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Distributed generation is the process of generating electricity from small energy sources and connecting it to the distribution network or on the customer's side of the meter. The placement of distributed generation and the size of the distribution generation is important. Determining the optimal location and sizing of a Distributed Generation (DG) Unit is being presented in this paper. The radial distributed network has been considered. A robust stochastic optimization technique based on the movement and intelligence of swarms called Particle Swarm Optimization has been implemented to obtain optimal solution of the DG placement problem. Reduction of line losses in the radial distribution network is the main objective of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Increasing energy demand and environmental factors are driving the need for the green energy sources. The trend, in general, with respect to wind farms is to increase the number and the size of wind farms. The wind farms are also being located offshore with the prospect of more consistent and higher energy capture. The offshore wind farms are likely to move farther off from the shores to reduce visual impacts and increase the size. But, this has implications in terms of design of the collection grid and grid interconnection. Farms of 1 GW size and at distances of about 100 km are envisaged [1]. The design of collection system and turbine interconnection will become very important as the farms move farther offshore. Proper choice of collection system topology is important from the point of view of maximum energy capture while ensuring a high reliability of the design. Different collection system topologies have been proposed by researchers before, with the radial system being most popular. One of the key factors in selection would be the losses in the farm. In order to select the most suitable topology a comparison of different topologies with respect to losses, reliability and costs has to be done. Comparisons of calculations indicate that the DC series and series-parallel wind farm design may be options for future wind farm designs. The DC series and series-parallel design have lower reliability, but can be improved by providing redundancies. The designs have equipment costs almost equal to the AC wind farm costs. The losses in DC series-parallel wind farm are higher by about 12 % when compared to AC wind farms. The DC series design is also very attractive design, but has restrictions with respect to insulation. Also, the required turbine ratings may be significantly and unrealistically high when it comes to designing large wind farms. It can also be concluded that the novel designs require significant amount of work before these can be used in real wind farms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research is focused on characterizing Zircaloy cladding tubes with different concentration ratios between radially(R) orientated hydrides and circumferential(C) ones. A procedure corporate with an experimental technique and an inversion algorism is used to investigate the effects of R/C ratio on the dispersion spectra of GW. A laser ultrasound technique (LUT) is used to measure the dispersions of circumferentially guided waves (CGW) propagating along the circumferential direction of the cladding tubes. An inversion algorism based on simplex method is used to extract interested properties from the measured GW dispersion spectra. It is shown that the procedure introduced in the current research is able to relate the phase velocities with hydrogen concentration. In the meanwhile, this procedure is able to distinguish the R/C ratio in a quantitative way as well. It is also found out that the bulk elastic modulus increases as the R/C ratio increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for information has increased exponentially over the past decades. The current systems for constructing, exploring, classifying, organizing, and searching information face the growing challenge of enabling their users to operate efficiently and intuitively in knowledge-heavy environments. This paper presents SpicyNodes, an advanced user interface for difficult interaction contexts. It is based on an underlying structure known as a radial map, which allows users to manipulate and interact in a natural manner with entities called nodes. This technology overcomes certain limitations of existing solutions and solves the problem of browsing complex sets of linked information. SpicyNodes is also an organic system that projects users into a living space, stimulating exploratory behavior and fostering creative thought. Our interactive radial layout is used for educational purposes and has the potential for numerous other applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental movement of the “doubling theory”, developed in our preceding papers, is applied as a model of the dynamics of the solar system. It is shown that this model justifies and corrects the distances of the planets given by the Titius-Bode law, and predicts new planets between the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud. Indeed, the empirical Titius-Bode law defines in an approximate way the distances of the planets to the sun, and becomes totally false for the most distant planets (Neptune and Pluto) and does not include the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belt. The doubling theory is based on successive embedded finite structures of space-time domain at different scale levels. The cycle of the doubling movement in the solar system corresponds to 25920 years. It is shown that this cycle defines the fine structure constant. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An abstract of the article concerning the radial-like measure for data envelopment analysis (DEA) when data is negative for decision making units (DMUs) is presented.