Optimal congestion management in an electricity market using particle swarm optimization with time-varying acceleration coefficients

AbstractThis paper proposes an optimal congestion management approach in a deregulated electricity market using particle swarm optimization with time-varying acceleration coefficients (PSO-TVAC). Initially, the values of generator sensitivity are used to select redispatched generators. PSO-TVAC is used to determine the minimum redispatch cost. Test results on IEEE 30-bus and 118-bus systems indicate that the PSO-TVAC approach could provide a lower rescheduling cost solution compared to classical particle swarm optimization and particle swarm optimization with time-varying inertia weight

ENZYMATIC PRODUCTION OF XYLOOLIGOSACCHARIDES FROM CORNCOB USING ENDO-XYLANASE FROM Streptomyces thermovulgaris TISTR1948

Abstract Xylooligosaccharides (XOs) are the sugar oligomers produced from xylan hydrolysis. XOs have a characteristic of prebiotic by promoting the growth of probiotic microorganisms. Xylan containing agricultural wastes e.g. rice straw, sugarcane bagasse and corncob could be applied to produce XOs by a consecutively process of alkali-pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. In this study, we emphasized on enzymatic production of XOs from corncob, a low cost raw material and relatively high xylan content. The dried corncob was ground and sieved to be <100 mesh size, then subjected to alkali-pretreatment by soaking in 10.0% (w/v) KOH solution at 100°C for 1 h, followed by adjusting pH to 7.0 by adding 5.0% (w/v) H 2 SO 4 , washed by tap water, filtered through a filter cloth and dried the filtrate at 80°C for 48 h. The recovery yield after KOH-pretreatment was 43.69±1.30% (w/w) and the major components of KOH-pretreated corncob were; cellulose (68.21±1.41%), hemicellulose (21.67±0.71%) and lignin (4.29±0.40%). The KOH-pretreated corncob was then subjected to enzymatic hydrolysis by mashing with 10 mM K-P buffer pH 6.5 (15.0% solid). Then, 100 U/g substrate of endo-xylanase from Streptomyces thermovulgaris TISTR1948 was added, the reaction was carried out at 55°C under static condition for 24 h. The samples were periodically taken and analyzed by a thin-layer chromatography (TLC). The results revealed that the suitable reaction time for XOs production was 12 h, which the xylobiose was found as the main product while few xylose contents were obtained. The optimal conditions for XOs production was studied by the response surface methodology (RSM) via the central composite design (CCD). The factors of pH and temperature (°C) were investigated with endo-xylanase concentration (U/g substrate). The results showed that all factors were significant and influenced on the quantity of XOs in term of reducing sugar content (mg/g substrate). The optimal conditions to achieve maximum yield of reducing sugar were; endoxylanase concentration 142.70 U/g substrate at 53.56°C and pH 6.51. Using this experimental design, the reducing sugar content increased from 109.89±1.87 to 130.83±1.4 mg/g substrate or 603.74±6.49 mg/g xylan content in KOH-pretreated corncob which was 19.09% higher than un-optimized condition

Preliminary study on buffy coat smear and molecular detection of microfilaria in domestic chickens (Gallus gallus domesticus) raised in Southern Thailand

