Feedback System

The experimental determination of the main parameters of the feedback system in a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) is discussed. Knowledge of these parameters allows one to determine accurately the region where unstable STM operation could affect measurements, and also to set the optimal working conditions to obtain high-quality images. Each parameter involved in the feedback circuitry is analysed and discussed as are their mutual interactions. Different working conditions are simulated and analysed in order to determine the parameters needed for stable operation.

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Coupled-bunch instabilities excited by RF cavity high order modes or resistive wall impedance can seriously limit the performance of third generation synchrotron light sources like ELETTRA. These instabilities can be cured by the use of active feedback systems. In the digital bunch-by-bunch approach adopted at ELETTRA, the position of the 432 bunches is sampled and corrected employing 500 Msample/s A/D and D/A converters. The correction values are computed by a multi-processor architecture made of state-of-the-art DSPs (Digital Signal Processors). A modular design allows to use commercial- off-the-shelf (COTS) components for the most critical parts of the system.

This article describes the results of a feedback system designed to improve performance for a Swedish traffic police unit and examined whether such a feedback system was beneficial or detrimental to the attitudes of the officers. As in many Western countries, government organizations are being required to demonstrate their effectiveness with quantitative performance measures. An approach called the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES) was used with three groups of Swedish Traffic Police to do this. ProMES is a method for identifying unit's objectives, developing measures for these objectives, and using this information as feedback. ProMES was developed with these police units and feedback from the system was used over a fouryear period. Results indicate that there were substantial increases in performance. There were also decreases in accidents, injuries, and fatalities compared both to baseline and to comparison groups in Sweden. These improvements were made with fewer and fewer police officers each year. ) in that the energy pool concerns the issue of the limited resources individuals have to devote to tasks. Within this framework, motivation is described as the process that determines how this energy is used to satisfy needs.

This study explored the potential uses of feedback systems in the trucking industry as a means of improving safety. Since truck drivers spend a majority of their working time alone and do not interact with peers, it may be possible to use data gathered by in-vehicle technology to provide feedback to drivers about their driving behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine truck driversÕ attitudes toward using in-vehicle technology to provide feedback for enhancing driving safety and to understand the best ways of providing feedback to truck drivers. Nine focus groups were conducted, with a total of 66 participants, to collect qualitative data on attitudes toward technology and feedback. The focus group results were used to develop a questionnaire. Survey data were then collected from 198 long-haul truck drivers to provide quantitative information. Truck drivers reported that they would like to receive more feedback and that positive feedback was preferred over negative feedback. Feedback from truck driversÕ supervisors or managers was more desired than feedback from technology. However, most drivers were willing to accept feedback by technology if the program was designed properly. The truck drivers expressed no strong preference regarding the best form of feedback by technology on driving performance (i.e., modality, frequency and timing). Therefore it is important for a program which uses technology for providing feedback to be adaptable to different driversÕ preferences.

Ensuring meat quality attributes meet the requirements of the diverse range of markets is a critical component for the continued success of the New Zealand and Australian meat industries. Developing cost-effective and flexible technologies to help meet this requirement is a central objective of a current Meat and Wool New Zealand and Meat and Livestock Australia funded programme. This initiative was developed three years ago; it is a collaborative programme that involves meat scientists, electrical engineers and commercial meat processors.

Over the past several years, there has been resurgent interest in regional planning in North America, Europe and Australasia. Spurred by issues such as metropolitan growth, transportation infrastructure, environmental management and economic development, many states and metropolitan regions are undertaking new planning initiatives. These regional efforts have also raised significant question about governance structures, accountability and measures of effectiveness.

