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Disturbance is common in natural ecosystems, but increasingly defines them. While there are many descriptions for the dynamics of an ecosystem's response to disturbance, there are few descriptions for the dynamics of the disturbance itself. I describe a novel application of a model based on the production of amplitude envelopes in acoustics and electronic music synthesis, with varying parameters Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release (ADSR). I show that varying the parameters of the ADSR model is sufficient to produce and vary the qualitative disturbance regimes described by previous authors, and is capable of producing dynamics not previously considered. I tested the utility of the ADSR model by applying it to a logistic growth model. I found that manipulating the attack and release parameters of the ADSR model changes the population dynamics estimated by these models. This implies that responses to disturbance are determined not only by the resilience and resistance of the ecological system, but also the dynamics of the disturbance itself. My hope is that the ADSR model will prove useful to researchers in either describing disturbances in long‐term ecological data, or in producing disturbances for simulations or experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human‐caused global change produces biotic and abiotic conditions that increase the uncertainty and risk of failure of restoration efforts. A focus of managing for resiliency, that is, the ability of the system to respond to disturbance, has the potential to reduce this uncertainty and risk. However, identifying what drives resiliency might depend on how one measures it. An example of a system where identifying how the drivers of different aspects of resiliency can inform restoration under climate change is the northern coast of California, where kelp experienced a decline in coverage of over 95% due to the combination of an intense marine heat wave and the functional extinction of the primary predator of the kelp‐grazing purple sea urchin, the sunflower sea star. Although restoration efforts focused on urchin removal and kelp reintroduction in this system are ongoing, the question of how to increase the resiliency of this system to future marine heat waves remains open. In this paper, we introduce a dynamical model that describes a tritrophic food chain of kelp, purple urchins, and a purple urchin predator such as the sunflower sea star. We run a global sensitivity analysis of three different resiliency metrics (recovery likelihood, recovery rate, and resistance to disturbance) of the kelp forest to identify their ecological drivers. We find that each metric depends the most on a unique set of drivers: Recovery likelihood depends the most on live and drift kelp production, recovery rate depends the most on urchin production and feedbacks that determine urchin grazing on live kelp, and resistance depends the most on feedbacks that determine predator consumption of urchins. Therefore, an understanding of the potential role of predator reintroduction or recovery in kelp systems relies on a comprehensive approach to measuring resiliency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agroforestry is a widely proposed solution for climate change adaptation and resilience in agriculture due to the multiplicity of socio-ecological benefits. However, agroforestry as a practice exists on a dynamic scale of ecological complexity, which may cause different management regimes to respond distinctively to climate change. Due to the limited literature on climate change impacts on agroforestry in the temperate region, this paper reviews disturbance regimes and the observed and predicted responses of forests and farms using the US Northeast as an example. We also reference scholarship from tropical regions, where agroforestry adoption/study is more advanced, to enhance understanding of the growing field of agroforestry in temperate systems. We view transitions to and from agroforestry from a complex systems lens by identifying the disturbance, complexity, resilience, and adaptive capacity of systems to drive and respond to rapid change via human management, focusing on invasive species, phenological changes and range shifts in plants, pests, and pathogens of agroforestry systems. Management considerations including structural diversity, species selection and the intentional/non-intentional incorporation of introduced species can promote community ecological resilience to build systems that have adaptive capacity to withstand changing conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately predicting train running times (TRTs) during disturbances is crucial for effective timetable rescheduling. Previous studies on train running prediction have overlooked the detailed textual description of disturbance events. To improve the prediction accuracy, this paper proposes a hybrid neural network model consisting of a transformer encoder and a fully connected neural network (FCNN) to predict the TRTs under disturbances, which is called transformer-FCNN here. In the proposed transformer-FCNN architecture, a transformer encoder is used to process textual disturbance events, while FCNN is used to deal with static features. The performance of transformer-FCNN is validated using data from the Wuhan-Guangzhou and Xiamen-Shenzhen high-speed railways. The results show that the models considering the disturbance category can substantially improve the predictive performance compared with those that do not. Further, based on the same algorithm, models which use textual disturbance event records are shown to reduce the mean absolute error and the root mean squared error, respectively, by over 10.8% and 8.3% on average compared with those that only consider the disturbance category. The proposed model can support potential strategies of train operation control, by providing accurate prediction results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper devotes to the design of all feasible output feedback controllers for the robust output tracking of Boolean control networks with disturbances (DBCNs). First, the output feedback–based robust control invariant set (RCIS) is defined, and a calculation method to find all output feedback–based RCISs of a given set is derived via the truth matrix technique. Second, a class of complete family of robust reachable sets (CFRRSs) is developed; the solvability of robust output tracking problem by output feedback control is verified. Furthermore, a constructive algorithm of all feasible output feedback controllers is presented. Finally, the study of a network about Escherichia coli lactose operon shows the effectiveness of the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a LuGre model–based robust adaptive control (RAC) approach is presented for a pump-controlled hydraulic actuator. We first decompose the LuGre friction model into its steady-state model and a lumped dynamic part applying the mean value theorem, which are compensated by a feedforward term and a robust adaptive term, respectively. The robust adaptive term also plays a part in mismatched disturbance attenuation. In addition, parametric uncertainties and matched disturbances are handled by σ -modified adaptation laws and a robust control law, respectively. The stability of the closed-loop system is proved via the Lyapunov analysis. The efficacy and robustness of the proposed approach are validated by comparative experiments. Compared with common adaptive friction compensation methods, the proposed method has a simpler structure, less computational burden, better control performance, and stronger robustness. Moreover, since the available information is separated from the LuGre model and acts as a model-based compensation term, the design conservativeness of RAC is effectively reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Anthropocene, intensifying ecological disturbances pose significant challenges to our predictive capabilities for ecosystem responses. Macroecology—which focuses on emergent statistical patterns in ecological