[en] Unit Commitment problem plays a major role in power system since the improved UC schedules may save the electric utilities millions of dollars per year in production cost. The objective of the optimal commitment is to determine the on/off states of the units in the system to meet the load requirement and spinning reserve requirement at each time period such that the overall cost of generation is minimum, while satisfying various constraints. Several research have been done in this field for the past three decades. With the development of modern power system, it is not practical to use the classical approaches to solve large scale UC problem. Due to the limitations of the mathematical programming methods. Al based techniques are used GA is an adaptive search method for optimal or near optimal commitment order. GA can get a sub-optimal solution that is very close to the global optimal solution and can meet the demand of engineering application. A GA implementation using the standard reproduction. cross over and mutation has been used to get optimal solution. The approach of UC using GA consists of repeating the process of economic dispatch and minimizing the objective function for various unit combinations and over a population of feasible solution. UC solution based on GA has been programmed/ implemented in C++. The performance of GA approach is initially tested as a case study for 3-generator system and for a load pattern of 24 hours. This paper applies the GA to the UC scheduling problem and illustrates details of the performance of genetic algorithm. The aim of this paper is to propose the suitability of a new approach to the solution of the UC problem. (author)

[en] Measles is the most common and the most infectious of the viral infections of childhood. It can cause severe pneumonia, diarrhoea, encephalitis, and death. A significant proportion of deaths due to measles in young children worldwide are attributable to low weight for age. To compare the measles complications in well-nourished and mal-nourished children, this cross-sectional study was conducted at Paediatric out-patient department and paediatric unit 1 Bahawal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur. Total 120 patients were included in the study. All patients presented with signs and symptoms suggestive of measles according to WHO criteria. These patients were divided into well nourished and malnourished according to the modified Gomez classification. Both groups were evaluated for measles complications like pneumonia, diarrhoea, encephalitis, corneal ulceration, thrombocytopenia, otitis media and myocarditis by detailed history and complete physical examination, and statistically analysed. In the studied patients, 75 were males and 45 were females. Mean age was 23 months. Fifty-nine (49.2%) patients were well-nourished and 61 (50.8%) were undernourished. Fifty-two (43.3%) patients were having pneumonia. Fifty-three (44.2%) patients were having diarrhoea. Twenty-six (21.7%) patients were having encephalitis. Corneal ulceration was found in 9 (7.5%) patients. Thrombocytopenia and otitis media was present in 1 patient in each group. Fourteen patients expired. Measles is a global epidemic problem having many serious complications, including pneumonia, diarrhoea, encephalitis, corneal ulcerations etc. Moreover these complications are more frequent in under nourished children. Efforts should be made to improve the nutritional status of the children and to eradicate this disease by effective vaccination. (author)

No abstract available

[en] Cadmium boxes are widely used as filter in Reactor Neutron Activation Analysis (RNAA) for the irradiation of samples in epithermal neutrons. By virtue of being an absorber the cadmium boxes produce epithermal flux depression in the medium surrounding them. A preliminary study of this effect was carried out (author)

[en] Blends of NR/LLDPE were prepared by melt blending in a Haake Rheomix at 140 ^dig^C with a rotor speed of 50 rpm and 15 min mixing. Liquid natural rubber and carbon black were incorporated into the blend as a compatibilizer and filler, respectively. The effect of electron beam irradiation on the properties of carbon black filled NR/LLDPE blends has been studied over a range of radiation doses and loadings. Compared to unfilled irradiated NR/LLDPE blends, tensile strength and modulus at 100% increase with increase in the amount of the carbon black filler. Similar improvements in these properties are observed with an increase in both the radiation dose and the amount of the filler up to a certain level. The results are explained with the help of insoluble gel content and swelling index analysis. It is observed that higher reinforcement in the case of the filled samples is obtained by electron beam irradiation modification, as compared to that of using the conventional curing system

[en] Short communication

[en] If battery packs for electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are to operate effectively in all climates, thermal management of the packs is essential. In this paper, we will review a systematic approach for designing and evaluating battery pack thermal management systems. A thermal management system using air as the heat transfer medium is less complicated than a system using liquid cooling/heating. Generally, for parallel HEVs, an air thermal management system is adequate, whereas for EVs and series HEVs, liquid-based systems may be required for optimum thermal performance. Further information on battery thermal management can be found on the Web site www.ctts.nrel.gov/BTM

[en] A generalized least-squares technique has been applied to produce a consistent set of thermal and epithermal neutron activation data for the following 20 nuclides produced by neutron capture: ₄₆Sc, ₅₁Ti, ₅₁Cr, ₅₂V, ₅₆Mn, ₅₉Fe, ₆₀Co, ₇₅Se, ₈₆Rb, ₉₅Zr, ₉₇Zr, ₁₂₄Sb, ₁₃₁Ba, ₁₃₄Cs, ₁₄₀La, ₁₄₁Ce, ₁₆₀Tb, ₁₈₁Hf, ₁₈₂Ta and ₁₉₈Au. The technique combines available information on nuclear data from the literature with measured activation data irradiated in nine reactor positions in Germany, the U.K. and Japan. Most of the solution nuclear data showed a distinct improvement, some by a large amount. These have been compared with the most recent evaluation. (author)

[en] Experiments were conducted to see the effect of irradiation on the thermoluminescence emission from dust of plant nuts such as almond, peanut, pinenut and walnut. Inorganic dust particulate minerals adhering to the nut's surface were collected from unirradiated and irradiated (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 kGy) samples, and analysed for their thermoluminescence (TL) intensities in the temperature range of 80-320degreeC at a temperature rate of 10degreeC/s. It was observed that peaks of the TL signals appeared at 200degreeC in each case and generally the magnitude of the peak signals of irradiated samples was manifold that of unirradiated controls. Regression and correlation analysis of the data indicated strong relationship between radiation adsorbed dose and TL values at each temperature (r gtoreq 0.96). It was concluded that TL measurements could serve as a fast and reliable method for identifying as well as determining absorbed dose in irradiated plant nuts

[en] In this study, a simple technique was developed to determine the aldehyde content on an oxidizedpolysaccharide. 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) was used to measure aldehyde analytically by UV-Vis spectrophotometric assay. Comparable results were obtained when tested against the known aldehyde contents of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and glutaraldehyde. The TTC UV-Vis assay was further employed to check the aldehyde produced during oxidation of natural polysaccharide konjac glucomannan (KGM). It was found that TTC UV-Vis assay was accurate even at low concentrations of aldehyde and thus this assay could be used to optimize the reaction parameters of oxidation. (author)