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This paper addresses the problem of optimal operation scheduling of an individual pumped-storage plant to participate in the energy and regulation markets simultaneously. The goal is achieving of the maximum expected profit when the plant participates in a day-ahead (DA) energy and regulation markets while all of the technical constraints are satisfied. This optimal operation scheduling problem is formulated and solved as a mixed integer programming (MIP) problem. Numerical results for a case study are discussed.

The PCS flight apparatus was accommodated in the ISS EXPRESS Rack 2 and was remotely operated from the NASA Glenn Research Center's (GRC) Telescience Support Center in Cleveland, Ohio and at a remote site at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This sophisticated light scattering instrument is capable of imaging, and dynamic and static (D&S) light scattering from 11 to 169 degrees, Bragg scattering over the range from 10 to 60 degrees, and laser light scattering at low angles from 0.3 to 6.0 degrees. PCS was launched on 4/19/2001 on Space Shuttle STS-100. The experiment was activated on May 31, 2001. As of February 2002, PCS has accomplished around 1800 hours of onboard operation, during which, binary colloidal crystal alloys, crystal nucleation and growth and the resultant structures have been studied. The long duration microgravity environment in the ISS facilitated extended studies on the growth and coarsening characteristics of crystals. The de-mixing of the colloid- polymer critical-point sample was also studied as it phase-separates into two phases, one that resembles a gas and one that resembles a liquid. This behavior cannot be observed in the sample on Earth because sedimentation would cause the colloids to fall to the bottom of the cell faster than the de-mixing process could occur. Similarly, the study of aging of another colloid-polymer sample, the colloid-polymer gel, also provided valuable information. The investigations on the extremely slow, low concentration fractal gels gave the initial gelation rate over several days. Several exciting and microgravity unique aspects of these results will be discussed.

It is almost 30 years since Morris Kline published his wide-ranging critique of undergraduate education in his book, "Why The Professor can't Teach" [1]. In 1999, Steve Krantz, in his book, "How to Teach Mathematics" [2] reported that academics were paying much more ...

Service-orientation represents a new wave of features and solutions by bringing closer information technology to the industrial domain, particularly factory shop floors. The service-oriented automation software entities (designated here by bots) used in such approach requires a short set of methodologies and software targeting their specification for both computer systems and embedded automation devices. The present work explains the adopted methodologies and software developments for the engineering of service-based ...

Abstract: How to design effective learning opportunities? Why is learning by experience often more efficient than learning by studying? How to provide the learning experiences needed to respond to current challenges? Using computer games and games in general for ...

This paper presents an analysis of the performance impact of two generic group communication APIs, namely Hedera and jGCS. The analysis was carried out in a four-node cluster by comparing the performance of different configurations of two well-known group communication middleware systems (i.e., JGroups and Spread), under different message sizes, both in standalone mode and when used as plug-ins for the two generic APIs. The results show that there are significant variations in the performance overhead imposed by each generic API on both JGroups and Spread, and that those differences are strongly related to variations in message size and the way each generic API is implemented. The paper also discusses whether it would be worth migrating from a standalone group communication implementation to a generic API.

... Embedded System Chihhsiong Shih1*, Chien-Ting Wu1, Cheng-Yao Lin1, Pao-Ann Hsiung2, Nien-Lin Hsueh3, Chih-Hung Chang4, Chorng-Shiuh Koong5, William C. Chu1 1Tunghai University, 2National Chung Cheng University, 3Feng Chia University, 4Hsiuping Institute of ...

The linear sampling method is a fast inversion technique for visualizing the profile of a scatterer from measurements of the far-field pattern. The mathematical result at the basis of this method is that, given a spatial grid of points covering the scatterer, for each grid point there is an approximate solution of a linear integral equation whose L norm blows up when the point approaches the boundary of the scatterer from inside and stays large when the point is outside the scatterer. According to a recent formulation, the linear sampling method requires the regularized solution of a single functional equation where the unique optimal value of the regularization parameter is fixed by means of the generalized discrepancy principle. Within this framework in this paper we first show that the introduction of an incompatibility measure in the generalized discrepancy function provides more reliable maps of the scatterer. Then we apply active contour techniques to the visualization maps in...

Service-orientation represents a new wave of features and solutions by bringing closer information technology to the industrial domain, particularly factory shop floors. The service-oriented automation software entities (designated here by bots) used in such approach requires a short set of methodologies and software targeting their specification for both computer systems and embedded automation devices. The present work explains the adopted methodologies and software developments for the engineering of service-based ...

Abstract The effect of changing the image resolution over a biometric system based on hand geometry is analyzed in this paper. Image resolution is progressively diminished from an initial 120 dpi resolution up to 24 dpi. The robustness of the examined system is analyzed with 2 databases and two identifiers. The first database acquires the images of the hand underneath whereas the second database acquires the images over the hand. The first classifier identifies with a multiclass support vector machine whereas the second classifier ...

Abstract Hardware co-processors are used for accelerating specific compute-intensive tasks dedicated to video/audio codec, encryption/decryption, etc. Since many of these data-processing tasks already have efficient software algorithms, one could reuse those to synthesize the co-processor IPs. However, such software algorithms are usually sequential and written in C/C++. High-level Synthesis (HLS) helps in converting software implementation to register transfer level (RTL) hardware design. Such co-processor based ...

In VLSI interconnect buffers are used to restore the signal level affected by the parasitics. However buffers have a certain switching time that contributes to overall signal delay. Further the transitions that occur in interconnects also contribute to crosstalk delay. Thus the overall delay in interconnects is due to combined effect of both buffer and crosstalk delay. In this work a replacement of buffers with Schmitt trigger is proposed for the same purpose of signal restoration. Due to lower threshold voltage of Schmitt trigger signal can rise early and the large noise margin of Schmitt trigger helps in reducing the noise glitches as well. Simulation results shows that the Schmitt trigger approach gives 20% delay reduction as compared to 10.4% in case of buffers.

Regular lidar operation and data acquisition were done in Manila at the Manila Observatory (14.64N, 121.07E) , Ateneo de Manila University from 1997 to 1998. These years coincided with the occurrence of the El Niño episode that started in the first quarter of 1997 and ended in the first half of 1998. From the lidar data gathered during this time interval, the optical depth of clouds was measured using Klett’s algorithm [1]. The results showed that the computed average cloud optical depth values in 1998 were 7% to 76% smaller compared to 1997 values. The smaller values can be deduced as the effect of the El Niño event based on the rainfall rate and southern oscillation index (SOI) data.

In this study photocatalytic oxidation of toluene, used as model VOCs in the gas phase on different types of Ti-based catalytic materials was investigated. The objective of this work was to find out additional information regarding activity and stability of catalyst during photocatalytic treatment of the polluted air. Two designs of the photoreactor were used: classical type of an annular reactor and annular reactor with recirculation. All measurements were performed at room temperature, atmospheric pressure and at constant initial toluene concentration, relative humidity and total flow rate of the reaction mixture. Some experiments were carried out with catalysts thermally treated on different temperatures (350–450 °C). It was found out that thermal treatment of deactivated photocatalyst at higher temperature is efficient method of TiO2 reactivation. According to results presented in this paper problem of catalyst deactivation can be partially solved by using annular reactor with r...

Abstract The collaborative project management is becoming popular in West. China is acutely aware of the need to improve its management skills in all field. Collaborative project management are developed for better dealing with those complex projects that often consist of many dissimilar, highly interdependent components and involve many different disciplines. This paper reports on recent study the aim of which was to apply the collaborative project management in preconstruction planning, in which an analytical ...