Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm for Robust Power System Stabilizer Design

Power system stabilizers (PSS) are now routinely used in the industry to damp out power system oscillations. In this paper, real-coded genetic algorithm (RCGA) optimization technique is applied to design robust power system stabilizer for both singlemachine infinite-bus (SMIB) and multi-machine power system. The design problem of the proposed controller is formulated as an optimization problem and RCGA is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. The non-linear simulation results are presented under wide range of operating conditions; disturbances at different locations as well as for various fault clearing sequences to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed controller and their ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations.

GA based Optimal Sizing and Placement of Distributed Generation for Loss Minimization

This paper addresses a novel technique for placement of distributed generation (DG) in electric power systems. A GA based approach for sizing and placement of DG keeping in view of system power loss minimization in different loading conditions is explained. Minimal system power loss is obtained under voltage and line loading constraints. Proposed strategy is applied to power distribution systems and its effectiveness is verified through simulation results on 16, 37-bus and 75-bus test systems.

Optimal Supplementary Damping Controller Design for TCSC Employing RCGA

Optimal supplementary damping controller design for Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC) is presented in this paper. For the proposed controller design, a multi-objective fitness function consisting of both damping factors and real part of system electromachanical eigenvalue is used and Real- Coded Genetic Algorithm (RCGA) is employed for the optimal supplementary controller parameters. The performance of the designed supplementary TCSC-based damping controller is tested on a weakly connected power system with different disturbances and loading conditions with parameter variations. Simulation results are presented and compared with a conventional power system stabilizer and also with the TCSC-based supplementary controller when the controller parameters are not optimized to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach over a wide range of loading conditions and disturbances.

Uniform Distribution of Ductility Demand in Irregular Bridges using Shape Memory Alloy

Excessive ductility demand on shorter piers is a common problem for irregular bridges subjected to strong ground motion. Various techniques have been developed to reduce the likelihood of collapse of bridge due to failure of shorter piers. This paper presents the new approach to improve the seismic behavior of such bridges using Nitinol shape memory alloys (SMAs). Superelastic SMAs have the ability to remain elastic under very large deformation due to martensitic transformation. This unique property leads to enhanced performance of controlled bridge compared with the performance of the reference bridge. To evaluate the effectiveness of the devices, nonlinear time history analysis is performed on a RC single column bent highway bridge using a suite of representative ground motions. The results show that this method is very effective in limiting the ductility demand of shorter pier.

Taiwan Sugar Corporation's Participation in the Mechanism of Payment for Environmental Services (PES)

The Taiwan government has started to promote the “Plain Landscape Afforestation and Greening Program" since 2002. A key task of the program was the payment for environmental services (PES), entitled the “Plain Landscape Afforestation Policy" (PLAP), which was certificated by the Executive Yuan on August 31, 2001 and enacted on January 1, 2002. According to the policy, it is estimated that the total area of afforestation will be 25,100 hectares by December 31, 2007. Until the end of 2007, the policy had been enacted for six years in total and the actual area of afforestation was 8,919.18 hectares. Among them, Taiwan Sugar Corporation (TSC) was accounted for 7,960 hectares (with 2,450.83 hectares as public service area) which occupied 86.22% of the total afforestation area; the private farmland promoted by local governments was accounted for 869.18 hectares which occupied 9.75% of the total afforestation area. Based on the above, we observe that most of the afforestation area in this policy is executed by TSC, and the achievement ratio by TSC is better than by others. It implies that the success of the PLAP is seriously related to the execution of TSC. The objective of this study is to analyze the relevant policy planning of TSC's participation in the PLAP, suggest complementary measures, and draw up effective adjustment mechanisms, so as to improve the effectiveness of executing the policy. Our main conclusions and suggestions are summarized as follows: 1. The main reason for TSC’s participation in the PLAP is based on their passive cooperation with the central government or company policy. Prior to TSC’s participation in the PLAP, their lands were mainly used for growing sugarcane. 2. The main factors of TSC's consideration on the selection of tree species are based on the suitability of land and species. The largest proportion of tree species is allocated to economic forests, and the lack of technical instruction was the main problem during afforestation. Moreover, the method of improving TSC’s future development in leisure agriculture and landscape business becomes a key topic. 3. TSC has developed short and long-term plans on participating in the PLAP for the future. However, there is no great willingness or incentive on budgeting for such detailed planning. 4. Most people from TSC interviewed consider the requirements on PLAP unreasonable. Among them, an unreasonable requirement on the number of trees accounted for the greatest proportion; furthermore, most interviewees suggested that the government should continue to provide incentives even after 20 years. 5. Since the government shares the same goals as TSC, there should be sufficient cooperation and communication that support the technical instruction and reduction of afforestation cost, which will also help to improve effectiveness of the policy.

