Feature extraction of one‐step‐ahead daily maximum load with regression tree

In this paper, a new efficient feature extraction method is proposed to handle the one‐step‐ahead daily maximum load forecasting. In recent years, power systems become more complicated under the deregulated and competitive environment. As a result, it is not easy to understand the cause and effect of short‐term load forecasting with a bunch of data. This paper analyzes load data from the standpoint of data mining. By it we mean a technique that finds out rules or knowledge through large database. As a data mining method for load forecasting, this paper focuses on the regression tree that handles continuous variables and expresses a knowledge rule as if‐then rules. Investigating the variable importance of the regression tree gives information on the transition of the load forecasting models. This paper proposes a feature extraction method for examining the variable importance. The proposed method allows to classify the transition of the variable importance through actual data. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 156(2): 43–51, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20104     

Ring-chain competition kinetics in the system glycerol/adipic acid

The spanning tree model' (utilising Gaussian-flight statistics) for the kinetics of simultaneous ring-chain competition in linear and branched polycondensation reactions has been extended by the use of the path weighting method of cascade statistics to the system glycerol/adipic acid. In this system there is no single fixed increment in ring sizes as more units are added to the ring-closing path, since a glycerol unit incorporated through the reaction of its two primary hydroxyls contributes a longer increment to the path length than when one primary and one secondary hydroxyl are involved. A computational method has been developed to count, as the reaction proceeds, the mean number of paths of all lengths available for forming a cycle back to a given root functionality, with each path receiving the correct Gaussian weight according to its length.     

Mixing and mass transfer in concentric-tube airlift fermenters: Newtonian and non-newtonian media

The mixing and mass transfer characteristics in concentric-tube airlift gas-liquid contactors intended for possible use as fermenters are discussed. Liquid velocities, circulation times, gas hold-ups, and volumetric mass transfer coefficients were measured in water and aqueous carboxy methyl cellulose solutions. Measurements were made in an inverted conical-bottom device with draft tubes of three different diameters. An increase of liquid velocities at the column axis and a corresponding decrease of volumetric mass transfer coefficients due to the introduction of draft tubes were found for water as the liquid medium. For the non-Newtonian fluids, a complicating influence of the draft tubes on liquid velocity and mass transfer, which is attributed to a combination of factors related to improvement of liquid circulation and reduction of apparent viscosity, was observed.