Laser forming is a relatively new technique which is beginning to find applications in a number of areas. The technique involves passing a high powered laser beam over the surface of a material to induce thermal deformation. If the technique is to find widespread commercial application then control of the process will be crucial. The case is made for using feedback control as opposed to a knowledge based system to counter the difficulties arising from the range and unpredictability of the process variables. The development of a basic feedback system is described and the results for forming operations with the system implemented are presented. These indicate the success of the system in producing deformations of predetermined magnitude. Recommendations for future developments and refinements are proposed. ,~ 1997

This study extends multisource feedback research by assessing the effects of rater source and raters' cultural value orientations on rating bias (leniency and halo). Using a motivational perspective of performance appraisal, the authors posit that subordinate raters followed by peers will exhibit more rating bias than superiors. More important, given that multisource feedback systems were premised on low power distance and individualistic cultural assumptions, the authors expect raters' power distance and individualism-collectivism orientations to moderate the effects of rater source on rating bias. Hierarchical linear modeling on data collected from 1,447 superiors, peers, and subordinates who provided developmental feedback to 172 military officers show that (a) subordinates exhibit the most rating leniency, followed by peers and superiors; (b) subordinates demonstrate more halo than superiors and peers, whereas superiors and peers do not differ; (c) the effects of power distance on leniency and halo are strongest for subordinates than for peers and superiors; (d) the effects of collectivism on leniency were stronger for subordinates and peers than for superiors; effects on halo were stronger for subordinates than superiors, but these effects did not differ for subordinates and peers. The present findings highlight the role of raters' cultural values in multisource feedback ratings.

In this paper we convert a (linear abstract) initial boundary value problem into an abstract Cauchy problem on some product space and use semigroup methods to solve it. In particular, we apply spectral theory in order to discuss stability under boundary feedback.

Extensive research on the effects of work related stress amongst healthcare professions and the NHS has been undertaken. However, very little is known about the incidence of stress amongst UK radiographers although the few studies which have been conducted indicate that the prevalence and impact of stress on radiographers are considerable.

An effective state is essential to achieving sustainable socioeconomic development. With the advent of globalization, there are significant pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability, and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Government, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) , civil society , international organizations, and donors are among the stakeholders interested in ensuring that funds used achieve desired results. As the demands for greater accountability have increased there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs and projects.

The paper describes the development of an electrically operated pneumatic fast-switching valve for pneumatic position control systems. The valve was designed and fabricated as an on–off valve with 2/2-way function and its characteristics were investigated. The detailed theoretical analysis and preliminary tests were carried out on the manufactured valve and showed that the switching time of the single stage valve

Integrated solid waste management (ISWM) based on the 3R approach (reduce, reuse, and recycle) is aimed at optimizing the management of solid waste from all the waste-generating sectors (municipal, construction and demolition, industrial, urban agriculture, and healthcare facilities) and involving all the stakeholders (waste generators, service providers, regulators, government, and community/neighborhoods). This article discusses the concept of solid waste management (SWM). Initially, SWM was aimed at reducing the risks to public health, and later the environmental aspect also became an important focus of SWM. Recently, another dimension is becoming a critical factor for SWM, i.e., resource conservation and resource recovery. Hence, the 3R approach is becoming a guiding factor for SWM. On the one hand, 3R helps to minimize the amount of waste from generation to disposal, thus managing the waste more effectively and minimizing the public health and environmental risks associated with it. On the other hand, resource recovery is maximized at all stages of SWM. Lately, the new concept of ISWM has been introduced to streamline all the stages of waste management, i.e., source separation, collection and transportation, transfer stations and material recovery, treatment and resource recovery, and final disposal. It was originally targeted at municipal solid waste management (MSWM), but now the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is promoting this concept to cover all waste generating sectors to optimize the level of material and resource recovery for recycling as well as to improve the efficiency of waste management services. The ISWM concept is being transformed into ISWM systems to replace conventional SWM systems. This article further discusses the implementation process for ISWM. The process includes a baseline study on the characterization and quantification of waste for all waste generating sectors within a city, assessment of current waste management systems and practices, target setting for ISWM, identification of issues of concern and suggestions from stakeholders, development of a draft ISWM plan, preparation of an implementation strategy, and establishment of a monitoring and feedback system. UNEP is assisting member countries and their cities to develop an ISWM plan covering all the waste generating sectors within a specific geographical or administrative area such as a city or municipality. This umbrella approach is useful to generate sufficient volumes of recycling materials required to make recycling industries feasible. This is also helpful for efficient reallocation of resources for SWM such as collection vehicles, transfer stations, treatment plants, and disposal sites. UNEP is assisting cities to develop and implement ISWM based on the 3R approach. These experiences could be useful for other countries to develop and implement ISWM to achieve improved public health, better environmental protection, and resource conservation and resource recovery.

