A Review on Expert System Applications in Power Plants

The control and monitoring of power generation plants is being complicated day by day, with the increase size and capacity of equipments involved in power generation process. This calls for the presence of experienced and well trained operators for decision making and management of various plant related activities. Scarcity of well trained and experienced plant operators is one of the major problems faced by modern power industry. Application of artificial intelligence techniques, especially expert systems whose main characteristics is to simulate expert plant operator’s actions is one of the actively researched areas in the field of plant automation. This paper presents an overview of various expert system applications in power generation plants. It points out technological advancement of expert system technology and its integration with various types of modern techniques such as fuzzy, neural network, machine vision and data acquisition systems. Expert system can significantly reduce the work load on plant operators and experts, and act as an expert for plant fault diagnosis and maintenance. Various other applications include data processing, alarm reduction, schedule optimisation, operator training and evaluation. The review point out that integration of modern techniques such as neural network, fuzzy, machine vision, data base, simulators etc. with conventional rule based methodologies have added greater dimensions to problem solving capabilities of an expert system.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v4i1.502

Mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma of the kidney: imaging features

This article describes the features on sonography, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma of the kidney. Six pathologically proven cases of mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma of the kidney were identified (5 females, 1 male); all patients underwent preoperative imaging. The mean age of the patients was 58.5 years. Thirteen imaging studies were available for review: 2 sonograms, 1 unenhanced CT scan, 5 contrast-enhanced CT scans, 1 unenhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) examination, and 4 contrast-enhanced MRI examinations. Two abdominal radiologists evaluated all images retrospectively on a PACS workstation using a standardized data collection sheet until consensus was reached. All mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinomas presented as well-marginated, small (mean 2.6 cm, range 1.9–3.2 cm) predominantly solid masses. No intratumoral fat or calcification was identified. Unenhanced CT and MRI appearances were variable as was the degree of enhancement following intravenous contrast material administration. There was no evidence of perinephric extension, renal vein involvement or metastatic disease in any of the cases. The radiological appearance of mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma is diverse and therefore indistinguishable from the more common subtypes of renal cell carcinoma