Graduation date: 2002

Cycle-to-cycle control is a method for using feedback to improve product quality for processes that are inaccessible within a single processing cycle. This limitation stems from the impossibility or the prohibitively high cost of placing sensors and actuators that could facilitate control during, or within, the process cycle. Our previous work introduced cycle to cycle control for single input-single output systems, and here it is extended to multiple input-multiple output systems. Gain selection, stability, and process noise amplification results are developed and compared with those obtained by previous researchers, showing good agreement. The limitation of imperfect knowledge of the plant model is then imposed. This is consistent with manufacturing environments where the cost and number of tests to determine a valid process model is desired to be minimal. The implications of this limitation are modes of response that are hidden from the controller. Their effects on system performance and stability are discussed. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

The thermal efficiency of a differential stroke engine based on the Atkinson cycle is higher than that of engines with an Otto cycle or Diesel cycle. To fulfill the requirement of the expansion ratio that is greater than the compression ratio in the Atkinson cycle, a mechanism with an inner piston that can provide such a motion control in a differential stroke engine is needed. In order to measure both of the inner piston motion and the cylinder pressure of a differential stroke engine, this thesis is focused on building up a measurement system to inspect the design of a mechanism that achieves the motion needed in a differential stroke engine. To obtain the inner piston motion in a differential stroke engine operated at a speed, the measurement system is equipped with a laser sensor and an angular encoder to identify the difference between the theoretical and experimental results. Also, to inspect the cylinder pressure, a pressure transducer is employed with the test bed so that both of the P-T diagram and P-V diagram can be calculated by using the measured result. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed test bed, real experiments are performed. The developed measurement system has proved to be a useful tool during the developing processes of design and manufacture of differential stroke engines.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Committee on Human Development, Dept. of Psychology, June 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lund University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lund University.

The role of calcium and the existence of calmodulin or other calcium-binding proteins in E. coli has received very little attention previously. In this study, it is demonstrated that growth and cell division of E. coli are very sensitive to a group of calmodulin antagonists. Mutants resistant to calmodulin inhibitors have been isolated. The fee mutants are resistant to 48/80, and are temperature sensitive for growth, involving some purtubation of the cell cycle. wseA mutants are resistant to at least two calmodulin antagonists, 48/80 and W-7, and produced a population of filamentous cells. Intensive studies with the feeBl mutant demonstrated that the mutation is located in the acceptor stem of tRNAleu3 which recognises the rare CUA codon. Other cloning studies have also shown that in all probability feeA is also a leucine tRNA gene, leul, which recognises the abundant codon, CUG. The specific base change in the feeAl mutant, however, remains to be identified. The feeBl mutant was shown to be impaired in the synthesis of B-galactosidase (which has 6 CUA codons in its mRNA), at both the permissive and non-permissive temperatures. It is proposed that the synthesis of other polypeptides requiring the translation of several CUA codons is severely reduced in feeB mutants at the restrictive temperature, and is reduced to a suboptimal level for function at the permissive temperature. It is further proposed that if such a polypeptide(s) regulates the level of a specific calcium-binding protein which is inhibited by 48/80, or in some other way affects the level of free intracellular Ca2+, this could lead to the observed resistance to the drug. In the case of feeA, it is difficult to explain the relationship between the mutation of an abundant tRNA and the observed drug resistance. Possible explanations for the action of a mutant tRNALeu1, including an effect upon the level or function of the rare tRNALeu3 are described in Chapter VIII.

No description available.

No description available.