Abstmci-Speech coding is a procedure used to represent a digital speech signal by as minimum bits as possible, maintaining at the same time a reasonable level of speech quality. Due to increasing demand for speech communications, speech coding technology has received a lot of researcher's interests. Speech coding is performed using numerous steps or operations specified as an algorithm. This paper presents the Continuously Variable Slope Delta (CVSD) speech coding method which is widely used in Bluetooth applications. It is a nonlinear sampled data feedback system which accepts a band limited analog signal and encodes it into binary form for transmission through a digital channel. At the receiver, the binary signal is decoded into a close approximation of original analog signal. This coding technique is implemented in Matlab Simulink and the simulation results shown coding has good noise immunity. Further, shown in this work is the fact that damaged packets are discarded straight away without having a serious impact on the speech quality making it more suitable for two way audio communications.

How businesses resolve customer complaining behavior effectively has been considered a "defensive marketing" strategy or a "zero-defections" strategy, which diminishes customer dissatisfaction. Handling customer dissatisfaction accompanies Web customer complaint management, which might be the critical issue for online customer service solutions and e-CRM. In this paper, the authors 1) investigate the current sources and causes of online complaints; 2) seek effective ways of handling customer complaints by examining different product types; and 3) provide guidelines for successful e-CRM. One thousand customer complaints from three different publicized ebusiness customer service centers and five hundred complaints from online feedback systems were analyzed in this study. The research findings suggest that ebusinesses should 1) provide excellent online customer services because customer service is the most important factor in online customer satisfaction; 2) respond to customers' requests/complaints fast because the response speed is more important in online customer satisfaction than offline; and 3) employ strategies that are appropriate for the product category in question.

In this paper we describe LiveNet, a flexible wearable platform intended for long-term ambulatory health monitoring with real-time data streaming and context classification. Based on the MIT Wearable Computing Group's distributed mobile system architecture, LiveNet is a stable, accessible system that combines inexpensive, commodity hardware; a flexible sensor/peripheral interconnection bus; and a powerful, light-weight distributed sensing, classification, and inter-process communications software architecture to facilitate the development of distributed real-time multi-modal and context-aware applications. LiveNet is able to continuously monitor a wide range of physiological signals together with the user's activity and context, to develop a personalized, data-rich health profile of a user over time. We demonstrate the power and functionality of this platform by describing a number of health monitoring applications using the LiveNet system in a variety of clinical studies th...

The C57BL/6J mouse has been a useful model of presbycusis, as it displays an accelerated age-related peripheral hearing loss. The medial olivocochlear efferent feedback (MOC) system plays a role in suppressing cochlear outer hair cell (OHC) responses, particularly for background noise. Neurons of the MOC system are located in the superior olivary complex, particularly in the dorsomedial periolivary nucleus (DMPO) and in the ventral nucleus of the trapezoid body (VNTB). We previously discovered that the function of the MOC system declines with age prior to OHC degeneration, as measured by contralateral suppression (CS) of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) in humans and CBA mice. The present study aimed to determine the time course of age changes in MOC function in C57s. DPOAE amplitudes and CS of DPOAEs were collected for C57s from 6 to 40 weeks of age. MOC responses were observed at 6 weeks but were gone at middle (15-30 kHz) and high (30 -45 kHz) frequencies by 8 weeks. Quantitative stereological analyses of Nissl sections revealed smaller neurons in the DMPO and VNTB of young adult C57s compared with CBAs. These findings suggest that reduced neuron size may underlie part of the noteworthy rapid decline of the C57 efferent system. In conclusion, the C57 mouse has MOC function at 6 weeks, but it declines quickly, preceding the progression of peripheral age-related sensitivity deficits and hearing loss in this mouse strain.

An effective state is essential to achieving sustainable socioeconomic development. With the advent of globalization, there are significant pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability, and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Government, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) , civil society , international organizations, and donors are among the stakeholders interested in ensuring that funds used achieve desired results. As the demands for greater accountability have increased there is an attendant need for enhanced results-based monitoring and evaluation of policies, programs and projects. Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is a powerful public management tool that can be used to improve the way governments and organizations achieve results. Just as governments need financial, human resource, and audit systems, governments also need good performance feedback systems.

