This study aimed to examine the correlations between susceptibility to motion sickness and pulmonary function and aerobic capacity. We supposed that people with different susceptibilities to motion sickness differ in their cardiorespiratory responses. Thirteen healthy young men were recruited. They were asked to complete a motion sickness history questionnaire and were divided into susceptible and non-susceptible groups. A rotary chair was rotated for 10 minutes at 20 rpm to induce motion sickness. After the rotation, Graybiel's diagnostic criteria were used to grade the severity of motion sickness. This study also conducted evaluations of cardiorespiratory responses. Participants underwent a pulmonary function test and an exercise test to evaluate aerobic capacity. A generalized estimating equation was used to analyze the correlation between Graybiel's scores and the pulmonary function and exercise test results. The differences between the two groups were analyzed for the physiological parameters measured. The results indicated higher severities of motion sickness in participants with lower values of maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV). Moreover, the group of susceptible participants demonstrated significantly higher Graybiel's scores and stronger cardiorespiratory responses, significant interaction effects were observed in oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production (VCO2), ventilation, and respiratory rate. To summarize, MVV is proposed as a reference index for evaluating susceptibility to motion sickness. Severe motion sickness in susceptible participants is suggested to be related to hyperventilation, which causes excessive VCO2.

This paper proposes a direct adaptive fuzzy H∞control with observer and supervisory controller for uncertain multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) nonlinear dynamical systems. Since time delays and external disturbances probably are sources of unstable for the system, by combining H∞control theory and fuzzy control to make both fuzzy logic approximation error and external disturbance on the track error are attenuated to a prescribed level. Based on Lyaounov stability criterion, the parameters of the adaptive fuzzy controller can be tuned online by control law and adaptive law. Simulation results show that effectiveness and track performance are acceptable.

In this paper, adaptive interval type-2 fuzzy proportional integral (PI) control scheme to attenuate fast and large disturbance for a class of uncertain nonlinear time delay systems is proposed. By incorporating adaptive interval type-2 time delay fuzzy logic controller (AT2DFLC) with PI controller, not only the typical switching law chattering can be significantly attenuated but also the instability resulting from system time delay can be overcome. Based on the Lyapunov theory of stability, the free parameters of the AT2DFLC and PI controller coefficients can be tuned on-line by output feedback adaptive laws derived from Lyapunov function with time delays. Simulation results show that the chattering phenomena can be attenuated and the prescribed tracking performance can be preserved simultaneously by the advocated control scheme.

Augmented marked graphs (AMGs) are extensions of marked graphs that allow resource sharing. It has been shown that AMGs are useful for modeling and analyzing certain types of flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs). To our knowledge, the techniques developed for analyzing AMGs are mostly based upon checking certain Petri net structures such as siphons. This article exploits the integer linear programming approach for the analysis of a subclass of AMGs called decomposable AMGs. We show that reachability between two configurations of a decomposable AMG can be equated with solving an instance of integer linear programming. We further extend our technique to model checking a type of branching time temporal logics. Examples arisen in FMSs are used to demonstrate the application of our technique.

Sequential patterns in customer transactional databases are commonly mined for E-Commerce recommendations. In many practical applications, the absence of certain item-sets and sequences could have important implications. Mining frequent sequences comprising not only the occurrence but also the absence of certain sequences will increase the accuracy of product recommendations. A sequential pattern containing at least one absent itemset is called a negative sequential pattern. In this paper, we formulate the problem of negative sequential pattern mining by introducing practical constraints and propose an algorithm called PNSP for the mining. The discovered patterns can then be more interesting and effective to use. The experimental results show that PNSP may discover negative sequential patterns for practical E-commerce applications.

We present our experience of designing a single-chip controller for an advanced digital still camera from specification all the way to mass production. The process involves collaboration with camera system designer, IP vendors, EDA vendors, silicon wafer foundry, package and testing houses, and camera maker. We also co-work with academic research groups to develop a JPEG codec IP and memory BIST and SOC testing methodology. We cover the problems encountered, our solutions, and lessons learned.

This paper presents a fully integrated 1-V, dual band, fast-locked frequency synthesizer for IEEE 802.11 a/b/g WLAN applications. It can synthesize frequencies in the range of 2.4 - 2.7 GHz with a step of 9.375 MHz, and in the range of 5.14 - 5.70 GHz with a step of 20 MHz. Simulation using 0.18-μm rf and mixed-signal CMOS technology demonstrates a total power consumption of 7-mW. An adaptive bandwidth controller is employed to achieve a fast locking time. The frequency divider combines the conventional and the extended true-single-phase-clock logics. To ensure a proper dividing function, a cascode voltage switch (CVS) topology is used in the preamplifier stage. The reference spurs at an offset of 10-MHz are as low as -80 dBc, and the phase noise at an offset of 1 MHz is lower than -118 dBc for the entire tuning range.