This paper investigates a distributed coordination control for a class of high-order uncertain multiagent systems. Under the framework of iterative learning control, a novel fully distributed learning protocol is devised for the coordination problem of MASs including time-varying parameter uncertainties as well as actuator saturations. Meanwhile, the learning updating laws of various parameters are proposed. Utilizing Lyapunov theory and combining with Graph theory, the proposed algorithm can make each follower track a leader completely over a limited time interval even though (...) each follower is without knowing the dynamics of the leader. Moreover, the extension to formation control is made. The validity and feasibility of the algorithm are verified conclusively by two examples. (shrink)

Few would deny that something ontologically depends on something else. Given that something depends on something, what depends on what? Huayan Buddhism 華嚴宗, a prominent Chinese Buddhist school, is known for its extensive thesis of interdependence, according to which everything depends on everything else. This intriguing thesis is entangled with seemingly paradoxical claims that everything is not only identified with everything else but also contained within it. Moreover, the radical thesis of interdependence entails that dependence is pervasive and symmetric. In (...) this paper, I first develop a contemporary interpretation of Huayan interdependence by employing the definitional account of essence and the essence-based account of dependence. Through these contemporary resources, I elucidate and unify the theses of interdependence, mutual identity, and mutual containment within Huayan Buddhism. I then propose a unique framework of ontological dependence that suggests varying degrees of ontological dependence, aimed at accommodating and explaining away our intuitions against pervasive and symmetric dependence. By contemporizing Huayan Buddhism, I explore its potential and facilitate engagement between contemporary metaphysics and Huayan Buddhism. (shrink)

EDITOR’S ABSTRACTThis article presents a counterintuitive view that the rise of Confucianism in the Han dynasty is indebted to the Book of Lord Shang. It analyzes chapter 7, “Opening the blocked,” and shows that the chapter can be read as promoting a combination of force and morality. The sophisticated historical view of this chapter solves apparent contradictions between societies based on family ties, meritocracy, and monarchic power by showing how new levels of social development inevitably open up when old paths (...) are blocked. This dynamic view was abandoned by the followers of Shang Yang but was rediscovered by the Confucian scholar Lu Jia early in the Han dynasty. It is under the impact of this dynamic view that Lu Jia tried to convince the first Han emperor that one can attain the world from horseback but not rule it without an inspiring ideology. The dialectic historical approach presented in “Opening the blocked” chapter remains valid well into our days. (shrink)

The Yogasutra of Patanjali is described as an owner's manual for the human mind and how the mind can be used in the quest for Truth and The Managing Mind presents this most important text on Yoga and meditation in clear and straightforward English. Devadatta Kali's commentary endeavors to draw out the meaning of Patanjali's text in a coherent and modern form that will serve the real life needs of the spiritual practitioner. He has also included the original Sanskrit text (...) for those who seek a more in-depth understanding of the hidden dimension of the Yogasutra, giving a word-by-word analysis with multiple possibilities for the meaning of the text. In addition, Devadatta Kali provides his own original interpretations of the meaning of several of the sutras. He sheds new light on their classical interpretation, which have often missed the point by overlooking the language of metaphor. (shrink)

How should we understand de re modal features of objects, if there are such features? Any answer to the question is connected to how we should think about coincident objects, objects which occupy the same spatio-temporal region and share the same underlying matter. This thesis is mainly about the connections between de re modality and coincidence. My interest in the connections is twofold: First, how do theories of de re modality interact with theories about coincidence? Details of interactions are discussed (...) from chapter 2 to chapter 5. Second, do the considerations about de re modality offer reasons to favour a particular position about coincidence? And how does this answer contribute to current meta-ontological debate? These are raised in chapter 1 and are answered in conclusion. (shrink)

The party in power headed by Hu Jintao ever since the Sixteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward “scientific outlook on development”. It then becomes an important guideline for Chinese economic and social development and is a significant strategic idea that we have to adhere to and carry out in order to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics. “Scientific outlook on development” covers a wide range of fields, such as, natural science, humanity science and social science, etc., (...) constitutes a systematic scientific theory with profound ideological connotation and rigorous internal logic, and, in the meanwhile, is enriched and developed continuously in practice. (shrink)

This essay introduces the philosophy of harmony in Classical Confucianism. In the first part of the essay the author summarizes the concept of harmony as it was developed in various Confucian classics. In the second part, the author offers an account of the Confucian program of harmony, ranging from internal harmony in the person, to harmony in the family, the state, the international world, and finally to harmony in the entire universe.