Outer (OHC) and inner (IHC) hair cells in the organ of Corti of the mammalian cochlea process sound. OHC and their efferent synapse are part of a feedback system assumed to control and modulate information carried by afferent neurons passing from IHC to the brain. Underlying mechanisms are not well understood. This paper discusses recent progress. In vivo and in vitro information is presented on structure, pharmacology, function and localization of the pre- and postsynaptic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) at the efferent synapse. Recent data are given on a presynaptic M3 AChR subtype, probably an autoreceptor involved in transmitter release. Data from our lab on specific binding of [3H]3-quinuclidinyl benzilate ([3H]3-QNB) to non-enzymatically isolated guinea pig OHC reveal a KD several 100 x higher than that for any known muscarinic receptor subtype, including the above-mentioned presynaptic muscarinic AChR of the OHC efferent synapse. The extremely high concentrations of [3H]3-QNB needed for any binding at all to OHC thus rule out presynaptic membrane impurities as the cause of such binding, and also the presence of a typical mAChR subtype on OHC. The number of [3H]3-QNB binding sites (∼ 106/OHC) we found on OHC was of that we found for binding of nicotinic ligands to OHC, further making it questionable that an ACh-binding site on OHC binds [3H]3-QNB. Observations may instead point to the possibility of another binding site, e.g. an (allosteric) site involved with the as yet not understood ‘weak’ muscarinic properties of the OHC AChR. Further new data on the OHC AChR confirm reversible α-bungarotoxin, nicotine and d-tubocurarine binding. [3H]α-Bungarotoxin and [3H]-nicotine binding sites are estimated at ∼6 · 107 sites/OHC. Strychnine, a glycine receptor blocker suggested to interfere with cholinergic sites of the efferent OHC synapse, was found to bind to OHC (cold strychnine for unspecific binding). This binding, not seen in the presence of high [glycine], increased in the presence of depolarizing [K+], while ACh (100 μM) had no significant effect. Results suggest strychnine binding to the outside of OHC, but also to sites accessible only after cell depolarization, possibly to the hyperpolarizing Ca2+-dependent K+ channel. Recent molecular cloning of the OHC AChR indicates a novel α-subunit. An often observed ACh-activated Ca2+-influx close to zero into OHC leaves an unanswered question. OHC also carry P2-purinergic receptors (P2Rs), a more rapid ionotropic P2zR-like subtype and a quantitatively dominating slow metabotropic P2yR subtype coupled to a G protein-phospholipase C cascade and not desensitized. Both contribute to increased cytoplasmic [Ca2+], from respectively external and internal sources. Whether or not such receptors are part of efferent synaptic activity is unknown; their localization on the OHC plasma membrane is so far only indirect and synaptic vesicles of the efferent nerve endings have not yet been analyzed for their ATP content. Localization, function and interaction of [Ca2+] increases triggered by, respectively, ATP and ACh are currently studied in this laboratory.

We consider comparator-based nonlinear feedback systems, and use Tsypkin's method to develop a strategy with which to find systems with low-pass linear part for which the describing function technique erroneously predicts limit cycles. We produce an infinite set of examples of systems with very low-pass linear parts for which the describing function technique predicts spurious limit cycles, and also provide a more practical example in which limit cycles are erroneously predicted.

Landscape sensitivity may be discussed in terms of the response of landscape systems to perturbation on different time and spatial scales. Unstable systems behave chaotically but may show self organised criticality, while stable systems resist change until threshold values of system parameters are exceeded. Spatial sensitivity is expressed in different rates of change, between landscape components or elements. This leads to divergence between landscape elements, and the inheritance of palaeoforms in present-day landscape mosaics. Temporal sensitivity reflects the magnitude and frequency of individual events nested within patterns of longer term environmental changes occurring on different timescales. The resulting landscape complexity reflects the spatio-temporal sensitivity of earth surface systems over ten orders of scale magnitude. The connectivity within landscapes ensures that site instabilities can be propagated within multievent feedback systems. Landscapes record their own histories in sediments and soils, but interpretation of event stratigraphy may not be straightforward, while soil profiles can absorb individual events without erosion. Although we are increasingly able to model the present, environmental management is dominantly about conserving inherited properties of landscapes: forests, soils, floodplains, coastlines. Landscape sensitivity for landscape management must, therefore, address not only active, largely nonlinear, environmental systems, but also the mosaics and palimpsests that are the inheritance from past environments.

