Surge is one of the two main dynamic instabilities that can occur in compressor systems (the other is the rotating stall) preventing their satisfactory operation and being potential cause of serious damages. In this paper we consider a Close Coupled Valve (CCV) as actuator, and we suggest the use of a second-order sliding-mode (2-SM) technique for the active control of the surge phenomenon. We ...

Data from two varieties of Bamanankan, or Bambara, a Mande language spoken in Mali and surrounding nations, illustrate differences in permissible syllable shapes between the variants. A comparison of the Classic variety of the language spoken in Ségou and that spoken by a younger cohort of individuals in the Malian capital reveals that the latter variety is synchronically developing complex CCV...

Vildagliptin is a selective and potent dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor that improves glycemic control by inhibiting the degradation of both endogenous glucagon-like peptide-1 and glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide. This article is a comprehensive review of the safety and efficacy of vildagliptin in patients with type 2 diabetes. Clinical evidence has proven that it effectively decreases ...

Color histograms are widely used for content-based image retrieval. Their advantages are efficiency, and insensitivity to small changes in camera viewpoint. However, a histogram is a coarse characterization of an image, and so images with very different appearances can have similar histograms. We describe a technique for comparing images called histogram refinement, which imposes additional con...

In this paper, we build a theoretical framework for quantitatively measuring and graphically representing the degrees of closeness centralization among performers assigned to enact a workflow procedure. The degree of closeness centralization of a workflow-performer reflects how near the performer is to the other performers in enacting a corresponding workflow model designed for workflow-support...