Statistical learning control of uncertain systems: theory and algorithms

It has recently become clear that many control problems are too difficult to admit analytic solutions. New results have also emerged to show that the computational complexity of some “solved” control problems is prohibitive. Many of these control problems can be reduced to decidability problems or to optimization questions. Even though such questions may be too difficult to answer analytically, or may not be answered exactly given a reasonable amount of computational resources, researchers have shown that we can “approximately” answer these questions “most of the time”, and have “high confidence” in the correctness of the answers.     

Factors Influencing the Outcomes of Collaborative Mathematical Problem Solving: An Introduction

This study is an investigation of the factors that influence the effectiveness of collaboration on open-ended mathematical tasks. Students in Grades 3, 6, and 9 worked in groups of 3 on 2 chance and data tasks-1 related to fair dice and the other related to associations among variables presented on data cards. The groups' outcomes and the types of collaboration observed are investigated in relation to issues raised in the literature. Various phenomena are identified that influence cognitive “lifting,” “hovering,” and “falling,” that is, improvement, no change, and reduction in levels of functioning, respectively. These phenomena include cognitive factors, social or interpersonal factors, and external factors.     

Construction of the value function in a pursuit-evasion game with three pursuers and one evader

A differential pursuit-evasion game is considered with three pursuers and one evader. It is assumed that all objects (players) have simple motions and that the game takes place in a plane. The control vectors satisfy geometrical constraints and the evader has a superiority in control resources. The game time is fixed. The value functional is the distance between the evader and the nearest pursuer at the end of the game. The problem of determining the value function of the game for any possible position is solved.

Three possible cases for the relative arrangement of the players at an arbitrary time are studied: “one-after-one”, “two-after-one”, “three-after-one-in-the-middle” and “three-after-one”. For each of the relative arrangements of the players a guaranteed result function is constructed. In the first three cases the function is expressed analytically. In the fourth case a piecewise-programmed construction is presented with one switchover, on the basis of which the value of the function is determined numerically. The guaranteed result function is shown to be identical with the game value function. When the initial pursuer positions are fixed in an arbitrary manner there are four game domains depending on their relative positions. The boundary between the “three-after-one-in-the-middle” domain and the “three-after-one” domain is found numerically, and the remaining boundaries are interior Nicomedean conchoids, lines and circles. Programs are written that construct singular manifolds and the value function level lines.     

Quasilinear conflict-controlled processes with additional restrictions

A class of conflict-controlled processes [1–3] with additional (“phase” type) restrictions on the state of the evader is considered. A similar unrestricted problem was considered in [4]. Unlike [5, 6] the boundary of the “phase” restrictions is not a “death line” for the evader. Sufficient conditions for the solvability of the pursuit and evasion problems are obtained, which complement a range of well-known results [5–10].^‡     

Bounded realization of asymptotically attainable elements

Problems of the structure of asymptotically attainable elements (AAE) generated by the action of “control functions” that satisfy generally non-convex constraints of a functional character to a high degree of accuracy are considered. No resource type conditions are assumed, which leads to an “unbounded” formulation of the problem concerned with the asymptotic behaviour of attainability domains and their abstract analogues. Necessary and sufficient conditions for an exhaustive realization of the AAE in the class of integrally bounded approximate solutions are established in terms of the generalized problem in the class of finitely additive vector-valued measures.     

Fuzzy logic in measurements

Our main interest in this paper is to translate from “natural language” into “system theoretical language”. This is of course important since a statement in system theory can be analyzed mathematically or computationally. We assume that, in order to obtain a good translation, “system theoretical language” should have great power of expression. Thus we first propose a new frame of system theory, which includes the concepts of “measurement” as well as “state equation”. And we show that a certain statement in usual conversation, i.e., fuzzy modus ponens with the word “very”, can be translated into a statement in the new frame of system theory. Though our result is merely one example of the translation from “natural language” into “system theoretical language”, we believe that our method is fairly general.     

Interleaving two-phased jobs on a single machine

In this paper, we consider a single machine that processes a set of jobs having two (ordered) phases. After processing the first phase of a job, this job must be removed from the machine for some exact amount of time, after which the machine must immediately begin processing its second phase. During this “dead time” between job phases, the machine may be used to process other similar jobs. We first prove that the problem of interleaving these jobs in order to minimize the makespan (or to process as many jobs as possible by a given deadline) is strongly NP-hard. Next, we compare the effectiveness of a mixed-integer programming formulation based on a continuous time domain to that of a discrete-time integer programming model for solving problems having different data characteristics. These comparisons are performed on a set of realistic synthetic problems based on different scenarios arising in radar pulsing applications.     