ABSTRACT This survey brings together theoretical and empirical questions that have been addressed in the economic literature on eBay, focusing on understanding the behavior of buyers and sellers. We discuss several puzzles of bidder behavior and the explanations that have been put forward by the literature for each. We then discuss structural estimates of bidder behavior and measuring the consumer surplus derived from eBay. We then try to understand why there are so many selling formats being used simultaneously, and then focus on the critical decision variables for a seller in an eBay English auction. Finally we analyze how trustworthy eBay sellers are on average, and whether the feedback system provides strong incentives for good behavior. KeywordseBay-Online auctions-eBay consumer surplus-English ascending auctions

We used a cross-sectional design to assess the availability of essential drugs (EDs) in remote areas in two provinces in Laos, and to explore the views on the performance and sustainability of village revolving drug funds (VRDFs) among the VRDF committees and community members. Four remote districts of Khammouane and Champasak provinces were purposely selected and five villages were randomly selected within each district. Four data collection methods were used: a) Survey of revolving drug funds and private pharmacies, b) Structured interviews with village health volunteers (VHVs), and with 400 randomly selected household heads (20 in each village), c) Checklist to assess the performance of VRDFs, and d) Group discussions with community members and VRDF committees to explore their needs, and the services and management of VRDF. We found that the average availability of 10 selected essential drugs at VRDFs was 37%. For three out of four villages the availability of EDs was higher in the village where a private pharmacy existed than in the village with only VRDF. The management system of VRDFs was weak and characterised by a lack of necessary guidelines and equipment for VHVs, no report and feedback system, no regular monitoring, and not functioning supervision. The VHVs did not have enough knowledge and experience to manage the VRDF in a better way. When a family member was sick, care was sought in the VRDFs in 29% of cases, at private providers (pharmacies, clinics) in 34% and at public health facilities in 30%.

In recent years the application of computer software to the learning process has been acknowledged an indisputably effective tool supporting traditional teaching methods. A particular focus has been put on the application of computational techniques based on speech and language processing to second language learning. At present, a number of commercial self-study programs using speech synthesis and recognition are available. Most of them, however, focus on segmental features only. The paper presents technical and linguistic specifications for the Euronounce project [1] which aims at creating an intelligent tutoring system with multimodal feedback functions for acquiring not only foreign languages' pronunciation but also prosody. The project focuses on German as a target language for native speakers of Polish, Slovak, Czech and Russian and vice versa. The paper outlines the Euronounce feedback system and presents the Pitch Line program which can be implemented in the prosody training module of the Euronounce tutoring system.

Biologically active heart valves (tissue engineered and recellularized tissue-derived heart valves) have the potential to offer enhanced function when compared to current replacement value therapies since they can possibly remodel, and grow to meet the needs of the patient, and not require chronic medication. However, this technology is still in its infancy and many fundamental questions remain as to how these valves will function in vivo. It has been shown that exposing biologically active tissue constructs to pulsatile pressures and flows during in vitro culture produces enhanced extracellular matrix protein expression and cellularity, although the ideal hydrodynamic conditioning regime is as yet unknown. Moreover, in vitro organ-level studies of living heart valves aimed at studying the remodeling processes require environments that can accurately reproduce in vivo hemodynamics under sterile conditions. To this end, we have developed a system to study the effects of subjecting biologically active heart valves to highly controlled pulsatile pressure and flow waveforms under sterile conditions. The device fits inside a standard incubator and utilizes a computer-controlled closed loop feedback system to provide a high degree of control. The mean pressure, mean flow rate, driving frequency, and shape of the pulsatile pressure waveform can be changed automatically in order to simulate both physiologic and nonphysiologic hemodynamic conditions. Extensive testing and evaluation demonstrated the device's ability to subject a biologically active heart valve to highly controlled pulsatile waveforms that can be modulated during the course of sterile incubation.