systems—unveils consistent regularities in the organization of biodiversity and ecosystems. These regularities appear in terms of abundance, body size, geographical range, species interaction networks, or the flux of matter and energy. This paper argues for moving beyond qualitative resilience metaphors, such as the 'ball and cup', towards a more quantitative macroecological framework. We suggest a conceptual and theoretical basis for ecological resilience that integrates macroecology with a stochastic diffusion approximation constrained by principles of biological symmetry. This approach provides an alternative novel framework for studying ecological resilience in the Anthropocene. We demonstrate how our framework can effectively quantify the impacts of major disturbances and their extensive ecological ramifications. We further show how biological scaling insights can help quantify the consequences of major disturbances, emphasizing their cascading ecological impacts. The nature of these impacts prompts a re-evaluation of our understanding of resilience. Emphasis on regularities of ecological assemblages can help illuminate resilience dynamics and offer a novel basis to predict and manage the impacts of disturbance in the Anthropocene more efficiently. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ecological novelty and planetary stewardship: biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper investigates the tracking control problem of connected vehicle system suffer from disturbance and communication load. A new dynamic triggered‐based tracking approach was presented. First, an extended state observer is designed to estimate the equivalent disturbance, and the convergence of observed error is proved. Then, a tracking approach based on backstepping control is proposed. Furthermore, in order to reduce the consumption of network resources, a novel tracking method on dynamic event‐triggering strategy is developed, and all signals in connected vehicle system are ultimately uniformly bounded without Zeno behavior is verified. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is testified by simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates an H ∞ cruise control strategy for uncertain high-speed trains (HSTs) with two time-varying delays. The multibody model of the cascading car is established, taking into account the influence of the flexible coupler and the basic resistance (rolling mechanical resistance + aerodynamic resistance) in the actual operation process. There are many uncertainties in the actual operation of the train, such as disturbances caused by gusts and track irregularities and time-varying delays caused by flexible couplers. Based on the above factors, this paper fully considers and supplements the multibody model. A cruise control strategy based on Lyapunov stability theory and linear matrix inequality (LMI) is proposed. The state feedback control rate with input short time delay is designed, and a cruise control method with double time-varying delays is proposed by sampling data. Constructed Lyapunov–Krasovskii function (LKF) with time-delay parameters for time-delay systems to fully introduce the information of time delays. In view of the disturbance effect, the sufficient condition to suppress the disturbance is given. The proposed H ∞ cruise control method controls the fluctuating speed and displacement of the train to quickly converge to the steady state. The HST at equilibrium tracks the desired velocity and ensures a stable relative displacement. The specified H ∞ interference attenuation level is achieved to ensure safe and comfortable operation. Two numerical simulations are carried out to illustrate the effect of state time-varying delay and disturbance on train stationarity, which proves the superiority of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the integration of electronic devices and intelligent electronic devices into the power grid, power quality (PQ) has consistently remained a significant concern for system operators and experts. Maintaining high standards of power quality is crucial to preventing malfunctions and faults in electric assets and connected loads. Recently, PQ studies have shifted their focus to a specific frequency range, previously not considered problematic—the supraharmonic 2 kHz to 150 kHz range. This range is not populated by easily recognizable harmonic components of the 50 Hz to 60 Hz mains fundamental, but by a combination of intentional emissions, switching non-linearities and byproducts, and various types of resonances. This paper aims to provide a detailed analysis of the impact of supraharmonics (SHs) on power network operation and assets, focusing on the most relevant documented negative effects, namely power loss and the heating of grid elements, aging of dielectric materials, failure of medium voltage (MV) cable terminations, and interference with equipment and power line communication (PLC) technology in particular. Under some shareable assumptions, limits are derived and compared to existing ones for harmonic phenomena, providing a clear identification of the primary issues associated with supraharmonics and suggestions for the standardization process. Strictly related is the problem of grid monitoring and assessment of SH distortion, discussing the suitability of normative requirements for instrument transformers (ITs) with a specific focus on their accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The floodplains of the Southeast's stream network once hosted immense brakes of rivercane (Arundinaria gigantea), a disturbance-dependent native bamboo with both cultural and ecological significance. Ecologically, rivercane alters its local environments, boosts biodiversity and biomass, and protects streambanks from erosion and storm damage. Indigenous peoples of the Southeast have used rivercane for millennia, for material and cultural purposes, and formerly maintained its health and extent through harvesting and fire. Settler-colonial incursions largely destroyed rivercane, through the more intense disturbance of different land management practices, and brakes now exist mainly in relatively small areas. While numerous rivercane restoration projects are in process throughout its natural range, no comprehensive inventory of living rivercane exists. In this paper, we present both human context and the results of LiDAR analysis that identifies canebrakes based on the physical characteristics of the plant and brake. In our study area on the Little Tennessee River in western North Carolina, we found rivercane on about 9 percent of the floodplain area, based on QL1 LiDAR data available from the state of North Carolina. The technique can be applied in any part of rivercane's range, and the resulting inventory used in support of both cultural and ecological goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The permanent magnet electrodynamic suspension (PMEDS) owns the promising application prospect, due to its simple structure, low cost and reliable load capacity. However, the underdamping of the PMEDS system is still a challenge in engineering applications of transportation. This paper proposes a passive damping method and its implementation structure to improve the underdamping characteristics. This method utilizes the inherent magnetic leakage of on-board magnets technically. The principle of passive damping and its implementation structure is introduced in detail. And the kinetic models of ordinary and improved structure are established based on the topology graph. Besides, the magnetic field and the electromagnetic force involved in the kinetic models are analyzed, and the numerical analysis method of the drag force is verified by the high-speed test rig. Furthermore, the performance of passive damping is verified by finite element method (FEM) and the time-domain response analysis. The results show that the improved damping structure can effectively suppress vibration and improve the dynamic stability of the PMEDS system. It is beneficial to the engineering application of the PMEDS in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout South-East Asia, droughts associated with ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) events have resulted in large-scale fires affecting millions of hectares of rain forest. However, the long-term impacts of these fires on the rain forest faunas are only poorly understood. Our aim was to study the recovery of rain forest butterfly assemblages following the 1997–98 ENSO event, which resulted in the largest-scale fires in the recorded history of the region. A 420-km2 area in the Balikpapan-Samarinda region of East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. Four landscapes were assessed after the 1997–98 ENSO event, including one landscape that was assessed prior to the event. Comparisons of species richness, species composition and guild abundance were made among landscapes and years. The relative importance of environment, geographical distance between sampling sites, and time between sampling years was quantified during the succession phase using a variance partitioning technique. The fires dramatically altered the butterfly community and resulted in a major decline in observed species richness within the landscape surveyed prior to the ENSO event. Following fires in 1998, butterfly assemblages in all landscapes were dominated by large-winged generalist species. During 1999 and 2000, assemblages became increasingly dominated by smaller specialist species. Species endemic to Borneo that were present before fires were absent in 2000, despite intensive sampling over enhanced spatial and environmental scales. Community similarity was significantly dependent upon local environmental variables, geographical distance between sampling sites, and time between sampling years. Together, these explained over 52% of the observed variation in samples. The importance of geographical distance between sampling sites indicates that recovery was dependent upon colonization from proximate habitats. Despite an apparent trend of return to pre-ENSO community structure, low species richness throughout the survey area indicates that full recovery had not taken place by 2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The 2019 wildfires raised global concern about wildfires, their causes and effects. • Fire has distinct roles in fire-prone and fire-sensitive ecosystems. • In fire-prone ecosystems, we need to overcome taboos regarding the use of fire. • In fire-sensitive systems, strategies to reduce fires are urgent. • Climate-change and increasing human impact change fire regimes. In the recent past, wildfires have received much attention both by science and by the media, especially in relation to deforestation, degradation and climate change and when affecting fire-sensitive ecosystems. On the other hand, fire is a natural process in many ecosystems, in particular those to be considered fire-dependent; here, maintaining natural fire regimes is important to maintain biodiversity and ecosystem services. In many regions of the world we are still in the need for a better understanding of fire effects on plant populations, communities and ecosystems. For instance, responses of individuals and populations to heat and fire can differ among distinct fire-prone ecosystems, and community level responses often vary depending on historical disturbance regimes or the fire regime as such. Effects on ecosystem processes, e.g. on carbon cycles, can vary greatly in scale and are even more difficult to predict. This adds up to uncertainties regarding appropriate fire management strategies, both in fire-prone and fire-sensitive ecosystems. Here, we introduce a set of opinion papers on fires in Brazil and a forthcoming Virtual Special Issue of Flora – Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants on "Fire and vegetation", with contributions expected from a broad range of topics related to fire, plants, and vegetation. This special issue will contribute to the development not only of more knowledge on fire effects on plants and vegetation, but also to advances in fire management policies in different ecosystems around the world. The main issue, after all, is to go beyond simple classification of fires as 'good' or 'bad', but rather to develop strategies to deal with changing fire regimes and their effects in a dynamic world increasingly modified by human actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Naturalistic plantings, such as meadow‐style plantings, can improve the quality of urban green spaces through aesthetic, biodiversity and low maintenance features. Species selection for, and maintenance of naturalistic plantings are key to their success. While herbaceous and grassy meadows can be mowed, naturalistic plantings with woody plants require more intense maintenance to remove biomass and promote resprouting. We aim to understand woody plant responses to diverse disturbance regimes to potentially inform the selection and management of woody species in urban plantings. We conducted a quantitative systematic literature review of 72 papers and investigated what main external (climate, disturbance regime) and internal (buds, life stage, storage reserves) factors influence the resprouting response of woody plants. We found resprouting literature is geographically widespread for woody plants, but studies are skewed towards Temperate climates in USA and Australia, with a focus on high severity and high frequency fire disturbance. Resprouting response was mostly defined as a continuous response to disturbance dependent on disturbance regime, climate and plant traits. Maintenance and management of naturalistic woody plantings, through hard pruning techniques such as coppicing, may be informed by analogous high severity and high frequency disturbance studies. However, the literature on woody plant resprouting has several knowledge gaps for lower severity and lower frequency disturbance regimes and in more arid climates. Future research should evaluate the response of naturalistic woody plantings to disturbance in specific urban contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider the problem of stabilization to zero under disturbance in terms of a differential pursuit game. The dynamics is described by a nonlinear autonomous system of differential equations. The set of control values of the pursuer is finite, and that of the evader (disturbance) is a compact set. The control objective, i.e., the pursuer's goal, is to bring the trajectory to any predetermined neighborhood of zero in finite time regardless of the disturbance. To construct the control, the pursuer knows only the state coordinates at some discrete times, and the choice of the disturbance's control is unknown. In the paper, we obtain conditions for the existence of a neighborhood of zero from each point of which a capture occurs in the indicated sense. A winning control is constructed constructively and has an additional property specified in a theorem. In addition, an estimate of the capture time sharp in some sense is produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, protected areas such as national parks are mainly established to protect the rapidly declining populations of conservation concern wildlife species, as well as ecologically and economically important areas. In addition, more recently, establishing and maintaining protected areas has become an essential part of the global response of governments to combat climate change and its impacts. However, most of these protected areas are facing an unprecedented rate of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation due to human-induced actions. Mitigation of threats and their impacts on biodiversity in these protected areas is very critical. But limited information, needed to develop strategies for mitigation of the ever-growing threats, is available on the biophysical resources and threats to them. This paper presents for the first time, detailed information on the Exceptional Resource Values (ERVs), Principal Ecosystem Components (PECs; or conservation targets), and human-induced threats in the Kafta-Sheraro National Park (KSNP). Standard ecological and social science methods were used to collect and analyze