Optimal Communication

"The quantum leap beyond positive thinking, Optimal Thinking offers a whole new way of looking at life, business, and relationships. This prescriptive self-improvement book is filled with superlative information for every type of reader."

Optimal and Robust Scheduling for Networked Control Systems tackles the problem of integrating system components—controllers, sensors, and actuators—in a networked control system. It is common practice in industry to solve such problems heuristically, because the few theoretical results available are not comprehensive and cannot be readily applied by practitioners. This book offers a solution to the deterministic scheduling problem that is based on rigorous control theoretical tools but also addresses practical implementation issues. Helping to bridge the gap between control theory and computer science, it suggests that the consideration of communication constraints at the design stage will significantly improve the performance of the control system. Technical Results, Design Techniques, and Practical Applications The book brings together well-known measures for robust performance as well as fast stochastic algorithms to assist designers in selecting the best network configuration and guaranteeing the speed of offline optimization. The authors propose a unifying framework for modelling NCSs with time-triggered communication and present technical results. They also introduce design techniques, including for the codesign of a controller and communication sequence and for the robust design of a communication sequence for a given controller. Case studies explore the use of the FlexRay TDMA and time-triggered control area network (CAN) protocols in an automotive control system. Practical Solutions to Your Time-Triggered Communication Problems This unique book develops ready-to-use engineering tools for large-scale control system integration with a focus on robustness and performance. It emphasizes techniques that are directly applicable to time-triggered communication problems in the automotive industry and in avionics, robotics, and automated manufacturing.

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 book came at the perfect time… The information is very helpful, and it’s just nice to know so many others have similar challenges.” Trenda Ray, PhD, RN, NEA-BC Chief Nursing Officer Associate Vice Chancellor for Patient Care Services Clinical Assistant Professor, UAMS College of Nursing “Another edition of renewable energy reminding us to be our best! This book takes us on a journey through stress, burnout, and post-traumatic stress and sparks innovative solutions.” Kristin Christophersen, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, CENP, CPHQ, CLSSGB, FACHE Healthcare Executive and Owner, VitalNow LLC “Beyond Burnout is timely, relevant, and critical to understanding the stressors that plague healthcare today.” Cindi M. Warburton, DNP, FNP Executive Director, Northwest Organization of Nurse Leaders Healthcare professions typically attract those who give deeply of themselves to make a positive difference in others’ lives. But that giving can come at a significant price: burnout. While the healthcare vocation offers myriad options in work settings and career paths, it can also involve tremendous amounts of stress because of long shifts, mental and physical exhaustion, patient challenges, and regulatory changes. When stress and fatigue overtake a healthcare provider’s ability to adequately cope with physically and emotionally taxing circumstances, burnout is often the result, potentially leading to compromises in quality and patient safety. Since the publication of the first edition of this book, the COVID-19 pandemic has only added dramatically to nurses’ and other healthcare providers’ stress, exacerbating existing problems with strained resources and labor shortages. In Beyond Burnout, Second Edition, author Suzanne Waddill-Goad adds new strategies and up-to-date, data-driven information for building hardiness and resilience so that nurses and other healthcare workers can successfully navigate their increasingly challenging environment while reducing stress and preventing burnout. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: The Effects of Inherent Stress Chapter 2: A Slice of Reality Chapter 3: Nursing and Healthcare Professions: Art vs. Science Chapter 4: The Impact of Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare Chapter 5: Professional Integrity Chapter 6: The Internal Strain of Silos Chapter 7: The Social Milieu (Culture) Chapter 8: The Clout of Allies Chapter 9: Planning Intentional Quality and Safety Chapter 10: Beyond Burnout: Promoting Optimal Health and Well-Being Chapter 11: Burnout and the Nursing or Healthcare Student Chapter 12: Looking Toward the Future

Publisher Description

This volume deals with the human desire to live the good life, defined as seeking that which "is good, optimal, or ultimately desirable." While there may be different ways of achieving this goal, the pathways are similar in some ways. In exploring the ways in which these paths cross, Mortensen asserts that an ability to sustain optimal human relations--that is, healthy communication, interpersonal compatibility, and prosocial influence--is a standard against which the good life can be measured. Optimal Human Relations explores the favorable conditions for human beings to live the best possible way of life imaginable; it both argues the case for and documents recent advances in the study of social influences on everyday life. Social influences help to develop an expansive sense of intrinsic motivation in daily encounters with others. While optimal relations are not easily achieved or maintained, it is through healthy relationships that one may pursue pleasure and happiness--even meaning, importance, and significance with valued companions. The cultivation of physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual health through these relations generates an enhanced sense of well-being, growth, and maturity. Mature individuals are more likely to maintain optimal relations by counting daily blessings more than lamenting routine burdens. This inspirational conception of "the good life" invites productive inquiry into the conditions responsible for the pursuit of optimal conditions, fulfilled expectations, and a rich, vital, way of life. It is through this lens that Mortensen measures the good life, pointing to these aspects of human communication as a litmus test of the relative importance of individualistic and collective orientations. Along the way, the reader discovers who and what we are in relation to the quality of the world in which we reside alongside those who journey with us.

This book mainly investigates the cooperative optimal control of hybrid energy system, it presents security control, multi-objective optimization, distributed optimization and distributed control approaches for tackling with security, economic and stability problem of the hybrid energy system. It aims to solve some challenging problems including security issue, economic cost or benefits from both power generation side and load demand side, and coordination among different power generators. The methods proposed in this book is novel and attractive, it consists of the hierarchical optimal control strategy for the security issue, multi-objective optimization for both economic and emission issue, and distributed optimal control for coordination among power generators. Readers can learn novel methods or technique for tackling with the security issue, multiple-objective problem, and distributed coordination problem. It also may inspire readers to improve some drawbacks of existing alternatives. Some fundamental knowledge prepared to read this book includes basic principles of the multi-agents system, robust optimization, Pareto-dominance optimization, and background of electrical engineering and renewable energy.

This book investigates the ways in which social norms and bounded rationality shape different contracts in the real world. It brings into focus existing research into optimal contracts, draws important lessons from that research, and outlines prospects for future investigation. Bounded rationality has acknowledged effects on the power of incentive provisions, such as deviations from sufficient statistic theorem, the power of optimal incentives, and the effects of optimal contracts in multicultural environments. The introduction of social norms to bounded rationality opens up new avenues of investigation into contracts and mechanism design. This book makes an important contribution to the study of bounded rationality by pulling together many separate strands of research in the area of mechanism design, and providing detailed analysis of the impact of societal values on contracts.