O rganizational design for the 21st century is done with an eye to performing a set of tasks that support the current strategy but also maintain an ability to explore future options. Such a design involves concerns for efficient exploitation of current capabilities and strategic position, with exploration of future capabilities that may be valuable or positions that can be profitable. Dynamic markets and technologies put a premium on the ability to rapidly switch between exploration and exploitation, or even perform both at once, as in the ambidextrous organization.

Envelope feedback loop stability criteria are derived based on the Lyapunov stability theorem for time-varying systems using the linear matrix inequality technique. Effects of system parameters on stability are investigated. An envelope feedback system is simulated and measured at RF frequencies, and the derived stability boundaries are in good agreement with simulation and measurement results. ). P. Naghshtabrizi is with Ford Motors,

Networked control systems (NCS) are feedback systems closed through data networks. NCS have many advantages compared with traditional systems; however, the network-induced delay and other characteristics of data networks may degrade the performance of feedback ...

In most cases, the cost of a control system increases based on its complexity. Proportional (P) controller is the simplest and most intuitive structure for the implementation of linear control systems. The difficulty to find the stability range of feedback systems with P controllers, using the Routh-Hurwitz criterion, increases with the order of the plant. For high order plants, the stability range cannot be easily obtained from the investigation of the coefficient signs in the first column of the Routh's array. A direct method for the determination of the stability range is presented. The method is easy to understand, to compute, and to offer the students a better comprehension on this subject. A program in MATLAB language, based on the proposed method, design examples, and class assessments, is provided in order to help the pedagogical issues. The method and the program enable the user to specify a decay rate and also extend to proportional-integral (PI), proportional-derivative (PD), and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers.

This is an electronic version of an article published in Visscher, A. J. and Coe, R. (2003) 'School performance feedback systems : conceptualisation, analysis, and reflection.', School effectiveness and school improvement., 14 (3). pp. 321-349. School effectiveness and school improvement is available online at:

It is now well known that employing channel adaptive signaling in wireless communication systems can yield large improvements in almost any performance metric. Unfortunately, many kinds of channel adaptive techniques have been deemed impractical in the past because of the problem of obtaining channel knowledge at the transmitter. The transmitter in many systems (such as those using frequency division duplexing) can not leverage techniques such as training to obtain channel state information. Over the last few years, research has repeatedly shown that allowing the receiver to send a small number of information bits about the channel conditions to the transmitter can allow near optimal channel adaptation. These practical systems, which are commonly referred to as limited or finite-rate feedback systems, supply benefits nearly identical to unrealizable perfect transmitter channel knowledge systems when they are judiciously designed. In this tutorial, we provide a broad look at the field of limited feedback wireless communications. We review work in systems using various combinations of single antenna, multiple antenna, narrowband, broadband, single-user, and multiuser technology. We also provide a synopsis of the role of limited feedback in the standardization of next generation wireless systems.

SRRC is currently developing a RF kicker for the lon- gitudinal feedback system. The kicker is a pill-box cavity with nine pieces of striplines. The resonant frequency is tuned to the designing value 1125 MHz by adjusting the length of the striplines. Excited by a single stripline, cold test results indicate that the full 3 dB bandwidth exceeds 250 MHz and the shunt impedance deduced from bead-pull measurement is about 80

SOLEIL is a third generation light source built in France, near Paris. Its BPM system is important for machine physics studies and for delivering stable beams to the users. A beam stable to 1/10th of the dimensions requires submicron stability in the vertical plane. The monitors anchored either to the girders or to the ground, are fixed points of the vacuum chamber. The electronics design was driven by combined efforts through active communication between accelerator laboratories (SOLEIL at first, later joined by DIAMOND) and Instrumentation Technologies. The result is the "Libera Electron" beam position processor. This paper reports on the performance of this new electronics installed on SOLEIL Storage Ring. It combines a 0.2µm rms resolution and micron level stability for beam delivery with accurate turn-by-turn measurements (3µm resolution at 0.8MHz) for machine commissioning and beam physics studies. It also features position interlock, tune measurement, and post-mortem capabilities. A Slow Orbit Feedback for correcting low frequency drifts (0 to 0.1Hz) is currently in operation. The Fast Orbit Feedback to be implemented soon will suppress higher frequency perturbations up to 100Hz.

