Pinned

Award-winning author, Sharon G. Flake, presents a powerful novel about a teen boy and girl, each tackling disabilities.Autumn and Adonis have nothing in common and everything in common. Autumn is outgoing and has lots of friends. Adonis is shy and not so eager to connect with people. But even with their differences, the two have one thing in common--they're each dealing with a handicap. For Autumn, who has a learning disability, reading is a painful struggle that makes it hard to focus in class. But as her school's most aggressive team wrestler, Autumn can take down any problem. Adonis is confined to a wheelchair. He has no legs. He can't walk or dance. But he's a strong reader who loves books. Even so, Adonis has a secret he knows someone like Autumn can heal. In time, Autumn and Adonis are forced to see that our greatest weaknesses can turn into the assets that forever change us and those we love. Told in alternating voices, Pinned explores issues of self-discovery, friendship, and what it means to be different.

Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane couldn't be more different—they come from different backgrounds, different lifestyles, and they have very different values and ways of looking at the world and dealing with people. Yet they both have the drive, determination, and commitment to self-sacrifice necessary to become a champion. In the end, though, only one will stand in the center of the mat with his arms raised in victory. Has each boy prepared enough? Sacrificed enough? Does each want to win enough? All the training, pain, running, and cutting weight ultimately comes down to a few short minutes on a wrestling mat—leaving one boy the victor, the other devastated.

Synchronization, consensus and flocking are ubiquitous requirements in networked systems. Pinning Control of Complex Networked Systems investigates these requirements by using the pinning control strategy, which aims to control the whole dynamical network with huge numbers of nodes by imposing controllers for only a fraction of the nodes. As the direct control of every node in a dynamical network with huge numbers of nodes might be impossible or unnecessary, it’s then very important to use the pinning control strategy for the synchronization of complex dynamical networks. The research on pinning control strategy in consensus and flocking of multi-agent systems can not only help us to better understand the mechanisms of natural collective phenomena, but also benefit applications in mobile sensor/robot networks. This book offers a valuable resource for researchers and engineers working in the fields of control theory and control engineering. Housheng Su is an Associate Professor at the Department of Control Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, China; Xiaofan Wang is a Professor at the Department of Automation, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.

Aeroelastic and structural dynamic phenomena play an important role in many facets of engineering. In particular, an understanding of these disciplines is essential to the design of aircraft and space vehicles. This text provides an introduction to structural dynamics and aeroelasticity, with an emphasis on conventional aircraft. The primary areas considered are structural dynamics, static aeroelasticity, and dynamic aeroelasticity. The structural dynamics material emphasizes vibration, the modal representation, and dynamic response. Aeroelastic phenomena discussed include divergence, aileron reversal, airload redistribution, unsteady aerodynamics, flutter, and elastic tailoring. Both exact and approximate solution methodologies are stressed. More than one hundred illustrations and tables help clarify the text, while upwards of fifty problems enhance student learning.

This book covers the flux pinning mechanisms and properties and the electromagnetic phenomena caused by the flux pinning common for metallic, high-Tc and MgB2 superconductors. The condensation energy interaction known for normal precipitates or grain boundaries and the kinetic energy interaction proposed for artificial Nb pins in Nb-Ti, etc., are introduced for the pinning mechanism. Summation theories to derive the critical current density are discussed in detail. Irreversible magnetization and AC loss caused by the flux pinning are also discussed. The loss originally stems from the ohmic dissipation of normal electrons in the normal core driven by the electric field induced by the flux motion. The influence of the flux pinning on the vortex phase diagram in high Tc superconductors is discussed, and the dependencies of the irreversibility field are also described on other quantities such as anisotropy of superconductor, specimen size and electric field strength. Recent developments of critical current properties in various high-Tc superconductors and MgB2 are introduced. The 3rd edition has been thoroughly updated, with a new chapter on critical state model. The mechanism of irreversible properties is discussed in detail. The author provides calculations of pinning loss by the equation of motion of flux lines in the pinning potential and hysteresis loss. The readers will learn why the resultant loss is of hysteresis type in spite of such mechanism. This book aims for graduate students and researchers studying superconductivity as well as engineers working in electric utility industry.

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute, Kusadasi, Turkey, July 26-August 8, 1998

This book presents two nonlinear control strategies for complex dynamical networks. First, sliding-mode control is used, and then the inverse optimal control approach is employed. For both cases, model-based is considered in Chapter 3 and Chapter 5; then, Chapter 4 and Chapter 6 are based on determining a model for the unknow system using a recurrent neural network, using on-line extended Kalman filtering for learning. The book is organized in four sections. The first one covers mathematical preliminaries, with a brief review for complex networks, and the pinning methodology. Additionally, sliding-mode control and inverse optimal control are introduced. Neural network structures are also discussed along with a description of the high-order ones. The second section presents the analysis and simulation results for sliding-mode control for identical as well as non-identical nodes. The third section describes analysis and simulation results for inverse optimal control considering identical or non-identical nodes. Finally, the last section presents applications of these schemes, using gene regulatory networks and microgrids as examples.

Tubular Structures XV contains the latest scientific and engineering developments in the field of tubular structures, as presented at the 15th International Symposium on Tubular Structures (ISTS15, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 27-29 May 2015). The International Symposium on Tubular Structures (ISTS) has a long-standing reputation for being the principal