitzHugh e J. Nagumo nel 1961. Tale modello, per quanto schematico, rappresenta un importante punto di partenza per la ricerca nell'ambito neuroscientifico delle dinamiche neuronali, ed è infatti capostipite di una serie di lavori che hanno puntato a migliorare l’accuratezza e la predicibilità dei modelli matematici per le scienze. L’elevato grado di complessità nello studio dei neuroni e delle dinamiche inter-neuronali comporta, tuttavia, che molte delle caratteristiche e delle potenzialità dell’ambito non siano ancora state comprese appieno. In questo lavoro verrà approfondito un modello ispirato al lavoro originale di FitzHugh e Nagumo. Tale modello presenta l’introduzione di un termine di self-coupling con ritardo temporale nel sistema di equazioni differenziali, diventa dunque rappresentativo di modelli di campo medio in grado di descrivere gli stati macroscopici di un ensemble di neuroni. L'introduzione del ritardo è funzionale ad una descrizione più realistica dei sistemi neuronali, e produce una dinamica più ricca e complessa rispetto a quella presente nella versione originale del modello. Sarà mostrata l'esistenza di una soluzione a ciclo limite nel modello che comprende il termine di ritardo temporale, ove tale soluzione non può essere interpretata nell’ambito delle biforcazioni di Hopf. Allo scopo di esplorare alcune delle caratteristiche basilari della modellizzazione del neurone, verrà principalmente utilizzata l’impostazione della teoria dei sistemi dinamici, integrando dove necessario con alcune nozioni provenienti dall’ambito fisiologico. In conclusione sarà riportata una sezione di approfondimento sulla integrazione numerica delle equazioni differenziali con ritardo.

Delays In Receiving Obstetric Care And Poor Maternal Outcomes: Results From A National Multicentre Cross-sectional Study.

The vast majority of maternal deaths in low-and middle-income countries are preventable. Delay in obtaining access to appropriate health care is a fairly common problem which can be improved. The objective of this study was to explore the association between delay in providing obstetric health care and severe maternal morbidity/death. This was a multicentre cross-sectional study, involving 27 referral obstetric facilities in all Brazilian regions between 2009 and 2010. All women admitted to the hospital with a pregnancy-related cause were screened, searching for potentially life-threatening conditions (PLTC), maternal death (MD) and maternal near-miss (MNM) cases, according to the WHO criteria. Data on delays were collected by medical chart review and interview with the medical staff. The prevalence of the three different types of delays was estimated according to the level of care and outcome of the complication. For factors associated with any delay, the PR and 95%CI controlled for cluster design were estimated. A total of 82,144 live births were screened, with 9,555 PLTC, MNM or MD cases prospectively identified. Overall, any type of delay was observed in 53.8% of cases; delay related to user factors was observed in 10.2%, 34.6% of delays were related to health service accessibility and 25.7% were related to quality of medical care. The occurrence of any delay was associated with increasing severity of maternal outcome: 52% in PLTC, 68.4% in MNM and 84.1% in MD. Although this was not a population-based study and the results could not be generalized, there was a very clear and significant association between frequency of delay and severity of outcome, suggesting that timely and proper management are related to survival.

Applying The Maternal Near Miss Approach For The Evaluation Of Quality Of Obstetric Care: A Worked Example From A Multicenter Surveillance Study.

To assess quality of care of women with severe maternal morbidity and to identify associated factors. This is a national multicenter cross-sectional study performing surveillance for severe maternal morbidity, using the World Health Organization criteria. The expected number of maternal deaths was calculated with the maternal severity index (MSI) based on the severity of complication, and the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for each center was estimated. Analyses on the adequacy of care were performed. 17 hospitals were classified as providing adequate and 10 as nonadequate care. Besides almost twofold increase in maternal mortality ratio, the main factors associated with nonadequate performance were geographic difficulty in accessing health services (P < 0.001), delays related to quality of medical care (P = 0.012), absence of blood derivatives (P = 0.013), difficulties of communication between health services (P = 0.004), and any delay during the whole process (P = 0.039). This is an example of how evaluation of the performance of health services is possible, using a benchmarking tool specific to Obstetrics. In this study the MSI was a useful tool for identifying differences in maternal mortality ratios and factors associated with nonadequate performance of care.