Abstract
This book describes the Optical Immersion Clearing method and its application to acquire information with importance for clinical practice and various fields of biomedical engineering. The method has proved to be a reliable means of increasing tissue transparency, allowing the investigator or surgeon to reach deeper tissue layers for improved imaging and laser surgery. This result is obtained by partial replacement of tissue water with an active optical clearing agent (OCA) that has a higher refractive index and is a better match for the refractive index of other tissue components. Natural tissue scattering is thereby reduced. An exponential increase in research using this method has occurred in recent years, and new applications have emerged, both in clinical practice and in some areas of biomedical engineering. Recent research has revealed that treating ex vivo tissues with solutions containing active OCAs in different concentrations produces experimental data to characterize drug delivery or to discriminate between normal and pathological tissues. The obtained drug diffusion properties are of interest for the pharmaceutical and organ preservation industry. Similar data can be estimated with particular interest for food preservation. The free water content evaluation is also of great interest since it facilitates the characterization of tissues to discriminate pathologies. An interesting new application that is presented in the book regards the creation of two optical windows in the ultraviolet spectral range through the application of the immersion method. These induced transparency windows open the possibility to diagnose and treat pathologies with ultraviolet light. This book presents photographs from the tissues we have studied and figures that represent the experimental setups used. Graphs and tables are also included to show the numerical results obtained in the sequential calculations performed.

Abstract
Along with the social evolution concept and the environmental concerns, the use of active transport modes is a suitable solution to face this new reality. Therefore, the cultural shift needed in order to promote the use of active modes, the use of bicycles as a viable transport mode, and the understanding of its impacts and characteristics becomes a present priority and concern. Based on the actual bicycle panorama and the Portuguese cycling strategies and guidelines, the GetGreen Company data, in the scope of the EducaBicla Program case study, is analysed and a future pathway is outlined. This study allows to create a sensitivity perception of the relation between the daily use of bicycles as a transport mode and its promotion among young ages population, i.e. the impact on sustainable and healthy daily mobility choices after having the knowledge provided by teaching/learning bicycle programs such as EducaBicla. In this paper are identified the main features/characteristics to be considered when implementing a bicycle teaching/learning project, ensuring progress towards the use of active, healthy and sustainable mobility modes; the appropriated age to start this program; and how this program can be expanded.

Abstract
The project Viable Alternative Mine Operating System ('VAMOS') develops a novel underwater mining technique for extracting inland mineral deposits in flooded open-cut mines. From a floating launch and recovery vessel a remotely-operated underwater mining vehicle with a roadheader cutting machine is deployed. The cut material is transported to the surface via a flexible riser hose. Since there is no direct intervisibility between the operator and the mining machine, the data of the sensor systems can only be perceived via a computer interface. Therefore, part of the efforts in the project focus on enhancing the situational awareness of the operator by providing a 3D model of the mine combined with representations of the mining equipment and sensor data. We present a method how a positioning and navigation system, perception system and mapping system can be used to create a replica of the physical system and mine environment in Virtual Reality (VR) in order to assist remote control. This approach is beneficial because it allows visualizing different sensor information and data in a consistent interface, and enables showing the complete context of the mining site even if only part of the mine is currently observed by surveying equipment. We demonstrate how the system is used during tele-operation and show results achieved during the field trials of the complete system in Silvermines, Ireland.

Abstract
The maximum mission duration and range of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle are governed by the amount of energy carried on board and the way it is spent during the mission. While an increase in battery capacity and a decrease in electronics demand yield a direct increase in vehicle range, the impact of velocity variation is not so obvious. With slower velocities, most of the energy will be spent in electronics, not in motion, while for faster velocities a lot of energy will be needed to balance drag. Flying-type AUVs have a minimum velocity for the control surfaces to be effective, reducing the range of values for optimization. Hovering type AUVs, on the other hand, are typically slower moving platforms, able to travel at arbitrarily slow velocities. This paper addresses the analysis of the power consumption of hovering type AUVs, providing guidelines and analytical expressions to compute the optimal velocity when the vehicle travels in a single direction, and also when the trajectory is a combination of horizontal and vertical motion.

Abstract
This paper demonstrates day-ahead operation of power systems in the presence of a Demand Response Program (DRP) for serving exact amounts of demanded energy over the operational horizon. The proposed two-stage model features a here-and-now framework for shaping the aggregated demands during operation. First, the day-ahead scheduling problem is solved by adopting Unit Commitment (UC) to determine the generation level of power generation units as well as the Locational Marginal Prices (LMPs). Afterwards, the obtained LMPs are considered as the Time of Use (ToU) for the second step of the scheduling and reshaping the demanded loads of each aggregator. A new methodology is provided in this paper to estimate the reaction of consumers behavior in terms of encouraging their participation in DRPs. Unlike classical models which adopt load reduction over the operational horizon, this model ensures that the total demanded loads will be served. Therefore, the total supplied energy for the operational period before and after DRP implementation remains unchanged. Meanwhile, the total payment of consumers will be considerably reduced by adopting this strategy. The simulation results on the 6-bus test system clarify that the proposed model can reduce the total operational cost as well as smoothen the load profile and nodal prices over the operational horizon.

Abstract
Computer programming is a difficult subject that can only be mastered with lots of practice. It is therefore of primary importance to rise and retain students' engagement during a programming course, a task in which gamification has been proven as a competent method. Even though there are numerous reports on applying gamification to programming courses, there are no available open resources or dedicated platforms that could be used by programming teachers to gamily their courses, meeting both the requirements of being easy to adopt and leaving the decisions on the scope of the course and the level of gamification to the teachers themselves. In order to fulfill this gap, a consortium of four European institutions initiated a common project to develop open gamified programming exercises and interactive course materials for popular programming languages. In this paper, we report the results of the first stage of this work, which defined the range of gamification concepts to be covered within the developed framework and its evaluation by students.