Background and Aim: Filarial nematode typically produces a larval stage (microfilariae) in the bloodstream of vertebrate hosts, where microfilariae reside in the blood or subcutaneous tissues. Filarial nematodes cause human diseases, such as river blindness and elephantiasis, which are widely studied. However, in avian species, they are overlooked because they are nonpathogenic. In Thailand, microfilaria can be found in wild birds and domestic chickens. Recently, an increase in the number of blood samples submitted to veterinary diagnostic laboratories may have increased the number of microfilariae. Therefore, knowledge about filarial species and reliable detection methods are important. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the efficacy of buffy coat smear and polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods for the detection of microfilaria in domestic chickens. In addition, parasites were identified using the sequence of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (COX1) gene. Materials and Methods: Giemsa-stained buffy coat smears from a previous study were reanalyzed. These available buffy coat smears were prepared from 55 domestic chickens raised as backyard free-ranging in Southern Thailand. Fifty-seven frozen genomic DNA extracted from chicken blood were used to detect the presence of the COX1 gene in Onchocercidae nematodes. The nested PCR protocol for amplification of the OnchoCOI_ R2-OnchoCOI_ R2 fragment of the COX1 gene was applied from a previous report. Sequences of COX1 were analyzed to identify Onchocercidae nematodes and if they were single or mixed infections. We constructed Bayesian phylogenetics to identify parasites and assessment of the relationship between filarial nematodes in avian species and other vertebrate hosts. Results: Buffy coat smears from 15 samples revealed microfilaria. Of these 15 samples, only eight were positive for COX1 nested-PCR amplification. The other two buffy coat-negative samples were also positive for nested-PCR. Sequencing of these 11 nested PCR-positive samples revealed that almost all of them were Onchocercidae nematodes. Bayesian phylogenetic analysis showed that chicken Onchocercidae spp. were grouped with other avian filarial nematodes. However, all chickens Onchocercidae spp. showed a double peak in the sequencing chromatogram, indicating mixed filarial infection (species or haplotypes). Therefore, no chicken Onchocercidae sequence was deposited on National Center for Biotechnology Information, GenBank. Conclusion: Giemsa-stained buffy coat smear was a reliable method for the detection of chicken microfilaria in routine veterinary diagnostic laboratories. Development of a new PCR-based method is necessary. This method may provide greater sensitivity and specificity of detection. In addition, the PCR method allowed us to access the genetic characteristics of nematodes, which helped us maximize our knowledge of nematodes. Further investigations, such as the pathogenicity of filarial nematodes in chickens and their potential vectors, are required

The Problems of Renewable Power Plant Construction Affecting the Energy Security of Thailand

The objectives of this research were to study the process of submitting an application for every license that affects the success of renewable power plant construction and the energy security of Thailand in accordance with the Energy Industry Act 2007, the engineering factors used in the selection of all types of renewable power plant construction, and the Key Performance Indicators of all types of renewable power plant construction. The data analysis was divided into two sections. For the first section, the quantitative data was collected from the questionnaire conducted by the purposive sampling that included those related to renewable power plant projects, which asked the questions about the rules and regulations and power purchase agreement under the Energy Industry Act 2007. As for the factors influencing the project success, the private sector, combined in the sample group, included the design engineers, consulting and control engineers, and contractors. The 400 engineers were randomly selected from the registration of the Council of Engineers, including senior professional engineers, professional engineers, associate engineers, and adjunct engineers. In the second section, the qualitative data came from the in-depth interviews with five specialists and experts in the renewable power plant industry and in legal knowledge about the rules and regulations and power purchase agreements according to the Energy Industry Act 2007, who work in the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, a renewable power plant construction company, a renewable energy consulting company, in the field of renewable power plant investment, and as a renewable power plant specialist (Office of the Energy Regulatory Commission). The data was analyzed by using the following statistics: percentage, frequency, mean, standard deviation, and the Enter method of multiple regression. According to the results, the overall success of using the engineering factors in selecting a renewable power plant establishment has the mean at a high level. With regard to the types of power plants, the solar power plant is ranked at the top, followed by the second, the biomass power plant; then, the waste-to-energy power plant, the biogas power plant, and the wind power plant, respectively. The type of power plant with a moderately high mean is the hydroelectric power plant. The findings show the engineering factors related to the success of all types of renewable power plants. Moreover, regarding the problem of energy policy, deciding which type of energy to use is highly complicated because there are many dimensional reasons and no form of energy is the best or the worst option. However, it is not too difficult for specialists to make a decision

Antifungal Susceptibilities of Cryptococcus neoformans

Susceptibility profiles of medically important fungi in less-developed countries remain uncharacterized. We measured the MICs of amphotericin B, 5-flucytosine, fluconazole, itraconazole, and ketoconazole for Cryptococcus neoformans clinical isolates from Thailand, Malawi, and the United States and found no evidence of resistance or MIC profile differences among the countries

The Diffusion Behavior of CO2 Adsorption from a CO2/N2 Gas Mixture on Zeolite 5A in a Fixed-Bed Column

The objective of this research was to investigate the behavior and conditions for CO2 adsorption using a mixture of CO2/N2 over a fixed-bed column of zeolite 5A. The study was performed with a variation in gas composition of CO2/N2 as a 20/80, 50/50, and 80/20 volume %, the adsorption temperatures as 298, 333, and 373 K and the total feed flow rates as 1, 2, and 4 L/h under 100 kPa pressure. The Bohart–Adams, Yoon–Nelson, and Thomas models were used to predict the breakthrough behavior of CO2 adsorption in a fixed column. Furthermore, the adsorption mechanism has been investigated using the kinetics adsorption of pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order, Boyd model, and intraparticle model. Increasing the CO2 composition of a gas mixture resulted in a high CO2 adsorption capacity because of the high partial pressure of CO2. The capacity of CO2 adsorption was decreased with increasing temperature because of physical adsorption with an exothermic reaction. The CO2 adsorption capacity was also decreased with increasing feed flow rates with inadequate time for CO2 adsorbates diffusion into the pores of the adsorbent before exiting the packed bed. The CO2 adsorption by zeolite 5A confirmed that the physical adsorption with intraparticle diffusion was the rate-controlling step of the whole process