On the theory of fracture of solids submitted to powerful pulsed electron beams

The irradiation of solids by pulsed (of nanosecond periodicity) relativistic electron beams (also by powerful optic laser beams) led to the discovery of a new type of fracture /1–14/, entirely different from viscous or brittle fracture type produced by mechanical loads /15/. A theory based on the assumption of formation in a solid subjected to such irradiation of clusters of electrons that act as “knives” or “wedges” cutting the solid. Basic model problems of this theory are formulated.     

Gravitational instanton in Hilbert space and the mass of high energy elementary particles

While the theory of relativity was formulated in real spacetime geometry, the exact formulation of quantum mechanics is in a mathematical construction called Hilbert space. For this reason transferring a solution of Einstein’s field equation to a quantum gravity Hilbert space is far of being a trivial problem.

On the other hand ^(∞) spacetime which is assumed to be real is applicable to both, relativity theory and quantum mechanics. Consequently, one may expect that a solution of Einstein’s equation could be interpreted more smoothly at the quantum resolution using the Cantorian ^(∞) theory.

In the present paper we will attempt to implement the above strategy to study the Eguchi–Hanson gravitational instanton solution and its interpretation by ‘t Hooft in the context of quantum gravity Hilbert space as an event and a possible solitonic “extended” particle. Subsequently we do not only reproduce the result of ‘t Hooft but also find the mass of a fundamental “exotic” symplictic-transfinite particle m1.8 MeV as well as the mass M_x and M (Planck) which are believed to determine the GUT and the total unification of all fundamental interactions respectively. This may be seen as a further confirmation to an argument which we put forward in various previous publications in favour of an alternative mass acquisition mechanism based on unification and duality considerations. Thus even in case that we never find the Higgs particle experimentally, the standard model would remain substantially intact as we can appeal to tunnelling and unification arguments to explain the mass. In fact a minority opinion at present is that finding the Higgs particle is not a final conclusive argument since one could ask further how the Higgs particle came to its mass which necessitates a second Higgs field. By contrast the present argument could be viewed as an ultimate theory based on the existence of a “super” force, beyond which nothing else exists.     

Multi-step quasi-Newton methods for optimization

Quasi-Newton methods update, at each iteration, the existing Hessian approximation (or its inverse) by means of data deriving from the step just completed. We show how “multi-step” methods (employing, in addition, data from previous iterations) may be constructed by means of interpolating polynomials, leading to a generalization of the “secant” (or “quasi-Newton”) equation. The issue of positive-definiteness in the Hessian approximation is addressed and shown to depend on a generalized version of the condition which is required to hold in the original “single-step” methods. The results of extensive numerical experimentation indicate strongly that computational advantages can accrue from such an approach (by comparison with “single-step” methods), particularly as the dimension of the problem increases.     

Interaction of coupled modes accompanying non-linear flexural vibrations of a circular ring

An analytic investigation of the problem of the non-linear free flexural vibrations of a circular ring taking account of the coupled modes is presented. A system of amplitude-frequency modulation equations is obtained by the method of many scales. The integral of this system enables one to construct an “amplitude-phase pattern” which characterizes the possible dynamic modes in the case of arbitrary initial conditions. It is shown that an energy threshold exists and, when this is exceeded, the appearance of a travelling wave and pronounced amplitude-frequency modulation are possible. The threshold value of the energy depends on the “detuning” of the frequencies of the coupled modes due to the presence of initial imperfections. A general solution of the problem is obtained in elliptic Jacobi functions.     

Methods of solving spatial problems of the mechanics of a deformable solid in terms of stresses

The formulation in /1/ of a quasistatic problem of the mechanics of a deformable solid in terms of stresses is discussed, including also the variational formulation, which consists of solving six equations in six symmetric stress tensor components when six boundary conditions are satisfied. Methods of successive approximation are proposed for solving this problem and theorems on the convergence of these methods, including a “rapidly converging” method, whose rate of convergence is substantially higher than a geometric progression, are proved.     