Age-related hearing loss – presbycusis – is the most common communication problem and third most prevalent chronic medical disorder of the aged. The CBA and C57BL/6 mouse strains are useful for studying features of presbycusis. The CBA loses its hearing slowly, like most ...

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a process whereby a factdty-resident committee ann;:a!!y a::dits outpatient record keeping and preventive care practices and provides feedback to resident physicians. Design: Pre-and postfeedback audits with interventions and observations repeated over six consecutive academic years. Setting: The adaltprimary care practice of housestaff in a wniversity-affzliated hospital Subjects: All 139physicians in an internal medicine restdency program from 1981-82 through 1986-87, of whom 37 were present for three consecutive years. Intervention: Each year, residents were given individualized, detailed, Olgewritten feedback based an a:tdits of their outpatient records. Measurements and main results: Each resident physician had a minimum of four (mean 5.2) outpatient records per year audited against standards for record-keeping practices and the provision of preventive care. Overall performance scores for each resident audit improved from a mean of 39. 7 + 12.3 (SD) in 1981-82 to a mean of 58.5 + 14.1 (SD) in 1986-87 (possible range 0 to 100, observed range 9. 4 to 86.6). The overall performanee scores of individual residents, who received two cycles of feedback, improved an average of 11.5 (9596 confidence limits 7.6, 15.3), from a mean of 48.4 + 11.4 (SD) during their first

Background. On-line monitoring of chemical/physical signals during haemodialysis (HD) and bio-feedback represents the first step towards a 'physiological' HD system incorporating adaptive and logic controls in order to achieve pre-set treatment targets. Methods. Discussions took place to achieve a consensus on key points relating to on-line monitoring and bio-feedback, focusing on the clinical applications.

In this paper, we address the problem of maintaining a precise frequency in vibrating motors for use as vibrotactile cueing devices. Our solution utilizes a piezoelectric film sensor that measures the motor frequency and uses a feedback-loop circuit to dynamically adjust the motor power to maintain the target frequency. We confirmed the accuracy of the film with a laser sensor and tested the ability of the feedback system to match a target frequency by changing the physical load placed on the motor. A user study showed that subjects perceived a difference in vibration intensity under loaded conditions with and without our compensation system, indicating the usefulness of such a feedback system on influencing perception. The results can help designers create better interfaces when vibrotactile cues are employed.

The problem of controlling the free-length of a helical spring while it is being manufactured on an automatic coiling machine is examined. This is a disturbance rejection problem, and the feedback system is designed to reject disturbances caused by variation of the wire properties and disturbances generated by the coiler. Fixed, self-tuning and fuzzy self-tuning control are used to reduce the variance of the coiled and free length of a helical spring. Friction feedfonvard is proposed to compensate for the varying coefficients of friction of different materials.

This paper proposes new stability analysis and convergence results applied to the Iterative Feedback Tuning (IFT) of a class of Takagi-Sugeno-Kang proportional-integral-fuzzy controllers (PI-FCs). The stability analysis is based on a convenient original formulation of Lyapunov's direct method for discrete-time systems dedicated to discrete-time input affine Single Input-Single Output (SISO) systems. An IFT algorithm which sets the step size to guarantee the convergence is suggested. An inequality-type convergence condition is derived from Popov's hyperstability theory considering the parameter update law as a nonlinear dynamical feedback system in the parameter space and iteration domain. The IFT-based design of a lowcost PI-FC is applied to a case study which deals with the angular position control of a direct current servo system laboratory equipment viewed as a particular case of input affine SISO system. A comparison of the performance of the IFT-based tuned PI-FC and the performance of the PI-FC tuned by an evolutionarybased optimization algorithm shows the performance improvement and advantages of our IFT approach to fuzzy control. Real-time experimental results are included.