the data. Overall, 14 key ERVs were identified in the park, including several conservation concerns and/or flagship mammal species (e.g. African Elephant (Loxodonta africana)), biome-restricted and migratory bird species (e.g., Demoiselle crane (Anthropoides virgo)), three distinct habitat types, and a hydrological system. Six PECs that were assumed to represent the whole ecosystem components of the park were identified in KSNP: the three habitat types, hydrological system, Elephant, and Roan antelope (Hippotragus equines). The top human-induced threats to these PECs appeared to be fire, cultivation, grazing, settlement, poaching, and mining. In general, KSNP contains outstanding biodiversity and other natural resources that could play a vital role in the socio-economic development of local and regional communities. To ensure the long-term persistence of the ERVs and PECs and the appropriate functioning of the park ecosystems the development and implementation of threat mitigation strategies are required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As coral reefs endure increasing levels of disturbance, understanding recovery patterns of reef‐building hard corals is paramount to assessing the sustainability of these ecosystems. At local scales, coral recovery slows down; however, it's unclear how this trend propagates across spatial scales due to the inherent complexity of coral dynamics. In this paper, we aimed to learn about fine scale heterogeneity of coral dynamics and explore implications for assessing coral recovery at larger spatial scales. We developed a spatio‐temporal statistical model to estimate long‐term trajectories of three types of corals and predict their recovery patterns at unobserved locations within a reef. Then, model predictions were used to derive metrics that capture the interplay between coral growth and decline from disturbance(s) across time, space and growth morphology. This model is developed in the context of a substantive case study at Heron Reef using a high spatio‐temporal resolution dataset. Our results revealed that successful coral community recoveries took place in different habitats of Heron Reef and associated with various reasons. Branching corals recovered in the southern slope, due to fast growth in locations that were previously abundant. Plate corals flourished in the northern slope due to fast growth, despite a large decline and low baseline cover. They also recovered in the southern slope but in this case there was both a low decline and baseline cover. At Heron Reef, the recovery of coral communities followed specific conditions that were acting at a fine scale in a complex and heterogeneous way within habitat. This implies that capturing the variability of fine‐scale coral dynamics is an important first step to detect accurate signals of coral recovery at larger spatial scales. The approach proposes here can be further extend to the scale of a reef and beyond enabling assessment of recovery patterns representative at management scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, two robust model‐free adaptive control (RMFAC) methods are proposed for a nonlinear flapping wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV) subject to measurable and unmeasurable wind disturbances. Firstly, a novel disturbance‐related full‐form dynamic linearization technique (DFFDL) is developed to transform the FWMAV with measurable disturbances into a dynamic linearization data model. Then, a DFFDL based RMFAC method is designed based on the obtained data model for the FWMAV to suppress the wind disturbances. Next, the stability analysis shows that the system output tracking error converges into a bounded range. And the above result is extended to the case of unmeasurable disturbances. Finally, the simulation comparison results demonstrate the effectiveness of two proposed RMFAC methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human activities have often altered sediment dynamics in rivers, leading to aquatic habitat degradation. The dominant paradigm in fish–sediment interactions focuses on excessive fine sediments as indicators of habitat and water quality degradation. In contrast, geomorphologists have provided frameworks linking altered sediment dynamics to much broader and more complex changes to channel morphology and stream habitats across spatial scales.In this paper we use an interdisciplinary approach with historical and contemporary channel morphology and fish community datasets to examine how altered sediment dynamics have affected stream fish community evolution in the Bayou Pierre, Mississippi, U.S.A.Erosional process regimes have advanced upstream consistent with models of knickpoint propagation and channel evolution, leaving most of the catchment in a state of increased sediment transport and local sediment deficits. Fish communities in modern samples have less α and β diversity and fewer habitat specialist taxa than in historical samples.Whole‐community analysis via non‐metric multidimensional scaling found a strong gradient of homogenisation towards a fauna comprised of small‐bodied taxa adapted to large rivers.Comparisons of community and geomorphic change on this gradient found that reaches that transitioned between process regimes had more community change, and that local habitat factors relating to advanced channel evolution were strongly positively related to total community change.These results demonstrate that a catchment‐scale geomorphic analysis provided a strong tool for understanding fish community change on a decadal scale. Our findings further demonstrate concordant ecological responses to a complex sequence of disturbances and suggest that a broader view of sediment dynamics offers a rich toolkit for ecological analyses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper researches the fixed-time leader-following consensus problem for nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) affected by unknown disturbances under the jointly connected graph. In order to achieve control goal, this paper designs a fixed-time consensus protocol, which can offset the unknown disturbances and the nonlinear item under the jointly connected graph, simultaneously. In this paper, the states of multiple followers can converge to the state of the leader within a fixed time regardless of the initial conditions rather than just converging to a small neighborhood near the leader state. Finally, a simulation example is given to illustrate the theoretical result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the stabilization of nonlinear systems with external disturbances, which are both bounded and unbounded. Firstly, the stabilization problem of the nominal nonlinear system is realized, and the corresponding stabilization controllers are designed. Then, three suitable filters are proposed and applied to asymptotically estimate the corresponding disturbances, and the disturbance estimators are presented and used to exactly eliminate the corresponding disturbances. Then, the disturbance estimator (DE)-based controllers are proposed to stabilize such nonlinear systems. It should be pointed out the unbounded disturbances are exactly estimated by suitable filters, which has advantages over the existing results. Finally, two illustrative examples, which have certain symmetrical properties, are taken, and the related numerical simulations are carried out to verify the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lianas are one of the components in maintaining forest diversity. The over-increase of lianas in tropical and subtropical forests, especially in secondary forests is threatening the restoration and healthy development of forests. Few domestic researches make a comprehensive evaluation on the mechanism of the over-increase of lianas and negative effects on forests. In this paper, we reviewed and summarized the related researches on mechanisms and ecological consequences of the over-increase of lianas both at home and abroad. Based on the relevant studies we hold the opinions: (1) The increase of lianas can be corelated with drought severity, elevated atmospheric