It came as a complete surprise to me that my paper "An Outline of a Theory Concerning the Philosophy of Kant and the Establishment of Subjectivity" [henceforth called "Outline"], written in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the publication of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and published in a relatively unknown location, gave rise to so much response. This seems to suggest that our younger generation longs to make a contribution to the fields of philosophy, and that they are searching (...) [for new avenues] to meet the nation's general goal of modernization as well as the challenge to answer the question about what direction the world is heading. However, that paper was just a preliminary sketch of what I had in mind, in order to raise certain questions. Although this paper is also still nothing more than a supplementary outline, I would like it to serve as a call for more exhaustive investigation. (shrink)

If we say that the school of Confucianism—Confucius, Mencius, and Xun Zi—focused on the nurturing and forming of the psychological temperament of man, that it emphasized humanizing the innate nature so that the natural physiological desires and the sensory needs of man—that "which is unavoidable in man's nature and feelings"—are nurtured in a societal way and attain societal functions, and that for this reason the state and results of its appreciation of beauty are often related to pleasing the ear, the (...) eye, the heart, and the mind, and on the whole are controlled by the realm of human relationships and ethics, then it is possible to say that the characteristics of Daoist aesthetics as represented by Zhuang Zi were precisely focused on transcending just this. (shrink)

If we say that on the level of form, works of art correspond to the humanization of sense perception in the human psychology, then on the level of the image, they correspond on the whole to the humanization of desire. As a result, their aesthetic effect is manifested as artistic sedimentation.

In recent years, scholars of Confucian ethics have debated on important issues such as whether Confucian ethics embraces, or should embrace, universal values and impartiality. Some have argued that Confucian ethics integrates both care and justice, and that Confucian ethics is both particularistic and universalistic. In this essay, I will defend a view of the relation between care and justice and the relation between care ethics and justice ethics on the basis of the notion of 'configuration of values,' and show (...) why care ethics and justice ethics cannot be integrated. I will support this view by a reading of some pertinent passages in the Mencius. (shrink)

In the following, I will be speaking about my basic views regarding Chinese aesthetics. […] I identify four features that sum up the whole.

In behavioral research, exploring bivariate relationships between variables X and Y based on the concept of probability-of-superiority (PS) has received increasing attention. Unlike the conventional, linear-based bivariate relationship (e.g., Pearson's correlation), PS defines that X and Y can be related based on their likelihood—e.g., a student who is above mean in SAT has 63% likelihood of achieving an above-mean college GPA. Despite its increasing attention, the concept of PS is restricted to a simple bivariate scenario ( X - Y pair), (...) which hinders the development and application of PS in popular multivariate modeling such as structural equation modeling (SEM). Therefore, this study addresses an empirical-based simulation study that explores the potential of detecting PS-based relationship in SEM, called PS-SEM. The simulation results showed that the proposed PS-SEM method can detect and identify PS-based when data follow PS-based relationships, thereby providing a useful method for researchers to explore PS-based SEM in their studies. Conclusions, implications, and future directions based on the findings are also discussed. (shrink)

The rise and development of the characteristics of all peoples and nations, their cultural-psychological structure, and the formation and continuation of all traditions of thought originate in actual material existence.

Lithium-ion batteries have been widely used as energy storage systems and in electric vehicles due to their desirable balance of both energy and power densities as well as continual falling price. Accurate estimation of the state-of-charge of a battery pack is important in managing the health and safety of battery packs. This paper proposes a compact radial basis function neural model to estimate the state-of-charge of lithium battery packs. Firstly, a suitable input set strongly correlated with the package SOC is (...) identified from directly measured voltage, current, and temperature signals by a fast recursive algorithm. Secondly, a RBF neural model for battery pack SOC estimation is constructed using the FRA strategy to prune redundant hidden layer neurons. Then, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to optimize the kernel parameters. Finally, a conventional RBF neural network model, an improved RBF neural model using the two stage method, and a least squares support vector machine model are also used to estimate the battery SOC as a comparative study. Simulation results show that generalization error of SOC estimation using the novel RBF neural network model is less than half of that using other methods. Furthermore, the model training time is much less than the LSSVM method and the improved RBF neural model using the two-stage method. (shrink)

The influential stage of Internet of Things has reformed all fields of life in general but specifically with the emergence of artificial intelligence has drawn the attention of researchers into a new paradigm of life standard. This revolution has been accepted around the globe for making life easier with the use of intelligent devices such as smart sensors, actuators, and many other devices. AI-enabled devices are more intelligent and capable of doing a specific task which saves a lot of resources (...) and time. Different approaches are available in the existing literature to tackle diverse issues of real life based on AI and IoT systems. The role of decision-making has its own importance in the AI-enabled and IoT systems. In-depth knowledge of the existing literature is dire need of the research community to summarize the literature in effective way by which practitioners and researchers can benefit from the prevailing proofs and suggest new solutions for solving a particular problem of AI-enabled sensing and decision-making for the IoT system. To facilitate research community, the proposed study presents a systematic literature review of the existing literature, organizes the evidences in a systematic way, and then analyzes it for future research. The study reported the literature of the last 5 years based on the research questions, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and quality assessment of the selected study. Finally, derivations are drawn from the included paper for future research. (shrink)