The generation of the pitch control signal in a wind turbine (WT) is not straightforward due to the nonlinear dynamics of the system and the coupling of its internal variables; in addition, they are subjected to the uncertainty that comes from the random nature of the wind. Fuzzy logic has proved useful in applications with changing system parameters or where uncertainty is relevant as in this one, but the tuning of the fuzzy logic controller (FLC) parameters is neither straightforward nor (...) an easy task. On the other hand, reinforcement learning (RL) allows systems to automatically learn, and this capability can be exploited to tune the FLC. In this work, a WT pitch control architecture that uses RL to tune the membership functions and scale the output of a fuzzy controller is proposed. The RL strategy calculates the fuzzy controller gains in order to reduce the output power error of the WT according to the wind speed. Different reward mechanisms based on the output power error have been considered. Simulation results with different wind profiles show that this architecture performs better (123.7 W) in terms of power errors than an FLC without RL (133.2 W) or a simpler PID (208.8 W). Even more, it provides a smooth response and outperforms other hybrid controllers such as RL-PID and radial basis function neural network control. (shrink)

Although the pedagogy literature indicates significant relationships between cheating intentions and both personal and situational factors, no published research has examined the joint effect of personal moral philosophy and perceived moral intensity components on students’ cheating intentions. Hence, a structural equation model that relates magnitude of consequences, relativism, and idealism to willingness to cheat, is developed and tested. Using data from undergraduate business students, the empirical results provide insight into these relationships and evidence of mediation for magnitude of consequences on (...) idealism and students’ cheating intentions. Implications for educators are offered. (shrink)

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV) are an essential element of transport in industry 4.0. Although they may seem simple systems in terms of their kinemat.

A tono con esta afortunada relevancia de las mujeres (hay un gran estallido en todo el mundo del arte y la literatura de magníficas calidades, hechos por mujeres), vienen aquí cinco artistas argentinas: Carla Rey, Silvana Blasbalg, Romina Linder, Gabriela Juárez y Ana Lía Werthein, de entre muchas otras artistas plásticas que pertenecen al colectivo Instantes Gráficos, presidido y fundado en la ciudadbonaerense desde 1999 por la también artista Carla Rey.

The current ethical structure for collaborative international health research stems largely from developed countries' standards of proper ethical practices. The result is that ethical committees in developing countries are required to adhere to standards that might impose practices that conflict with local culture and unintended interpretations of ethics, treatments, and research. This paper presents a case example of a joint international research project that successfully established inclusive ethical review processes as well as other groundwork and components necessary for the conduct (...) of human behavior research and research capacity building in the host country. (shrink)

En este artículo se pretende mostrar dos obsesiones que atraviesan los principales escritos autobiográficos de Rousseau. En primer lugar, la aspiración a lo que se podría llamar su unidad externa, es decir, la coherencia entre lo que él cree ser y el juicio de los demás, una vez afirmada su ‘especial’ bondad natural. Para ello se analizarán textos fundamentalmente de las Confessions y los Dialogues. En segundo lugar, su tensión permanente hacia su unidad interna, plasmado en el sentimiento de su (...) propia existencia, que se mostrará de forma destacada en las Rêveries. (shrink)

Partiendo de la idea de que la teoría política debe formular principios normativos que guarden conexión con la facticidad social, se analiza la propuesta de J. Habermas de una sociedad mundial políticamente constituida para mostrar que en dicha propuesta existe un equilibrio entre los aspectos fácticos y normativos, en la medida en que su apreciación de la naturaleza de la realidad social impone restricciones para la formulación de los principios políticos en el plano global. Tal equilibrio se aprecia en la (...) figura propuesta de un sistema multinivel. Como trasfondo de este análisis se aborda críticamente el concepto de sociedad global de N. Luhmann y el modo como enfoques particulares conllevan visiones selectivas de lo que cuenta como problema global. The paper takes the idea that political theory should formulate their normative principles in a close connection to social facts as a starting point to analyze J. Habermas' proposal of a political constitution for the global society. The equilibrium between normative and factual aspects in his proposal appears evident through the restrictions that, in his model, the nature of social reality imposes to the formulation of political principles at the global level. This is particularly evident through the figure of a multilevel system. The paper frames the analysis in a critical discussion of N. Luhmann's concept of a global society and of the way some other approaches involve particular visions of what count as a global problem. (shrink)

