Advances in Variable Structure and Sliding Mode Control
Sliding Mode Control is recognized as an efficient tool to design controllers which are robust with respect to uncertainty. The resulting controllers have low sensitivity to plant parameters and perturbations and allow the possibility of decoupling the original plant system into two components of lower dimension. In addition many controllers ensure finite time convergence to the switching surface and can be straightforwardly implemented. However, in addition to this traditional area of exploitation, sliding mode concepts are being increasingly deployed for the design of observers for estimation and identification.
Advanced Topics in Control Systems Theory ; Vol. 328 : Lecture Notes from FAP 2005
"Advanced Topics in Control Systems Theory" contains selected contributions written by lecturers at the third (annual) Formation d’Automatique de Paris (FAP) (Graduate Control School in Paris). Following on from the lecture notes from the second FAP (Volume 311 in the same series) it is addressed to graduate students and researchers in control theory with topics touching on a variety of areas of interest to the control community such as nonlinear optimal control, observer design, stability analysis and structural properties of linear systems. The reader is provided with a well-integrated synthesis of the latest thinking in these subjects without the need for an exhaustive literature review. The internationally known contributors to this volume represent many of the most reputable control centers in Europe.
A Theory of Marketing : Outline of a Social Systems Perspective
Marketing has become one of the most influential forces in contemporary market economies. Yet despite ubiquitous empirical presence, uncountable textbook definitions, and sixty years of scholarly work, a coherent sociological understanding of this powerful concept is still amiss. Drawing on Luhmannian social systems theory, historical analysis, and four qualitative studies, the author theorizes on the marketing function as a self-contained system of communications. It is argued that marketing systems prosper within a host organization if and as long as they successfully influence observers' preferences towards particular brands. On these conceptual foundations a comprehensive brand- and communication-centered theory is developed that fulfills Alderson', Cox' and Bartels' foundational requirements for a general theory of marketing in an unprecedented way.