CO2, increased natural disturbance (gaps) and forest fragments. Lianas possess the advantages of rapid growth, strong reproductive capacity and phenotypic plasticity, and high resource use efficiency under the altered environment. Thus, the favorable environment and inherent advantages can contribute to the increase of lianas. (2) Lianas compete with trees by means of shading stress, resource competition and mechanical loading, abrasion, and strangulation, which all may increase the mortality of trees. (3) The over-increase of lianas can negatively affect the tree growth, reproduction, and survival; at community level, lianas can alter tree community composition and decrease community diversity; at ecosystem level, lianas can ramify forest ecosystem function by decreasing carbon storage and altering carbon, nutrient, and water cycling. Therefore, we recommend that future studies should be aimed at the correlations between population dynamic changes of liana species and environmental changes, the effect of forest disturbance on the growth of lianas, responses of lianas to the environmental changes and the adaption mechanisms, comprehensive evaluation on the ecological consequences of the increase of lianas by means of long-term dynamic monitoring plots and controlling experiments. It is also essential to find appropriate management and control strategies of the over-increase of lianas so as to provide reference for forest management and forest ecological restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additionally, we observed that I Cassiopea i individuals spent less time in vegetated seagrass habitat (~1 day) and stayed longer on bare (artificial) bioturbation mounds (>10 days), suggesting that the individuals are mostly passing through habitats with high seagrass cover selecting open spaces to settle (corresponding to findings of Niggl & Wild, [8]). Keywords: bioturbation; Cassiopea; colonization; competition; disturbance; exotic seagrass; habitat preference; Halophila stipulacea; landscape modification; patch dynamics EN bioturbation Cassiopea colonization competition disturbance exotic seagrass habitat preference Halophila stipulacea landscape modification patch dynamics 1 5 5 04/05/23 20230401 NES 230401 In tropical ecosystems, autotroph organisms are continuously competing for space, with some plant species benefiting from disturbances such as fire, grazing, or bioturbation that clear habitats (Pulsford et al., [11]). In this paper, we report evidence of a novel ecological interaction in a tropical seagrass ecosystem between two autotroph species, the invasive seagrass I H. stipulacea i and the native upside-down jellyfish I Cassiopea i spp. We hypothesize that the arrival of the invasive I H. stipulacea i is likely to shift patch dynamics in the seagrass ecosystem and, thereby, niche competition between seagrasses and I Cassiopea i . [Extracted from the article]

• Agents communicate indirectly and asynchronously via a shared cloud repository. • Both globally and locally Lipschitz nonlinearity in system dynamics are discussed. • Adaptive control scheme is considered for multi-agent systems under directed graph. • Practical tracking consensus is achieved for multi-agent systems with disturbances. • Zeno-freeness is guaranteed for the proposed cloud-based self-triggered scheme. This paper addresses the practical tracking consensus problem for first-orderheterogeneous nonlinear multi-agent systems in presence of external disturbances under directed graphs. Agents with limited communication capability interact with each other through a cloud repository, where the information exchange is asynchronous and indirect. The system model is more general than the ones in existing results, moreover, locally Lipschitz nonlinearities and adaptive control schemes are taken into account. It is proven that under the designed self-triggered protocol, agents can track a virtual leader with bounded error and Zeno behaviour is excluded for real implementation. Finally, a numerical simulation demonstrates the effectiveness of the theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent paper by Schall et al. (2020) concluded that beech forests managed in even‐aged (EA) rotation systems were more efficient than unmanaged (UNM) forest and forest managed in uneven‐aged (UEA) selective cutting systems in supporting landscape‐scale biodiversity in Germany.The authors based their conclusion on a comprehensive multitaxon survey and a promising resampling model for assessing gamma diversity at landscape scale. Here, we challenge their conclusions and evaluate the importance of UNM forests for conservation of forest biodiversity.The average amount of dead wood reported from EA stands (27.8 m3/ha) was almost 30% higher than reported from UNM stands (21.6 m3/ha) in the study. Averages from long UNM temperate forests in Europe are typically six to seven times higher (131–157 m3/ha). We therefore conclude the UNM studied stands to reflect legacies of former management, and to be poorly representative of UNM forests. Data from our own studies, including long UNM beech stands in Denmark, demonstrate how this shortcoming seriously undermines the general validity of the presented results to conservation of forest biodiversity.Synthesis and applications. Preservation and restoration of intact forest ecosystems remains essential to biodiversity conservation. We show that the findings of Schall et al. (2020) do not contradict this important notion. Schall and colleagues identified UEA management systems as potentially inferior to more traditional EA management systems for conserving forest biodiversity at the landscape scale. The paper also provides insight into the limited short‐term conservation value of simply abandoning forest management in intensively managed landscapes. Based on this, we call for discarding the current orthodox view of non‐intervention when new forest reserves are created in temperate Europe. Active reinforcement of natural disturbance regimes and active habitat creation may lead to faster recovery of natural stand structure and forest biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing the penetration rate of microgrids in power networks, their control becomes more and more important, and microgrid frequency control in islanded mode is one of the most important recent approaches which are studied. With the aim of fast microgrid frequency adjustment, this study presents a novel robust approach using fuzzy and reset techniques. Therefore, this paper firstly describes the model of an islanded microgrid consisting of various elements such as renewable resources, variable loads, storage resources and distributed energy resources, and then designs and presents a robust hybrid control technique based on switching. The planned control method consists of three parts, which are: 1-Fuzzy control technique, 2- Fuzzy reset control technique, and 3- Switching between the two techniques. Due to the robust feature of the reset technique, which in addition to quickly reducing the frequency error, it is able to overcome the limitations of linear controllers, and also due to the intelligence of the innovative fuzzy technique, the planned technique is able to quickly remove frequency errors and restore the islanded microgrid frequency in the fastest possible time and with the least ups and downs and fluctuations. As the results of simulation and comparison in MATLAB environment show, the planned technique has a high and undeniable ability to overcome the uncertainty of the model and disturbances on the system even of the most severe type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a direct current (DC) motor speed control system with proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller and Kalman filter is presented with consideration of disturbance, system variation, and feedback sensor noise and verified through computer simulations. Initially, a mathematical model for a DC motor system is introduced, after which the performance degradation due to disturbance and system variation in the basic open-loop control is revealed. To resolve this problem, a