The paper takes the idea that political theory should formulate their normative principles in a close connection to social facts as a starting point to analyze J. Habermas’ proposal of a political constitution for the global society. The equilibrium between normative and factual aspects in his proposal appears evident through the restrictions that, in his model, the nature of social reality imposes to the formulation of political principles at the global level. This is particularly evident through the figure of a (...) multilevel system. The paper frames the analysis in a critical discussion of N. Luhmann’s concept of a global society and of the way some other approaches involve particular visions of what count as a global problem. (shrink)

Courteously, Professor Jacquelyn Kegley, in her helpful and balanced book Josiah Royce in Focus, allocates her summary of responses to my 1976 hypothesis.2 My hypothesis stated that Royce’s intellectual development from 1875 to 1916 was aptly imagined as a triple-peaked affair.3 The jagged line of the Sierras’ peaks with its three highest may unduly distract from the emphasis also needed on the continuity and unique identity of the whole course of Royce’s thought and of the entire range of the Sierras (...) in the United States.Kegley draws upon Royce’s own image of new growth with distinct yet consistent additions.4 I now see both of these starting images as helpful yet limited for the whole of... (shrink)

Two essays on utilitarianism, written from opposite points of view, by J. J. C. Smart and Bernard Williams. In the first part of the book Professor Smart advocates a modern and sophisticated version of classical utilitarianism; he tries to formulate a consistent and persuasive elaboration of the doctrine that the rightness and wrongness of actions is determined solely by their consequences, and in particular their consequences for the sum total of human happiness. In Part II Bernard Williams offers a sustained (...) and vigorous critique of utilitarian assumptions, arguments and ideals. He finds inadequate the theory of action implied by utilitarianism, and he argues that utilitarianism fails to engage at a serious level with the real problems of moral and political philosophy, and fails to make sense of notions such as integrity, or even human happiness itself. This book should be of interest to welfare economists, political scientists and decision-theorists. (shrink)

In this article I try to refute the so-called "libertarian" theory of free will, and to examine how our conclusion ought to modify our common attitudes of praise and blame. In attacking the libertarian view, I shall try to show that it cannot be consistently stated. That is, my dscussion will be an "analytic-philosophic" one. I shall neglect what I think is in practice an equally powerful method of attack on the libertarian: a challenge to state his theory in such (...) a way that it will fit in the modern biology and psychology, which are becoming increasingly physicalistic. (shrink)

In twelfth-century Europe schools flourished in many centres. There were schools in monasteries and cathedrals, primarily for the education of monks and priests but often open also to laymen. In Italian towns, especially, there were lay schools teaching law and commercial skills to fee-paying students. In France, especially, also in England and other countries, there were schools for feepaying students of the liberal arts. The traditional list of the liberal arts included seven: grammar, logic and rhetoric (the "trivium"), and arithmetic, (...) geometry, astronomy and music (the "quadrivium"): most of the schools we're talking about taught the trivium, grammar, logic and rhetoric. These three disciplines in one way or other taught language skills; they were sometimes called the artes sermocinales. Students who had completed these "trivial" studies sometimes moved on to theology, or sometimes set up as teachers themselves of grammar, logic and rhetoric. Some students travelled from country to country looking for a good school, and sometimes made their living for a while by teaching before becoming students again. (shrink)

In this essay I propose to offer some observations in due course on how Christian thought and practice in general might profit from a central theme in the theology of Rāmānuja, a Tamil Vaisnava Brahmin whose traditional date straddles the eleventh and twelfth centuries of the Christian era. The central theme I have in mind is expressed in Rāmānuja's view that the ‘world’ is the ‘body’ of Brahman or God. We shall go on to explain what this means, but let (...) me state first that my overall aim is to further inter-religious understanding, especially between Christian and Hindu points of view. In professing a concern for inter-religious dialogue I know that I reflect a longstanding interest of Professor H. D. Lewis. I shall seek to show that the Christian religion can profit both from the content and the method of Rāmānuja's body-of-God theology. To this end this essay is divided into two sections. Section I is the longer: it contains an analysis of what Rāmānuja did mean by his body-of-God theme – doubtless unfamiliar ground for most of the readers of this essay – and serves as a propaedeutic for what follows in section 2. In section 2 I shall attempt to ‘extrapolate’ Rāmānuja's thinking into a Christian context, with dialogue in mind. Section 2 cannot be appreciated for the promise I hope it holds out without the detail of the first section. (shrink)