In this paper we consider the observer design problem for a class of observable linear systems perturbed by nonlinear, time-varying terms. Our design methodology is based on a canonical form, similar to canonical forms used elsewhere in the literature, that allows the nonlinearities to be dominated using high gain. We show that linear state and output transformations to this canonical form exis...

Objectives—We performed a prospective case–cohort study in initially healthy, middle-aged men and women from the MONICA/KORA Augsburg studies conducted between 1984 and 2002 to assess the role of IL-18 in comparison with IL-6 and CRP in the prediction of incident coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods and Results—Concentrations of IL-18 were measured in 382 case subjects with incident CHD and 19...

Bug reports are crucial software artifacts for both software maintenance researchers and practitioners. A typical use of bug reports by researchers is to evaluate automated software maintenance tools: a large repository of reports is used as input for a tool, and metrics are calculated from the tool’s output. But this process is quite different from practitioners, who distinguish between report...

Faced with a chronic shortage of skilled object-oriented programmers, and burdened with an oversupply of procedural programmers leaving Y2K projects, organizations must find ways of retraining existing programmers in the new tricks of object technology. However, traditional methods of training do not address the difficulties of making the mind shift from one paradigm to another. This paper desc...

This research examines the role of a formal project methodology on the performance of a large-scale information system project. Our research builds on the model presented by Banker et al. [1998] and Kirsch [2000] that show a positive relationship between complexity/size and project management practices as it relates to software project performance The proposed model was tested using data collec...

The next ten years will bring major change to the world of banking, securities trading and finance. Influenced by the key converging factors of the Internet, the euro, the Y2K Problem, same-day-settlement, and electronic trading networks, the future will find us in a world with one-third fewer banks and one-third fewer stock exchanges. The vast majority of trades in listed securities will occur...

We present, model, and evaluate a novel clustering algorithm running on top of IEEE 802.15.4 wireless sensor networks operating in slotted, beacon-enabled mode. The Adaptive Low-Energy Clustering (ALEC) algorithm provides randomized sleep and randomized rotation of the cluster-head role so as to maximize the useful lifetime of the network by improving efficiency and balancing the lifetime of in...

This cross age study was designed to investigate how students make predictions in novel situations and the role which self generated analogies play in non-scientific reasoning. Mixed methods were used combining group discussions with questionnaires. In order to meet the needs of the study one age-group from each level of the Greek education system were recruited. Thirteen, sixteen and twelve st...

In this paper, we study control of a chain of integrators under actuator saturation and non-additive disturbances. We shall show that boundedness of the states can be ensured if the disturbances are matched and integral-bounded; misaligned and magnitude-bounded; or a combination of the two, using either a static or a dynamic low-gain state feedback. This result is an extension of our earlier wo...

The Rogers-Ramanujan identities have reached the ripe-old age of one hundred and five and are still the subject of active research. We will discuss their fascinating history, some of the number theory and combinatorics they encapture, and what they have to do with the 1998 Nobel Prize in physics. 1. The Rogers–Ramanujan identities In this lecture you will be introduced to the Rogers–Ramanujan i...