PID controller based feedback system is designed for the DC motor speed control system. Third, to improve the performance degradation due to feedback sensor noise that may occur during the feedback process, the Kalman filter is applied for the DC motor speed control system. Ultimately, it is verified that the designed DC motor speed control system with PID controller and Kalman filter not only satisfies all performance criteria but also has the ability to reject disturbance, cope with system variation and reduce feedback sensor noise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cascade control is widely used in the process industry, especially to reject disturbances. Typically, the controller parameters in the inner and outer loops of the cascade controller structure are defined in a strict sequence. In this paper, simultaneous tuning of cascade controllers is proposed to improve the performance of the system under load disturbance. For this purpose, the cost function of a nonlinear optimization problem is formulated to minimize the effect of disturbances on the system output. In addition, robustness constraints are defined for the maximum sensitivity function to independently guarantee a robust system for inner and outer loops. In this sense, the designer can explicitly and independently address the trade-off between performance and robustness for both loops. Simulation studies illustrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed controller design method compared to well-known methods in the literature. These results indicate that the proposed method reduces the integrated absolute error (IAE) under load disturbance by up to 58 %. In addition, experimental results from a tank-level control application in the mineral process industry illustrate the practical applicability of the proposed method. In this case, the proposed method reduces the IAE under load disturbance by 37 %. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a neural network-based robust model predictive control (MPC) strategy for visual serving of autonomous vehicles (AVs) with uncertain payloads, ground friction disturbances, and air resistance effects. Based on the dynamics of visual servoing errors and driving of the AV, the quasi-min–max MPC is adopted to calculate the desired velocity of the AV subject to the constraints on the speed, control, and the visual field. The backpropagation (BP) neural network is then used to learn the ground friction disturbances of the AV, which is adopted to compensate the quasi-min–max MPC of the visual servoing system. Finally, the performance of the proposed controller is evaluated and verified by some comparison simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the impacts of disturbance on individual fitness is important for wildlife management, and critical for the conservation of species at risk. We compared the fitness and seasonal range use of 39 woodland caribou in Ontario study areas contrasted by their level of human disturbance. We previously showed that wolf density in the disturbed site was higher, likely due to human-modified landscapes favoring moose, the primary prey of wolves. In this paper we address three objectives. First, because the assimilation of dietary nitrogen is heavily influenced by metabolic processes related to stress, we hypothesized that ratios of nitrogen isotopes ( δ 15 N) may indicate changes in body condition in ungulates and be useful proxies for changes in fitness. Second, we predicted that increased predation risk from wolves in disturbed areas would result in measurable declines in caribou body condition. Third, we hypothesized that one mechanism for fitness declines among caribou in the disturbed area was increased wolf activity restricting caribou seasonal movements. We showed change in δ 15 N in the tissues of caribou was correlated with body condition scoring using fat assessment. We used GPS collars to quantify seasonal range use and found that fitness was higher, and seasonal range overlap was lower, in caribou using the nondisturbed area. Winter fitness declines were significantly larger in the more disturbed area. Our study identifies another mechanism by which the cumulative effects of human-disturbed landscapes on caribou fitness could contribute to global declines in caribou populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the stabilization for Schrödinger equation subject to internal damping and boundary disturbance at the control end is investigated. Due to its immeasurability, the nonlinear observer system is designed to obtain the state information, and the existence of weak solution and its convergence for the nonlinear observer system are proved. The feedback control is realized by the backstepping transformation. In addition, the adaptive disturbance rejection control is applied to estimate the disturbance. According to the observer and disturbance estimation, the feedback control is finally designed to stabilize the system asymptotically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the partial anti-synchronization of the 4D financial hyper-chaotic system with periodically external disturbance. Firstly, the existence of the partial anti-synchronization problem for the nominal 4D financial system is proven. Then, a suitable filter is presented, by which the periodically external disturbance is asymptotically estimated. Moreover, two disturbance estimator (DE)-based controllers are designed to realize the partial anti-synchronization problem of such a system. Finally, numerical simulation verifies the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the robust stability and stabilization of networked evolutionary games (NEGs) with time delays. First, a mathematical model is presented to describe the dynamics of NEG with time-varying delays and disturbances. Second, an auxiliary system is constructed using the semi-tensor product of matrices and a dimension augmenting technique. Then, a verification condition of robust stability is derived. Third, in order to stabilize NEG to the Nash equilibrium, the robust stability problem is transformed into the robust stabilization problem. Moreover, an algorithm is proposed to design the stabilization controller. Finally, the validity of the results is verified by an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed an event-triggered mechanism based on cooperative control algorithm for the stability of autonomous vehicle platoon system,which could deal with the disturbance in the communication process and reduce the information redundancy and resource waste in the platoon control.Firstly,this paper designed a vehicle platoon algorithm for the directed topology on the basis of event-triggered mechanism.Even if there was disturbance,the follower autonomous vehicles could be consistent with the speed of leader autonomous vehicle,and each two consecutive autonomous vehicles could keep the desired safe distance.In addition,it constructed a Lyapunov function and gave the analysis of Zeno behavior to testify the validity and security of the proposed algorithm.Finally,the numerical simulation proves the correctness of the control algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the multistability on a class of delayed neural networks with monotonically nondecreasing linear activation function. For n state neurons with 2 m + 1 piecewise linear activation function, we prove the neural networks have (2 m + 1) n equilibrium points, (m + 1) n of which are locally exponentially stable. Different from the traditional multistability analysis method such as fixed point theory, this paper only uses the character of activation functions, and can also handle the neural networks with disturbance term. The research results of this paper generalize the previous related research works and are easy to test. A numerical example is given to shown the effectiveness of our theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a quantum system is sent through a noisy channel, it is usually disturbed. At the same time, the system undergoes decoherence and tends to lose some delicate quantum features. For a particular basis, the