Gallstone and other diseases of the biliary tract affect more than around 20% of the adult population. The complications of gallstones, acute pancreatitis and obstructive jaundice, can be lethal. This is the first book to systematically treat biliary tract and gallbladder modelling with physiological and clinical information in a biomechanical context. The book provides readers with detailed biomechanical modelling procedures for the biliary tract and gallbladder based on physiological information, clinical observations and experimental data and with the results properly interpreted in terms of clinical diagnosis and with biomechanical mechanisms for biliary diseases. The text can be used as a reference book for university undergraduates, postgraduates and professional researchers in applied mathematics, biomechanics, biomechanical engineering and biomedical engineering, as well as related surgeons.

Optimal Design of Distributed Control and Embedded Systems focuses on the design of special control and scheduling algorithms based on system structural properties as well as on analysis of the influence of induced time-delay on systems performances. It treats the optimal design of distributed and embedded control systems (DCESs) with respect to communication and calculation-resource constraints, quantization aspects, and potential time-delays induced by the associated communication and calculation model. Particular emphasis is put on optimal control signal scheduling based on the system state. In order to render this complex optimization problem feasible in real time, a time decomposition is based on periodicity induced by the static scheduling is operated. The authors present a co-design approach which subsumes the synthesis of the optimal control laws and the generation of an optimal schedule of control signals on real-time networks as well as the execution of control tasks on a single processor. The authors also operate a control structure modification or a control switching based on a thorough analysis of the influence of the induced time-delay system influence on stability and system performance in order to optimize DCES performance in case of calculation and communication resource limitations. Although the richness and variety of classes of DCES preclude a completely comprehensive treatment or a single “best� method of approaching them all, this co-design approach has the best chance of rendering this problem feasible and finding the optimal or some sub-optimal solution. The text is rounded out with references to such applications as car suspension and unmanned vehicles. Optimal Design of Distributed Control and Embedded Systems will be of most interest to academic researchers working on the mathematical theory of DCES but the wide range of environments in which they are used also promotes the relevance of the text for control practitioners working in the avionics, automotive, energy-production, space exploration and many other industries.

"Optimal Design of Distributed Control and Embedded Systems "focuses on the design of special control and scheduling algorithms based on system structural properties as well as on analysis of the influence of induced time-delay on systems performances. It treats the optimal design of distributed and embedded control systems (DCESs) with respect to communication and calculation-resource constraints, quantization aspects, and potential time-delays induced by the associated communication and calculation model.

Particular emphasis is put on optimal control signal scheduling based on the system state. In order to render this complex optimization problem feasible in real time, a time decomposition is based on periodicity induced by the static scheduling is operated. The authors present a co-design approach which subsumes the synthesis of the optimal control laws and the generation of an optimal schedule of control signals on real-time networks as well as the execution of control tasks on a single processor. The authors also operate a control structure modification or a control switching based on a thorough analysis of the influence of the induced time-delay system influence on stability and system performance in order to optimize DCES performance in case of calculation and communication resource limitations. Although the richness and variety of classes of DCES preclude a completely comprehensive treatment or a single best method of approaching them all, this co-design approach has the best chance of rendering this problem feasible and finding the optimal or some sub-optimal solution. The text is rounded out with references to such applications as car suspension and unmanned vehicles.

"Optimal Design of Distributed Control and Embedded Systems" will be of most interest to academic researchers working on the mathematical theory of DCES but the wide range of environments in which they are used also promotes the relevance of the text for control practitioners working in the avionics, automotive, energy-production, space exploration and many other industries."

This monograph addresses the stability, robustness and performance analysis of Model Predictive Control (MPC) using absolute stability theory and an advanced robust control theory, called Integral Quadratic Constraints (IQC). The main problems of many existing analysis approaches for MPC systems are from the difficulty of explicitly incorporating the model uncertainties into the MPC formulations and the shortage of the efficient and systematic methods capable of implementing the stability, robustness and performance tests. The objective of this monograph is to cast the MPC system into a standard framework such that the abundant results in the classical nonlinear control and robust control theory can be utilized. This is realized by exploring the properties inherent in the MPC controller and representing the MPC controller by an operator with these properties in analysis. Within this general framework, two approaches are proposed: one is based on the IQC theory, the other is based on the absolute stability analysis of Lur'e system.

This book discusses phase selective and morphology controllable processing of titania (TiO2) nanocrystals and their enhanced functionality via doping for photo-catalytic, luminescent, and magnetic applications. Materials synthesis has been achieved by two "extreme" techniques: low temperature soft-chemical processing (typically <250 DegreesC) and high temperature RF (Radio frequency) thermal plasma processing (typically above 10,000 DegreesC). It is demonstrated that anatase, rutile and even the brookite polymorph of TiO2 can all be selectively synthesised in a phase-pure form via solution processing, sometimes even under near atmospheric conditions. Processing factors that govern phase structure and crystal morphology of the products are discussed. Detailed characterisations are given to the brookite phase with regard to its physio-chemical properties and its irreversible phase transition to rutile. It is also shown that quasi-equiaxed rutile nanocrystals, a morphological form rather difficult to make, can be obtained from Degussa P25 via a hydrothermal crystallisation/phase transformation process.

In this brief the authors establish a new frequency-sweeping framework to solve the complete stability problem for time-delay systems with commensurate delays. The text describes an analytic curve perspective which allows a deeper understanding of spectral properties focusing on the asymptotic behavior of the characteristic roots located on the imaginary axis as well as on properties invariant with respect to the delay parameters. This asymptotic behavior is shown to be related by another novel concept, the dual Puiseux series which helps make frequency-sweeping curves useful in the study of general time-delay systems. The comparison of Puiseux and dual Puiseux series leads to three important results: an explicit function of the number of unstable roots simplifying analysis and design of time-delay systems so that to some degree they may be dealt with as finite-dimensional systems; categorization of all time-delay systems into three types according to their ultimate stability properties; and a simple frequency-sweeping criterion allowing asymptotic behavior analysis of critical imaginary roots for all positive critical delays by observation. Academic researchers and graduate students interested in time-delay systems and practitioners working in a variety of fields - engineering, economics and the life sciences involving transfer of materials, energy or information which are inherently non-instantaneous, will find the results presented here useful in tackling some of the complicated problems posed by delays.