We give a survey of results on global stability for deterministic compartmental epidemiological models. Using Lyapunov techniques we revisit a classical result, and give a simple proof. By the same methods we also give a new result on differential susceptibility and infectivity models with mass action and an arbitrary number of compartments. These models encompass the so-called differential infectivity and staged progression models. In the two cases we prove that if the basic reproduction ratio ≤ 1, then the disease free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. If > 1, there exists an unique endemic equilibrium which is asymptotically stable on the positive orthant.

In this paper we study the frequency and time domain behaviour of a heat exchanger network system. The system is governed by hyperbolic partial differential equations. Both the control operator and the observation operator are unbounded but admissible. Using the theory of symmetric hyperbolic systems, we prove exponential stability of the underlying semigroup for the heat exchanger network. Applying the recent theory of well-posed infinite-dimensional linear systems, we prove that the system is regular and derive various properties of its transfer functions, which are potentially useful for controller design. Our results remain valid for a wide class of processes governed by symmetric hyperbolic systems.

In an interesting paper R. Rajamani and Y. M. Cho have proposed a systematic methodology to design observers. They have introduced a new problem: relation between distance to unobservability and convergence of 'Luenberger-like' observers. A result for the convergence of the observer has also been given. They have presented a quantity denoted by i, claimed as the distance to unobservability. We show that this number is not actually the distance from the system to the set of unobservable systems. Moreover, the result for the observer is incorrect. We provide a counterexample for the result of convergence. In this paper results for convergence are obtained, with additional strengthened hypothesis, to correct Rajamani and Cho's result. The results are used to design an observer for a, now classical, single-link flexible robot joint. The behaviour of the observer to noisy output is quite satisfactory.