Dynamic programming solutions for decentralized state-feedback LQG problems with communication delays

This paper presents explicit solutions for a class of decentralized LQG problems in which players communicate their states with delays. A method for decomposing the Bellman equation into a hierarchy of independent subproblems is introduced. Using this decomposition, all of the gains for the optimal controller are computed from the solution of a single algebraic Riccati equation. © 2012 AACC American Automatic Control Council).

Sustainable development of coastal and marine areas in small island developing states: A basis for integrated coastal management

Agenda 21, the 40-chapter action plan, agreed to by all nations participating in the 1992 Earth Summit represents an ambitious effort to provide policy guidance across the entire spectrum of environment, development, and social issues confronting mankind. In the area of oceans and coasts (Chapter 17 of Agenda 21), the Earth Summit underscored that the management of oceans and coasts should be ‘integrated in content and anticipatory in ambit.’ To assist those responsible for implementing the Earth Summit guidelines on ocean and coastal management, this article first reviews the fundamental shift in paradigm reflected in the Earth Summit agreements as well as the specific recommendations contained in Chapter 17. Next, the article examines the central concept of ‘integrated management,’ noting both its importance and its limits. A general or ‘synthesis’ model of ‘integrated coastal management’ is then presented, addressing such questions as management goals, what is being managed, where, how, and by whom. In a concluding section, methods are proposed whereby the general or ‘synthesis model’ can be tailored to diverse national contexts, involving varying physical, socio-economic, and political conditions.

Building capacity for integrated coastal management in developing countries

The need for building human and institutional capacity has been identified in Agenda 21 of the UNCED conference as well as by a number of international environmental institutions as essential for integrated coastal management (ICM) and sustainable development in developing coastal states. There is a growing need for coastal management practitioners and organizations with expertise in planning and implementation for ICM. The application of strategies for institutional development and building human capacity in coastal management and other fields shows that short-term intensive training efforts and long-term institutional strengthening programs are appropriate to address the issues and needs of ICM. An overview of the experience of the URI/USAID International Coastal Resources Management Program in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Ecuador presents lessons learned for strengthening ICM efforts in developing countries.

A systems view of integrated coastal management

Natural hazards and human activities in the coastal zone are threatening the integrity of the coastal resource system. Conflicts of interest between short term economic benefits and long term ecologic assets should be identified and solved by means of a balanced CZM approach. Systems analysis, supported by mathematical modelling tools are the appropriate instruments to assist the coastal zone manager. The paper presents a general system description of the coastal zone, and focuses on the modelling of the natural subsystem components of this system as a first step towards a model for Integrated Coastal Management (ICM).

A conceptual approach to integrated coastal management

This paper focuses on the concept of Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) putting the theoretical basis of Chapter 17, Agenda 21 (UN Conference on Environment and Development, UNCED), in relation to the theoretical backgrounds on which the development of coastal area programmes have been founded. Reasoning leads us to think that the general system theory is the proper conceptual basis to stimulate ICM and that, in this theoretical context, integration is to be pursued between (i) the claiming of national maritime jurisdictional belts and the protection of the coastal ecosystem, (ii) the coastal system and its external environment, (iii) the decision making systems acting at all levels (international, regional, national and local). Integration, therefore, should be thought of as a political process.

Dynamic Programming for Optimal Control of Set-Up Scheduling with Neural Network Modifications

This paper demonstrates an optimal control solution to change of machine set-up scheduling based on dynamic programming average cost per stage value iteration as set forth by Cararnanis et. al. [2] for the 2D case. The difficulty with the optimal approach lies in the explosive computational growth of the resulting solution. A method of reducing the computational complexity is developed using ideas from biology and neural networks. A real time controller is described that uses a linear-log representation of state space with neural networks employed to fit cost surfaces.

Effects of an integrated medicines management program on medication appropriateness in hospitalized patients

Purpose. The effects of an integrated medicines management (IMM) program on medication appropriateness are discussed.

An innovative approach to integrated medicines management

To determine whether an increased input by clinical pharmacists at each stage of the patient's hospital journey, from admission through discharge, resulted in an enhanced level of patient care as measured by a number of clinical and economic outcomes.

Dense pixel matching between unrectified and distorted images using dynamic programming

In this paper, a novel framework for dense pixel matching based on dynamic programming is introduced. Unlike most techniques proposed in the literature, our approach assumes neither known camera geometry nor the availability of rectified images. Under such conditions, the matching task cannot be reduced to finding correspondences between a pair of scanlines. We propose to extend existing dynamic programming methodologies to a larger dimensional space by using a 3D scoring matrix so that correspondences between a line and a whole image can be calculated. After assessing our framework on a standard evaluation dataset of rectified stereo images, experiments are conducted on unrectified and non-linearly distorted images. Results validate our new approach and reveal the versatility of our algorithm.