A Dive into the Specific Electric Energy Consumption in Steelworks
The paper describes an application of optimization techniques for the minimization of the specific electrical energy consumption related to the production of steel for a steelworks situated in Italy. The major electrical consumption derives from two internal plants: the Electric Arc Furnace and the Ladle Furnace. This work addresses the problem of understanding the best settings (based on predefined models) to produce a specific steel, which is mainly characterized by its steelgrade and quality, with the minimum energy consumption.
Variable selection through Genetic algorithms for classification purposes
In many real world applications, when coping with classification tasks, the problem of the selection of the variables to be used for the development of any kind of classifier has to be faced. This necessity is normally due to the high number of variables which could be potentially included in the input set combined with the lack of a priori knowledge to support the selection process. In this paper variable selection is achieved by means of the use of GAs through a selection process based on the evaluation of the performance of the possible variable combinations used to train a decision tree. Furthermore the proposed method optimizes some parameters of the employed classifier. Within the proposed method several different approaches have been tested on a real industrial problem. The proposed approaches, which are characterized by different initialization and fitness functions of the GAs, obtain very satisfactory results.
Health-care practices of the rural aged.
1. One of the primary concerns of the rural aged is the maintenance of their physical health so that they may function independently and remain in their own homes. 2. The findings of this study indicate that most older rural adults do not regularly have positive health-care practices. This may be due to the unavailability of health-care providers or health promotion programs in isolated rural areas. 3. Implications of this study include the need to make health promotion programs relevant to the concerns of the rural aged rather than those of the urban elderly.