Drawing series parallel digraphs symmetrically

In this paper we present algorithms for drawing series parallel digraphs with as much symmetry as possible. The first step is to compute a certain kind of automorphism, called an “upward planar automorphism” for an input series parallel digraph. The next step uses these automorphisms to construct a symmetric drawing of the graph. We present several variations of the second step, with visibility drawings, “bus-orthogonal” drawings, and polyline drawings. All algorithms run in linear time.     

The Dempster–Shafer calculus for statisticians

The Dempster–Shafer (DS) theory of probabilistic reasoning is presented in terms of a semantics whereby every meaningful formal assertion is associated with a triple (p, q, r) where p is the probability “for” the assertion, q is the probability “against” the assertion, and r is the probability of “don’t know”. Arguments are presented for the necessity of “don’t know”. Elements of the calculus are sketched, including the extension of a DS model from a margin to a full state space, and DS combination of independent DS uncertainty assessments on the full space. The methodology is applied to inference and prediction from Poisson counts, including an introduction to the use of join-tree model structure to simplify and shorten computation. The relation of DS theory to statistical significance testing is elaborated, introducing along the way the new concept of “dull” null hypothesis.     

Levy and set theory

Azriel Levy (1934–) did fundamental work in set theory when it was transmuting into a modern, sophisticated field of mathematics, a formative period of over a decade straddling Cohen’s 1963 founding of forcing. The terms “Levy collapse”, “Levy hierarchy”, and “Levy absoluteness” will live on in set theory, and his technique of relative constructibility and connections established between forcing and definability will continue to be basic to the subject. What follows is a detailed account and analysis of Levy’s work and contributions to set theory.     

Implicit algorithms for solving the Cauchy problem for the equations of the dynamics of mechanical systems

It is shown that in the numerical solution of the Cauchy problem for systems of second-order ordinary differential equations, when solved for the highest-order derivative, it is possible to construct simple and economical implicit computational algorithms for step-by-step integration without using laborious iterative procedures based on processes of the Newton-Raphson iterative type. The initial problem must first be transformed to a new argument — the length of its integral curve. Such a transformation is carried out using an equation relating the initial parameter of the problem to the length of the integral curve. The linear acceleration method is used as an example to demonstrate the procedure of constructing an implicit algorithm using simple iterations for the numerical solution of the transformed Cauchy problem. Propositions concerning the computational properties of the iterative process are formulated and proved. Explicit estimates are given for an integration stepsize that guarantees the convergence of the simple iterations. The efficacy of the proposed procedure is demonstrated by the numerical solution of three problems. A comparative analysis is carried out of the numerical solutions obtained with and without parametrization of the initial problems in these three settings. As a qualitative test the problem of the celestial mechanics of the “Pleiades” is considered. The second example is devoted to modelling the non-linear dynamics of an elastic flexible rod fixed at one end as a cantilever and coiled in its initial (static) state into a ring by a bending moment. The third example demonstrates the numerical solution of the problem of the “unfolding” of a mechanical system consisting of three flexible rods with given control input.     

Universal deformation formulas and breaking symmetry

We show that an algebra with a non-nilpotent Lie group of automorphisms or “symmetries” (e.g., smooth functions on a manifold with such a group of diffeomorphisms) may generally be deformed (in the function case, “quantized”) in such a way that only a proper subgroup of the original group acts. This symmetry breaking is a consequence of the existence of certain “universal deformation formulas” which are elements, independent of the original algebra, in the tensor algebra of the enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra of the group.     

A quantum mechanical approach to a fuzzy theory

Recently, we proposed a general measurement theory for classical and quantum systems (i.e., “objective fuzzy measurement theory”). In this paper, we propose “subjective fuzzy measurement theory”, which is characterized as the statistical method of the objective fuzzy measurement theory. Our proposal of course has a lot of advantages. For example, we can directly see “membership functions” (= “fuzzy sets”) in this theory. Therefore, we can propose the objective and the subjective methods of membership functions. As one of the consequences, we assert the objective (i.e., individualistic) aspect of Zadeh's theory. Also, as a quantum application, we clarify Heisenberg's uncertainty relation.     

Categories of projective spaces

Starting with an abelian category , a natural construction produces a category such that, when is an abelian category of vector spaces, is the corresponding category of projective spaces. The process of forming the category destroys abelianess, but not completely, and the precise measure of what remains of it gives the possibility to reconstruct out from , and allows to characterize categories of the form , for an abelian (projective categories). The characterization is given in terms of the notion of “Puppe exact category” and of an appropriate notion of “weak biproducts”. The proof of the characterization theorem relies on the theory of “additive relations”.