Needs for Self Developmentof Teachers in The Thaichaiyo Foundation Network Private School

The objectives of the research were (1) to study the level of needs for Self Development of teachers in a Thaichaiyo Foundation Network private school under the Office of the Private Education Commission, (2) to compare needs for Self Development of teachers in a Thaichaiyo Foundation Network private school under the Office of the Private Education Commission, classified by gender, age, and work experience, and (3) to study guidelines and recommendations on self development of teachers in a Thaichaiyo Foundation Network private school under the Office of the Private Education Commission in each aspect, classified by gender, age, and work experience. The research population was a total of 133 teachers in a Thaichaiyo Foundation Network private school under the Office of the Private Education Commission. The research instrument used to collect data was the five-point rating scale questionnaire with reliability of 0.930. Used were in terms of frequency distribution, percentage, standard deviation, t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) Scheffé’s method of multiple comparison was utilized to detumine wuan different. The research findings were as follows: The needs for self development of teachers in a Thaichaiyo Foundation Network private school under the Office of the Private Education Commission were found to be at a high level in all aspects. Considered in each aspect in the descending order of mean scores, they were academic work productivity, study visit, training, seminar, and further education, respectively. The comparison of needs for Self Development of teachers, classified by gender, was found not to be different at a statistically significant level in all aspects and each aspect. The comparison of needs for Self Development of teachers, classified by age, was found to be overall different at a statistically significant level of 0.01 while it was found not to be different in the aspects of training, seminar, study visit and academic work productivity. The comparison of needs for Self Development of teachers, classified by work experience, was found to be overall different at a statistically significant level of 0.01 in the aspects of further study, training, and study visit while it was found not to be different in the aspects of seminar and academic work productivity. The result of interview on needs for self development of teachers in a Thaichaiyo Foundation Network private school under the Office of the Private Education Commission was found that Self Development in five aspects: further study, study visit, academic work experience, training, and seminar was needed. This was not met with the quantitative research in which Self Development in academic work productivity, study visit, training, seminar and further study was needed by teachers

Bat Activity in Organic Rice Fields Is Higher Than in Conventional Fields in Landscapes of Intermediate Complexity

The extent to which organic farming can support biodiversity has been extensively studied. However, most of the research has been conducted on organic farms in temperate regions, with the focus mainly being on birds, insects, and plants and rarely on insectivorous bats, especially in Southeast Asia. We studied pairs of matched organic and conventional rice fields along a gradient of landscape complexity in the Songkhla Lake Basin and conducted acoustic surveys using bat detectors to analyze the influence of farming system and landscape characteristics on bat activity and prey availability. We also tested the “intermediate landscape complexity” hypothesis, which states that local conservation efforts are most effective in landscapes of intermediate complexity compared to extremely simple or extremely complex landscapes. We detected no difference in bat species richness, total bat activity, feeding activity, and insect prey abundance between organic fields and conventional fields. Even though organic farming did not increase bat activity on its own, it was most beneficial to bat activity in landscapes of intermediate complexity. Our findings suggest that landscape traits contribute more to bat activity than farm management and that insectivorous bats have species- and guild-specific responses to various landscape contexts. We also found that disturbance caused by tropical storms negatively impacts the activity of insectivorous bat

Boundary expansion algorithm of a decision tree induction for an imbalanced dataset

A decision tree is one of the famous classifiers based on a recursive partitioning algorithm. This paper introduces the Boundary Expansion Algorithm (BEA) to improve a decision tree induction that deals with an imbalanced dataset. BEA utilizes all attributes to define non-splittable ranges. The computed means of all attributes for minority instances are used to find the nearest minority instance, which will be expanded along all attributes to cover a minority region. As a result, BEA can successfully cope with an imbalanced dataset comparing with C4.5, Gini, asymmetric entropy, top-down tree, and Hellinger distance decision tree on 25 imbalanced datasets from the UCI Repository