This revised book covers the fundamentals of thermodynamics required to understand electrical power generation systems, honing in on the application of these principles to nuclear reactor power systems. This text treats the fundamentals of thermodynamics from the perspective of nuclear power systems. In addition to the Four Laws of Thermodynamics, it discusses Brayton and Rankine power cycles in detail with an emphasis on how they are implemented in nuclear systems.

In today’s world, with an increase in the breadth and scope of real-world engineering optimization problems as well as with the advent of big data, improving the performance and efficiency of algorithms for solving such problems has become an indispensable need for specialists and researchers. In contrast to conventional books in the field that employ traditional single-stage computational, single-dimensional, and single-homogeneous optimization algorithms, this book addresses multiple newfound architectures for meta-heuristic music-inspired optimization algorithms. These proposed algorithms, with multi-stage computational, multi-dimensional, and multi-inhomogeneous structures, bring about a new direction in the architecture of meta-heuristic algorithms for solving complicated, real-world, large-scale, non-convex, non-smooth engineering optimization problems having a non-linear, mixed-integer nature with big data. The architectures of these new algorithms may also be appropriate for finding an optimal solution or a Pareto-optimal solution set with higher accuracy and speed in comparison to other optimization algorithms, when feasible regions of the solution space and/or dimensions of the optimization problem increase.

This monograph is the proceedings of a symposium held at the University of California at Berkeley, September 12-14, 1990. It was sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPR!) and by the University of California University-Wide Energy Research Group (UERG). The sympo­ sium brought together researchers and practitioners from academia, the utility industry, private and public organizations and regulatory agencies to address various challenges and opportunities related to product differen­ tiation in the electric power industry. Electric utilities are evolving rapidly from commodity-oriented services to product-oriented services. Utilities are offering menus of service options tailored to the needs of different customers. Reliability is one important dimension of electric service that lends itself to such product differentia­ tion., Options include lower rate curtail able services for industrial cus­ tomers, higher reliability power for some commercial customers, and load control with rebates for residential customers., These specialized services are a first step toward the product differentiation goal of allowing all customers to choose the type of service best suited to their electricity needs. The symposium provided a forum for in depth examination of the complex planning, development, and implementation issues associated with differ­ entiated products. Its specific objectives were to: xviii • Review the state of the art in implementing reliability differ­ entiated electric services. • Address the entire process for developing and implementing reliability differentiated product menus including research, design, marketing, implementation, and evaluation. • Consider technical, economic, and regulatory barriers to imple­ menting reliabilitydifferentiated product design.

This book focuses on the state of the art in worldwide research on applying optimization approaches to intelligently control charging and discharging of batteries of Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs) in smart grids. Network constraints, cost considerations, the number and penetration level of PEVs, utilization of PEVs by their owners, ancillary services, load forecasting, risk analysis, etc. are all different criteria considered by the researchers in developing mathematical based equations which represent the presence of PEVs in electric networks. Different objective functions can be defined and different optimization methods can be utilized to coordinate the performance of PEVs in smart grids. This book will be an excellent resource for anyone interested in grasping the current state of applying different optimization techniques and approaches that can manage the presence of PEVs in smart grids.

Cell based impedance sensing is becoming a new biophysical and cellular technology in cell based analyses. The technology has been used in investigation of cellular growth and death, cell adhesion and migration, cell invasion and cell-cell interactions, cell toxicity, angiogenesis, cell permeability, signal transduction and cellular behaviour under flow conditions. It is a probe free, highly sensitive, and versatile technology platform. Recent development in the technology has also allowed high throughput, automated analyses. It has been widely explored in chemistry, toxicity, cell biology, cancer biology, and other areas of chemistry, medicinal chemistry, life and medical science. Written by experts in the area of cell impedance sensing, including the Nobel Laureate Dr Ivar Giaever, this books covers the background of electric cell-substrate impedance sensing, their applications in cell based investigations, particularly in the area of cancer biology. This book is the first on thistechnology platform and will be a highly useful reference for molecular and cell biologists, cancer biologists, chemists and biochemists, clinical researchers who work in the areas of cell biology, molecular biology, toxicology, pharmaceutical industry, life science and medical research.

There are good reasons why the subject of electric power engineering, after many years of neglect, is making a comeback in the undergraduate curriculum of many electrical engineering departments. The most obvious is the current public awareness of the "energy crisis. " More fundamental is the concern with social responsibility among college students in general and engineering students in particular. After all, electric power remains one of the cornerstones of our civilization, and the well-publicized problems of ecology, economy, safety, dependability and natural resources management pose ever-growing challenges to the best minds in the engineering community. Before an engineer can successfully involve himself in such problems, he must first be familiar with the main components of electric power systems. This text­ book will assist him in acquiring the necessary familiarity. The course for which this book is mainly intended can be taken by any student who has had some cir­ cuit analysis (using discrete elements, and including sinusoidal steady state) and elementary electromagnetic field theory. Most students taking the course will be in their junior or senior years. Once the course is completed, students may decide to go more deeply into the design and operation of these components and study them on a more advanced level, or they may direct their attention to the problems of the system itself, problems which are only hinted at briefly at various points herein.

This book reviews the recent scientific developments on mining and metallurgical wastes-based alkali-activated materials (MMWAAMs). Enormous quantities of solid wastes are generated during the exploitation of ore deposits and the subsequent processing for materials, causing serious environmental problems. Alkali activation is one of the robust technologies that converts mining and metallurgical wastes into value-added materials and offers technological solutions for efficient stabilization of toxic components in mining and metallurgical wastes. Herein, this book presents the development of the design, processing routes, and performances of mining and metallurgical waste-based alkali-activated materials. It highlights in detail the relationships between the physicochemical characteristics of the source materials and the properties of synthesized binders. From the durability perspective, both the applicability of testing protocols and degradation mechanisms are also reviewed with significant experimental and modeling work presented. Furthermore, the transformation paths of initially toxic components during alkali activation, partitioning characteristics, as well as the assemblages of solubility-controlling mineral phases are discussed for detailed environmental compatibility evaluation. In addition, applications and perspectives for future directions of mining and metallurgical wastes-based alkali-activated materials are illustrated. By bringing state-of-the-art knowledge, this book appeals to a broad readership, particularly researchers engaged in material and environmental science, mining and metallurgical engineering, and other related fields.