Coordinated Design of TCSC Controller and PSS Employing Particle Swarm Optimization Technique

This paper investigates the application of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) technique for coordinated design of a Power System Stabilizer (PSS) and a Thyristor Controlled Series Compensator (TCSC)-based controller to enhance the power system stability. The design problem of PSS and TCSC-based controllers is formulated as a time domain based optimization problem. PSO algorithm is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor speed of the generator is involved; stability performance of the system is improved. To compare the capability of PSS and TCSC-based controller, both are designed independently first and then in a coordinated manner for individual and coordinated application. The proposed controllers are tested on a weakly connected power system. The eigenvalue analysis and non-linear simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the coordinated design approach over individual design. The simulation results show that the proposed controllers are effective in damping low frequency oscillations resulting from various small disturbances like change in mechanical power input and reference voltage setting.

Generating Speq Rules based on Automatic Proof of Logical Equivalence

In the Equivalent Transformation (ET) computation model, a program is constructed by the successive accumulation of ET rules. A method by meta-computation by which a correct ET rule is generated has been proposed. Although the method covers a broad range in the generation of ET rules, all important ET rules are not necessarily generated. Generation of more ET rules can be achieved by supplementing generation methods which are specialized for important ET rules. A Specialization-by-Equation (Speq) rule is one of those important rules. A Speq rule describes a procedure in which two variables included in an atom conjunction are equalized due to predicate constraints. In this paper, we propose an algorithm that systematically and recursively generate Speq rules and discuss its effectiveness in the synthesis of ET programs. A Speq rule is generated based on proof of a logical formula consisting of given atom set and dis-equality. The proof is carried out by utilizing some ET rules and the ultimately obtained rules in generating Speq rules.

Extensiveness and Effectiveness of Corporate Governance Regulations in South-Eastern Europe

The purpose of the article is to illustrate the main characteristics of the corporate governance challenge facing the countries of South-Eastern Europe (SEE) and to subsequently determine and assess the extensiveness and effectiveness of corporate governance regulations in these countries. Therefore, we start with an overview on the subject of the key problems of corporate governance in transition. We then address the issue of corporate governance measurement for SEE countries. To this end, we include a review of the methodological framework for determining both the extensiveness and the effectiveness of corporate governance legislation. We then focus on the actual analysis of the quality of corporate governance codes, as well as of legal institutions effectiveness and provide a measure of corporate governance in Romania and other SEE emerging markets. The paper concludes by emphasizing the corporate governance enforcement gap and by identifying research issues that require further study.

