A variety of new mean value theorems are presented along with interesting proofs and generalizations of the standard theorems. Three proofs are given for the ordinary Mean Value Theorem for derivatives, the third of which is interesting in that it is independent of of Rolle's Theorem. The Second Mean Value Theorem for derivatives is generalized, with the use of determinants, to three functions and also generalized in terms of nth order derivatives. Observing that under certain conditions the tangent line to the curve of a differentiable function passes through the initial point, we find a new type of mean value theorem for derivatives. This theorem is extended to two functions and later in the paper an integral analog is given together with integral mean value theorems. Many new mean value theorems are presented in their respective settings including theorems for the total variation of a function, the arc length of the graph of a function, and for vector-valued functions. A mean value theorem in the complex plane is given in which the difference quotient is equal to a linear combination of the values of the derivative. Using a regular derivative, the ordinary Mean Value Theorem for derivatives is extended into Rn, n>1.

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A small group of profit seeking publishers dominates the American textbook market and guides the learning of the majority of our nation’s calculus students. The College Board’s AP Calculus curriculum is a de facto national standard for this gateway course that is critically important to 21st century STEM careers. A multi-representational understanding of calculus is a central pillar of the AP curriculum. This dissertation asks whether this multi-representational vision is manifest in popular calculus textbooks. This dissertation began with a survey of all AP Calculus AB Examination free response items, 2002-2011, and found that students score worse on items characterized by numerical anchors or verbal targets. Based on previously elucidated models, a new cognitive model of five levels and six principles is developed for the purpose of calculus textbook task analysis. This model explicates complexity as a function of representational input and output. Eight popular secondary calculus textbooks were selected for study based on Amazon sales rank data. All verbally anchored mathematical tasks (n=555) from sections of those books concerning the mean value theorem and all AP Calculus AB prompts (n=226) were analyzed for cognitive complexity and representational diversity using the model. The textbook study found that calculus textbooks underrepresented the numerical anchor and verbal target. It found that the textbooks were both explicitly and implicitly less cognitively complex than the AP test. The article suggested that textbook tasks should be less dense, avoid cognitive attenuation, move away from the stand-alone item, juxtapose anchor representations, scaffold student solutions, incorporate previously considered overarching concepts and include more profound follow-up questions. To date there have been no studies of calculus textbook content based on established research on cognitive learning. Given the critical role that their calculus course plays in the lives of hundreds of thousands of students annually, it is incumbent upon the College Board to establish a textbook review process at the very least in the same vain as the teacher syllabus auditing process established in recent years.

Les travaux de cette thèse portent sur l’estimation et la commande décentralisée des systèmes de grande dimension. L’objectif est de développer des capteurs logiciels pouvant produire une estimation fiable des variables nécessaires pour la stabilisation des systèmes non linéaires interconnectés. Une décomposition d’un tel système de grande dimension en un ensemble de n sous-systèmes interconnectés est primordiale. Ensuite, en tenant compte de la nature du sous-système ainsi que les fonctions d’interconnexions, des lois de commande décentralisées basées observateurs ont été synthétisées. Chaque loi de commande est associée à un sous-système qui permet de le stabiliser localement, ainsi la stabilité du système global est assurée. L’existence d’un observateur et d’un contrôleur stabilisant le système dépend de la faisabilité d’un problème d’optimisation LMI. La formulation LMI, basée sur l’approche de Lyapunov, est élaborée par l’utilisation de principe de DMVT sur la fonction d’interconnexion non linéaire supposée bornée et incertaine. Ainsi des conditions de synthèse non restrictives sont obtenues. Des méthodes de synthèse de loi de commande décentralisée basée observateur ont été proposées pour les systèmes non linéaires interconnectés dans le cas continu et dans le cas discret. Des lois de commande robuste H1 décentralisées sont élaborées pour les systèmes non linéaires interconnectés en présence de perturbations et des incertitudes paramétriques. L’efficacité et la validation des approches présentées sont testées sur un modèle de réseaux électriques composé de trois générateurs interconnectés / This thesis focuses on the decentralized estimation and control for large scale systems. The objective is to develop software sensors that can produce a reliable estimate of the variables necessary for the interconnected nonlinear systems stability analysis. A decomposition of a such large system into a set of n interconnected subsystems is paramount for model simplification. Then, taking into account the nature of the subsystem as well as the interconnected functions, observer-based decentralized control laws have been synthesized. Each control law is associated with a subsystem which allows it to be locally stable, thus the stability of the overall system is ensured. The existence of an observer and a controller gain matrix stabilizing the system depends on the feasibility of an LMI optimization problem. The LMI formulation, based on Lyapunov approach, is elaborated by applying the DMVT technique on the nonlinear interconnection function, assumed to be bounded and uncertain. Thus, non-restrictive synthesis conditions are obtained. Observer-based decentralized control schemes have been proposed for nonlinear interconnected systems in the continuous and discrete time. Robust Hinfini decentralized controllers are provided for interconnected nonlinear systems in the presence of perturbations and parametric uncertainties. Effectiveness of the proposed schemes are verified through simulation results on a power systems with interconnected machines

L'objectif de cette thèse est de développer des méthodes de synthèses d'observateurs et des contrôleurs basés sur un observateur pour les systèmes à retard. Différentes classes de systèmes ont été traitées avec différents types de retard. Trois méthodes ont été développées. La première méthode traite des systèmes non linéaires avec des non-linéarités lipschitziennes et consiste à transformer le système d'origine à un système LPV grâce à une reformulation de la propriété classique de Lipschitz. Cette technique est formulée pour les cas continu et discret, respectivement. Nous avons démontré, à travers des exemples numériques, que cette technique offre des conditions de synthèse moins restrictives par rapport aux résultats existants dans la littérature. La seconde méthode est développée pour une classe de systèmes singuliers avec des perturbations. La principale difficulté résidait dans la présence des dérivées des perturbations qui entravent l'analyse de la stabilité et pour laquelle deux approches ont été proposées: une approche $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ en utilisant une fonctionnelle de Lyapunov-Krasovskii spéciale dépendante des perturbations et une approche basée sur l'utilisation d'un critère de performance $\mathcal{W}^{1,2}$. La dernière méthode est basée sur l'utilisation des matrices de pondération libres pour résoudre le problème de contrôle des systèmes non-linéaires à retards inconnus. La solution proposée fournit une condition de synthèse LMI garantissant la stabilisation du système en boucle fermée malgré la présence du retard inconnu, au lieu d'une inégalité matricielle linéaire itérative ILMI trouvée habituellement dans la littérature / The objective of this dissertation is to develop observers and observer-based controllers synthesis methods for time-delay systems. Different classes of systems were treated with different types of delay. Three different methods were developed. The first one treats nonlinear systems with Lipschitz nonlinearities and consists in transforming the original system into an LPV system based on a reformulation of the classical Lipschitz property. This technique was formulated for continuous and discrete cases respectively and it was proven to provide less restrictive synthesis conditions when compared to the existing results in the literature. The second method deals with singular systems with disturbances. The main difficulty lay in the presence of the derivatives of the disturbances which hinder the stability analysis and for which two approaches are proposed:~a $\mathcal{H}_{\infty}$ criterion combined with a special Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional depending on disturbances and a $\mathcal{W}^{1,2}$ criterion based on the use of Sobolev norms. The last method is based on the Free Weighting Matrices technique to solve the observation and control problems of a class of nonlinear systems with unknown delays. The proposed solution provides a sufficient LMI synthesis condition ensuring the asymptotic stabilization of the closed loop system, instead of the iterative LMI condition usually found in the literature