Little is known about the dynamic relationship between the different funding sources of community-based social care in England. Using Waves 2–6 (2004–2013) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing survey, I estimated dynamic multi-level cross-classified mixed-effects logistic regression models to investigate whether receiving services by one source is more or less likely if an older person was already receiving services funded by the same source or another in the previous period. Four hypotheses between formal privately and publicly funded help and informal help are tested: substitution, complementarity, compensation and task-specificity. I also report evidence that older people on low incomes residing in local authorities that reduce social care spending are especially affected.

We argue that a random-coefficients representation of the classical Barro's model of unemployment dynamics can be used as a theoretical basis for a panel quantile autoregressive model of the unemployment rate. Estimating the latter with State-level data for the United States (1980–2010), we find that (i) unemployment persistence increases along quantiles of the conditional unemployment distribution; (ii) disregarding State-fixed effects implies an overestimation of unemployment persistence along unemployment quantiles; (iii) a macroeconomic shock changes not only the location but also the dispersion of the distribution of the State unemployment rates; (iv) a federal policy equally applied in each State can reduce unemployment inequality among States; (v) “hysteresis” and “natural rate” hypotheses can co-exist along quantiles of the unemployment distribution, with the former being not rejected at upper quantiles. In sum, while the standard approach to the estimation of unemployment persistence implicitly assumes that quantile parameter heterogeneity does not matter, we suggest that it does.

We have suggested a novel approach to autonomously navigate a full sized autonomous vehicle that separately treats vehicle control and obstacle detection. In this paper we discuss the vehicle control that has enabled our autonomous vehicle to travel at speeds upto 20mph. We point out the limitations of existing schemes that restrict their consideration to kinematic models and show that it is possible to obtain an increase in performance through the use of approximate dynamical models that capture first–order effects. Our approach combines such a modeling philosophy with accurate feedback in world coordinates from sensors that have only recently become available. Experimental results of our implementation on NavLab, a modified van at CMU, are presented.

Present study on industrial manipulator control either completely neglects structural flexibility or only considers manipulator link flexibility. Ignoring joint flexibility may cause significant errors in gross motion control if the joint elastic effect is predominant. This paper presents an effective control scheme which can compensate for the motion errors generated by simultaneous existence of both link and joint flexibility. The manipulator dynamics is formulated comprehensively by a superposition of two models, namely, an assumed modes of vibration model for links and a torsional spring model.for joints. Then, a nonlinear feedback rate servo control system is developed that compensates for the gross motion errors introduced by both joint elasticity and link flexibility. Motion simulation results show that the proposed formulation can effectively describe the dynamic behavior of a flexible-link, elastic-joint robot. They also verify that the proposed controller is robust in that it can satisfactorily suppress the manipulator end oscillations and yield an accurate gross motion.

A dynamic model of the lactating dairy goat, combining a minimum of mechanistic representations of homeorhetic regulations and a long-term approach, was developed. It describes (i) the main changes in body weight, dry-matter intake, milk production and composition of a dairy goat; (ii) the succession of pregnancy and lactation throughout the productive life; and (iii) the major changes in dynamics induced by the female profile (production potential and body weight at maturity). The model adopts a ‘pull’ approach including a systematic expression of the production potential and not representing any feed limitation. It involves three sub-systems. The reproductive events sub-system drives the dynamics through time with three major events: service, kidding and drying off. It also accounts for the effect of production potential (kg of milk at the peak of lactation) and lactation number (potential reached at the fourth lactation). The regulating sub-system represents the homeorhetic mechanisms during pregnancy and lactation with two sets of theoretical hormones, one representing gestation and the other lactation. The operating sub-system describes the main physiological flows and the energetic requirements linked to these functions through a compartmental structure. Simulations were run in order to test (i) the behaviour of the model at the scale of the productive life for an average profile of female (60 kg at maturity and 4 kg of milk at peak); (ii) the sensitivity of the simulated dynamics (mainly milk production and body reserves) to the production potential and body weight at maturity; (iii) external validation with comparison of model outputs to data from the experimental flock of Grignon and data from the French milk record organization (French organism in charge of animal recording for dairy farmers). The results at the scale of one productive life show the model simulates a relevant set of dynamics. The sensitivity analysis suggests that the model fairly well simulates the link between a female’s ability to produce and mobilise reserves. Finally, external validation confirms the model’s ability to simulate a relevant set of physiological dynamics while pointing out some limits of the model (simulation of milk fat and protein content dynamics, for example). The results illustrate the relevance of the model in simulating biological dynamics and confirm the possibility of including minimum representations of homeorhetic regulations with a simple structure. This simplicity gives an opportunity to integrate this basic element in a herd simulator and test interactions between females’ regulations and management rules.

The paper presents a control oriented dynamic formulation for constrained robotic systems. We refer to this formulation as control oriented since it can be directly applied to design a model-based tracking control strategy. It enables one to obtain dynamic models for systems subjected to material constraints and non-material referred to as program constraints. The dynamic model for a constrained robot, where equations of program constraints specify tasks and motion requirements, is used as a program motion planner for a controller design. The formulation provides a theoretical framework, which is a basis for the study of robot performance of constrained tasks. Examples of developments of control oriented dynamic models are presented, and their applications for control are demonstrated and discussed.

I develop an algorithm for solving dynamic models in which individual decision rules and the cross-sectional distribution of agents' characteristics influence each other. To illustrate the algorithm, I solve an endowment economy with incomplete markets, a continuum of heterogeneous agents, and aggregate shocks. The key innovation of the algorithm is to parameterize the (cross-sectional) density with a flexible functional form, which makes it possible to avoid simulation techniques. The paper shows how to check for accuracy and establishes links between the properties of the incomplete-markets economy and the aspects involved in obtaining a numerical solution.

A system to control a database is used for modelling of robotic mechanisms. This brings up the modelling process of robotic mechanisms to a higher level of abstraction and reduces the problem of numerical complexity reduction of the robotic mechanism model to database updating. Structural System Analysis was used to describe the functionality of the system for modelling of robotic mechanisms. The database model is presented by Extended Model Object-Connections, and all the object types for representation of mathematical expressions in the form of calculating graph are described in detail. The complete system is implemented and tested on the example of a robotic mechanism with six degrees of freedom and on the example of anthropomorphic locomotion robotic mechanism.