Performance of Chaotic Lu System in CDMA Satellites Communications Systems

This paper investigates the problem of spreading sequence and receiver code synchronization techniques for satellite based CDMA communications systems. The performance of CDMA system depends on the autocorrelation and cross-correlation properties of the used spreading sequences. In this paper we propose the uses of chaotic Lu system to generate binary sequences for spreading codes in a direct sequence spread CDMA system. To minimize multiple access interference (MAI) we propose the use of genetic algorithm for optimum selection of chaotic spreading sequences. To solve the problem of transmitter-receiver synchronization, we use the passivity controls. The concept of semipassivity is defined to find simple conditions which ensure boundedness of the solutions of coupled Lu systems. Numerical results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Development of a Catchment Water Quality Model for Continuous Simulations of Pollutants Build-up and Wash-off

Estimation of runoff water quality parameters is required to determine appropriate water quality management options. Various models are used to estimate runoff water quality parameters. However, most models provide event-based estimates of water quality parameters for specific sites. The work presented in this paper describes the development of a model that continuously simulates the accumulation and wash-off of water quality pollutants in a catchment. The model allows estimation of pollutants build-up during dry periods and pollutants wash-off during storm events. The model was developed by integrating two individual models; rainfall-runoff model, and catchment water quality model. The rainfall-runoff model is based on the time-area runoff estimation method. The model allows users to estimate the time of concentration using a range of established methods. The model also allows estimation of the continuing runoff losses using any of the available estimation methods (i.e., constant, linearly varying or exponentially varying). Pollutants build-up in a catchment was represented by one of three pre-defined functions; power, exponential, or saturation. Similarly, pollutants wash-off was represented by one of three different functions; power, rating-curve, or exponential. The developed runoff water quality model was set-up to simulate the build-up and wash-off of total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN). The application of the model was demonstrated using available runoff and TSS field data from road and roof surfaces in the Gold Coast, Australia. The model provided excellent representation of the field data demonstrating the simplicity yet effectiveness of the proposed model.

Infrared Face Recognition Using Distance Transforms

In this work we present an efficient approach for face recognition in the infrared spectrum. In the proposed approach physiological features are extracted from thermal images in order to build a unique thermal faceprint. Then, a distance transform is used to get an invariant representation for face recognition. The obtained physiological features are related to the distribution of blood vessels under the face skin. This blood network is unique to each individual and can be used in infrared face recognition. The obtained results are promising and show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Optimization of a Triangular Fin with Variable Fin Base Thickness

A triangular fin with variable fin base thickness is analyzed and optimized using a two-dimensional analytical method. The influence of fin base height and fin base thickness on the temperature in the fin is listed. For the fixed fin volumes, the maximum heat loss, the corresponding optimum fin effectiveness, fin base height and fin tip length as a function of the fin base thickness, convection characteristic number and dimensionless fin volume are represented. One of the results shows that the optimum heat loss increases whereas the corresponding optimum fin effectiveness decreases with the increase of fin volume.

Use of Persuasive Technology to Change End-Users- IT Security Aware Behaviour: A Pilot Study

Persuasive technology has been applied in marketing, health, environmental conservation, safety and other domains and is found to be quite effective in changing people-s attitude and behaviours. This research extends the application domains of persuasive technology to information security awareness and uses a theory-driven approach to evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based program developed based on the principles of persuasive technology to improve the information security awareness of end users. The findings confirm the existence of a very strong effect of the webbased program in raising users- attitude towards information security aware behavior. This finding is useful to the IT researchers and practitioners in developing appropriate and effective education strategies for improving the information security attitudes for endusers.

A Generalized Approach for State Analysis and Parameter Estimation of Bilinear Systems using Haar Connection Coefficients

Three novel and significant contributions are made in this paper Firstly, non-recursive formulation of Haar connection coefficients, pioneered by the present authors is presented, which can be computed very efficiently and avoid stack and memory overflows. Secondly, the generalized approach for state analysis of singular bilinear time-invariant (TI) and time-varying (TV) systems is presented; vis-˜a-vis diversified and complex works reported by different authors. Thirdly, a generalized approach for parameter estimation of bilinear TI and TV systems is also proposed. The unified framework of the proposed method is very significant in that the digital hardware once-designed can be used to perform the complex tasks of state analysis and parameter estimation of different types of bilinear systems single-handedly. The simplicity, effectiveness and generalized nature of the proposed method is established by applying it to different types of bilinear systems for the two tasks.