coherence of the state changes. Otherwise, if the system is not disturbed, its state might retain all of coherence. As quantum noisy channels lead to both disturbance and decoherence, it is natural to ask about the relation between disturbance and decoherence. Recently, a trade-off relation for coherence and disturbance has been presented by Sharma and Pati (2018 Phys. Rev. A 97 062308). In this paper, with entangled photon pairs and linear optics, we experimentally verify this trade-off relation for a single-qubit system undergoing various noisy channels. Our experimental results agree with the theoretical predictions and provide a quantitative understanding of the relation between quantum channels and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a stochastic stable control protocol for heterogeneous vehicle platoon subject to communication topologies change, external disturbance, and information delay. First, a random vehicle platoon system composed entirely of several pure electric vehicles is built. The random variation of data transmission link among the platoon in a natural traffic environment is considered and molded by the Markov chain combined with the directed graph method. The influence of delays and discrete data in wireless communication, road slope, and air resistance on the vehicle platoon is also considered by introducing the external interferences and equivalent information delays. Additionally, to ensure the vehicle platoon’s inner-vehicle stability, the variable-gain distributed controller is proposed based on the Markovian jumping system stability theory and $ H_\infty$ control. Finally, the $ \mathcal {L}_{2}$ stochastic string stability is defined to attenuate perturbations as they propagate through the platoon. Simulation studies about a vehicle platoon under four communication topologies random switching with two different control methods are provided to verify the theoretical result. It is shown that, compared to traditional platoon robust control, it is possible to achieve the vehicle platoon’s stability even if in the continuous mutation of unstable topologies by using the proposed control approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper deals with the reachable set estimation for the continuous‐time switched nonlinear positive systems with impulse, disturbance, and mixed time‐varying delays under the average dwell time switching. Based on a method developed in positive systems, sufficient conditions are established such that all solutions of the system converge exponentially to a ball. Both the bound of the reachable set and the convergence rate are determined explicitly. Compared with the existing result, the average dwell time given in this paper is less conservative. Finally, numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness of our results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a new disturbance decoupling and rejection method for a multi-connected system, and introduces the composite controller based on disturbance compensator and the state feedback control. While in action, a developed dynamic model of a 2DOF robot system was studied and analyzed. The movement of one joint affects the motion of the other, which brings the control performance down. In order to compensate and keep the desired control performances, we designed a double active control system which can effectively reject the direct mutual disturbances. These disturbances are considered the known uncertainties and can be experimentally determined. The designed control system consists of two controllers, the first one is an inner loop controller and works as a disturbance compensator that attenuates the known disturbances. And the second one, on the other hand, is an outer loop controller, which was designed based on H∞ control theory to maintain the system stability and a robust control performance under the unpredictable uncertainties. In this paper, simulation and experiments were conducted using a PID controller, and the designed control system, as well as changing the payload attached to the end-effector in order to test the control performance. Finally, the results show that the proposed system suppresses and rejects the mutual disturbances effectively with enhanced tracking performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A disturbance simulation model of tooth-flexible body residual film-soil based on DEM-MBD was established. • The flow characteristics of film-soil was studied using DEM-MBD simulation methods. • A film picking test bench was established to verify the reliability of the simulation model. • The cross-sectional shape of soil was used to verify the accuracy of DEM simulation models. • The mechanical properties and tensile performance of the residual film were analyzed. The residual film in the cotton cultivation layer will seriously affect cotton cultivation, and mechanized recycling of residual film is currently the best way to solve this problem. To improve the recovery effect of the chain tooth tillage layer residual film recovery machine, a bionic elastic tooth was designed in this paper. Furthermore, DEM-MBD coupling multibody dynamics was used as the research method to study the bionic elastic tooth-residual film-soil interactive disturbance. A DEM-MBD simulation model for predicting the film lifting effect of a film lifting device has been established. And the DEM-MBD simulation model was used to optimize the design parameters of the film lifting device by studying the film lifting effect of the elastic teeth. The absolute value of the maximum curvature at the tip of the elastic tooth (A), the angle between the midline of the power wheel and the ground plane (B), and the spacing of the elastic teeth (C) were used as the influencing factors. The optimal solution parameters (A = 0.03, B = 54°, C = 83 mm) were obtained. The field test's film picking and disturbance rate was 91.27 %, the error with the simulation results (89.69 %) was 1.8 %, which verified the accuracy of the simulation results and the superiority of the optimized parameters. The recovery rates of residual film under soil compaction conditions of 600 kPa, 800 kPa, and 1000 kPa were 91.25 %, 90.94 %, and 90.89 % (Verified the strong adaptability of the device). This study can provide a theoretical research basis and test methods for the design optimization of touching parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Contextuality-by-Default approach to determining and measuring the (non)contextuality of a system of random variables requires that every random variable in the system be represented by an equivalent set of dichotomous random variables. In this paper we present general principles that justify the use of dichotomizations and determine their choice. The main idea in choosing dichotomizations is that if the set of possible values of a random variable is endowed with a pre-topology (V-space), then the allowable dichotomizations split the space of possible values into two linked subsets (“linkedness” being a weak form of pre-topological connectedness). We primarily focus on two types of random variables most often encountered in practice: categorical and real-valued ones (including continuous random variables, greatly underrepresented in the contextuality literature). A categorical variable (one with a finite number of unordered values) is represented by all of its possible dichotomizations. If the values of a random variable are real numbers, then they are dichotomized by intervals above and below a variable cut point. