An efficient methodology is proposed to find optimal shape of arch dams on the basis of constrained natural frequencies. The optimization is carried out by virtual sub population (VSP) evolutionary algorithm employing real values of design variables. In order to reduce the computational cost of the optimization process, the arch dam natural frequencies are predicted by properly trained back pro...

introduction: intravenous general anesthetic agents are among the most important and widely used anesthetic drugs in the clinical practice. many pharmacological studies have shown that potentiation of gaba and glycine on their receptors is the most plausible mechanism. nevertheless, there is limited information on the effects of co-administration of two or more of these agents. however, experim...

this paper investigates the islands formation in initial stages of restoration process in blackout condition and studies the impacts of islands number variation on the process execution. in addition, a method is proposed to determining each island optimal boundaries. then the effects of transmission lines thyistor controlled series compensators (tcsc) to facilitate restoration process and impro...

The solutions used to solve bi-level congestion pricing problems are usually based on heuristic network optimization methods which may not be able to find the best solution for these type of problems. The application of meta-heuristic methods can be seen as viable alternative solutions but so far, it has not received enough attention by researchers in this field. Therefore, the objective of thi...

voltage stability issues are growing challenges in many modern power systems. this paper proposes optimizing the size and location of static var compensator (svc) devices using a fuzzy weighted seeker optimization algorithm (fwsoa), as an effective solution to overcome such issues. although the primary purpose of svc is bus voltage regulation, it can also be useful for voltage stability enhance...

Prediction of traffic is very crucial for its management. Because of human involvement in the generation of this phenomenon, traffic signal is normally accompanied by noise and high levels of non-stationarity. Therefore, traffic signal prediction as one of the important subjects of study has attracted researchers’ interests. In this study, a combinatorial approach is proposed for traffic signal...

important parameters on apple drying process are investigated experimentally and modeled employing artificial neural network and neuro-taguchi's method. experimental results show that the apple drying curve stands in the falling rate period of drying. temperature is the most important parameter that has a more pronounced effect on drying rate than the other two parameters i.e. air velocity and ...