Early Registration : Criterion to Improve Communication-Inter Agents in Mobile-IP Protocol

In IETF RFC 2002, Mobile-IP was developed to enable Laptobs to maintain Internet connectivity while moving between subnets. However, the packet loss that comes from switching subnets arises because network connectivity is lost while the mobile host registers with the foreign agent and this encounters large end-to-end packet delays. The criterion to initiate a simple and fast full-duplex connection between the home agent and foreign agent, to reduce the roaming duration, is a very important issue to be considered by a work in this paper. State-transition Petri-Nets of the modeling scenario-based CIA: communication inter-agents procedure as an extension to the basic Mobile-IP registration process was designed and manipulated to describe the system in discrete events. The heuristic of configuration file during practical Setup session for registration parameters, on Cisco platform Router-1760 using IOS 12.3 (15)T and TFTP server S/W is created. Finally, stand-alone performance simulations from Simulink Matlab, within each subnet and also between subnets, are illustrated for reporting better end-toend packet delays. Results verified the effectiveness of our Mathcad analytical manipulation and experimental implementation. It showed lower values of end-to-end packet delay for Mobile-IP using CIA procedure-based early registration. Furthermore, it reported packets flow between subnets to improve losses between subnets.

Pattern Recognition of Partial Discharge by Using Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP

This paper presents the effectiveness of artificial intelligent technique to apply for pattern recognition and classification of Partial Discharge (PD). Characteristics of PD signal for pattern recognition and classification are computed from the relation of the voltage phase angle, the discharge magnitude and the repeated existing of partial discharges by using statistical and fractal methods. The simplified fuzzy ARTMAP (SFAM) is used for pattern recognition and classification as artificial intelligent technique. PDs quantities, 13 parameters from statistical method and fractal method results, are inputted to Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP to train system for pattern recognition and classification. The results confirm the effectiveness of purpose technique.

Synchronization of Chaos in a Food Web in Ecological Systems

The three-species food web model proposed and investigated by Gakkhar and Naji is known to have chaotic behaviour for a choice of parameters. An attempt has been made to synchronize the chaos in the model using bidirectional coupling. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the analytical results. Numerical results show that for higher value of coupling strength, chaotic synchronization is achieved. Chaos can be controlled to achieve stable synchronization in natural systems.

Laser Doppler Flowmetry in Diagnostics of Vascular Lesions in Lower Extremities

Laser Doppler flowmetry is a modern method of noninvasive microcirculation investigation. The aim of our study was to use this method in the examination of patients with secondary lymphedema of the lower extremities and obliterating atherosclerosis of lower extremities. In the analysis of the amplitude-frequency spectrum of secondary lymphedema patients we have identified remarkable changes. To describe the changes we used a special amplitude rate. In both of patients groups this rate was significally (p

Fuzzy PID based PSS Design Using Genetic Algorithm

This paper presents PSS (Power system stabilizer) design based on optimal fuzzy PID (OFPID). OFPID based PSS design is considered for single-machine power systems. The main motivation for this design is to stabilize or to control low-frequency oscillation on power systems. Firstly, describing the linear PID control then to combine this PID control with fuzzy logic control mechanism. Finally, Fuzzy PID parameters (Kp. Kd, KI, Kupd, Kui) are tuned by Genetic Algorthm (GA) to reach optimal global stability. The effectiveness of the proposed PSS in increasing the damping of system electromechanical oscillation is demonstrated in a one-machine-infinite-bus system

New Delay-Dependent Stability Criteria for Neural Networks With Two Additive Time-varying Delay Components

In this paper, the problem of stability criteria of neural networks (NNs) with two-additive time-varying delay compenents is investigated. The relationship between the time-varying delay and its lower and upper bounds is taken into account when estimating the upper bound of the derivative of Lyapunov functional. As a result, some improved delay stability criteria for NNs with two-additive time-varying delay components are proposed. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.