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Attitude system of quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (QUAV) with disturbance and gyroscopic effect is developed. • Transient chaos in the disturbed QUAV system is found and analyzed via multi-parameter bifurcation diagrams. • Existence of chaos for angular velocity of QUAV is verified analytically and experimentally. • QUAV Chaos is suppressed by the designed back-stepping sliding mode controller, and stability is proved and verified. The disturbance influences the dynamic characteristics of the quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (QUAV), especially the stability. With the disturbance, the study of characteristics and controller design is challenging. In this paper, an attitude system of a QUAV with disturbance and gyroscopic effect is developed. The disturbed QUAV attitude system dynamics influenced by the rotor speeds are analyzed via multi-parameter bifurcation diagrams. The chaotic parameter area in which the QUAV is in an abnormal vibration state is plotted, guiding the design of the fuselage structure and controller of the QUAV. The transient chaos characterizing chaos within a long period but eventually becoming periodic is found in the system. The chaotic phenomenon of the angular velocity trajectory of the QUAV is verified by obtaining the positive Lyapunov exponent using the experimental data. A back-stepping sliding mode controller is designed, and the stability of the closed system is proved via the Lyapunov method. Numerical simulations verify the effectiveness of controlling the QUAV. The designed controller is effective for suppressing chaos. The stability of the back-stepping sliding mode controller is superior to that of the PID controller is verified via numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new control method based on the linear matrix inequality is used to control the speed of a hybrid stepper motor. The proposed method is proved based on the Lyapunov criterion. The proposed method has a higher degree of freedom than conventional robust controllers, which can be used to better control the system. The proposed method also exhibits high robustness against the uncertainty of the hybrid stepper motor parameters as well as the applied disturbances. Also in this method, the effect of rapid changes in the reference speed of the hybrid stepper motor are considered so that the controller can have more effective tracking. The proposed control method is compared with the Self-tuning PI controller and PI (Ziegler-Nichols) controller in multiple scenarios considering the uncertainty of the parameters and different disturbances. The obtained results indicate that the proposed controller has a better performance against the disturbances and uncertainty of the parameters in comparison with the abovementioned controllers. It should be noted that the simulations have been performed in Matlab. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasing needs on the performance of satellites, in particular optical satellites, microvibrations have become more and more important over the last years. Microvibrations affect a large number of satellites for both Earth observation and space observation missions. Further, microvibrations are also a concern for other missions with sensitive instruments like Fourier spectrometers, high-precision accelerometers or reference oscillators. In classical fields like structural dynamic engineering, management approaches have been established and implemented in all space projects. This paper presents a corresponding approach for the area of microvibrations. Focus is on the definition of all key elements needed to establish a microvibration control approach. This includes the establishment of microvibration budgets and associated summation rules. A systematic way for microvibration disturbance minimization is presented and rules for the application are defined. Specific emphasis is given to the definition of microvibration interface requirements and the associated control process. The concepts provided in this paper have been verified by tests performed in the frame of various satellite programs and studies. Tests related to the superposition of different noise sources are presented in here. • Spacecraft performance budgets related to microvibrations are established using adaptation of standard ECSS rules. • Microvibration interface requirements are defined using an optimized margin approach. • Microvibration requirement definition and verification concepts are defined for typical satellite architectures. • Assuming linear summation of different microvibration noise sources overestimates the performance impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops finite-time consensus control for multi-agent systems by considering disturbances and input saturation. A new adaptive-terminal sliding mode control is suggested to solve consensus control within a finite time. Two cases are solved in the paper. In the first case, it is assumed that disturbances are with known upper. To achieve the consensus purpose within the finite time, in this case, the control inputs are designed based on terminal sliding mode technique by considering the input signal saturation. Also, the control inputs are modified to reduce the high dependency of reaching times to initial speeds. In the second case, the agents are subjected to disturbances with unknown upper bounds. To handle the problem, the control signals are acquired by combining the adaptive and terminal sliding mode methods. By considering saturation boundary and disturbances with unknown upper band, a new adaptive-terminal sliding mode method is designed to control the multi-agent system in reduced settling and reaching times. The proposed techniques efficiency is confirmed by numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is well known the descriptor systems have a wide application field. Usually it appear as a mathematical model of a real problem, mainly the model that involves the input output relationship. It is well known that a descriptor linear system has an unique solution if the pencil matrix of the system is regular. However, there are some systems that are not regular. Moreover, even though the system is regular the solution can contain the noncausal behavior. Therefore, it is necessary to normalize the descriptor system so as it has well behavior. In this paper, we propose a feedback to normalize a discrete descriptor system under disturbance. Furthermore, we establish a sufficient condition in order for the discrete descriptor system under disturbance can be normalized positively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forests have long been locations of contestation between people and state bureaucracies, and among the knowledge frameworks of local users, foresters, ecologists, and conservationists. An essential framing of the debate has been between the categories of primary and secondary forest. In this introduction to a collection of papers that address the questions of what basis, in what sense, and for whom primary forest is 'primary' and secondary forest is 'secondary,' and whether these are useful distinctions, we outline this debate and propose a new conceptual model that departs from the simple binary of primary and secondary forests. Rather, we propose that attention should be given to the nature of the disturbance that may alter forest ecology, the forms of regeneration that follow, and the governance context within which this takes place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Piezo actuated systems are promising solutions for precision positioning applications. In this paper, a piezoelectric actuator is modeled as a second-order system using the Dahl hysteresis model and the system parameters have been identified from experimental data. The modified internal model control (M-IMC) approach is presented, which not only improves control performance but also reduces associated controller hardware resources. System dead time is approximated using first-order Padé expansion and the proposed Smith predictor-based M-IMC for piezoelectric actuators is seen to offer satisfactory stable control response even for plants with large dead time. The control performance of the M-IMC has been examined for the piezo actuator system against different set point tracking inputs in the presence of a wide range of external disturbances such as plant parameter mismatch, white noise perturbation, and time delay. Simulation results depict the efficacy and versatility of M-IMC in terms of decreased overshoot and settling time compared to traditional IMC and PID designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]